NOTES AND HEWS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 174, 28 August 1914, Page 3

NOTES AND HEWS.

Miss Knight left for Wellington last night. Mrs A. J. Storey (Hamilton) is staying at Warner's. Mrs Hunter (Thames) is in town, :staying at Warner's. Mrs Saine (Wellington) arrived in 'Christehurch yesterday. The Misses Humphreys returned to •Christehurch from the north this morni ing. A large party of Christehurch people attending the races at Ambcrlev to-morrow. Mr and Mrs Edmonds (Christehurch) :arc staying at the Empire Hotel, Wellington. \ Mrs Acton-Adams was amongst the ■passengers to Wellington by the ferry steamer- last night. Miss B. Watson, who has been visiting friends in Christehurch, returned to Wellington this 'week. Mrs Edward Grigg, Esselton, arrived in Christehurch yesterday, and is staying at Warwick House. Miss Maysmor (Wellington) arrived in Christehurch by this morning's boat, rand is staving at Warner's. Mr and Mrs Harris, who have been spending a few days at the Clarendon, motored back to Kaikoura this morning. •• The marriage of Mr Carlyle Atkinson >to Miss Elsie Eade, both of Christchurch, is arranged to take place at St. Michael's Church on September 9. a' very successful social and dance was held at Waipara, in aid of the /Children's Open-air Home, and the proceeds, amounting to some £l3 odd, will be added to the list. The committee ;a:ul promoters deserve all credit for their untiring efforts to make the function a huge success. The first annual social under the -,uspices of the Drapers' Union was .leltl on Tuesday night, a good number being present. Miss McDonald's Band supplied the dance music, and a happy ■time- was spent "by all who attended, the social concluding about an hour aftei midnight with three cheers for the secretary, Mr Hoppy. Mr Sykes and Miss Y. Sykes accompany Captain P. B. Sykes, who arrived in New Zealand by the Remuera on Tuesday. Captain Sylces, who is of the Uoyal Field Artillery, lias come to New Zealand to take up a position in the Ordnance and Artillery Department of the Defence Forces.

News has been received of the death 011 July 12 last, at Windsor, of Mrs Elizabeth Muter,-widow of Colonel D. JD.i Muter, late a Military Knight of AVindsor and one of Canterbury'a earli•est settlers. Mrs Muter accompanied her husband through the Indian Mutiny, and was present at the siege and capture of Delhi. She was at the occupation of Tientsin in the Cmiiesc War of IS6O-18(51, and is said to have been the first English woman to visit Peking. Mrs Muter was the authoress of '"'Travels in Nc.v Zealand, India, and Clfina" and "Recollections of the Sepoy Revolt.''

Mrs Lees, who some years ago was TVlayor of Oldham, one of the large -towns in Lancashire, lias had the degree -of LL.D. conferred on her by the University o£ Manchester as a recognition of her municipal services. One of the •citizens of Oldham said on this occasion: "She has brought the spirit of motherhood to the care of the multitude." Her university robes have been presented to her by the congregation of Hope Congregational Church in her native .town.

The trial is now taking place in New York of a band of Italian men and women Avho have been kidnapping children for the last ten years. It is believed that this band lias captured 150 ■ children altogether. They prey on timid Italians, who fear to co-operate with the police, and pay ransoms in obedience to threatening letters. Till now only nine convictions had been secured, owing to the refusal of witnesses to give evidence. The police believe, how■ever, that their present capture will break up the traffic. Sister Henrietta Arcndt, the first policewoman in Europe, has been giving an account to the English public of her work in Stuttgart, thus proving decidedly that the need for the female element in the force exists. After considerable experience as a trained nurse, she was appointed an inspector of prisons, where her duties lay entirely among women and girls. She also had to see that the male police treated woman prisoners properly. When the term of punishment came to an end she had to look after her charges, getting them fcnto situations, or'helping them to return to their parents. When she joined ftfie police force one of her duties was ko train assistants. Some time ago she started operations on her own responsibility as an international detective. IBlie now has a group of women trained by herself and working under her. On the prize day at St. George's School, Harpenden, where co-education is carried out ou public school lines, the headmaster, Dr Grant, issued a definite challenge to those who still doubt the efficacy of the Montessori system. He said: —"I have been asked a hundred times why I have not yet started a Montessori department in this school. My answer is, ; simply, that, there is at present no fully-trained English-speak-ing exponent of the system. But L am prepared here and now to make this offer. If, as soon as such a teacher is available, any person or persons Avill provide me with eight or ten, or twelve or twenty children, drawn from any

source, all three years old anil certified as normally healthy, to be trained here under the Dottoressa's advice and supervision, I will accept as a fair test of the system that over 80 per cent, of the said children should obtain an open scholarship at Oxford before the age of 19."