THE SOCIAL ROUND

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 871, 24 November 1916, Page 4

THE SOCIAL ROUND

Mrs lan "Deans is at present staying at Sumner. Mrs Burrell (England) is visiting the Misses Chaytor, Marshland. Mrs W. Hamilton and Miss Hamilton (Fairlie) came into town last night from Fairlie, and went oh to Akaroa this morning. Mr and Mrs C. Cornford (Feilding) are visiting Christchurch. Mr Richard Teece and his three daughters (Sydney), who have been touring the West Coast, came to Christchurch last night, and are making a short stay in this city. Nurse Gilmore, who has been spending a week in Christchurch, left for the north last night. She is one of the nurses who returned with" the Marama on her last trip, and hopes to go back with her when she again leaves New Zealand shores. Nurse Gilmore saw the hospital ship Britannic, which has just been sunk, leaving England, and Was much shocked when the distressing news of her loss came through yesterday. A pretty munition girl gave a masculine fellow-worker a bit of a fright the other day. Her mob cap was coquottishly arranged so as to produce the maximum effect, while at the same time, fulfilling the duty of protecting her hair. But there was one dainty curl just peeping out a little, and very nice it was: "Your hair should be covered, said a masculine critic. '' This should not be here," he added, giving a twitch to the errant lock. So marvellous is the discipline of the works that even the "kiss curl" obeyed. It was "here" no longer, but left itse temporary home and came away between the critic's fingers! Commenting on the wedding of Viscount Broome and Miss Monins, daughter of Mr and Mrs Monins, of Eingwould, near Dover, the "Queen" Bays that Eingwould House is not far, as one counts distance in these days, from Broome Park, from which Lord Kitchener took his second title, and which, therefore, gives the name to the present Viscount. Lord Broome was, as usual, spending his leave with his nncle at York House before the fatal voyage of 11.M.5. Hampshire was begun, having just completed his commission as commander of one of the super-dreadnoughts, with a short leave before proceeding to the Mediterranean to take command of a monitor. His presence in London at that time naturally simplified matters considerably, for Lord Kitchener, who had long regarded him as his heir, left everything to him, save some minor legacies, and a sum of money to his only other nephew, recently promoted captain in the Royal Flying Corps, the son of his youngest brother, the late General Sir Walter Kitchener. The present PJarl, who is several years older than his brother, is still on active service under General Smuts in East Africa, as he has been since the early days of the campaign, his knowledge of Eastern dialects and power of dealing with natives rendering his services most valuable. The new Viscountess, whose father is a cousin of Lord Kitchener's, close friendship having existed between the two families, certainly brings bcautv to the ranks of our younger peeresses.

HOME UPHEAVALS. War work! We are most of us familiar —horribly familiar—with the phrase. Tt brings to our minds visions of admirable aiid necessary, and, alas! many oftieious and even ludicrous, forms of war service in which some of our sex have seen fit to occupy themselves. But the form which I have in my mind at present, and of which I have seen a good many examples recently, is j not the usual war work at all. In fact, j it is a form of "doing one's bit "which few outside the circle of those most concerned ever hear about. Yet it is one of the finest and truest forms of national service which even this awful catastrophe of war has brought forth, writes "A Woman" in an English I paper. I allude to the quiet but splendid way in which thousands of English families have risen to the occasion and opened their hearts —and in many cases their purses-^—to the more needy among their kith and kin. Many who have suffered heavily in various ways, through the temporary | absence of the breadwinner or through being hit by the war in their profession, have been kindly received and assisted in countipss wnys by the more fortu-' nate members of their family. A home lias been offered in one case, perhaps; a little timely assistance with the children's education in another; a temporary post found for some struggling professional man to help "tide over" the bad times —in these and many other ways have the unknown women of England helped to lighten the dark cloud of anxiety which threatened numberless patient and uncomplaining sufferers. For this reason alone the deeper thinkers among us should refrain from writing down as "slackers" the sheltered women who may be doing real, if unostentatious work. ****** How many homes in England have gathered together their resources in order to help others through this difficult time! Everywhere quiet sacrifices, hidden deeds of generosity, unknown and unrecorded acts of self-denial and selfabnegation. Especially among the better class—not necessarily the better-off class—of household is there a constant drawing together and rearrangement of life to meet altered and harder conditions, rendered necessary by the constant drain on the earning man-power of the nation, the ever-increasing price of necessaries, and the decrease in the purchasing power of money. Tn more than one home of leisure and refinement, where a very fair level of ordered comfort has hitherto obtained, room has been made for one or more temporarily reduced members, and the cloak which covered two or three is now stretched to its fullest extent to shelter a larger number. Treasured "rights" and privacies have had to be given up; the comfort of the few has had to yield to the necessity of the many. In some ways the domestic upheavals caused by the war have been the means of re-establishing "family life" in the older and simpler sense of the term, and this is all to the good, implying, as it does, a closer union between members of one common stock, greater self-denial, and consequently less luxury. The result in some cases has been the recovery of a typically English tradition which had become almost extinct in a more feverish existence. I know, in my own personal experience, of more than one old family feud which time, and even death, had failed to heal, but which has yielded before

the stern, if unromantic, pressure of a common necessity. • '' Many'' have found it not only possible but pleasant to live together, where '' few'' would have had but a starved existence, mentally as well as physically. In discovering new truths we have rediscovered some old ones, one of the latter being that it is quite possible to have real comrades among the members of one 's own family—topical cynicisms notwithstanding! ****** This particular kind of war work is, from its very nature, bound to be of the unobtrusive variety. One does not go "badge-hunting" when assisting the needy among one's own people; nor does one expect to wear a uniform for helping "lame ducks" of one's own blood! None the less, this is war work of the most genuine variety, and gains, rather than loses, in real merit because of its lack of sensationalism. The general public may know nothing of it, but the true and lasting memorial lies in the grateful and relieved hearts of those who have had to suffer —in addition to sorrow and dread for the loved ones—anxiety on account of material needs of existence: in the mind of the soldier on active service from which a load of apprehension for those loft at home has been lifted: in the hearts of bereaved parents who have found their sorrow sympathetically shared, and in the close and more loving bond established between sisters and brothers. Nothing binds human nature more ! closely together than a trial shared, and many women, who would otherwise have continued to lead self-centred and selfindulgent existences, have found happiness in making a home for those less fortunate than themselves in the possession of world goods. It is not possible for every woman, however much she may wish it, to go out and take part in the manifold -activities now open to' her sex. Uncertain health, a reserved nature, delicate parents — these are only a few of many causes which' preclude clever and capable women from doing what others can. But there is no one who cannot lighten another's load in some way or other. Many who could not give large sums to war charities, or who are unable to render imposing and impressive public service, are carrying on, all over our land, their quiet individual work of mercy. Many a house has now become a home in the real sense, lightened and inspired by the spirit of self-sacrifice and real charity. The quality of mercy is not strain'd . . . It blcsscth him that gives and him that takes.