HOME ECONOMICS ASSOCIATION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18407, 8 March 1928, Page 5

HOME ECONOMICS ASSOCIATION.

ONE WHO PASSED BY. A stranger in a city street, She passed me on unhurried feet; The quiet light of evening skies Within her deep, untroubled eyes. Her thoughts drew joy from some fair place And set a gladness in her face, As she went softly—unaware That she had made my way more fair. How lightly touched our lives—and yet Amid life’s feverish toil and fret, When tears oppress—again I see Her look of high serenity. —Constance Maunsell in “The Bookman.” Last Friday a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Home Economics Association was held at the house of the president. Miss M. A. Blackmore. There were present: Miss Blackmore, Mesdames Cooper, Lorimer, Garton and Muff, Misses Bevin, M’Kee, Gilmour, Thompson, Shaw and Wardle. Apologies for absence were received from Mesdames Walker and Moore and Miss Sidey. Miss Bevin read the report and bal-ance-sheet for the past year, both of which were considered most satisfactory. The credit balance in the Post Office Savings Bank at the end of 1927 was £SB 14s 3d, and the membership for the year was 242. Special mention was made of the very - successful needlework exhibition, the visit of the Southland farmers’ wives, who were entertained by the H.E.A., the folk dancing and woodwork classes, and the various cookery and balanced diet demonstrations given in 1927. Votes of thanks were passed to all those who helped with the work of the association during the past year, the demonstrators and lecturers, the Press the Gas Company for the use of staves, etc., at the various cookery demonstrations. to Mr Kennedy for showing his beautiful lantern slides of New Zealand scenery, and to the officials of the Y.M.C.A. for all the assistance given throughout the year. It was decided to open the 1928 session on the evening of Friday, March 16, and thenceforward to hold public meetings on the third Friday in each month ; to hold the annual social some time in July or August; to anange for an exhibition at the end of October, which would also include the schools sewing competition; and to approach the National Council of Women, with the object of making arrangements for the combined women’s organisations of Christchurch to meet Miss Maud Royden on some evening during her visit to Christchurch next May. The following correspondents are thanked for their contributions:— “Keep On Smiling”—Fellow-teachers who know what quaintly surprising remarks "Children so often make, will appreciate the following little story from a recent number of “Windsor Magazine.” Little Emily (visiting the farm) : “Uncle James, why does that pig wear a ring in her nose? Is she engaged?” The same magazine contains the following capital lines by Grace Crowell: HE WHO IS GLAD. He who is glad for every day’s bright beaut}': For a flower or a red leaf in the wood, Who sees fresh colour in each hour’s drab duty, I think he thanks his Maker as he should. He who is brave to meet each strange new sorrow. Whose courage marches with him as he goes. Carries a stronger heart into to-morrow, And thanks his God the very best he knows. He who walks calmly, surely through disaster. Trusting an unseen hand to bring him peace. Lifts up his life —a prayer unto his Master, And offers Him a praise that does not cease.

He who moves gently when the stress is pressing. Lending a hand, such as a woman would, Who turns his days and years into a blessing— I’m sure he thanks his Maker as he should. “E.D.R.”—My husband has got into the habit, during recent years, of saying, when we have a few visitors and anything particularly nice in the way of refreshment appears on the table, “My wife got the recipe for this from the Home Economics Association.” I was reminded of this remark of his when reading the other day the following paragraph by “Pippa” in “Time and Tide.” The advice given is so exactly like what we have all heard from the lips of our president, Miss Blackmore : , “The housekeeper rarely uses her head to save her legs; she is the victim of an old tradition. She may begin to make beds upstairs, dash downstairs for a turn at the breakfast things, comfort the baby, dash upstairs again, . leave the washing-up half done to peel the potatoes, and waste some thousands of steps, and millions of move- [ ments, every day. She thinks that her duty is to ‘keep on,’ scorning rest, and • both she and her work ultimately suffer. Housekeeping is the disorganised industry. . We sentimentalise over home and mothers. We continually say that theirs is the most important ! work. We give them the devotion of our hearts; but where, oh where, are 5 our heads? . . Let us destroy the • illusion that every woman is a born ■ housekeeper, and let us have fewer round cooks in square kitchens. Thus 1 let us make an end of marriage and housekeeping being synonymous with a life sentence to hard labour.” “Mary Jane.” —I often think of some • lines that I once read—l "When other friends would comfort l give, in vain, s Thank God for work,” and I was reminded of them the other day when reading, in an American I magazine, the following poem by Miriam Anne Cramer: — Anodyne. I must keep busy all the day, - But busy in a trivial way, > For great things hold a subtle ache, Too keen for hearts about to break. I I shall bake cookies, crisp and hot, ; And weed my crimson flower plot, ‘ Fill gleaming glasses row on row . With amber, purple, or wine-red glow i Of jellies and of jams. I’ll sew; • I’ll mend; I’ll mop the floor; • And polish the knocker on the door; > Brush the dust from the window-sill; Check over the grocer’s unpaid bill; And sort the clothes the laundress l brings; 1 I must keep busy with little things. “Grannie.”—Beauty treatment is such 5 a favourite theme nowadays that I | hope the following lines from an Ausj tralian magazine will not be unaccept- » able:— 'i We write our lives upon our faces deep, ; An autograph which they will always r keep, j Thoughts cannot come and leave be- • hind no trace j Of good or ill; they quickly find a place Where they who will may read as in a book The hidden meaning of our slightest look. Time deepens all the lines, or dark or • fair— Lines carved by grief, or chiselled deep by care. Thoughts into actions very quickly grow. Actions are seeds which everyone must They reap the richest harvest of good deeds r Who sow but loving thoughts, most precious seeds. “Gardenistino.”—lf any of your other readers have, like myself, been j driven nearly frantic by the earwigs’ playful little habits of destroying every carnation blossom in the garden in a single night, they may be interested to know that I have at last discovered a means of checking their depredations. Now as soon as ever the carnation buds begin to show colour, I soak • a piece of cotton wool in kerosene and - smear the carnation stems with it. It J is a troublesome process, but I find it ■ absolutely effective. “Sunset Glow.”—l have recently • come across two little poems which » please me very much, and have plea- • sure in passing them on to your readIF WE KEEP FAITH. If we keep faith with those who die— F Until we, too, shall sink to sleep, • Through mystic nights and days that 1 fly ’ We have this subtle trust to keep, > This fealty supreme to give: 1 That we keep faith with those who 1 live. ; —Olin Lyman in “Munsey’s.” ; The morning light flingeth its waken- : ing ray, ; And as the day bringeth the work of P the day. The happy heart singeth, “Awake and • away!” No life can be dreary when work is [ delight; ! Though evening be weary, rest cometh ’ at night, ’ And all will be cheery if faithful and ’ right. P When duty is treasure, and labour is How sweet is the leisure of ended employ ! j Then only can pleasure be free from alloy. ; F.R.H.