WOMAN'S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 June 1916, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD.

; SOCIETY NEWS. (By "Eileen.") Mrs. McNaughton, who has been on a short visit to Wellington, has returned. Mrs. 3?, D. McCord (Melbourne) is the guest of Mrs. Chisholm (Hawera). * # « * Mrs. C. E. Daniel (Waverleyj is visiting her mother, Mrs. Simpson. Mrs. De Lacy Peake (Cambridge) <s the guest of her mother, Mrs. Dodgshun. Mrs. W. Newman, who has been the guest of Mrs. A. Hempton) Whangarei), has returned. # • » • Mrs. R. McLean and Miss Caplen (Hawera) spent the week-end in New Flymouth last .reek. « # • . •Mrs..M. Horton, who has been visiting Mrs. Wilkin, left for Auckland by the s.s. Rarawa on Friday. Mrs. W. M. Moyes, who has been on a visit to Christohurch and Nelson, has returned. * * » » Mrs. White (Wanganui), who haa'been on a short visit to New Plymouth, left for Auckland last Tuesday. •*» • v Mrs. and Miss Roach, who 'have been holiday-making in sew Plymouth, have returned to Auckland. Mrs. H. Collier left this morning for Wellington, where she will be the guest of her sistei, Mrs. Lawrence. Mrs. Dodson (Wanganui), after spending a few days in New Plymouth last week, has returned. Miss Iris Crooke left for Marton on Thursday, having temporarily joined the teaching staff of the Girls' School there. Mrs. J. Quilliam, who has been on a visit to Dunedin, and also the guest of her daughter, Mrs. L. Horrocks (Feilding), has returned to New Plymouth. TRAMWAYS OPENING. Last Thursday the New Plymouth tramways were officially opened, at Fitzroy, by the Mayor, Mr. C. H. Burgess, after which the Mayoress entertained the visitors at afternoon tea in the Fitzroy Hall, the tables being daintily decorated with pale pink flowers and niaiden-hair fern. Those who assisted Mrs. Burgess were: Mesdames H. Stocker, D. White, Bowden, Ewing, G. Xeal, and Misses Whitcombe, Gower, Blundell, and N. Jackson. Mrs. Burgess wore a black silk 1 robe, with black and white chiffon blouse, white hat with a feathered crown.

MUSICAL EVENING. A most enjoyable evening was spent last Saturday, when Miss Wade entertained a number of friends. Each guest was requested to bring some sort of sewing, so those who were not singing, reciting, or pianoforte-playing were busily knitting socks or making other comforts for our men at the front. Those who rendered musieai items were: Misses Wade. J. ho me, Douglas, Burnett, M. Thomson, Armstrong, and D. Bedford. Miss Wade received her guests in a black crepe de chine robe, trimmed with cream lace, and lightened with a Wedgewood blue satin ceinture.

THEATRE NOTES, Miss Madeline Rossiter the dashing comedienne with the Rovai Strollers, for some years past controlled her own companies ii> London and the Provinces. Miss Rossiter is considered the finest teacher of dancing in London, and she has written many sketches and short stories which have been produced and published in the great metropolis. .'Mr. Sydney James, the chief Stroller, is a great London favorite, particularly at the Palace Theatre. Mr. Jamea made his first great success as the "Dame" in pantomime, and has been associated .with all the great English stars. Miss Gwen Lewis, whose songs at the piano are such a feature of the Royal Strollers, toured for some time with Madame Genee, and also with Mr. H. B. Irving. Mr. Desmond, the eccentric dancer with the Rcival Strollers, was. for many years, with the late George Edwardes' Musical Comedy Company, and when the Arcadians Company was being organised for the Australasian tour,. \yas offered a contract which lie con(d not accept owing to his engagement, with Mr. Sydney James.

THE RACIAL PROBLEM. DECLINING VITALITY OF OUR WOMEN. An English medical authority has indicated the probability of a pronounced falling off in the vigor and vitality of the male children to he born in the course of the coming years and attributes this to the employment of so many of the girls, who will be the mothers of the future, in work for which woman is physically unfitted. As much surprise is occasioned at the ability of women to do the work of men, and at the energy with which they discharge the duties they accept, as there is alarm on the part of the doctors at the grave constitutional defects of children born of the marriages of these same woyien. DETERIORATED PHYSIQUE. The cause of the deterioration in phy--ique and efficiency of the babies having been arrived at, the effect is admitted. It is conceded that every human being has but a limited amount of vitality—a definite amount of vital power. Some of this must be invested in constitution, as physical health and mental capacity, and a proportion remains for spending power—muscular and mental. It is with constitutional capital as with financial capital, when it is converted there is, for a time, more than is to be expended reasonably. With constitutional capital, when it is expended in this wasteful way, the reserves are drawn on, and the result is a shortage passed on to offspring. By force of will power there may be an increase of physical and mental output but only at the cost of constitution. This waste is what women and girls have been guilty of for years, and of which, in the uncommon conditions of the present, they are more than ever guilty. In taking men's places and doing's men's work they are spending their reserves, and the consequence will be disastrous to the children they will bear. Tile corr.litutional reserves of the generations to come are being spent LOW. THJ3- RACE SUFFERS. Naturally a woman is less strong in body and brain than a man is; because a far greater proportion of her vital power is invested in her for possible wottarteod.

to compete physically, professionally, and industrially with men this natural investment in them of vital power for racial purposes is prevented. And the race suffers proportionally. The increasing strain, educational and industrial, which has been put of late years on our developing girls and young women has l entailed ail alarming increase of national defect and degeneracy. And because inheritance is from father to daughter, and , from mother to son, this alarming in- ' crease of disease and defect has wreaked itself more on the boys than on the girls. V'hen women develop masculine physique nnd brains they do so directly at the cost of the brains and physique of possible sons. MORE GIRLS THAN BOYS. , Strenuous women, golfing and tennis and hockey-playing women, have girls in far greater proportion than they have boys. When their children are boys, , they are often physical weaklings or mentally below the aveiage. All this is disastrous, of course. A nation's wealth and future lie in the health and brain . capacity of its men. And we shall need, | indeed, some generation of strong and capable men to built up all that lias been lost to us by war. In place, therefore, of indiscriminately setting growing girls and young married women to do war work, and, particularly, to waste their strength in useless drilling and marching, the greatest care should be taken to employ instead the large available army of older, strong, and capable unmarried woiaen, who are strong and capable in proportion as they are less constitutionally handicapped by the tax of possible motherhood. "NURSE CONNAUGHT" (Woman at Home.) Very shy, very pretty, and with plenty of commonsense, Princess Arthur of Connaught has found many spheres ot usefulness since the war She is a groat friend of the Duchess of Marlborough* the tallest of our Duchesses, whose stately neck, as she herself confesses, always prevents her trom being taken for anybody else. The little Princess has shown a distinct preference for the Duchess's pet schemes, and she has been round the London School of Medicine for Women (Royal Free Hospital), of the'extension fund of which the Duchess is treasurer, and in the laboratories watching the students at work. The London School of Medicine has attracten many Royalties the Queen herself went all over it, not hesitating even to visit the dissectingroom. Princess Arthur was equally thorough in her »isit and came away with a store of information. She bouglU every book available on home nursing and first aid, and joined a Voluntary Aid Detachment as being the quickest wafy of helping ! the sick and wounded. It leaked out, much against her will, that he was helping in the wards of Jst. Mary's Hospital, working very hard under a trained sister, and was one of the quickest and most helpful probationers. The soldiers in her ward called her "Nurse Connaught," and it is sniil she liked that title very much