THE SOCIAL ROUND

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 883, 8 December 1916, Page 4

THE SOCIAL ROUND

Mrs W. A. Morgan (Ashburton) is in town, and staying at Coker's. Miss Allison (Christehurch) has been visiting Captain and Mrs Allison, Blenheim. Mrs Sandston is visiting Dunedin. Mrs Trevor and Miss Jennings (Ashburton) have arrived in Christehurch, after doing the West Coast-Nelson round trip. They are making a short stay at the Clarendon before returning south. Mrs Hintz (Taihape) arrived in, Christehurch yesterday, and is going on to Akaroa to-morrw. Mr and Mis Anderson (North Canterbury) are in town. Mr and Mrs W. Oxley (Bradford, England), who have been staying in Christehurch for some little time, left for Auckland last night. Mr John Blundcll (Wellington), accompanied by his two daughters, Mrs W. H. Price (Timaru) and Mrs Fulton (Wellington) is staying at the United Service. Miss Macfarlane (ITawkwood) is in town. A good deal of interest is being taken in the garden party arranged by the Fcndalton Girls' Guild, and which will be held at the residence of Mrs Norman Macbeth, Wairarapa Terrace, to-morrow afternoon. There will be boating, croquet, Christmas tree, side-shows, and stalls in profusion, and proceeds will be devoted to the Y.M.C.A. work for men at the front, and local charities. The Sun has a vacancy (temporary) for a. lady reporter. Applications, in the first instance, should be made by letter to the Editor, Sun office.

English people may be found who shy away from a number 13 in street or square, but it is in France that the supcrsition rules. Thirteen at table is avoided so carefully that if the defection of a guest brings about that number of diners, and cannot otherwise be repaired, a lady has been known to charge her husband to announce—well, he says, "elle compte pour deux." And as to dates, unluckily the French have more thirteens than any other nation • —throe years in every century. They have to avoid doing things not only in 'l3, but also in '73 and '93, inasmuch as those numbers bear the names of "sixty thirteen" and " four-twentics-thir-teen." Only in French Switzerland and in Belgium are a straightforward seventy, eighty, and ninety in use,"each with one word to itself. The 'bus had stopped near a London hospital and several wounded soldiers climbed on to the top of the 'bus. The girl collector came inside for fares, and :i gentleman said to her, "Here's half-a-crown; take for those wounded soldiers —I'll pay for them." But the conductor hesitated, and said that it was quite "all right," and did not take any extra money beyond the passenger's fare. The passenger, indignant at her refusal, insisted on paying, and asked her why she did not lake the money. "Well, you see," she said, as she, quietly went on with her work, "I always like to pay for the wounded soldiers myself —it's the least 1 can do for the poor boys."

Apparently there is little that women cannot accomplish in the world of labour. Perhaps the most startling incident in connection with work taken up by women since the war is the overhauling upon the Thames of the dredger Richard Marsh. This dredger, after having been sunk in the Thames, off Rain ham, for about two years, has been raised and the work of scraping, cleaning, boiler-scaling, in fact, all labour in connection with a general overhauling, is now being satisfactorily carried out by a staff of women and girls.

A link has been broken with Robert Louis Stevenson by the death of the Rev. Archibald Bissct, who died recently at Ratho. Mr Bissct was one, of the most cultured men in the Scottish Church, and used to relate many interesting reminiscences of R.L.S. As a close friend and tutor of the author, Mr Bissct could no doubt have thrown some light on the mystery surrounding Stevenson's Edinburgh T T niversity days, but the chances arc that the secret has died with him.