Mannequins Show Woollens In Sydney

Southland Times, Issue 24012, 30 December 1939, Page 14

Mannequins Show Woollens In Sydney

SYDNEY, December 19. Mannequins paraded unusual woollen garments this week at the Hotel Australia before men interested in the wool industry. Women’s lingerie, beach garments, frocks of finest wool were really very smart and I should imagine this industry will benefit from this culmination of the publicity campaign which has been conducted during the last few months. The campaign itself will receive new life to go on to greater achievements. A surprise wedding, although the couple have been engaged for a few months, took place on Saturday when the Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly, the Rev. John Flynn, performed the ceremony for the marriage of Miss Nancy Bird, well known airwoman, and Mr Charles F. Walton. You will know Mr Flynn perhaps, as Flynn of the Inland, and from the many books he has written of the outback in Australia. He does splendid work as a missionary there and Miss Nancy Bird was attached to the aerial ambulance service. Mr Flynn originated the flying doctor and the aerial, ambulance services throughout Australia.- A truly splendid work. I told you last week that our weather had returned to normal again but we had the hottest day since last summer on Monday. We simply closed all windows and doors to keep the hot wind out and to keep the house cool. At a city Christmas sherry party in the evening, the guests sat on the floor tn keep cool. A very large Christmas party was given to 800 poor children at Romano s this week and the Hotel Australia chefs made a huge three-tiered Christmas cake weighing 3501 b —it took six men to carry it to the party but it only took 20 minutes for the children to eat it. The Prime Minister (Mr R. G. Menzies) was present at the party and seemed to enjoy being with the children. The staff of the Rural bank - entertained 350 poor children last night. Each child received a toy, fruit, nuts and three new pennies. NEW RAILWAY On Saturday afternoon, the Governor. Lord Wakehurst, opened the new Sutherland-Cronulla electric railway and the public ceremony at Sutherland marked the occasion. The control hoard for the electric signals is claimed to be the most modern in the world and the signalman . operates electric keys and buttons instead of the old type of brake arm. lam conceited enough to think that men read my letter and that this information will interest them. Here, in Sydney, men buy and read the women’s papers. Perhaps I should say they buy them for their wives but just the same, they find women’s pages as interesting to them as women do the pages that were considered, years ago, to be exclusively for men.

The other afternoon I was eavesdropping on the conversation of about half a dozen high school boys and girls. One, from her speech, seemed foreign but the others spoke perfect English. They were discussing Christmas parties and a circus which one store in the city has to entertain children. I interrupted their conversation when I heard one little girl say “there will not be any circus in our country now. I asked her which was her country and she said “Poland.” She told me she had only been in Australia two years; her English was perfect. I asked her if she could speak English before coming here and she said “no.” I asked where she had come in her final examination at the high school this year and she said “first.” She had only lost two marks

in English. The child whom I thought was foreign, speaks English very well, was born in France, and is the elder daughter of Mr Woolf, who knows the Rein family in Invercargill. Contrary to the usual belief, these children told me they found the English language the easiest of all to learn. They said they simply listened to others speaking at first, and only guessed what was meant, but soon understood thoroughly what was said. A very interesting vocational guidance conference was held at the Women’s College, Sydney University last week, when many authorities spoke on the importance of training for the vocation one wishes to follow. The principal of the Retail Traders Training Institute said “Don’t imagine you can become a chief buyer or a departmental manager from the very beginning of your work; no career is glamorous from the start. All entail a great deal of hard work.” I was always under the impression that anyone who had left school with ordinary intelligence could serve behind a counter, but in Sydney, the retail training is very important. A growing arid important department of the large stores is that which cares for the training of the staff. HAND-KNITTED SOX A friend from the country showed me her first sox the other day. She said they are busy as voluntary workers in her town and they give the troops in their district the garments they make. I rather felt that she would have been better doing something she was more capable of. When knitting sox for soldiers do remember that these men have to march miles in them and they simply must be comfortable.

I thought Miss Florence Birch had a good idea. I met her at Hopewood House at the At Home and she told me she had spent some weeks in Invercargill many years ago when Miss Jobson was president of the Y.W.C.A. and that she had happy memories of a visit to Sir Robert and Lady Anderson’s home. Miss Birch suggested to me that many women could be usefully employed in factories knitting the sox more quickly and accurately to fit the soldiers, and that hundreds of women doing voluntary work now, could put the money they would otherwise spend on wool into keeping these people in employment. I heartily agreed with this thought, as I have seen many hand-knitted sox, which I am sure will not be at all comfortable to wear. I was discussing this with an engineer of one of the largest knitting factories here, and he said that the hand-knitted sox are considered much more comfortable, and that many men, once they have worn the hand-knitted garments did not like the machinemade ones. The needles the handmade sox are made on in many cases do not seem fine enough and the wool is very thick. If there are many who have not knitted before and wish to assist with this work I would suggest that the beginners knit balaclava caps. These can be completed in a few hours and the instructions are easily follow- , ed. They do not require fine wool or

■ —— - "i needles. I always think that the beginner likes to see knitting grow quickly. —THE CHATTERBOX.