NOTES FOR WOMEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18612, 21 July 1922, Page 8

NOTES FOR WOMEN

[WOMEN IN PROFESSIONS. DUMPED GOODS. A SKITTISH HOUSE. tFsou Ocb Own Corbespondznt.) LONDON, May 17. In the Commons a few days ago Mr S. Baldwin (president of the Board of Trade) was bombarded with questions on the operation of the Safeguarding of Industries Act, and Mrs Wintringham was a prominent interrogator. In the first place she wanted to know what were the reasons for appointing a conunitttee to investigate the dumping of cotton gloves into Great Britain as a result of depreciated currency, seeing, that the imports of cotton gloves in 1913 was 2i million dozen pairs at an average value of 6s Sd per dozen pairs, whilst in 1921 the number of imports was only 570,000 dozen pairs, and the average value 20s per dozen pairs. Mr Baldwin assured her that the board satisfied themselves before referring the motter to a committee that a prima facie case had been established under the Act, Figures showed that the quantity of cotton gloves imported in 1913 was 2,531,798 dozen pairs, and the declared value £728,050, while ui 1921 the quantity was 719,923. and the declared .value £650,635. Before 1920 the heading “Cotton Gloves” included all kinds of gloves manufactured wholly or mainly of cotton. The particulars for ls2l were compiled on a somewhat different basis, and unavoidably included a quantity of fabric gloves woven from textile materials other than cotton or silk. The quantity so included is believed to be relatively small. HOOKS AND EYES. Next Mrs Wintringham wanted to know if, before appointing a committee to consider the imposing of a duty of 33 1-3 per cent, under the Safeguarding of Industries Act on safety pins and hooks, the president of the Board of Trade was aware that, owing to a recent change in fashion, elastic had superseded the use of these articles; if he was not so aware, would he say why representative women’s organisations were not consulted. Mr Baldwin said that safety pins were not included in the reference to the committee, which covered hooks and eyes and snap-fasteners. The possible effect of the change in the fashion of the trade was not overlooked, and it was not considered_ necessary to consult any outside organisation on the subject. Mr Jack Jones; What about hatpins? Colonel Archer Shoe: Will he consider the appointment of a- committee to_ go into the question of elastic, more especially in view of the fact that all the prettiest girls still used safety hooks and eyes.— (Laughter.) No answer was given. , Mr Baldwin also informed Mrs Wintringham that the Board of Trade had received an application for the imposing of a duty, under the Safeguarding of Industries Act, on imported French silks. A prima facie case for reference to a committee was now made out by the applicant, who had since furnished further information which was feeing considered. 1700 WOMEN DOCTORS. Dr Mary Sturge is president of the Medical Women’s Federation, which has lately concluded its fifth annual general meeting. Medical wtomen want to stem the exaggeration about disease all over the country, and she says that in the view of many thoughtful people, medical women have their share to play in helping the State to make wise decisions such matters as infant welfare, venereal disease, child education, child culture, birth control, and so on. This can only b© dSne by conferring together, clarifying ideas, and then acting. The federation possesses power to influence and help-public opinion by its collective pronouncements. “We are, of course, anxious to support women doctors in all questions of salaries. We stand firmly by the principles of equal pay (says Dr Sturge) for equal work. But women doctors are not out for personal gain. •: They do feel their responsibility. Wo rejoice that the Government and various societies come to us now to recommend a member to sit on their special committees and’represent tho views of medical women. The League of Nations has asked us to send a representative to Paris for a meeting to consider certain medical problems of international importance. The Americans are trying to establish an international medical association, and we want women ns well as men doctors represented on that body. Birth control is another of the grave problems we are investigating. _ The question is one on which the opinion of medical women is so often asked l that we referred it to. our local associations. A number of resolutions have been_received, 'the general trend of which was disapproval of the public propaganda being carried on and the desire, for further careful investigation.” At the annual meeting it was announced that 76 new members had joined the federation during 1921, making a total of 655. There- are 1700 women doctors in Great Britain, and the federation is preparing to attract more of them. The Standing Committee on Venereal Disease reported that it had refused to sanction publication of the repeat of a conference with three members of the Society for the Prevention of Venereal Disease held at the request of the latter. The report was considered by the medical women to be too one-sided. THE FIRST WOMAN BARRISTER. “CalL night” at the Inner Temple was this week doubly interesting because Dr Ivy Williams was the first woman to be admitted to the English Bar, and she was „ the senior of the 23 students called, taking precedence by reason of_ her brilliance in the qualifying examination. Lecturer in Law at Oxford University, and tho daughter of Mr G. St. S. Williams (an Oxford solicitor), she was admitted by Mr H. F. Dickens, K.C. (Common Serjeant, and ;• son of tho great novelist), this year’s Treasurer at the Inner Temple. Inner Temple gives its call in privacy, and Mr Dickens expressed to me his personal regret tljat New Zealand could thus not be represented. To the Parliament Room, when the benchers have retired there after dinner, the newly-fledged 1 barristers are summoned, and the benchers, and these alone, know what takes place. Wigs are not worn. Regulation decreed that Miss VVilliams should appear attired in the simplicity of woman’s evening dress, and she was little distinguished from other women students. Beneath her black gown and “bands” she wore a black dress. As senior student it became Miss Williams’s privilege, not only to head the body, but to express, in her first speech as a barrister, their acknowledgments for tho treasurer’s address. What she said is also not on record, so strict is the privacy that the Inns maintain. But experience that already she has gained as a lecturer on law at Oxford no doubt enabled her to surmount what might have proved a nervous obstacle to many. One who was there tells that the students, haring taken their places behind tho benchers’ seats, Mr Dickens rose and, in a brief speech, beginning, “You have now been called to the Bax,” referred to the progress ‘ of woman since she was in law a chattel. It was true that the law still supposed that wives were coerced by their husbands. Ho expressed no opinion on the point, but quoted ' his father’s “Bumble,” who said the law “was a ass and a idgit,” and made reference to the fact that it was by useful work in war and-not by “militant” methods that wotnen had obtained such honours. Addressing the students generally, Mr Dickens reminded them that years of arduous work lay before Item. The great tiling was that they should be thorough in all their work. That was the wise advice his father, Charles Dickens, gave him when he went up to Cambridge. He concluded by proposing tho health of the newly-called barristers. , , ~, Miss IWilliams, at the treasurer’s right, stepped ‘ forward and thanked the benchers lor the honour they had bestowed. She spoke slowly and very clearly, and created B good impression by her quiet manner. It had been tho dream of her life and her father’s 1 dream for her, she said, that she should ’become a barrister. “To-night I have reused .the dream of mv life, she said speaking with almost painful deliberation’ effort to control her emotion. “The realisation seems to have left me dumbfounded. I am keenly sensible of the great honour done me to-night, ami I only wish it had com e earlier in my life.’ Intimating that she did not intend to practise, she spoke of. the women who would follow and would practise at the bar, and she asked tjhat every help and encouragement * should be given them in the difficult ies they would Bare to face It was: noticed that , when she roasted tte Benchers, die took water and not wine. For-the first time in memory a student. Major L. C. Benns, took his “call” in the Inner Temple with the rest in a wheelchair in which he dined. He . served throughout the war. and incurred a disability which resulted in tho total loss of his legs. , , , , ~ „„ Commenting on the first womans call a «. a event,” The Times—long an aßvoc.’.te of the legal profession being • ‘-.x *

eventually for women, because it held that the days had arrived when both sexes should have the equal rights and equal obligations of full citizenship—observes: “ The attitude of the Inns of Court towards women is a logical, if tardy, consequence of a democratic progress. On the whole, members ol the Bar have welcomed the step which was taken by the Benchers in providing women with the opportunities of competing for a practice in the courts. It is for these enterprising women now to show their capabilities in a profession which requires for real success not only the eloquence of the advocate. but the power of assimilating and reasoning upon tho principles of English law.” £IOO,OOO FOR LAW STUDENTS. A windfall of £IOO,OOO is coming to the law students of Gray’s Inn. Sir Lewis Coward, K.C., for many years an active member of the Council of Legal Education, made the announcement during the weekend, and added that the money will be devoted to legal education. It is believed that the bequest was made by the widow of Lord Justice Holker, himself an old bencher of Gray’s Inn, on one condition. Lady Holker, in 1894, married as her second husband, Mr Henry Beaufort Inglefiold, of Cadogan Square. S.W.. the elder son of Admiral Sir Edward A. Inglefiold. the polar explorer. She laid it down in her will that the bequest would be subject only to the life -interest of Mr Inglefiold, who still survives : her. Mr Inglefield married two years ago as his second wife Mrs Alexandra Geraldine j Gould, a cousin of Lord Dunhoyne. “I was ■ invited to make the announcement.” said Sir Lewis Coward, “as the students have j shown a somewhat remarkable reluctance to enter for the va’uablo scholarships and prizes for reading in chambers that Gray s Inn has to offer.” ANOTHER PROFESSION FOR WOMEN. Results of the recent examination in connection with the Surveyors’ Institute show that 758 candidates presented themselves for examination, and 478 proved successful, including two ladies —Miss Irene W. Martin, who passed_ in the final division, having taken the intermediate a year ago, and Miss E. E. Perry, who_ took the intermediate. Both are assisting Miss Jeffery, of the Office of Woods and Forests. Miss Martin, 8.A.. has been engaged in housing work with the Regent Park Estate for over four years, but it was not until the passing of the Sex Disqualification Act that she could study with the idea of eventually becoming a surveyor. She has specialised in town surveying, and expects to become .a Fellow of the Surveyors’ Institute. She said she became attracted to her profession because of her sympathy with bad housing conditions. “The conditions under which people are living in tenements are terrible. On the Crown estate, stretching from Euston road to Camden Town, there are hundreds of families—some of them numbering six people—living in one room; that one room is a damp basement.” Miss Martin pays a tribute to the help given her by men in the profession. A PEERESS IN BUSINESS. The Countess of Onslow is a pjoneer among peeresses, inasmuch as she is announced as having embarked on retail trading as a “purveyor” of milk. A good deal of milk is produced at Cinndon Park, ard Lady Onslow has now, with the aid of a motor lorry, started to supply it to residents in the district, running nearly into Guildford itself. Lady Onslow has always been interested in stock, and recently visited Jersey for tho purpose of adding on the spot to her herd of cows by local purchases. Lord Onslow’s model dairy at Olandon was always an object of interest to New Zealand visitors who, in the past, used to 70 down to the delightful garden parties given by the late Earl and the Dowager Countess of Onslow. MAN A “SOCIAL ANIMAL.” Mrs Wintringham, M.P., speaking at Westminster Chapel, Buckingham Gate, on the occasion of the annual mooting of the National British Women’s Temperance Association, said she did not think the present outlook so far as temperance legislation was concerned was very bright. The friends of the movement in the House were not asleep lay any means, and she was optimistic enough to believe there would be temperance reform, and that before long thev would have the joy and the glorious privilege of closing public-houses. They would, however, have to offer something in their place. Living in the country, as she did, she could see the attractiveness of Jhe cosy country inn, and they in the temperance movement Wanted something equally attractive. People who sold drink recognised that man was “a social animal.” Temperance reformers must also recognise tins fact.