NOTES AND NEWS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 53, 8 April 1914, Page 4

NOTES AND NEWS.

Mr and Mrs Boyes, Christchurch, are at present visiting Wellington. Miss Bartelott has returned to Wellington afte? an enjoyable holiday spent in the South Island. Another of the Encounter officers has • lost his heart to an Australian girl, the engagement just having been announced of Captain Lewin to Miss Ruth Dangar, daughter of Mr and Mrs H. C. Dangar, of Grantham, Potts Point, Sydney. Mr and Mrs Hayhurst and their children arrived in Christchurch from England yesterday, and left the same day for Temuka, where they will stay with Mr Hayhurst's father, Colonel Hay- ' hurst. The committee of the St. Albans Dis- ' trict School Fair, which was opened yesterday afternoon, deserve all kinds of congratulations on the splendid display they achieved in all lines. Produce, sweets, fancy goods, pot plants, flowers, each made a brave show, and the school buildings presented a very different appearance to that which obtains during the work-a-day week —and a very much more acceptable one, thought the scholars. School paraphernalia took a back seat for once. The decorations on all the stalls were very pretty, and in this connection may be specially mentioned the sweets department, which was embellished with boughs laden with; peaehblossom and sheaves of wheat. . The , fair, which is being continued this afternoon, will be concluded to-night, and it is to be hoped that the financial result will justify the efforts that have been expended on it. Mrs F. Courage (Amberley) is visiting Christchurch, and staying at Warwick House. Sir Joseph and Lady Ward have returned to Wellington, after spending a •week in Nelson. They are expected to spend Easter in Christchurch. Lady Leach arrived ih Christchurch from the North yesterday. Colonel Collins and Mrs Collins sailed from Wellington for Christchurch last evening. Mr and Mrs Raphael arrived in Christchurch from the North this morn- ; ing. Mr and Mrs Young were passengers to Christchurch by the Maori, which arrived at Lyttelton this morning. Everybody has a warm welcome in preparation for the Aladdin PantoCompany, who arrive next Saturday morning, and show in the Theatre Royal the same night. Grace Palotta is the principal magnet of attraction, and her name alone wiould be sufficient to swell the box office receipts to a properly-dis-tended appearance. But there are others —lots and lots of others on the playbill. At the St. Albans School Fair yes's two of the prizes in the juvenile cookery section were carried off by . boys. One was for fruit eake, and the other for mixed cakes, and both exhibits were' very good. Training the | young idea in domestic matters evi- j dently goes on with a severe impartiality to sex at St. Albans —and who shall say but what it is, after all, a very satisfactory plan to pursue? When the mail left London, Mrs Jennings (Christchurch) was about to leave for Torbay to spend a holiday with a married daughter. ,

Lady Grey, when interviewed in Sydney recently, paid a high tribute to the work of the Plijziket Association in New Zealand. Said she: —"In New Zealand I was struck with the work of the Plunket nurses, who are called after Lady Plunket, wife of a former Governor. Their work is instructing mothers of all classes in the care of infants. They are stationed through most parts of the country, but, should a mother who has a weakly baby be far removed from one of the Plunket nurseries, the baby is treated through correspondence, and literature relative to the care of children is freely distributed. Mothers with delicate babies who live in the towns may have them treated in the nurseries or receive instructions for their treatment in their own hoiues. So far-reaching is the work of these nurses that soon the whole of the motherhood.of New Zealand will be educated on the all-important question."

The recent success (says the "Hospital") of certain flower days during the London season, when a vast amount of nominal selling proceeds on behalf of charity, has encouraged street collections generally, and the Charity Organisation Society met recently to consider the rights and wrongs of this question. Mr E. C. Price read a paper, in which he emphasised the growth of this practice, instanced the frauds-to -which it lent itself, and urged that no single charity should be allowed to collect in the streets more than one day in the year. This, he urged, would kill the "industry" now created, while safeguarding such time-honoured customs as Hospital Saturday. Sir Edward Brabrook then proposed a resolution that street collecting tended to bring discredit on the cause of charity, which was carried, and which, we understand, is being circulated among the institutions, which we invite to send us th'eir views on the subject. Lord Methuen, ■who presided, suggested that certificates should be given to all institutions and charities which desired to give proof of their bona fides should people whom they importuned ask them for a guarantee. Here are two suggestions, each

worth debating. What are our readers' j views? j "Which is the best dress in which to ' make love?" This is a question of vital importance. Mr Maurice Farkoa (says the "Pictorial) has been discussing the oft-debated question as to whether English, French, or Germans are the ideal lovers, and, incidentally", he has remarked that as a stage-lover he has found tennis garb an admirable dress for love-making, while he personally finds it impossible to be tender in a frock-coat. In all probability the ! largest number of proposals are made ! in evening dress, and this is run very close by "flannels,'' for where there is a river the tide of love always runs high. However, men cannot wear flannels for the greater part of the year, and it is therefore of considerable importance to women to get some idea if men are really affected by the clothes they are wearing when they are disposed to make love. Two main characteristics are noticeable in the new evening - toilettes. Their brilliance impresses the observer before anything else is grasped. Another point is the limp draperies, which are light as thistledown, and the scarcelydiscernible coTsage, really the hall-mark of. modish evening attire. A Vat the back, as well as the front, is met by the sash, which forms an integral portion of the design, polours that light up well at night are not the autocrats they were in those times when dyers were less clever tfian now, and artificial illumination more exacting. A specially effective combination of colours is canary and white, with pink roses as a" trimming developed in taffetas and tulle. Another blend which looks 'Well is purple and orange, with black and a touch of blue in the sash.