TOE SOCIAL ROUND

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 881, 6 December 1916, Page 4

TOE SOCIAL ROUND

—.ll > Mrs Gerald Stead (Amberley) was in town yesterday. Miss A. Humphreys is staying with Mrs Harold Abraham, Stratford. Mr and Mrs Baxter Buckley, who have been visiting Hanmer and Christchurch, are now back in Wellington. Mr and Mrs Seth-Smith (Christchurch) are staying at Rock Villa, Sumner. J)r and Mrs Lyon and Miss Eva Swindell have returned to Ashburton, after a motor tour to Nelson. Madame Nyberg, who arrived at Wellington yesterday from Sydney, came on to Christchurch by the Mararoa this morning. Mrs Wylic, wife of Captain Wylie, arrived from the north this morning. Mrs Dame, wife of Mr Dame, purser of the Ulimaroa, arrived from Wellington this morning. Mrs Irvine (Oamaru), who has been visiting the West Coast, is making a short stay in this city before proceeding south. Mr and Mrs Latter (Barry's Bay) are in tow"h. Mrs Walter Macfarlnno and Miss Macfarlane are expected to arrive in Christchurch to-night from Kaiwara. Mr and Mrs Tait went north last night. Mrs Duncan Macfarlane (Lyndon), who has been staying in town for a few days, motored to Timaru yesterday, accompanied by her sister, Miss Newton. Mr and Mrs Bethell (Pahau Pastures) are coming into town this evening. Great preparations are going on for the breaking-up celebration in connection with the three free kindergartens, which is to take place in the Ait Gallery on Wednesday next. The function is being arranged principally with the view of giving the public some idea of the workings of the kindergarten schools, and the part they play in educational welfare. Two Anglo-New Zealand weddings are chronicled in the "British-Austral-asian" of October 12. One is that of Captain Alexander C. Palmer, R.A.M.C., only son of Mr and Mrs Alexander Palmer, of Dunedin, to Miss Geraldine Louisa .Savill, only daughter of Mr ami Mrs Percy ]{. Savill, of Oakwood, Mersthain, Surrey. The other concerns Captain Allan George Hamilton, R.A.M.C, son of the late Air Francis Hamilton, of Nelson, New Zealand, and Miss Josephine Rosling, only daughter of Sir Joseph and Lady Rosling, Weybridge, Surrey. New Zealand's wounded soldiers in hospital are evidently looked after more than the Australians, to judge by the following paragraph from the "BritishAustralasian." A lady went to impure at the Australian Records, Office for news of a relative who was dangerously wounded. Of course, it had no news. Three weeks later, however, she received a communication from it informing her, with regret, that her relative was dangerously wounded. "Yes," she said, "I told you that three weeks ago, but can you tell me where or how ho is?" The office was shocked at, the suggestion. It was indeed asking rather much of it after the great effort

i of recollection it had just made, in reproducing information three weeks old. i So much for Australian administrative methods. The instance just given is » typical. Now for a typical instance of - how New Zealanders do things. Some one in the office happened to hear from - a soldier in a very big Canadian hospital that there was a solitary New Zealander. Diffidently, with the guess . that probably it already knew all about , the man, this information was conveyed to the N.Z.W.C.A. Promptly came ■ the secretary's reply: Thanks for the • reminder; the man's name was So-and-i So; the association was looking after him, and he. had already received cigar- , ettes and other comforts. A photograph, entitled "A Group of ■ Distinguished New Zealanders in London," published in the "British-Aus-tralasian" includes an excellent picture of Lady Ward and also of Miss Helen , Mackenzie. Sir Joseph Ward, Sir Thos. Mackenzie, Sir James Carroll, and the Hon. W. F. Massey also figure in it. In throwing a piece of chalk after his men for luck as they poured into the enemy's trenches in a recent engage-! ment, an Irish colonel was but reviving a supersitition which dates back to the ancient days of Thrace, where the custom originated of marking lucky clays with a white stone and unlucky days with a black one. In its early youth Rome adopted the custom, and although chalk, not being indigenous, was chiefly known, as its name, Greta implies, as an import from Crete, it was generally used for the marking of lucky days. According to Horace, tho marking was done with chalk for good and coal for bad luck.