Women the World Over

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 14, 7 April 1927, Page 4

Women the World Over

ST. DUNSTAN’S Lady Pearson, who has been president of St. Dunstan’s Institute for the. Blind since the death of her husband,

BEGGING LETTERS There are disadvantages even in being a millionairess. When Mrs. E. FI. Harriman, widow of a United States “railway king” was left the management of her late husband’s affairs she was at once so besieged with begging letters that she had to call in the assistance of the Municipal Research Bureau of New York, to which she handed over in one batch no less than 6,000 letters from persons of whose existence she had not previously been aware and who asked for amounts totalling £ 28,000,000. Airs. Harriman has entirely controlled her husband s business since his death, and it is said of her that “no woman of the present generation ever took over the control of such large and complicated affairs.” RECORD WILLS The will of Lady Strathcona, who died in England recently, made a new record in that it disposed of the largest amount ever left by a woman in the British Empire. The gross value of the estate was £6,749,231, of which £2,166,780 was paid in death duties. Still, the Strathcona fortune fell far short of the world’s record feminine estate —£17,000,000 left by Airs. S. V. Harkness, of the U.S.A. AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER , Mrs. James Mansfield, of Preston, Victoria, who, with her husband, first visited Buffalo in the early ’fifties, claims she was the first white woman to explore the Buffalo mountains. Although she is a great-grandmother and was 88 on December 17 last, Mrs. Mansfield set out with joyous anticipations on a Christmas visit to Buffalo and the Australian Alps. She no doubt found the scene greatly changed from the days when, as she relates, lyre-birds trotted about there like batches of turkeys. IN SWEDEN Woman suffrage in Sweden is inseparably linked with the name of Baroness Palmstierna, who worked for it unceasingly for 12 years. As far back as 1906 she began to organise her countrywomen, and she had the satisfaction of seeing her work finalised quietly by vote in 1918. For the five years prior to the vote she personally directed a series of lectures to prepare women for the franchise, giving many of the lectures herself, and it was this campaign which won the victory. Six years ago her husband was appointed Swedish Minister in London, since when the Baroness has lived in England, still carrying on social and welfare work for the benefit of women and children.