THE SOCIAL ROUND

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 267, 15 December 1914, Page 4

THE SOCIAL ROUND

Miss Fairhurst was a passenger to the north last evening. Mr and Mrs Ayreton came in to town from Upper Highfield yesterday. Mr and Mrs Mowbray Tripp (Silverton) are staying at the United Service. Miss M. M. Fahling (Brookdale) is etaying at the United Service Hotel. The Young Women's Christian Association are holding their annual display in the Choral Hall next Saturday evening. An original and entertaining programme is promised. The engagement is announced 'of Major Pinwill, who has just returned from Samoa, to Miss MaTgaret Richardson, only daughter oft Colonel Richardson, Cashmere Hills. Mrs J. H. Fountain, who, with her husband, leaves Christchurch on Thursday to take up her residence in Auckland, will be much missed in social service work here. For the past fourteen years she has been actively associated with ' a number of charitable, philanthropic, and educational bodies, amongst tiiem being the Open-air Home for Children Committee (of which Mrs Fountain was a particularly energetic ■worker), the Coal and Blanket , Fund, the Creche and Kindergarten Association, the Association for the Protection of Women and Children, the United Women's Council, the Huntly Disaster Belief Fund, the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Home and Foreign Missions, the Sumner Committee of the Mothers' Union, and the Sumner School Committee. A number of Mrs Fountain's friends took the opportunity to say good-bye to her at a tea party at Broadway 's yesterday, and this afternoon the ... jmmittee, teachers, and pupils of the Vhillipstown Kindergarten (of which Mrs Fountain has been president for the past twelve months) are entertaining her at the school.

An interesting display of Oriental embroideries, Benares brassware, laces, trinkets, etc., is at present being made in the rooms of the New Zealand Missionary -Association, in the Dominion Buildings... The various articles are all for sale, the funds being used to help on the work of the Association, and have been made at different principally in ,India and America. The honorary superintendent, Mrs F. E. Inwood, and other ladies who are interested in the work of the mission field, in turns give up their time to taking «harge of the rooms every day from 2 to 5 p.m. Besides quantities of beautiful hand-made Indian lace, both by the yard and in collarettes, collars, berthas, scarves, and so forth, there are lovely Indian embroidered table covers, tray cloths, table centres, •doilys, and blouse lengths. Some of the latter are very fascinating, indeed. Oriental hangings and curtains, mission study books (which are sold at exactly the cost of production, in order to make the work of the missions better known), Oriental trinkets, and many other novelties seldom met with except in an Eastern bazaar, are to be seen, and the ladies of the association will be delighted to see visitors, and show them their stock. The proceeds in their entirety go towards spreading the en-

' liglitenmei.it of Christianity into many j a benighted land. J Last evening a large percentage of i the congregation of St. Michael and j All Angels gathered in the Parish I Schoolroom to do honour to the Rev. ! Cecil Mutter, who for some time has i ■ ' I been connected with the church, first as assistant curate, and lately as priest-in-charge. A short but well-selected I musical programme w r as given, two vocal quartets, "The Chiming of the Bells" and "Beware," being given by Mesdames Davis-Hunt and Buchanan, and Messrs Sydney Smith and Foster. The Rev. Noel Haw den sang'' Eldorado,'' and gave a reading of two recent war poems, "The United Front" and "The Hour." Mrs .Davis-Hunt sang "The Man Who Carried the Gun,'' Miss Napper contributed a pretty little love song, and Mr Foster gave '' The Merry Monk.'' Following the musical portion of the evening, Mr S. McMurray, on behalf of the congregation, expressed the universal regret felt at Mr Mutter's approaching severance from the parish of St. Michael and All Angels. Their guest, he said, had carried out his duties while he had been connected with | the church in a manner which gave the highest satisfaction to all, and on his departure to take up the important work of Bishop's missionary, the congregation wished to express to him in some tangible way their appreciation and esteem. As Mr Mutter was not fond of personal adornment, he had intimated to the wardens that he" would prefer the presentation to take the form that would be of assistance to him in his work, preferably a portable altar that he could take about with him when administering Holy Communion to the sick. Such a thing was not procurable in New Zealand, so they had arranged to present Mr Mutter with a cheque, which would be sent to England for the article required. As the congregation still wished to present him with something for his own personal use, they had decided to induce him to accept also a gold watch. He hoped their guest would be long spared to wear it, and that it would always remind him of St. Michael's. Mr C. G. Smith supplemented Mr McMurray's remarks, and added his own personal experience of their guest's worth. Mr Mutter feelingly responded, and refreshments were afterwards handed round. Amongst those present were Dr and Mrs Manning, Mrs Seddon, Mrs Humphreys, Mr and Mrs Davis-Hunt, Mrs H. R. Smith, Mrs Maskew, Mr and Mrs Miller, and Miss Gertrude Miller, Miss Cardale, Miss Muriel Ollivier, Misses Kiver, Mr and Mrs C. S. Jones, Mr and Mrs McMurray, Mr and Mrs E. W. Relph, Mrs Sandstein, Mrs Buchanan, Mrs Boys, Miss Sinclair, Miss Kersey, Rev. Noel Hawden, Messrs W. H. Bishop, Jamieson, Barrett, Robinson, Cole, Dixon, and many others.

Among grown women it is a remarkable phenomenon that many of those who lead easy, apparently healthy lives, with opportunities for outdoor exercise, are often ailing, and have to be careful about their heart, lungs or some other portion of their anatomy. No less

strange is the fact that numbers of women who lead busy lives, either as mothers or as wage earners, go on with their work steadily year after year, except for an occasional attack of influenza or other epidemic. Social plrilosophers who have taken the lady of leisure as the universal type of womanhood have concluded that women are weak, puny creatures, physically unfit for any of the wtork of the world. On the other hand, we see that the great majority of women can, and do, work hard without sinking into premature graves. The secret of 'this remarkable difference probably lies in the fact that a leisured woman has too much leisure in'which to think of her own pains and aches, and it is too easy for her to give in to them. Her physical sufferings, which are due to h'er never having cultivated the habit of resisting pain, seem to be worse than those of the worker who docs not give in till she is positively obliged to do so. The working daughter must cateh an early train every morning, even if she has a bad cold, an attack of neuralgia, or has been dancing till 2 in the morning; yet the number of breakdowns i among business girls is not large. The young woman of leisure, who can rest on the slightest pretext, does not seem to be any the better for the care that she or her mother takes of her precious person. We beg to draw your attention to Mrs Owen's tea advertisement which appears on this page. It is an extraordinary opportunity for ladies to procure the finest tea ever imported direct from Ceylon to the Dominion. .330