The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 690, 8 May 1879, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1879.

! A•• letter was addressed to the i Hawke's Bay Education Board, which ■was read at its last meeting in Napier. , Tfie comihunication came from Capt. M . jWV H. Russell, M.H.R., and is a perfect curiosity in its way. Captain Russell 1 offers three prizes to girls, attending any of the Schools in the r Howie's Bay Education Districts — .; ! First Prize— A, sewing machine, for the best seating of a man's or boy's old • trousers. : Second Prize — A work box, for the best attempt at making a boy's or man's nightshirt. Third Prize— A lady's companion, for the best darning a pair of worn-out socks or stockings. Each competitor must forward her work to the office of the Education Board on or before November 30, 1879, with a certificate , from the sewing mistress of the school to which she belongs, stating that the work is the unaided work of the competitor, done ' 'during school hours. The night-shirt may be cut out for the competitor by anybody, but the piecing of the trousers must be done by the competitor herself. The articles ' bo mended or made will be examined by a committee of three ladies, who will decide upon the merits of the various specimens of ' work and adjudge the prizes. ;.,-.,; .Really this subject is of such a .delicate; nature, that Ave scarcely know how it should be handled. As l-egards a sewing machine for the best; 1 seating of a man's or boy's old trousers. How is it to be accomplished 1 We know Mrs. Glasses' ad vice how to cook a hare in which she , says : First get your hare, and then she proceeds vith her instructions as to how the hai*e should be cooked. l?"ow\ we fancy a number of little school-girls going from house to house, and saying, " If you please ma'am, can you give me a pair of your hus'tiands old trousers, that I may seat them 1" Would any married lady care to confess that her husband's trousers

bad gone in the direction indicated 1 We think not. It may be we are wrong, but we doubt it. When a wife is'engaged herself in such an operation, it is generally done in the shade and solitude of her home. Should a visitor suddenly pop in they (the trousers) are thrown into a corner, or under the sofa, and hidden away somehow. But here we should have a little girl in an open school-room proudly drawing attention to the fact that she is putting a new seat into Mr. Smith's old trousers, which had been given to her by Mrs. Smith herself. This/wpuld hardly look nice for Mrs.; Smith," and indeed Mr, Smith might object. Then, again, a workbox for a kittle girl making a nightshirt. For shame, Captain Russell ! Little girls oughn't to know that men wear such things, as indeed very few men do wear, the lazy fellows tumbling into bed with the shirt they have worn through the day. As regards the third prize, the darning of a pair of worn-out socks ; why if they are worn out how can they be darned ? We have heard that the definition of " nothing " is a footless sock without a leg. If the socks are only worn a little, or worn a good deal, they might be subjected to repairs; but when they are worn outj why we should say there is nothing left to repair. Again, how> about the lady judges 1 Will they care to inspect the seats of men's or even boys' trousers. We imagine two lady judges consulting over a number of re-seated trousers. We imagine Mrs. A. saying to Mrs. B. : "My dear, I thiuk little Emily haj3 seated Mrs. Smith's husband's trousers admirably ;" while Mrs. B. might reply by saying : " Mr. B. was a spare man, and had not been so hard on them as Mrs. Jones's husband; who is a heavy weight, so I think little Sarah Jane should have, the prize. And then both lady j judges, having a quiet talk together, wondering how Mrs. Smith and Mi's. Jones could allow their husband's trousers to become the gaze, if not the admiration, of a lot of public school girls. Captain W. H. Kussell, M.H.R., you really ought to be ashamed of yourself. Where is your modesty departed 1