THE DEPARTMENT OF HOME AFFAIRS.

Southland Times, Issue 18963, 9 June 1923, Page 14 (Supplement)

THE DEPARTMENT OF HOME AFFAIRS.

finest examples consists of an entire lace i berthe of exquisite design and workmanship, whilst attractive specimens of medallions, collars, and handkerchiefs may be obtained quite reasonably considering the quality of the work. Only the more experienced of the workers seem able to undertake Venetian point, and, as it takes longest, this is naturally the most expensive to buy. Unfortunately only a few of the lacemakers are in a position to buy linen worthy of their beautiful handiwork, but this difficulty may be overcome by obtaining the material from the neighbouring town of Chiavari, which makes a speciality of handwoven linen. One knows of a hand-made princess petticoat made of such material, trimmed with dr awn-thread work, and as many as ten perfectly executed lace motifs in the attractive rose design, that was obtained for the English equivalent of a guinea, and the owner has the satisfaction of knowing that it will wash and wear to a thread. Fine voile blouses of good shape and hand-embroidered, with collars and cuffs of filet, range from 15/- to a guinea, whilst medallions and insertions in original designs of griffins, centipedes, scrolls, fruits, and flowers, costing only a few shillings, positively clamour to be bought and made into curtains whose apparent extravagance will enable one to bask in the envious disapproval of one’s neighbours. A HUSBAND’S CREDIT. WIFE’S RIGHT TO PLEDGE IT. THE LAW ON THE SUBJECT. A decision of no small import was recently given by the English Court of King’s Bench, relating to husband’s liability for wife’s debts. The Court, in reviewing the law on the subject, said:—A married woman is presumptively invested with a certain authority to contract as agent for her husband, but a party seeking to charge him with a contract of his wife must prove the authority. Such authority could, however, be expressly given by the husband, and he would be liable for what he authorised. Authority could also be given by a course of dealing by which the husband had implicitly conferred authority on the wife to contract with one or more persons and had sanctioned her dealings with them. Where husband and wife are living together, the wife is presumed to have her husband’s authority to pledge his credit with respect to a reasonable supply of goods and service for the use of the husband, herself, children, and household, such goods and service being suitable in kind and sufficient in quantity and necessary in fact, according to the condition in which they live. Beyond this the authority does not extend. The husband could negative liability by proring that he expressly warned the tradesmen not to supply goods on credit; that the wife was already supplied with a sufficiency of the articles in question; that the wife/ was supplied with a sufficient allowance or sufficient means for the purpose of buying the articles without pledging his credit; that, he forbade his wife to pledge his credit, and that the order, though for necessaries, was excessive in point of extent, or, having regard to the smallness of the husband’s income, extravagant. These points, and each of them, should be clearly present to the mind of every tradesman who dealt with a married woman seeking to pledge her husband’s credit. It was obvious that the above propositions must, be taken subject to the proviso that, if the husband, though cohabiting with his wife, neglected to supply her with the actual necessaries of life, were they food or garments or medical attendance, she would have a right, which had been called a special agency of necessity, to pledge his credit for the purpose of obtaining such necessities. MARRIAGE FORECASTS. POLISH SUPERSTITIONS. Queer and picturesque old superstitions regarding the identity of a girl’s future husband still survive in Eastern Europe, declares Bassett Digby in the Manchester Guardian. On certain evenings the girls of Poland, Galicia, and the Balkans drop rings, or melted lead and wax, into a bowl of water and, while fishing them out, sing old songs, verses of which foretell, as each object is caught, the peculiarities of one’s future husband. A Polish country girl whose thoughts dwell on the future goes out in the evening , and shakes the usually rickety garden fence. If a dog bark in the west her busband, she believes, will come from the west. If it bark in the east he will come from the east. If no dog hark, she expects to be single. In Prussia a girl drops flowers in a glass and tries to see among them the image of her husband to be. Or she tosses a circlet of wild flowers which she has woven back over her head against a tree. If the wreath catches on a bough the first time she will be a bride within a year. If at the second

time, within two years, and so on, according to the number of times she has to make the attempt before proving successful. To dream of her future husband she places flowers under her pillow. A group of Polish girls will put money and bits of bread into some handfuls of hay under the tablecloth. Then each is allowed to make a snatch. The girl who pulls out only a piece of bread will wed a poor man, and she who grasps a coin will make a wealthy marriage. Or, alone and unobserved, the maiden will go to the woodshed in the yard for an apronful of chips. Back in the kitchen she counts them. If they are an even number she will soon wed. If odd, she will long be single. Still another Polish marriage forecast is to be blindfolded and pick out a stalk from a handful of hay. If it is green she will soon marry; if brown, not until late in life, if at all. And a girl will throw a wreath or posy of wild flowers into a river. If it floats out of sight she will marry. If it breaks or sinks she will not.

The Galician girl puts wine, beer, aud water on a table between two candles, and arranges a mirror so that from round the corner she can watch the result of her test. If the first man who enters the liv-ing-room drinks the wine her future husband will be rich. If the visitor drinks the beer, the husband will be well-to-do. But if the wretched fellow neglects the good cheer and driuks the water poverty lies about. REMARKABLE CLOCK. GLASGOW’S ROYAL PRESENT. Glasgow’s wedding gift to the Duke of York and Lady Elizabeth- Bowes-Lyons was an historic clock and an artistic old cabinet. The clock was made by John Smith, Pittenweem, Fife, in 1804, in the hope that it would be acquired by George in. It is a wonderful piece of mechanism. It shows the phases of the moon and the day of her age. It has a carillon of sixteen bells on which it chimes every quarter of an hour, and has eight different changes of these chimes. At the fourth quarter it plays an air and then strikes the hour; it has a selection of eight airs for this purpose.

At three, six, nine and twelve o’clock, after striking the hour, it plays a march, and at an opening in the right hand of the dial, which represents Whitehall, appear and pass round in procession figures of the King, Queen and all the members of the Royal Family as at 1804. As the King appears, a troop of Horse Guards canters round. As becomes a Scottish clock, on Sundays there is no march or procession, these actions being automatically stopped during that day.

With the clock, as a personal present to the bride, was a small escritoire and

jewel cabinet made of various fine woods decorated with gilt bronze mounts and embellished with plaques of Sevres porcelain enamelled with figure subjects.