Notes for Women.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 1, 3 January 1912, Page 62

Notes for Women.

AN OPEN FIELD FOR WOMffit

LONDON, November 3. fn connection with the Arts and Crafts Exhibition opened the other day in London, in which women workers are just as well and as honourably represented as men, an interesting fact haa come to light, and that is that there is a large held for women workers in pottery at present, and comparatively few women in it. One of the managers of a Staffordshire firm, which deals in “art"’ goods, has expressed the opinion (says the “Standard") that a elever woman eould make a good living if she applied herself to the work. The designer executes fresh drawings for vases, plates, dishes, plaques, or ornaments, and the modeller fashions them into shape, the painter decorating the work with what devices she wishes. Outside the pottery district in Staffordshire there are at least 20 schools where women can study, and the Royal College of Art has a pottery course for the would-be artist. One of the first points to decide is whether the student wishes to make the shapes as well as decorate them, for shapes like vases and bowls require a throwing wheel, the price of which varies from .t‘3 to £l5. Quite ordinary work is almost sure of an income of £ 100 a year if well done, and if the worker is really clever buyers will come after her with orders. A genuine honour has been paid the sex in general by the appointment of a woman in the diplomatic service. This is Miss Clotilde Luisi. a Doctor of Laws, who was recently appointed by the President of Uruguay an attache of the Uruguayan legation at Brussels. She is believed to be the first woman to hold such a post. ■ THE AGE OF MARRIAGE. A series of opinions from me of note on the above subject is running in "Everybody's Weekly.’ Below are a few samples from the answers:—Sir - James Crichton-Brown, the wellknown physician: "Marriage should, take place when the promptings of animal instinct, chastened and refined, are concentrated into one channel by a, subtle sense of affinity, and when no pathological and economical impediment bars the. way.” The Rev. A. J. Waldron. Vicar of Brixton: "We are getting soft. We are spoiled by cheap and third-rate entertainments. We forget that love is the most fascinating thing in the world, that fellowship is divine, and a companionship born of this passion is the gift of the gods. We must teach the woman the glory of motherhood, but must not ignore the problems of eugenics. “In London it is tragic to see the kind of people we have to marry. We are in our grandmotherly way paving a* premium in the propagation of the unfit. This must be stopped.” Dr. Josiah Oldfield: "No man shall marry until he has saved at least his annual income. No woman, should expect to get married until she has either worked, and made or has saved enough to buy all the household linen for her new home—not in shoddy sixpenny calico, but in linen like the linen of her grandmother, whose sheets and table cloths have lasted almost to this day.” "LITTLE WHITE ‘SLAVES” is the title of a book, the publication of which has caused so grave a seandal in Berlin that the police authorities are being compelled, by an indignant public, to thoroughly investigate the truth of the statement made in the volume that, hundreds of sales of German children take place every year. The atsthor is Sister Henriette Arendt, a former female police assistant, and she founds her horrifying assertions on her professional experiences, and on the exposure of traps she has set for adoption homes, private maternity hospitals, and employments agents, who, she alleges, for stipulated fees undertake to get rid of large numbers of unwanted babies. A reply sent, in answer to a “catc-hA letter by one adoption home, stated that it was able to send from Germany to France, Belgium, Holland, or Switzerland three thousand “discreet” children monthly. This statement, according tor the writer of the book, is certainly exaggerated for the sake of advertisement, but in any case it is an admission that the concern in question is prepared td negotiate the procuring of children. Instance after instance of thia tradk

fng Lr cited in the book, and fl uow being investigated by the Berlin police.

One female “employment agent" in Berlin told the authoress in the presence of witnesses that she sent children abroad at prices ranging from £l5 to £5OO, a particularly large number going to Russia. Neither the police, the municipal guardians, nor the children rescue Societies ever created any trouble. A CURIE MEMORIAL. A radium institute is now being erected in the Latin Quarter in Paris as a memorial to the discoverers of radium— Madame and the late M. Curie. It is estimated that the cost will be little short of £3O 000. The Pasteur Institute, which has now reached a condition of opulence, thanks to numerous legacies, is to subscribe the greater part, whilst ithe rest is to be provided by the University of Paris. Mme. Curie has- requested that a special lecture hall should be added to ihe institution, in order that she mav give lectures within the same building as the magnificent radium laboratory that is being built. AN AMUSING STORY is told by Princess Victoria of SchleswigHolstein*. who devotes nearly all her time and money to slumming. Once, when visiting a poor home, she found a palefaced young mother vainly endeavouring to sooth her crying baby to sleep. The princess suggested milk. “No," said the mother, “ 'e’s had enough. There's only one thing that will do it—and I can’tdo it ’cause I’ve got a sore throat. If you make a noise like a milk bottle he'll be off iu a jiffy.” THE WOMEN'S AERIAL LEAGUE, finding that men show no signs of doing the work that the League thinks must be done and should be by men, is inaugurating a series of lectures on aviation designed to impart knowledge to women on the subject. It will also provide for the training of women lecturers, who will address gatherings, write pamphlets, and in other ways educate and interest Englishwomen. A GERMAN WOMAN PROFESSOR. For the first time a woman has been admitted to the professorial staff of a German University. This is Dr. Johann Woker, who is now a professor extraordinary at the University of Leipzig.