SOCIAL AND PERSONAL

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12549, 11 September 1926, Page 10

SOCIAL AND PERSONAL

Her Excellency the Lady Alice Fergusson will lay the foundation stone of the new wing of the Alexandra Home on Tuesday morning next. Mrs E. E. Muir, of Kelburn, Wellington, is on a fow weeks visit to Auckland. Miss Lucy Brandon and Miss Alice Barton have left Wellington on a visit to Auckland. Mr and Mrs L. H. Allan, of Wellington, are staying in Christchurch. Mr and Mrs A. F. Sanderson, of Wellington, are visiting Auckland. Miss Kathleen' Bristed, Avonsiide, will leave next week on a visit to Wellington and Palmerston North. Miss Margaret Caughley, of Wellington, is the guest of Mrs Alfred Evans, St. Martins, Christchurch. Mrs H. M. Campbell, Horonui, has returned from Wellington. Mrs Lewis, of Wellington, and her two daughters have been on a visit to her sister-in-law, Mrs Jos. Harris, Charlotte crescent, Hastings. Mr and Mrs Warner, of Wellington, are on a visit to Napier. Mr and Mrs' L. Pickering returned to Napier by car on Wednesday from Wellington, where Mr Pickering has been attending a meeting of the New Zealand Gas Companies’. Association. Mr and Mrs F. K. do Castro, of Hawke’s Bay, came to Wellington to attend the funeral of Captain Hyde (Mrs de Castro’s father), who died on Wednesday morning. Captain Hyde was one of the Crimean veterans (artillery), and recently reached the age cf 96 years. Sister Porteous, N/Z.A.N.S. Reserve, will leave Napier for the Trentham military camp to-morrow. Lady Marjorie Dalrymple will return to New Zealand from Australia in December, and in January will txxnduct a girls’ camp at the Waitaki High School. In February she will assume control of Woodford House while Miss Holland, the present principal, visits England. The marriage was celebrated by tho Rev. W. Bower Black, at St. Paul’s Church, Cashel street, Christchurch, of Miss Merle Isabel Falconer, fourth daughter of Mrs D. Rosser, of Waimate, and Frederick William, eldest son of Mr and Mrs R. Morrison, of Christchurch. Her Excellency Lady Alice Fergusson was in Greytown on Wednesday to open the League of Mothers. The ceremony took place in the Oddfellows’ Hall. Miss Phyllis McDonald,, whose 1922 scholarship at the Academy of Music was extended to four times its original term, will leave London for Sydney in December with the Academy's violin prizes for 1926. These include five firsts, for assembly playing, firsts for solo work, a gold-mounted bow for the best performance in examinations, the prize for the most distinguished violinist for the year, and first in the hors concurs at the musical festival. The first meeting of the Thames Old Girls took place in the schoolroom of Pitt street Methodist Churoh, says the Auckland "‘Star.” There was an attendance <rf about 75, and Mrs Alfred Oldham was elected president, with Mrs King treasurer and secretary. A very large committee and a large number of vice-presidents were also elected, while all the old ladies over 80 who belonged to Thames in 'its early days were made life memberlPas well as Mrs Fairgray, who was the first baby bora there.

The marriage is announced of Air Arthur Robertson Pel’s ton, formerly well-known in the AVairarapa, and especially in Carterton, where lie was secretary of the P. and A. Society, to Airs Grace Riaeh (nee Robertson) widow of the late Mr Alexander Riacli, a distinguished Edinburgh journalist and formerly editor of the “Evening Despatch,” says the Wairarapa “Daily News.” The event is quile a little romance, as Airs Riaeh and Mr Perston are cousins and were great chums as girl and boy. Both being widowed, they decided to he married chums for the rest of their days, and Air Perston made a trip to Scotland with this pleasant consummation of the old friendship in view, and the marriage diuly took place at the old homo of Mr A. R. Perston’s father, which has been in the family since the sixteenth century. Afr and Mrs Perston are coming to New Zealand by the Tamaroa which leaves England on September 16th, and will take up their residence at Mr Perston’s home at Seatoun Heights, Welling!ton. It is a coincidence that Mr Perston’s son married a niece of Mrs Perston, during the latter days of the war. They also with their children are making New Zealand their home, and will reside not far from Seatoun Heights. New Zealand is entitled to claim, if only remotely, through Bishop Hobhouse the fine old pioneer Bishop of Nelson, an interest in Miss Emily Hobhouse, a woman, who after a life devoted to the service of mankind, died the other day in London. In the dark days of the Boer War. when the deathrate in the concentration camps for Dutch women and children had risen appallingly, Miss Hobhouse was sent out from England to investigate the conditions then prevailing. The task confronting her was sufficient to make the stoutest heart quail, but she so far succeeded that the camps were put under civilian control, and tho death rate gradually diminished till peace came. In the years that followed Miss Hobhouse devoted her life to helping in the reconstruction of the land. Her whole life was a plea for peace between nations, and it was in that hope that she lived, worked, and died.

Mrs Gaskell’s home in Cheyne walk, Chelsea, where she was born in 1810, is np for sale. The house has been modernised inside, but the charming frontage is in its original condition. fpw* MTLSOMS (Oldest Established Hair and Face Specialists.) MARCEL AND WATER WAVING.Tbis department has been augmented by two special operators. We aleo specialise in Facial and Scalp Treatments, Henna and Inecto Staining, Clipping, Shingling, Manicuring, etc. For* ap6 ointments ring 41-273. OPEN FRIAY EVENINGS. 94, Willis street. GREY HAIR. The presence of grey hair is an intrusion. Grey hair provokes sympathy for reasons which are manifest. Nobody envies the woman whose hair is grey. Grey hair at one time unavoidable is no longer so. One treatment of Staining at Mrs Rolleston, Lid., is sufficient to achieve the desired result. Mrs Rolleston, Ltd., Specialists in Beauty Culture, 250, La mb ton quay. 'Fhone 42 -m 1

Lord Newton has suggested that o “sensible and competent” woman should assist the Lord Chamberlain in the performance of his task as censor of plays. Mr Bernard Shaw has added the suggestion that the Advisory Committee which is known to exist for this purpose should include not merely a woman, but as many women as men. The pride of place among the honoured guests at the Old Thames Girls’ Reunion was accorded to Mrs A. Dewar, now in her ninety-third year (says an Auckland correspondent). She was born in Edinburgh, and started her life in the colonies in a slab hut at Ballarat in 1854. She married Mr Alex Dewar, one of the earliest mining managers of the old Thames clay. She has distinct recollections of the stirring days of the mutiny at Eureka stockade, when she witnessed the fight and saw the wounded being removed to the hospital on Soldiers’ Hill. When the Thames rush occurred, Mr Dewar was engaged by Victorian capitalists to prooeed to Auckland with his wife in 1870. At the Thames Mr Dewar secured a claim adjoinirig the Caledonia mine, and sank the Tookey shaft. He failed, however, to reach the rich deposit which made the name of the Caledonia famous among New Zealand mines. Mrs Dewar still takes a keen interest in public affairs, and was one of the most animated of all those present at the gathering. Persons under the age of 15 cannot be licensed to drive motor-cars, but there appears to be no limit in the opposite direction. The Christchurch city motor inspector’s department has just issued a driving license to a lady who in spite of her 76 years, is still very much on the active list. This energetic lady motorist is Mrs Richard Wedderspoon, of St. Elmo, Christchurch. She was one of the pioneers of New Zealand, for she has been in the country more than 70 years, and has brought up a large family. Although the name of Mile. Ferid Bey is known to our public chiefly in association with the social life of the Turkish Embassy, she is a novelist of considerable distinction not only in her own country but also in Germany and America, where her work is read in translations. Speaking French with the same felicity as she does Turkish, certain editdts in France, recognising the reputation her five novels have won for her, have approached her to translate them into their language with a view to their publication there. Less than a year in London, Mile. Ferid Bey speaks English with considerable skill and fluency, choosing her phrases with a particularly nice discrimination. Her duties at the Embassy make too great demands on her time to allow her the concentration she finds necessary for creative fiction, so she is making notes for a book on England. Perhaps the visit of the King and Queen of Spain may quite fortuitously help Senor Vincente Escudero’s project of Spanishing our London ballrooms (says a London writer). The ambition of this well-known Spanish exponent of the Ibernian and Castilian dances and costumes is to popularise both tn this country. It is argued that, considering the close juxtaposition of the two countries and also the intimate business association, England evinces little Spanish influence. Senor Escudero thinks this might most easily and effectively be introduced, to the mutual advantage of both, in the costume as well as the form of onr pooular post-war dancing. Sfvperhaps, after recent fascinating exhibitions at wellknown West End dance places by a skilled troupe of Spanish dancers, the bolero and the mantilla will become a London vogue. One claim advanced for Spanish dances is that they occupy little floor space, a at West , End night clubs where, as the night i wears on, supper tables tend to invade the floor, and the latter shrinks like Balzac’s famous wild ass’s skin, until each dancer needs to be able to confine bis or her steps to about the area of a tea plate.