SOCIAL AND PERSONAL

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12264, 9 October 1925, Page 5

SOCIAL AND PERSONAL

The engagement is announced of Lalla, elder daughter of Mis John ]>uthie, of Wellington, to Eric, eldest son of Mrs F. K. Reeves, of Wellington. Beige, the fashionable colour of the day, was popular six centur'es and more ago. Monks, who illuminated old manuscripts, used this colour for garbing their saints and angels. Little buttonholes for wear with tailor-mades are now being fashioned of- crystal flowers, and ' are proving as economical in their perpetual youth as they are decorative in effect. Artificial, you may grumble 1 Rut is not this an artificial age? .The Sykes family, to whom the King and Queen recently paid a visit, were eminent merchants of Leeds as far biick as the sixteenth century, and Richard Sykes, who bought the manor of Leeds from the Crown in 1625, left, besides vast estates to his son, £IO,OOO apiece to his daughters, from whom four knights and baronets' families are descended. Early in the seventeenth century a younger son was Mayor of Hull, and from him ; descended the baronets, the first of whom was a clergyman. It was Tatton Sykes, the fifth baronet, of whom so many good stories are told, who made Sledmere famous. The present Sir Mark* Tatton Sykes is the seventh baronet and comes of age next August, a great event in the family history. .His mother, whose gifted husband died untimely in 1919, was a daughter of that clever but unlucky politician, Sir John Gorst. The number of soldier patients in convalescent Red Cross homes or sanatoria just now is:—Evelyn Firth Home, Auckland, 21; “Mowai” Red Cross Home, Wellington, 15; Montecillo Home, Dunedin, 16; Rannerdall Home, Christchurch, 22; total, 74. Mns Kenneth Murchison (Kirwee) arrived in Wellington yesterday, where she will spend a few weeks with relatives. Amongst Canterbury residents wlio intend visiting Europe next year are Mr and Mrs William Deans, Mr and Mrs James Deans, Mr and Mrs H. S. Lawrence, and Mr and Mrs Maurice Gresson. Mrs F. H. Bruges, Cashmere Hills, Christchurch, is staying with, her; son, in Wellington. Mrs B. A*. Walker, New Plymouth, arrived in Christchurch yesterday from Wellington. Miss Alys Duncan,. who was in Christchurch for the golf championship meeting, is the guest of Mrs Boyle, Riccarton, - Mr and Mrs Charles Gray, Wellington, returned to the north from Christchurch on Wednesday. Miss Muriel Payton, who has.teen visiting -Christchurch, is at present staying in Wellington. A quiet wedding was celebrated at the Methodist Church, Feilding, on September 29th, when Garland Isitt Jones, sou of Mr John Jones, of Wanganui Bash was married' to Sarah .Catherine Machine], eldest -daughter, of; Mrs George Bridge, Feilding, and the* late Duncan Macnicol, of Auckland. The ceremony was performed by the Bev. A. Mitoheli. - • • The Arts and Crafts .Circle of the Pioneer Club are* working hard towar Is the exbibit they intend sending ti> the Dunedin Exhibition (women’s section). There will be quite-a lot of different varieties of work, and the circle are showing these exhibits. and other samples of their work before the end of this month, thus putting forward their annual exhibit. Yesterday afternoon a meeting: of the committee was held, and final arrangements made as to the packing -and insurance, etc. Later in the aftvnoon circle members were the guests of the . president at afternoon tea.

The following table of ex-soldiers in hospitals is contained in the report of the New Zealand Red Cross Society. to be presented to the annual meeting in Dunedin next ' month:—Auckland district.—Manganui Hospital 1: Public Hospital, Auckland 21; Avondale Mental Hospital 18; Northern Wairoa Hospital 2; Waikato Hospital 6: King George V. Hospital 1G ■ Kihikihi Mental Hospital 8; total 72. , Wellington district.—Napier' Hospital 3; Pukeora Sanatorium 46; MastertonHospital 1; Taihapc. Hospital 1; New Flymouth Hospital 3; Wanganui Hospital 1; Palmerston North Hospital 1; Porirua Mental Hospital 29; Wellington Hospital 14; Blenheim -Hospital 1; Nelson Mental Hospital 6; total 106. .. Christchurch district.—Westland Hospital 2'; Westland Mental Hospital 1 : Grey River Hospital 1; Queen Mary Hospital 21; Public Hospital, Christchurch 9; Rotherham Hospital '1; Sunnyside Mental Hospital 20; Cash:mere Sanatorium 67: Ashburton Hospital 2; Coronation Sanatorium 2; total 126. Dunedin district.—Pleasant Valley Sanatorium 1; Waipiata Sanatorium 13; Waikari Sanatorium 3; Dunedin Public , Hospital 2; Seacliff Mental Hospital 19; South-land-Hospital 3; total 29.

England has turned down the ideal of equal pay for men and women. Ireland, however, is approving of _ the ideal and showing fits approval in a practical way, at least to -some extent (writes “Constance Clyde”). Thus the Minister for Finance in the Irish Free State has sanctioned a new scale of Civil Service salaries for the clerical grades. This scale says that unmarried men are in future to receive the same pay as ■vvomen, and that it they marry (after the age of twenty--five) they are to reoeive the increased men’s increments, and, further, that they are to have allowances on behalf of children. Also, both men and women are to receive a bonus on marriage. Says a woman’s maeazine: ‘‘This method of cutting the Gordian knot of the increased, expenditure involved by ‘equal pay’ is one Mr Winston Churchill would do well to look at with attention, and it commends itself to justice and coromoh sense, to economy, efficiency, and the approval of the public conscience.’ l

Mrs Ashley Edwards, of Wellington, is staying in Auckland. There will be a particularly interesting afternoon for Pioneer Club members next Monday, when Miss Pauline Frederick, leading lady 'n “Spring Cleaning,” will be the guest of honour, and alee her co-star, Miss June Elvidge, who plays the part of “Mona.” Other lady members of the company will also bo present, and it is expected there will be a large number of members present to welcome the distinguished guests. In celebration of 50 years of married life, flowers in varying shades of gold decorated the rooms of Mrs R. C. Rartram’s residence in Christehurcfi, when the golden anniversary of the wedding of her parents, Mr and Mrs W. W. Charters, well-known residents of, Christchurch, was the occasion of a family gathering.' Among those present were Messrs T. M. Charters and C. W. Cnarters (Christchurch), and Mr A. B. Charters (Whangarei), sons of the honoured pair; Mr and Mrs Robert Allan, and Mr and Mrs A. B. Clater, of Wellington, the last-named a sister of Mrs Charters, having been bridesmaid at the ceremony celebrated 50 years ago. During the afternoon Mi Denys Hoare and Mr E. Mafriner visited Mr Charters, as representatives of the Can, terbury Industrial Association, of which body he has been a member for the past 45 years, and presented bim with' a wallet in token of the respect felt for him by his fellow members. The late Mrs Margaret McArthur, who died at Harewood on Sunday was born in Aberdeen seventy-two years ago. After compleing her education at Marshall College, she came to ! New Zealand with her parents in the clipper Ramsay (1869), and lived for a time at Brookside, where she married Mr James McArthur, of Glasgow. Mostof their large family were brought up on their farm at Hardwood, which they vacated some fifteen years ago in order to go into residence at Papapui, Christchurch. She is survived by her husband and fourteen children: Mrs VV S. Anderson and Mrs G. B. Cumming (Harewood), Mis W. J. Grant. (Timaru), Mrs Bert Hulston (Te Pirita), Mrs C. R. Watson (Ross), Mrs W. E. Lcadley, and Mrs W. O’Connor (New Brighton), Mrs F. G. Jones (Halswell), Mrs W. M. Lawry (Mount Pleasant). Mrs F. H. Ford (Sefton), Mr D. O. McArthur and Mr A. F. McArthur (Belfast), Mr W. F. McArthur (Harewood), and the Rev. J. D. McArthur (Levin). One son, Corporal James McArthur, died of wounds received on Gallipoli.