THE SOCIAL ROUND

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 145, 25 July 1914, Page 4

THE SOCIAL ROUND

NOTES AND NEWS.

Miss Masefiekl returned to Christchurch yesterday from the north.

Mr and Mrs C. Murray (Blenheim) came to Christehurch yesterday, and are staying at the Clarenden. Mr and Mrs J. Blundcn (Bennetts), fire staying at Warner's. Miss V. Scaife, who came into town from Culverden yesterday, returned home to-day.

Miss Maddocks, Sydney, is staying at "Warner's.

Mrs Owen Hope, Spriugbank, came np to town yesterday for a short.visit.

Mr and Mrs Tomlinson, of Ashburton, have left that town to reside in Napier.

>-Mrs Bridgeman and Mr F. Bridgeman (Dunedin) have left for-a trip to Svdney.

MJss Alison, who has been visiting friends in the south, has returned to Wellington.

Mrs E. Le Vitus arrived in Christchurch from Sydney yesterday on a ■visit to friends here.

Mr and Mrs E. Friedlander (Ashburton), who were in town for a few days tins week, have returned home. Miss Buss and Miss N. Buss, who have spent the last two months in the North Island, returned to Christehurch this week. Miss Edmondstone and Miss Day left town yesterday for Waimate, where they will visit friends at Waikaio Downs. Amongst the guests staying at Warwick House are Miss Rattray, of Dunedin, and Mrs Fitchett, also of Dunedin.

Miss Nancarrow, who has been visiting Rotorua, is spending a few days in Wellington before returning to Christehureh.

Captain and Mrs Marciel (Christchurch) and Mrs Preston (Sumner).intend leaving by the Turakina on Thursday next for England.

A cabled item from London states that the new season's colours are brown, olive, green, grey, bronze, and slate. Plush bowlers are promised for autumn wear at Home.

The English hockey girls are due to arrive in New Zealand next Wednesday. The team consists of the captain (Miss Gaskell), and Miss Wetherell, Miss C. Smith, Miss Leacroft, Miss Lawbey, Miss Eames, Miss Gatey, the Misses Tuke, Miss Robinson, Miss Melus-Morgan, Miss "Elwell, Miss Burroughs, and Miss Byron-Hodge. Their first match will be played in Wellington on Saturday. The Sydney papers declare that the girls look very picturesque in their bright scarlet skirts and •white blouses, and it is stated that their superior knowledge of the game and fine combination rather nonplussed their opponents.

Two of the comforts that women are determined not to forgo, under any circumstances, are the short skirt and the collafless corsage. Some of the Ascot frocks are' - quite short, indeed exaggeratedly so, for the flimsy nets and laces used for them look quaint, flopping about the ankles. But they prove the continued patronage of a vogue that has the merit of hygiene and pleasantness in wear. It would surely be too great a strain upon the obedience of the daughters of fashion to ask them to patronise the trailing skirt once more. The eollarless corsage, it is true, has a rival in a new one made up to the neck, with a transparent highBtanding and flaring band, but that will Bcarcely be potent enough to work a complete change in collar- styles all at once. Apart from fashion, the majority of women maintain that since the collarless corsage's advent, they have suffered less with colds and sore throats, ir. short, they consider that the open throat is conducive to good health. Dr Kerzl, whose name has figured on the bulletins issued recently concerning the health of the Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria, was at one time a simple army doctor. It was in 1901 that he was first brought to the Imperial notice, and then in a somewhat unusual manner. The old doctor Widerhofer died, and one of the Emperor's aides recommended the obscure army surgeon, whose work had" Von a deal of admiration in his Own world of camp and barrack, b#t" of whom little was known outside. The Emperor consented to see the doctor, and an audience was fixed for ten o'clock. That hour passed, but no doctor arrived — in fact, it was past eleven before lie made an appearance, and then his re-

ception was distinctly a cold one. "You were to come at ten o'clock," said the Emperor. "At present lam busy with other affairs." "I was operating at the military hospital this morning, your Majesty," said the doctor calmly. "I could not leave before without risking a man's life." The Emperor asked more kindly: "Who was your patient?" "I ' don't know his name, sir; he was a private of infantry," said the doctor. The old monarch, without another word, took the surgeon's hand, and shook it warmly, and then retired, but the next day Dr Kerzl's appointment to the Imperial household was announced.

Miss Elizabeth Asquith is fast superseding Lady Diana Manners as the girl of the day. She is not particularly stylish, and she wears very little jewellery; but she 'dances divinely, says wittily whatever comes into her head, arid expresses herself with great power of speech. There were recently opened in Scotland a long series of celebrations in honour of the silver wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Portland and the coming of age of their son, Lord Titch-f-eld. The duke was once, it will be remembered, a shining light of the Victorian turf, and the duchess, Queen Alexandra's mistress of the robes, is, as everyone knows, one of the new kind in mothers —the land that has solved that secret of secrets', the secret of eternal youth. It was wonderful that I did not break my neck over some of the servants' slippers when I" was in Hungary. The maids only use them as the badge of their superiority over the other peasant women. They never wear them except to cross the boundary dividing the kitchen from the rest of the house; once in the house they shake them off, and walk in their bare feet. One comes across slippers, solitary and in pairs, in the most unexpected places. There was once a yovmg man who sat iu a state of bliss all through a dinner lasting two hours, because a servant had left her slippers under the table near a certain young lady's chair!—" Looking for Trouble," by F. Harris Deans. Mrs Chapman Catt, the noted American feminist, during a recent four in the East to study the position of Oriental women, discovered a territory eight times the size of the Netherlands, where the supremacy of women has been the rule for many years. The locality is in Sumatra, and the advanced people inhabiting it are known by the name of Menangkaban. The women own the land and houses in this delightful country, family names descend in the female line, and mothers are the sole guardians of their children. In "Harper's Magazine" Mrs Chapman Catt writes as follows: '' Marriage is exogamic, and before the days of Mohammedanism all husbands doubtless went to live iu the house of their mothers-in-law, as is the usual custom under the Matriarchate. The polygamy allowed by Mohammed interfered with this practice, and a curious compromise was effected between these opposing institutions which has permitted both to exist. The polygamous eats and sleeps in the apartment of his own mother, and merely visits his wife in the home of his mother-in-law. Here lie eats and sleeps in the apartment of his wife. In former times, since the women controlled the land and carried the family pocket-book, the husband made no contribution towards the family expenses. Instead, the men were supported by their wives, and received their pocket money as a gift from them. Now many men have attained 'economic independence' through the opening of new occupations and business opportunity brought about by the Dutch occupancy, and such men are expected to bring a gift of food, clothing, or money to their wives upon the occasion of each visit. No law compels this attention, but popular opinion has thus far done its perfect work, and few men avoid the obligation."