THE SOCIAL ROUND

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 75, 5 May 1914, Page 4

THE SOCIAL ROUND

NOTES AND NEWS.

Miss Everton-Smith was a passenger lor the north by the Maori last evening. ' General Godley and Mrs Godley left for Wellington last evening. Miss Spence, who has just retired from the position of infant mistress at the Burwood School, was entertained at afternoon tea by the children and presented with a valuable dressing-case. Miss Trolove (Avonside) left for the north by the ferry steamer last night. Mdle. Dolores, Madame Vandour, and Miss Iris de Carros-Rego are at present in Wellington, and are th«' guests of Mrs John Prouse. Dr Sydney Allen and Mrs Allen, who "have been visiting Mrs Allen's parents in New Plymouth, have returned to Dunedin. This illustration of the tango is credited to an Arkansas City negro:— *' Dat tango, boss, am sort of a easy motion. Ye jis go a stealing along easy like ye didn't have any knee joints and wuz walkin' on eggs that cost fo'ty cents a dozen." Miss Maud Allen has finished her Wellington season, and with the Cheriiiavskys left yesterday for Wanganui. Mrs and Miss Hewitt, Palmerston North, are paying a round of visits in the South Island. The engagement is announced of Miss l.ena Collins, eldest daughter of Mrs J. J. Collins, Park Terrace, to Mr E. Vear, of Rangiora. The wedding is to take place at Avonside Church on Thursday, 28th inst. -Miss Duncan, late mistress of the Papanui School, and now in charge of the new school at Bligh's Road, was on Friday last made the recipient of a presentation from the boys and girls of the fourth, fifth and sixth standards of the former school. The little ceremony of presentation, which was performed by Ifaster Angus Jones, took place at the new school at the hour when the break-ing-up for the winter holidays took place. A most entertaining evening was spent by the members of the Argonaut Club in connection with the Y.W.C.A. at their rooms, Madras Street, last Might: The entertainment took the form of a Grecian banquet, Socrates, Ariadne, Diogenes, and Sappho being among the characters represented. On Saturday, May 23, tlie new Y.W.C.A. looms will be opened, when a monster "bazaar will be held, at which all the clubs connected with the Association ■will be represented. Yesterday afternoon Mrs Bingham, of Gracefield Street, gave a "kitchen tea" for Miss May Brown, of the Christchurch Collegiate School, and who is about to open a boarding school for girls here. A large number of .guests attended, each one laden with a homely but useful kitchen- utensil, and a pleasant time was spent, two competitions causing much cudgelling of brains during the afternoon. The first —tearing paper to represent a camel—was ■won by Mrs Banks, with Mrs Brownell Becond. The next, which, took the form of naming all the shops from Cambridge Terrace to Colombo Street, was won by Miss Bishop, who remembered the most shops, with Miss Funston second. Afternoon tea was served in the dining room, the decorations of chrysanthemums and frosted autumn leaves being very striking and picturesque. Mrs Bingham, who received many congratulations on the success of her afternoon, wore an uncommon and beautiful gown of dull purple silk, entirely veiled in ninon, cross-barred in tones of purple and art green, the bodice relieved with silk lace embroidered in gold, long cuffs of same. Miss May Brown wore a smart costume of grey heather tweed, and a black hat. Others who attended included: —Mrs Mickle, Mrs Sandstein, Mrs Chilton, Mrs J. J. Dougall, Mrs J. Evans,- Mrs Bone, Mrs A'Court, Mrs Brownell, Mrs Salter,] Miss Shanks, Miss Funston, Mrs Bishop, Miss Dougall, and very many others. Last evening the principals of Girton College entertained the pupils and a largo circle of adult friends at a pleasant party in celebration of the end of the term. Proceedings opened with a hymn by the children, followed by a pretty and intricate march, and then followed chorus songs, a recitation by little Lou Rowley, a dialogue, '' The Old and the New," by Misses Grace Milbrook and Gwen Loasby, a little French play, in which the parts were taken by Mrs J. Evans, Misses Daniel, Ethel Bonnington, Olive Eowe, Doris Priestnall, and Alice Lake, and a Pierrette dance and chorus, which was very effective. Presentation of the prizes won during the term was performed by Miss Freeman, assisted by Mrs Cross, and the girls, big and little, were each made happy with a gift. - At the conclusion of the concert programme, the old woman "who was tossed up.in a basket, ever so high, to sweep the cob-webs off the sky," came on the scene, equipped with the identical basket/the self-same broom, and a most wonderful costume, suited to none but an old lady who could live to tell the tale of such wonderful feats. But the basket this time was filled with bon-bons, which were distributed to the company after a little homily as ,to the advisability of "brushing the cob-webs off their own individual skies" —the cob-web of faults that we all suffer from. Supper "was shortly afterwards served, and the rest of a very pleasant evening spent in dancing and competitions. Mrs Cross ■Wore n lovoly crown of white satin em-

broidered in gold and silver; Miss Freeman chose a skirt of black satin, worn with a bodice of copper-coloured mousseline de soie. Others present included Mrs Mickle, in old rose satin, veiled in black Spanish lace; Mrs Sandstein, in grey charmeuse, with pointed tunic of aluminium net; Mrs Carey-Hill, white lace, draped with black jetted net, touched with purple; Mrs Chas. Cook, | black satin; Miss Cook was in white charmeuse; Mrs de Gruchy Virtue, elegant black spotted net over black I supple satin, corsage ornamented wtth black jet and sequins; Mrs Tomlinson, pale blue frock with ecru guipure; Mrs Flesher, du Barry pink silk, embroidered in pastel shades; Mrs Lloyd Turner, black satin, embroidered in iridescent beads; Mrs Anderson, blaek chiffon glace, with soutache braiding; Miss Faii-hurst, black satin, draped with black lace, and finished with cut jet; Miss Gibb, pale pirfk surah; Miss Isabel Gibb, cream silk; Mrs Eowe, pale blue satin meteor; Mrs Taylor, white chiffon over soft white silk, touched with tangerine; Mrs J. Evans, pale pink crepe de chine; Miss Daniel, white satin, effectively veiled 'in pale blue ninon; Miss Old, black chiffon velvet; Miss Gretta Wood, grey charmeuse, draped with ivory shadow lace; Miss Low, black lace embroidered in sequins over blaek satin; Miss Ada Luxton, soft pink silk, effectively contrasted with a pastel shade of blue i|n draped effect; Miss Lake, Miss Richardson, Miss Prosser, Miss Wall, Miss Burns, Rev. Taylor, Messrs Eowe, Jas. Evans, Cooper, Stevenson, Flesher, Mulbrook, and many others. Miss Rosina Buckmann,. the brilliant New Zealand singer, has had the honour of appearing before their Majesties the King and Queen, who, with the QueenMother and various other Royal people, were present at the opening performance of the grand opera season at Covent; Garden. Madame Melba appeared. The opera was "La Boheme," and Miss Rosina-Buckmann was delightful as Mu-1 setta. Miss Buckmann has won her | laurels through her perseverance and j ability alone, having neither money nor I influence to help her. . Her parents re- j side in New Plymouth, but much of her childhood was spent in Wairarapa and Wellington. Miss Buckmann's performance in '' Madame Butterfly'' was a surprise to her most ardent admirers, and it was after her successful season in grand opera in Sydney that she was strongly advised to go to England. A contemporary says:—On the advice of Mr John M'Cormack (with whom she appeared in opera in Sydney and Melbourne, and in concerts in New Zealand), supported by that of Madame Melba, Miss Buckmann went to London in 1912, and after a tour of the United Kingdom with Mr M'Cormack, settled down to concert work, and finally made her first operatic appearance in London as one of the flower girls' in the first performance of Wagner's '' Parsifal'' at Covent Garden in February last. Miss Buckmann played Musetta to Madame Melba's Mimi in "La Boheme" in Australia, where she shared the honours of the second act evenly with Madame herself. Many a woman thinks the flowers are everything. So, long as she can come in with an armload of flowers, it doesn't in the least what she does with them! And when you enter her drawingroom later on you find a floral confusion that makes yo,u long to walk off with the whole gaudy turn-out and arrange it suitably. A few flowers arranged with some idea as to colour and character decorate a room infinitely better than a jumble of blossoms of every shade shape crammed into vases that were never intended for them. Take a few of the flowers in bloom at present in our pretty suburban gardens—dahlias, salvia,' delphinium, petunias, these are just a few. A big open bowl for the dahlias, crystal vases for the scarlet salvia, beaten 'silver for the wonderful blue of the delphinium, antl one or two silver specimen 1 vases with graceful sprays of pstunia; how much better than crowding them into oue of those wide-necked, old-fashioned painted abominations. To arrange flowers the best way, take a les- j son from the fields, woods, or 'garden where you find them growing. Where 1 red and white clover, daisies, ami grasses are found, arrange them in a loose bouquet to look just as they grew; and, as these are unpretentious flowers, do not put them in a glass vase, but rather choose an ordinary vessel —a brown, unglazed pot, a grey Chinese ginger-jar, or an earthen crock. The effect will be artistic. Indeed, the finding of exactly the right vessel for every flower is a delightful study, just as is the proper arrangement of the flowers themselves. The habit of some women to linger too long over their farewells came very near to causing serious trouble at the Thorndon railway station last night, says the "New Zealand Times.'' It has been a practice of some people, when seeing their friends away, to enter the railway carriages and take seats until the second bell jangles its warning, but a recent amendment of the regulations has made the second bell unnecessary, and the expresses now pull out after an official call to passengers to take their scats. But this warning is apparently not sufficient for some loiterers. The Main Trunk express last night was moving slowly out of the station, when a woman hurried on to one of the carriage platforms from the interior of the vehicle. Consternation and embarrassment were expressed, on her features, and it was easily seen that she was iu trouble. "Wait a minute." she' cried, as some-

one moved to close the gate,- but there is no waiting under such circumstances. However, another loiterer who had just jumped off the moving train saved the situation by lifting the woman down —not a moment too soon.