WOMEN’S WAYS.

Southland Times, Issue 22993, 12 September 1936, Page 15

WOMEN’S WAYS.

The Queen’s Gift to a Bride Government House Ball. The Governor-General and Lady Galway propose to give a ball, to be confined mainly to the younger people, at Government House, Wellington, during the third week in October, at which a limited number of debutantes will be received by their Excellencies. Application for presentation should be addressed to the Aide-de-Camp in Waiting, not later than September 15, by the mother or other nearest relative of the prospective debutante, whose Christian name and age should be given. The Queen’s Gift. Queen Mary’s gift to the Hon. Jean Elphinstone, niece of the Duchess of York and daughter of Lord and Lady Elphinstone, arrived fully a week before the wedding. It is a tiny ball watch, the round face at the base of a glittering ball, which is in rich bluet enamel studded over with rose diamonds. This hangs as a pendant on a thin chain, and is a complete change from the brooches which the Queen has given a number of bridgs whose mothers are among her personal friends. A Romance. The Duke of Kent’s equerry, Lord Herbert, and the Duchess of Kent’s lady-in-waiting, Lady Mary Hope, had a brilliant wedding, planned to some extent by the Duke and Duchess themselves. In honour of this romance of No. 3 Belgrave Square, the Duke and Duchess arranged that the ceremony at Westminster Abbey should be on the lines of Royal weddings there. It took place at the High Altar—as did the marriages of the Princess Royal and Lady Patricia Ramsay. A red and gold carpet was laid down the lour steps of the sanctuary and down the nave of the West Door. Women In Art.

This is a record sales year for women exhibitors at the Royal Academy. Twenty-five of the hundred works sold are by women, The Daily Express recently stated. Dame Laura Knight, whose “Ballet has been sold for £472 10/-, leads the women for prices secured. First week’s total sales of 100, with Mr Alfred Turner’s sculpture, “The Hand,” fetching the highest single sales figure of £B5O, are exactly equal to the first week last year. Attendances, however, are well up on 1935. This has caused some surprise—for the exhibition lacks knotty problem pictures or works of purely topical interest which usually attract the casual visitor. A Busy Life. “We have kept moving since 1934,” says Mrs Gene Sarazen in an interview in Tlie Sydney Morning Herald, “and our farm in Connecticut does not see us often enough, but we are looking forward to the time when my husband retires from professional golf and we live there permanently. We were down there last winter, and as the snow was very heavy, we were kept more than busy housing the cattle. That is one problem you are saved in Australia, as your winter is warm enough to leave the cattle out of doors. At Brookfields they are often in the big barns for months.” Guernseys are the special pride of the Sarazens on their farm, and both of them are keen to acquire knowledge of cattle conditions and feeding in the countries which they visit. Arranging Flowers. An attractive and unusual bowl of greenery and flowers can be made with the aid of a cork mat and a little grass seed (states ■ an exchange). Choose a bright-coloured bowl and a cork mat a bit smaller in diameter than the bowl. Soak the mat for 24 hours in cold water, and then pierce it all over with holes for the flower stalks to slip through. Half fill the bowl with water and add a piece of charcoal. Then put in the mat and sow grass seed thickly over.it. Place the bowl in a dark place till the seed germinates, and then bring it into full light. When the mat is nicely covered with green grass, such flowers as cornflowers, geums, nasturtiums, nemesias, pansies, and poppies can be arranged in the holes. The water in the bowl should be changed frequently. Long Bridal Retinue. One of the tallest members of the peerage was married recently to a bride who had the longest retinue of the season —Viscount Elveden, heir to the Earl of Iveagh, and Lady Elizabeth Hare, younger daughter of Freda Countess of Listowel (states The London Daily Mail). The bride was followed by four grown-up bridesmaids, four pages, and ten little girls. Six hundred people congregated outside St. Margaret’s Westminster, where the wedding took place, and police had difficulty in keeping back the crowd as the bride and bridegroom passed under an. archway of swords made by a guard of honour of officers of the Suffolk Yeomanry. Both bride and bridegroom are members of Irish families, and a small bunch of shamrock was tucked into the bride’s wreath. Tliis had been sent by the head gardener of the bridegroom’s family. A Popular Woman. Ther is no more popular woman in Australia than Mrs J. A. Lyons, wife of the Prime Minister, states an exchange paper. Particularly since her return from a visit to Britain in Jubilee year” she has been much in the public eye. England “discovered Mrs Lyons. The fact that she is the mother of 11 young Australians was “played up” in the news, but Mrs Lyons showed that she had other claims on public interest. She has not allowed domestic ties to narrow her horizon, and she revealed in Britain that she was a most acceptable and talented speaker. On her return to Australia a year ago she gave a memorable broadcast in which she described the Jubilee celebrations from a woman’s point of view. Since then she has been in keen demand as a speaker at public functions. She willingly accepted many engagements —mostly those related to charitable and philanthropic causes—but she was obliged to rest for several months toward the end of the year because of ill-health. Mrs Lyons re-entered public lite actively early this year, but it has been announced that, acting on medical advice, she has been compelled to take a long rest, and as a result she has had to cancel public engagements. Marriage Problem. Mr T. C. A. Hislop’s remarks condemning the cooking of New Zealand women, has as was to be expected, aroused a storm of controversy and many arguments are raging between the “Fors” and the “Againsts, states The Dominion. One “Sufferer” says he has a wife who combines every virtue but that of