THE PRINCESS AS A MILLINER.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVI, Issue 992, 21 November 1883, Page 6

THE PRINCESS AS A MILLINER.

Ever since the Fishery Exhibition, when the Princess of Wales appeared at the fair in a simple dress and small capote bonnet trimmed by herself, the English milliners and modistes — every man and woman of them — have experienced the liveliest indignation. But this war in their hearts will not produce a revolution, or in the least off-set the example the royal lady chooses to set. English women adore their Princess, and certainly adopt such styles as she may introduce or acknowledge. Nor will the effect of the simple toilets of the Princess of Wales be confined to the clear-complexioned daughters of Britain. With the growing tendency among fashionable circles in New York for everything English, it is safe to conclude that English styles of dress will prevail to a great extent here during the fall and winter season. Of course our own dressmakers and milliners will fight an innovation that means a loss of dollars and cents to them, but many ladies will welcome it just for the novelty of the thing, and surely it will prove a blessed boon of comfort to innumerable heads of families with recent unpleasant Wall street experiences in memory. Ample proofs have been given since the advent of that innocent little capote bonnet, which first fired the English milliners 1 hearts with revolt, that the Princess is determined on a new order of things, and that her example is already doing its perfect work. She appeared in a white muslin dress, simply trimmed with lace, and wearing a small white bonnet, at a garden party given by the Prince and herself afc Marlborough. The- ladies in attendance, for the most part, were attired in short morning dresses. The Princess and daughters wore crimson cashmere dresses, with Jersey bodices, black silk stockings, and high boots. At the Goodwood meeting, where heretofore plain toilets have been few and far between, the Princess wore a dress of dark navy-blue silk, exceedingly plain and devoid of ornamentation, and black straw bonnet simply adorned with a small plume of bright scarlet feathers. Even when the occasion is such as to demand an elegant toilet, simplicity of style characterises it. An instance of this is the toilet worn by the same royal lady at the recent drawing-room, where she presided. This was of vhite velvet and white satin trimmed with small pearls ; the train was of the same materials and drawn together with white roses resting on green leaves.

It is. satisfactory to tea drinkers in the colonies — in which tea stands next to water as a necessary of life — that any. war with China will not make so much difference to us now as it would have done six years ago. At about that time the world had to look to China for all its tea, but the statistics now show that one-third of the tea consumed last year came from India. Touching this' tea supply from China, it is to be noted that in the annual race of the vessels to be first to market from China to London, we know something of what we have a right to expect here from steamers' speed. It seems that the s.s. Stirling Castle loaded with tea from Hankow, left there and ran down 800 miles of river before reaching the sea, afterwards enduring all stoppages in the Suez Canal, and reaching London in 31 days 10? hours only. It may be added that such speed -distanced all other competitors by a full day.