THE NEW ZEALAND GIRL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 10140, 29 August 1904, Page 3

THE NEW ZEALAND GIRL.

LADY PLUNKET'S IMPRESSIONS.

During her stay m Dunedin, Lady Plunket was interviewed by a lady member of the Otago Daily Times staff. Shesaid : "We like Wellington very much. Only one thing impresses me unfavorably. Of course, I know that colonial girls possess freedom that those at Horns do not have, but it does seem to me a pity that one should see troops of young girls of 14 or 15 parading the streets, apparently released! from parental control, and how expensively they do dress." Mothers, said the interviewer, have not as much control over their daughters apparently as they once had. "Mothers' Unions," replied Lady Plunket, "would do a great deal m rousiug them to a sense of duty."

Lady Plunkel said she did not paint, and not being very strong, did not go m for hockey or golf. She paid a high compliment to the Salvation Army's Maternity Home and to the Hospital. New Zealand crowds were always well clothed and prosperous looking. She takes great interest m kindergartens. Asked if his Excellency and herself were most favorably impressed with Christ-church she replied : "Well, you see, Are are so fond of motoring, and the country there is very favorable for that. The lanes and' roads, too, afe charming, and very pretty. But Dunedin, too, is very pretty."

Lady Plunket spoke of the attitude of the modern girl towards married women and! those older than herself, and said that even to her own mother there was a lack of that deference and courtesy which was at one time indispensable as a mark of good . breeding. "I notice it here,*' she said', "even more than m England. Girls do not dream of rising on the entrance of married ladies, and will even allow their mother to ge{ up and come to them on little trifles, instead of instantly rising and going to her." Asked about dress, Lady Plunket thought there was not much difference between England und New Zealand 1 , except m regard to the .morning, when Englishwomen dress with more studious simplicity than occurs to the average colonial.

As the interviewer rose to go* Lady Plunket assured her very sweetly how pleasant were her own and Lord Pluuket's impressions of New Zealand and her people. "You are all so kind," she said, "and make every duty so easy by your ready appreciation; it makes one desire to confirm the cordial kindliness of these first impressions."