THE SOCIAL ROUND

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 28, 10 March 1914, Page 4

THE SOCIAL ROUND

NOTES AND NEWS.

The Mayor and Mayoress, Mr and Mrs Holland, who lave been down south, have returnee! to Christchurch, and both .were amongst those present at the cricket match yesterday.

Miss M. E. Trent, the honorary organising secretary of the local branch of the Reform League, will leave on Saturday on a short visit to Wellington.

Mrs A. S. Ostroski, of San Francisco, who has been staying in Christchurch for the past week, left for Dunedin- yesterday. Lady Ward is the guest of her daughter, Mrs B. B. Wood. The annual exhibition of the Canterbury Society of Arts is being eagerly Rooked forward to, and advance accounts indicate that it will be specially interesting and attractive this year. There will be a private view on the 19th inst., and the exhibition will be open to the public from the 20th inst. An excellent move in connection with the Education Department has been the formation of classes for the physical training of students at the Normal Training College. There are .two classes for female and one for male •*- students, and these started training this week, under the instruction of Miss Blackburn and Mr Longworth, two of the Department's experts. The work consists chiefly in breathing exercises - Mid Swedish drill. The engagement is announced of Mr t. A. Dougall, son of Mr J. J. Dougall, to Miss M. H. Wright, of Christchurch. " Apleasant litle tea was given on Fri-

flay morning at the Eose Tea Booms {Wellington), by a few members of the old Wellington College Croquet Club to Mrs Harry Bichardson, who was leaving for England, via Sydney, that afternoon. After one or two speeches a

small presentation was made to Mrs Jjfciehardson, who has been prime mover and secretary of the club. Among

those present were:—Mesdames G.. JTohnson, Palmer, Clayton, P. Blundell, Bichardson, and Fulton.

Mrs and Miss Massey are accompanying the Prime Minister on his tour in the South Island, and left with him for s*icton last night. Mr and Mrs Thomas Bush, of Wellington, leave for Sydney next month, •ad intend remaining there, for some lame.

■> Mrs Heard and Miss Heard leave for tiondon on April 2, Colonel Heard later

Mrs Cecil Louisson has returned to </hristchurch. Miss Gardiner took up. her duties as head of Carey's dressmaking department on Monday, Miss Watts, the previous head, being laid aside through illness. •

A, large number of ladies Witnessed the cricket match held on the College

grounds at Hagley Park yesterday after r noon, when His Excellency Lord Liverpool' led a cricket team against a Christ's College eleven; Lady Ward, who came with her daughter, Mrs B. B. "WTood, wore a smart tailored suit of olivergreen whipcord, black sealskin stole, and black hat trimmed with black tulle and ostrich tips. Mrs Wood wore an ash-grey poplin costume, with small black panne velvet hat; Mrs A. E, G. Rhodes, stylish Norfolk coat and »kirt of black and white checked tweed, "black and white c ii; aire?'""h*at; Mrs

Rhodes was in a pale blue and 'white striped linen costume, black coque f«ather boa, black tagel hafr*«witb black v Lancer plumes and knot of black velvet; the Mayoress (Mrs Holland) chose a coat and skirt of old rose and black eiriped vicuna cloth; black ostrich feather boa, small black hat with black ostrich plume; Mrs Julius, black satin tie soie, with black charmeuse coat, small black hat with black tulle and violet pansies; Mrs Stewart, navy tailored costume, smart hat in black and white brocaded velvet; Mrs Rolleston, black satin de soie, blaek ninon coat, large black hat with ostrich tips; Mrs Anderson, black and rose shot Ottoman flilk, made with fringed sash of unerushable black satin, black tagel hat with feathers; Miss Anderson, navy serge costume and hat in cerise velour with brocaded band.

The Norwegian Government has just

Miss Gleditseh, a radium expert who has studied under Madame Curie,, to a research fellowship in America. The science and chemistry ■women are justifying themselves by attaining prominent and useful positions. The United States' Bureau of Chemistry employs women chemists and bacteriologists, who have had a successful share

in the Government campaign against food adulteration, and the woman chief

of the bacteriological division has found practical ways of overcoming difficulties arising from the varying interstate laws, while the chief of the testing section has established tests and standards for flour, which are A*ery generally adopted. A woman has been put on the Federal Commission to enquire into industrial disputes in the United States. Miss Julia Lathrop, the head of the Children's Bureau, was appointed by the President, after strong pressure from the,women's clubs'. While due, perhaps, to the feminist movement, it is also indicative of the greater attention being given by both men and women to social and economic problems. The Children's Bureau investigates and reports on all matters pertaining to the of children. The excellence of the work done can only be realised

fry studying its detailed publications reV r ■fi^i^'i^:■lM^h^>ißgi9lMti^Tl,;■'baby^ : sivil»g

campaigns in American cities, and juvenile courts. In the movement towards reducing the high rate of in-, fant mortality, the United States cities, with their visiting nurses, milk stations, and baby clinics, are doing most advanced work.

It is interesting to find that even in countries where women are not al-! lowed to share the responsibility of I making laws there is a growing tendency to admit them to the legal professions. In England the question of their right to practise as lawyers was again raised in 1913, but after a lengthy discussion the point was decided against them. , In Canada, as in France, women are admitted to the bar, and in the United States the number of women attorneys, notaries and patent agents has been estimated at 20,000. The experiment of employing women as j police has been tried in Germany, Chi-1 cago, Denver, and San Francisco, and j the chief of police in Los Angeles, in J his address before the International Convention of Police at Washington, j paid a striking tribute to the value of women in this sphere of activity by saying that the policewomen on duty in his city had proved themselves more efficient than policemen in bringing offenders to justice. Again, in those places where women are eligible to sit on juries it has been found that they have used their privileges in a restricted way, rarely serving, excepting in special cases, where the' prisoner is a woman, and the efficiency of the jury likely to gain from their special knowledge. Though their wages are to be increased, women and, girls have been specifically excluded from the benefits of the very profitable sharing scheme under which the Ford Motor Company, of Detroit, Michigan, has arranged to distribute £2,000,000 of its annual surplus among 22,000 employees. About 500 females are engaged in the various departments of the company's business. Of these, 300 work in the electrical department, the others being clerks and stenographers. Mr Henry Fdrd's complaint againt woman employees is the same as that made by many other American employers—that they regard their work as something temporary, pending the realisation of an absorbing ambition for matrimony. '' Women,'' says Mr Ford, "are not the same economic factors that men are. They do not control the standard of living. Moreover, they will leave their employment almost any time for any reason." He added that the women who are supporting families of their own will be the only ones who will be permitted to participate in the profit sharing.

In Connection with the Children's Welfare Exhibition to be held next in London, an important section is to be entitled "Woman's Kingdom." It is designed to show that children's welfare is a woman's kingdom, and that this kingdom, far from being narrowed to the limits of the home, is only centred there, and stretches out to the farthest horizon apprehended by humanity. Among the features promised in this section are a woman worker's home, "a suffragist's ideal cottage," a "woman's camp" (such as a Welsh woman arranged for herself in the Rocky Mountains), a nursing exhibit, a kindergarten, and a creche.