THE WORD “OBEY.”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20075, 16 April 1927, Page 24

THE WORD “OBEY.”

WOMEN IN THE SADDLE. COMMENT BY THE KING. (From Odb O.vn Correspondent.) LONDON, March 9. " I do not Hke to see women ride astride. The other way looks much more graceful.” The King made this remark as he watched the women riders at the hunter show in Islington Agricultural Hall. The side saddle has been accounted oldfashioned since the war, but the King’s disapproval of the astride seat may per haps restore its popularity. “The modern girl thinks she is inferior to man if she does not ride astride, as he does,” said Mr Carter, of a Kensington riding school. “ When I try to discourage them they want to learn both methods.”

Another authority said: “It is quite wrong for girls to try to sit a horse in the same way as a man. Only a supergirl can do it with safety. In the hunting field it is frankly dangerous for a woman to ride astride.” 4 PRAISE OF WOMEN SURGEONS.

“ I cannot speak too highly of the women house surgeons,” said Dr R. A. Milligan, acknowledging a presentation on his retirement, after serving for 40 years as hon. surgeon at Northampton General Hospital. “ One of their greatest virtues is that they do as they are told, which cannot always be said of the men.” THE WOMAN’S PART IN CHURCH AFFAIRS.

It would be difficult to estimate, and impossible adequately to appraise, the great work done by women for the Church (says the Guardian). The Church worker has often been made the butt of unsympathetic ridicule and, no doubt,, there were faults to be discerned; but the clergy, at any rate, could tell of selfsacrificing lives spent on tasks that had little superficially to commend them and won no earthly applause. The changed circumstances of modern life, the loss of leisure by the class from which such helpers usually came, the fierce competition for remunerative work, the new opportunities offered to women of wider education, have all combined to cut off the stream of unpaid help that former.y ran broad and strong. Nevertheless, there are, fortunately, many women who would be glad to devote their time to the work of the Church if they could be brought into contact with suitable openings for the use of their gifts, and be assured of a competence. It is to meet this need that an advisory council has been formed to co-ordinate all the different departments of women’s work. The formation of the council should be welcomed with sympathy throughout the Church, and should find a large scope for' its activity. “OBEY” TO GO.

A proposal that the promise of the bride to obey should be retained in the new form of marriage service in the Prayer Book was heavily defeated in the Lower House of Convocation at Canterbury, only 29 voting for the proposal compared with 63 against. In the proposed new form of marriage vow the bride will only promise to “love and cherish” her husband instead of “obey.” Hie Rabbi of the St. Petersburgh Place Synagogue, in his address at a New Zealand wedding recently, remarked upon the controversy which was taking place in the Christian Church relative to the word obey. In the Jewish faith, he said, there was no discussion because that word “ obey ” never had appeared in the marriage service of the Jewish religion. Jews looked upon the married estate as a partnership, a comradeship, and mutual friendship between the man and the woman. There was no idea that a wife should obey her husband or that a husband should obey his wife, for both parties were on an equality. Each one contributed his or her part to the happiness of the other during the whole of the married life. Ihe home of married people should be a temple of peace and a temple of love. “LADY HOUSEMAIDS.” If the social status of domestic service could be raised so that it was recognised as an honourable profession—at all events, for a few years—for the daughters of professional men in poor circumstances, I think that one of our great social problcms ( would be in a fair way to be solved, said Dean Inge, speaking at the Mansion House on behalf of the Loan hund for Educated Women and Subsequent Aid to Careers, which is administered by the Central Unemployment Bureau. A list of careers for which educated women might be trained had come into the deans possession, and he noted that it ended with lady cooks. “Why should it stop there?” he asked. “Why should we not have lady parlourmaids and lady housemaids? It requires only a little abatement of snobbishness on both sides.” it cut one to the heart on observing tile unhappy conditions of women who had been left without means of support and who had been obliged to try in one way fL a ?£ ther i t 0 ear m. a miserable pittance for themselves. They had no political backing, and no way of making their rights and wrongs known. They were too proud to beg, and they simply struggled on, in most cases, with wonderful courage and cheerfulness. “I think this is one of c™ l things in our civilisation,” the dean >, and all those who *iVf P°wer and the means should do what they can to rectify such a great social injustice. The object of this fund vear^nftrfT 0 )* 1 t 0 he! P ladies of mature years as to help young women to tide over what is in most cases a very difficult time for them—the period when they are preprofession. qUa lfy f ° r 60me occu Pation or HAIR NETS OF SILVER AND GOLD. For evening wear for ladies there have been introduced nets of silver or’ gold thread, not dissimilar from the shingle caps worn at night to protect the coiffure! The novelty is having a great success Pr ° V f f L ar laore effective than the tulle’ scarf in keeping the hair in place during the journey from the house to the evening function. These silver nets,'moreover, are very becoming particularly over dark hair. They take the place of an ornament, and are bordered with silver or gold lace For or era and restaurant wear, the net is set mco a folded turban border of gold or silver, or shot tissue, ornamented with a brooch of diamonds or coloured gems. Another variant has a border of flowers with glistening petal edges. For the flowers, velvet or chiffon is generally used. BACKBONE OF THE CONSTITUTION. High praise was given to the woman voter by Mr L. S. Amery, Dominions Secretary, at a mass meeting of women Conservatives. The women of this country, he said, had shown a keener sense of public duty than the men in many constituencies. Women possessed the great quality of common sense, and were not so easily carried away by words and phrases as were men. Th ■ had a wholesome fear of political quack doctors. Women to-day were the verv backbone of the Constitution. “JUST LUCK.” “I don’t want you people to want things a little better,” said Lady Cynthia Mosley to one of two big Labour audiences which she addressed in company witn her husband, Mr Oswald Mosley, M.P., at Cardiff. “L want you to want things miles better,” she said. “I have got something which you have not got, not because I am any better than anybody else, but just through chance, just luck. But it should not be just chance, just luck. And that is why we (Mr Oswald Mosley and myself) are in the party. It is wrong that it should be so, and we have come along to try and help to spread the message that will alter it.” CHOOSING A WIFE. Viscount Astor gave advice to young bachelors on the objects of choosing a wife, in his speech at the annual luncheon in connection with the conference of the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship. “I am told,” said Lord Astor, “that young men are a little nervous of the modern women. I would ask the bachelors of the country to look around at the homes they know. They will see that more home are ruined hy women giving too much attention to clothes, dross, and card, than are ruined hy wives and mothers tak ing too much interest in politics.” When selecting a mate, ho added, a young man would do bettor to select someone with a wide outlook who would take an interest iu tba welfare q* the country. He know

of nothing so steadying to anybody or group of persons than giving them responsiMirs Maud Royden in an amusing speech, suggested that the objection of men to women’s bobbed hair migKt be based n the inconvenience to them of not being able any longer to borrow the common hairpin. All men were interested in machinery, even if it wore only a toy engine in the nursery, end nearly all men smoked a pipe. Again and again the hairpin camo in very useful. WOMEN IN BUSINESS The British Industries Fair afforded an intarosting indication of the extent to which women are establishing themselves in various branches o» commerce. In such selections as leather bags about 25s per cent, of the buyers doing business were women. Some of them came from the United States, Canada, and Australia, many from the West End shops, and a great number from big provincial towns. There wore three stalls belonging to women makers of basket-ware; six owned by women in the handbag industry, and five by women manufacturing toys. Stalls were also held by women manufacturers of beauty preparations. manicure sets, flowers, lampshades, mirrors, glassware, '-wellery, silver-ware, leather goods- lace, embroidery and linen. Each of these stalls was visited by a considerable number of women buyers, some of whom earn well over £IOOO a year. Practically all have worked their way up from the foot of the ladder One lady manufacturer started, making fancy bags at_ the end of the war. Her husband joined her in the business, and now she employs 150 people Her firm is considered one of the biggest in the exclusive trade. Another lady who went into business against the wishes of her family has her own factory, at which artistic leather goods are produced for many countries abroad, was congratulated by a buyer from a leading_ Paris firm on having one of the most artistic stands at the fair.