THE SACIAL WORLD

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1402, 8 March 1917, Page 30

THE SACIAL WORLD

Announcements of engagements and contributions oi inteiest relating to weddings and social gatherings should be sent to I*ady Editor, “Sporting and Dramatic Review” Office, Auckland, in all cases the writer’s signature and address must be attached (not for publication). Pnotographs of wedding groups will be reproduced by ariangernent.

Their Excellencies Lord and Lady Liverpool entertained a number of soldiers from the Soldiers’ Ward at the Christchurch Hosp.tal, at Elmwood, the other afternoon. Afternoon tea was dispensed by Her Excellency.

The engagement is announced in the “Post” o. M so Myrtle McLaughlin, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. McLaughlin, of Wellington, to Mr. H. S. Powell, of Reikorangi, Waikanae, son of Mr. and Mrs. T. S. Powell, of Douro Avenue, Wellington South.

Mrs. Eaton Johnson, who has been spending a holiday with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Rutherford, Mendip Hills, Canterbury, left for Vancouver last week.

Miss Weymouth, organiser for the Auckland W.C.T.U., who recently came to the Dominion from London, has arr.ved in Auckland, and is staying with -Mrs. Dewar.

At the Plunket Societies’ Conference, held in Wellington, the following officers were elected: —General presidents, Dr. and Mrs. Truby King; president, Mrs. Carr; vice-president, Lady Allen and the president of the Wellington branch; treasurer, Mrs. Theomen; secretary,. Miss Glendenning; committee, Mesdames Bloomfield (Auckland), Morton (Christchurch), R. W. Gibbes, McGregor, J. A. Johnson, W. A. Moore, J. C. McGregor, Pearce (Invercargill), and Elworthy (Timaru).

A garden party in aid of the Red Cross Fund was held in Wellington at Mrs. Paul’s home at Karaka Bay, and proved most successful.

Mrs. E. W. Alison, of Takapuna, has been spending a few days in Wanganui.

The wedding of Miss Lilian Carter, Colombo Street, and Mr. Lloyd Smith, of Sydenham, took place at the Durham street Church, Christchurch, on Thursday February 22nd.

Mrs. Charlotte Bair King, who early .n January celebrated her 101st. birthday, died at Wa uku on February 2tth. She arrived in the Colony in 1840, before the arrival of Captain Hobson. Her late husband arrived in 1814, when sixteen months old, his father having been a member of Samuel Marsden’s party. Mrs. King lived in the reigns of six British sovereigns, from George 111. to George V., and she leaves six children 1 v*ng and 40 grandchildren, 45 great-grand-children, and several great-great-grandchildren. Several of her descendants are now fighting for the Empire in France. The old lady was in fu.l possession of her faculties up to the time of her final illness.

The marriage took place in the Merivale Church, Fendalton, Christchurch, last week of Miss Lesley Wyinks, youngest daughter of Mr. W. Wyinks, Regstrar of Lands and Leeds, Christchurch, to Sergeant Cedric Fenton, of the Twenty-fourth Reinforcements. The ceremony was performed by the Reverend Mr. Haggitt. A reception, attended only by immediate friends and comrades, was held, and after the bride and bridegroom left en route for the North Island.

Miss Cleveland, daughter of the late President Cleveland, of America, is among those helping the blind soldiers at St. Dunstan’s, England.

The garden fete organ'sed in aid of the funds of the Plunket Society, and held in Mrs. J. Stevenson’s garden at Fendalton, Christchurch, was a great success, the sum of over £BB being realised. Their Excellencies Lord and Lady Liverpool attended the gathering.

in difficulty a silent tongue and a cooi head are usually man’s best weapons.—Katherine Thurston.

Added to the coiffure of some women, combs give just the right Lnish.ng touch. M ith other types they count for nothing or else spoil the whole effect of the head. There is an art in adjusting a Spanish comb. One needs to study the prints of old costume books to realise that the majority of the women here fortunate enough to secure these d.stinctive ornaments do not understand that the slant at which the Spanish comb is thrust through the ha r can make or mar its beauty.

The members of the hospitality branch of the women’s branch of the Overseas Club in Melbourne recently gave an afternoon to welcome Mr. and Mrs. Allan Wilkie (Miss Fredicwde Hunter-Watts), who are giving Shakespearian recitals in that city. The guests of honour were received by the president (Lady Hennessy) and the hon. secretary (Mrs. Boys), and Lady Hennessy, on behalf of the members of the Hospitality Guild, presented Mrs. Wilkie with a dainty early Victorian pone, veiled with pink tulle, and a box o ' water lilies and hydrangea bloom were also given her.

“1 am not prepared co say that the manufacture o, perambulators is an essential industry,” said counsel appearing for an appellant in that 1 ne of business at the sitting of the Third Military Service Beard in Wellington. “Perhaps so,” replied the chairman, “but the filling of them may be.”

A good wife must be grave abroad, wise at home, pat ent to suffer, constant to love, friendly to all, and provident for her household. —Theophrastus.

Mrs. Hoben, formerly lady editor of the Christchurch “Star,” left Sydney last week for Japan, where she will act as representative for the New Zealand Associated Press. Prior to her departure from the Dominion, Mrs. Hoben was the recipient of handsome gifts from her numerous friends, and the best of wishes were freely expressed for her future success in the East. While in Sydney she was entertained at several tea part es, and was the guest of honour at an afternoon at the Hotel Australia given by the Premier’s wife, Mrs. Holman.

The Victoria League in New Zealand is considering a proposition to present an armoured car, or “tank.” to the Imperial Government, to be placed at the disposal of the Com-mander-in-Chief of the British Forces.

Captain H. W. King, reported killed in action in France, prior to his departure for the front was a master at the Auckland Grammar School. He was on the staff of the school for nearly seven years, and previously was a master at the Greytown District H gh School.

The marriage took place on January 2nd, at Trffiity Presbyterian Church, Wimbledon, London, of Donald McGregor Reid, N.Z.F.A., and Miss Elizabeth Barr Fergus. The bridegroom belongs to Milton, and is the second son of Mr. and Mrs. Donald Reid. The bride is the youngest daughter of the late Hon. Thomas Fergus and Mrs. Fergus, of Royal Terrace, Dunedin.

The Australian Red Cross is building workshops at Southwell Hospital, England, for the instruction of 90 Australians in occupations possible to limbless men, such as motor mechanics, carpentering, leatherworking, and commercial work. A census of disabled soldiers reveals that most of them would prefer to stay in England until proficient.

Miss Alberta Teasdale, a talented young Greymouth singer, has gone to Sydney to follow up her musical studies.

A cable from London states that the War Office has inaugurated a scheme for employing women from 20 to 40 years of age on war work _n France. The work will be mainly clerical, but many women will be employed as cooks, waitresses, domestics, motor transport workers, checkers, and telephone and postal hands. The wages will be 255. to 325. a week with board.

The marriage of Miss J. E. (“Betty”) Warner, the third daughter of Mrs. J. E. Warner, of Slough, Buckinghamshire, England, to Mr. Robert G. Coyte, second son of the late Rev. Walter Coyte, rector of East Langton, Leicestershire, England, was celebrated at St. John’s Church, Woolston, on February 24. The Rev. Henry Williams performed the ceremony. Mr. Coyte is a popular officer on a well-known Home liner. Mr. G. Olive, a fellow-officer, acted as best man, and the bride was attended by two bridesmaids, the Misses Muriel and Hilda Johns. A reception was afterwards held by Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Johns, at their residence, Radley Street, Woolston, they being old famly friends of the bride’s people at Home. Quite an element of romance is attached to the wedding, says the Christchurch “Sun,” the bride having met and become engaged to her future husband on her way out to New Zealand in the liner on which Mr. Ccyte is an officer.

He that loses anything and gets wisdom by it, is a gainer by the loss. —L’Estrange. * * ♦ « To join lace and embroidery, but-ton-hoxe the edges together instead of seaming them. It will be found that this makes a much smoother seam and will launder nicely. Mrs. W. M. Kebbell, of Masterton, has proved most successful in her efforts to secure £BO for a Masterton bed for para.ysed soldiers in Engand. * >.■ * * Miss Florence Bevins, of the instruction staff of the Napier Technical School, has been appointed to the Christchurch Technical College. * * . * The “Paddy's Market’’ in Palmerston North, organised by the Mayor and Mayoress, was a huge success. It is anticipated tha; about £2OOO w 11 be c eared out of the undertaking. • ♦ ♦ • At the conclusion of the conference in Wellington of the Society for the Health of Women and Children, the delegates were entertained at an “At Home” by Mrs. Arthur Myers. * * * The “N.Z. Times” announces the engagement of Miss Rosamund Blakisron, eldest daughter of Mr. Charles

Blakiston, Dannevirke, to the Rev. Mr. Compton, London, England. Pardon others often, thyself seldom. —Proverb. ❖ ❖ * # Writ.ng in the “Saturday Evening Post,” H. G‘. Wells says that in the last few years he has developed a re.igious belief that has now become to him as real as any commonplace fact. “I think that mankind is still, as it were, collectively dreaming and hardly more awakened to reality than a very young child. It has these dreams that we express by the flags of nationalities and by strange loyalties, and by irrational cieeds and ceremonies; and its dreams at times become such nightmares as this war. But the time draws near when mankind will awake and the dreams will fade away; and then there will be no nationality in all the world but humanity, and no king, no emperor, no leader but the one Gcd of mankind. This is my faith. I am as certain of this as I was in 1900 that men would presently fly. To me it is as if it must be so.”

Information has been received that Major F. R. Me Mahon, of the Royal Engineers, brother of Mrs. Tristram Speedy, of Parnell, has been awarded the Distinguished Service Order. Major McMahon was formerly a student at the Otago School of Mines.

A bill enabling women to practice as solicitors has been read a second time in the House of Lords.

White felt hats can be renewed by being gently rubbed with fine white oatmeal, then vigorously brushed, first with a stiff and then with a soft hat brush. The trimming must first of all, of course, be removed.

George H. Wilkins, of London, a member of the just-completed Canadian Government Arctic expedition that spent three years under Steffansson and Anderson, the explorers, studying the blonde Eskimo of Victoria Land, Liston and Sutton Islands and Herschel Island in latitude 72, about 900 miles from the North Pole, arrived in Chicago recently. “The blonde Eskimos, as they are called,” said Mr. Wilkins, “are very interesting people. There is no regular marriage ceremony, and polygamy prevails in a good many tribes, but the trial marriage is everywhere recognised as legitimate. The autumn is their time for weddings, and most of the girls get married between the ages of fifteen and sixteen. They pick a man they want and go and ask him to marry them, or the man may do the asking. I talked to some of the pundits about that, and the old men told me it was better to let a woman pick her own man, because it saved a lot of trouble afterwards. If there is trouble the girl goes back to her people, or she need not do so. The man may take another wife, and. for that matter, two more, and the wives seen to live in harmony. I lived with one man who had three wives, and with one woman who had two husbands. The woman who had two husbands always managed to keep one of them out fishing a good part of the time. She didn’t seem to care which one.”

“I can see at a glance, madam,” said he, “that you would not be interested in the preparat’on I am selling, except possibly as a gift to some of your neighbours.” “What are you selling?” she inquired with interest, “A facial beauty preparation, madam,” he replied.—“ Judge.”

Speaking on the work of the Plunket Society, the Hon. G. W. Russell pointed out the other day that in the Dominion there were 98 boroughs with a population of over 1000. Of these 77 had no Plunket nurses, although he had been informed that nurses paid visits to some. Towns like Blenhe’m, Masterton, Palmerston North, Greymouth, New Plymouth, and others of secondary importance should have special assistance for the guidance of mothers. It was necessary for him in his position as Min ster of Public Health to look at the question from the broader point of view. He hoped that an extension of the Plunket nursing system would reach centres other than those where the society now was engaged, and that the staffs of nurses in the cities would be increased in order that the great mortality of infants of one year and under might be dirn nished.

She had been sitt’ng in the furniture shop for nearly two hours inspecting the stock of linoleums. Roll after roll the perspiring clerk brought out, but still she seemed dissatisfied. From her dress he judged her to ho a person of wealth and thought it likely she would have a good order to give. When at last he had shown her the last roll he paused in despair. “I’m sorry, madam,” he said, apolo getically, “but if you could wait I could get some more nieces from the factory. Perhaps you would call in again.” The prospective customer gathered her belongings together and rose from the chair. “Yes, do,” she said with a gracious smile, “and ask them to send you one or two with

very small designs, suitable for putting in the bottom of a canary’s cage.”

It is with a feeling of satisfaction, writes a Melbourne authority on dress, that in reading the forecast of fashion from overseas one notes that the changes are all for the better. What was extravagant before is now toned down. It is something, indeed, to be thankful for, as the “freak” note has lasted too long, and vulgarity he’d too much sway. Tailor-mades and

afternoon frocks for the cold weather are to be of the simple, slim, and becoming order. One thanks goodness that the foolish fashions —followed slav’shly by the elderly as by the young-—of skirts almost kneehigh, revealing limbs that with much advantage might well have been covered up, is now considered “bad form” (a remark that might very aptly have

been applied to the aforesaid limbs). The all-in-one dress, with its high wa’st, straight lines, and generally loose-fitting effect, will be much worn both in the form of house dresses and outdoor coat-frocks. Tn serge or in velvet, sometimes finely pleated on the skirt section, with lines of silk ’rra : d on the bodice, and with the inevitable touch of fur. what could be more becoming and attraet ve for its very simplicity? The bestdress od woman next season will be she who presents an appearance of simplicity and a smart severity.