PUBLIC OPINION

Waikato Times, Volume 123, Issue 20639, 28 October 1938, Page 9

PUBLIC OPINION

As expressed by correspondents who«s letters are welcome, but for who®# views we have no responsibility. Correspondents are requested to write in ink. It Is essential that anonymous writers enclose their proper names as a guarantee of good faith. .Unless this rule is complied with, their letters will not appear.

SMOKING GY WOMEN

(To the Editor) Sir,—T object to your correspondent’s condemns lion of grirls smoking in tin- streets, in 1 rains or at the interval at picture shows. As one who enjoys a “whiff of the fragrant weed.’’ I say we girls have just as much right lo smoke in the streets as have your young men. Is the sight of a girl with a “cigarette dangling froin her lips” any more objectionable than that of a young blood about town leaning against a lamp-post, with his hands in his pockets and the inevitable cigarette in his mouth? I would have your correspondent know that we girls have our rights. Have we not our votes? And did we not help to elect a Government that will put such people *ls “Purist’’ in their proper place and give us real freedom? If we want to smoke in public places we will do it without asking permission from ancient fogies who “did not see girls doing such things in their days.’’ Can “Purist’’ prove that we look any less dignified because we smoke in public? Can he suggest that our health suffers? Can he show us that the discipline and the fine “manners” he indicates would make us grow up better women? We say that the ability to blow a cloud of smoke with the best of them is a sign of independence and of enjoyment of life, and we do not believe w'e are not Just as much admired by modern young men as was “Purist's” "dignified” young w’ornan of fifty years ago. No, Mr “Purist,” we "will smoke whenever and wherever w-e want to, and we will have none of your stuff) mid-Victorian sentiment. We know our young men admire our modern wavs and we are not going to be dictated to by any “Purist.”-—I am, etc., MODERN. Hamilton O.ctober 27.