LEADERS OF SOCIETY.

Observer, Volume 2, Issue 38, 4 June 1881, Page 412

LEADERS OF SOCIETY.

No. s.— Mrs. Reader Wood,

Mrs. Reader Wood has given so many pleasant parties for .such a long succession of years that her name must not be omitted from my list of leaders of .society. Mrs Wood saw her husband some twenty years ago quietly turned out of his comfortable billet under Government during just such a raid as has been lately made upon Government officials. I remember the circumstance myself, because I heard then for the first time a phrase pretty generally understood now. "Yes, I am on my own hook now," said Mr Reader Wood. "What can he mean ?" I asked after he had gone. " Why he's going to set up for himself, silly," was the reply vouchsafed to me. And set up for himself he did in Shortland Cresent as an auctioneer, house, estate, and general agent — but pardon, this has nothing to do with madame. She saw her husband do well " on his own hook," get a seat in the House of Representatives, and become twice Minister of Justice; and in her pretty house at Brighton she followed well in the wake of the M.H.R. Mrs Reader Wood was great at Government House in those days, when Sir George Grey held sway, and had no lady to represent the vice regal dignity save the wife of his aide-de-camp. She was not particularly well liked at that time either, for people said she gave herself airs, but Mrs. Reader Wood is a lady by birth, and people were perhaps mistaken. She has for many years given regular and select entertainments. No one in Auckland perhaps has been so fastidious or so particular as Mrs. Wood in the choice of her guests. Having only one child herself, and that one a son, she has been remarkable for her kindness to young people of her own sex, but they must be young people sam peur, et sans reprocho. If any one wishes to see how lovely silver hair can look, let him pay a visit to Mrs. Reader Wood or to Mrs. Browning. Who, after seeing them, can ever he guilty of dyeing the locks of years? All the early institutions and good works done in Parnell were associated with the name of Mrs. Reader Wood. She is its longest resident, its oldest benefactress. Mrs Wood has seldom moved from the quiet and sequestered habitation where so long ago' she installed herself. Her husband, by his bonho-nwiie and pleasant manners, has aided her in her society work, and altogether if you can only get the entree you will enjoy yourself at her reunions.— Esmond.