THE SOCIAL ROUND

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 762, 20 July 1916, Page 4

THE SOCIAL ROUND

Miss Twomoy came down from the! north by (his morning's boat. Mr and Mrs Thomas W. Bell (Timaru) j are in town. Mrs Julius (Bishopseourt) is the guest of her daughter, Mrs Arthur Elworthy, South Canterbury. Miss. KI la llehnore, who has been stay ing at. Government House, Wellington, arrived home this morning. Mr and Mrs .1. V. Buchanan (Little River) have left for Napier, where they will spend some weeks. Mr and Mr.< T. J. Me Bride (Christelinreh), who have been on a visit to America, arrived home, and arc staying at the Clarendon until they are ready to resume housekeeping. The engagement is announced of liicut. Arthur Oscar Pigg, A.T.F., Egypt, eldest son of Mr and Mrs R. B. Rigg, Wellington, N.Z.. and Mary Eileen, only daughter of Mr Charles Wingrove, Wieniuah, Malvern Road, Armadale, New South Wales (snys an Australian paper). A romantic wedding was celebrated at Walton-on-Thanies last week, when Private, Peter Poi-Poi, N.Z.E.F., a Maori soldier, who was wounded at Galljpoli, was married to an English girl, Miss Winifred Alderton (says the "BritishAustralasian" of June 3). Private Poi-Poi came to England eight weeks ago, and was admitted to the Felix Hospital at Walton, where he has been ever since. He expects to return to Kew Zealand for home service. Sister Mabel Gray, who left New Zealand in December by the Mar am a, liad the misfortune, while at the 31st ftcneral Hospital, Port Said, to contract, enteric fever. At the end of April she was invalided to England, ami is at present convalescing at Sandwich, in a Tery nice house for sisters lent by Mr Waldorf Astor.

Many strange experiences fall to the lot of our boys on active service. One youth known by his family to be extra "finicky" and faddy, writes to his mother from France, announcing that he is camped in a pig-stye. "Don't be alarmed," ho adds cheerily, "the Frenchman loves his pig dearly, and the stye is an airy apartment, paved with brick and furnished with a fireplace, at which my two pals are this minute eoneocting a jorum of cocoa —so we are «.K."

One of the little touches of nature that make the whole world kin, according to the poet, was seen at the Town Hall yesterday, when the returning soldiers were given a hearty welcome (says a Wellington paper of Wednesday). "She gallant Colonel Hughes had got up to return thanks for the men, and, turning to Mrs McCardle, the French wife »f a New-Zealand soldier, he took her by the hand and said, "New Zealand in league with France." Previously Sir Joseph Ward had expressed the opinion ,that more New Zealand soldiers would te bringing home French brides. Recent news of Dr Agnes Bennett received by a. Wellington friend, states that at the time of writing she hail just •been appointed officer in command of a woman's unit, to lie sent for work in

Serbia. I>r Bennett will have under her charge 50 or (iO women- —nurses, orderlies, ete. — with facilities for treating 250 patients, and her work, as may be imagined, will have heavy responsibilities attached to it in these times of uncertainty and stress. Rr Bennett hart been visiting Devonshire, where it was hard to imagine that such a thing as war was going on not so very far away. Her sister is in Prance, attached to No. 4 General Hospital, and her brother is still in the fightiug line's, •'somewhere in Frame."

As one little freak of fashion dies out another promptly appears. The latest, perhaps, is the theatre veil. Arranged on a coiffure that is built rather high and of a conical shape, this little circle of tulle —so delicate that one can scarce; ly seen it—falls Avell away from the face, reaching to just below the lips. It has a fantastic border wrought in chenille, that, like the old-fashioned beauty spot, seems to draw attention to the charms of the mouth and the soft curves of the cheek.

We cannot, help thinking that if Charles Dickens could come back he would be very much surprised at the i softening of street manners (says a writer in the "Spectator"). It is, we believe, the social life of the conveyance which has brought it about. The tendency to laugh at small misfortunes is gone, and with it a great deal of suspicion. It is not uncommon nowadays to be asked by some fellow-passenger wdio has only standing room, and no hand free to use for anything but selfsupport, to get her purse out of her pocket and a penny out, of her purse. We are inclined to think that the immense number of women who have just now been entrusted with men's work will have a still further effect in fostering politeness. It is true that the immense incursion of woman factory hands which has taken place in the last few years has in no seuse softened the. social life of factories. It does not seem to suit the feminine charcter to live in herds. Great crowds of girls and women become as rough as men, and all the peculiar influence for good which we associate with femininity is lost. But women in more isolated positions are powerful, though it is impossible to deny that, such positions may be fraught with danger. At, the end of the war the dangers will have to be faced. For the present the I'eeJing of the public is a sufficient protection, but not a lasting one. The really respectful politeness shown to very young ticket clerks and conductresses is a significant thing. It proves that men asquiescc in the great change which is taking place, and are willing to let women—as individuals, and not only in great gangs —do men's work and stand upon a working equality with themselves. Whether they regard the change as an emergency measure, or whether it is something to which they have for long been making up their minds, is doubtful. Jt seems as if they were sorry lo let the old notion of their own complete supremacy in the world outside their own doors go | without ;i struggle.