THE SOCIAL WORLD

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1456, 21 March 1918, Page 34

THE SOCIAL WORLD

Announcements of engagements and contributions of interest relating to weddings and social gatherings should be sent to Lady Editor, “Sporting and Dramatic Review” Office, Auckland. In all cases the writer’s signature and address must be attached (not for publication). Photographs of wedding groups will be reproduced by arrangement.

Dr. Marion Whyte, daughter of the Rev. Alex. Whyte, late of Havelock North, has been appointed a house surgeon to Dunedin Hospital. * * * *

Miss Dora M. Little, Domestic Science Instructor at the King Edward Technical College, Dunedin, who has been appointed to a position on the staff of the Auckland Grammar School, was entertained by the pupils of her classes and presented with a Doulton salad bowl as a token of their esteem. Miss Little’s colleagues also presented her with a memento of her connection with the college.

Miss H. G. James has been gazetted deputy registrar of marriages, births and deaths for the Stratford district.

Mrs. W. Smith and her three daughters, of the New Zealand Government teaching staff at Rarotonga, are touring New Zealand.

Mrs. Barlow, wife of Captain Barlow, of the Union Company’s service in New Zealand, has arrived in Wellington from Australia, and intends to take up her residence in the southern city.

The Wanganui Borough Council has decided that the Art Gallery which is being erected in Wanganui as the outcome of the late Mr. Henry Sarjeant’s generosity, shall be called the Sarjeant Gallery.

The engagement is announced in Wellington papers of Miss Ruby Coutts-Moon, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Coutts-Moon, of Wellington, to Mr. A. H. Bay, of Messrs. Dalgety, Ltd., son of the late Mr. J. G. Bay, Wellington.

' Mrs. Gerald Mawley, Masterton, has recently returned from England, accompanied by her brother, Captain Jack Hirschberg, of the Flying Corps. Captain Hirschberg has been wounded.

Dr. Jane Craven, of Evanston, 111., was the first American woman to be honoured with the French Military Cross, which was bestowed on her for rescuing wounded men under fire.

Mrs. and Miss I. Peat, of Oriental Bay, Wellington, have gone to Australia for the winter.

The engagement is announced in an exchange of Miss Lorna Kenderdine, of Taumarunui, to Mr. Kenneth V. Impett, of Kohimarama, Auckland.

Miss Nellie Simpson, the talented Wellington flautist, intends spending a six weeks’ holiday in Australia.

In 1914 there were only about 60 women at the Bank of England; now there are close upon a thousand. Several hundred are employed in the printing department.

Nursing Sister Teape, of the Avonside Division of the St. John Ambulance Association, has ■ left for Rotorua on active service as masseuse. After spending a little time at Rotorua she will go abroad.

Mrs. R. Stewart, wife of the late Mr. Stewart, and for many years a resident of Greymouth, has been appointed matron of the Solway Girls’ College, Masterton.

Mr. John Galsworthy, the wellknown novelist and playwriter, who was included in the New Year knighthoods, has declined the honour as he holds that practice of the literary art is its own best reward.

The Auckland Women’s Patriotic League is waging a campaign to raise £25,000 for carrying on the work of the league. The campaign will last until March 22 and each day one of the activities of the league will be given publicity.

In America they are preventing the use of knitting needles (even if employed for purely patriotic purposes) at high-class concerts. Thus at a recent entertainment given in the MEolian Hall at New York by the Symphony Society under the conductorship of Mr. Damroch, the announcement appeared in the programme for the first time that “ladies must refrain from knitting.” It was unofficially explained that “knitting is not the senseless ritual it has been taken for; the needles often click an obligato to the music, and the intricacies of dropped stitches may distract a whole row of auditors from the intricacies of a fugue.”

Norfolk House, in St. James’ Square, London, lent by the duchess just as she lived in it, has been opened as a club for the wives and relatives of officers from overseas. It is to be known as the Royal Club for Overseas Ladies, and is associated with the club for overseas officers at the Automobile Club. The members will be elected in the ordinary way, but will pay no subscription or membership fee. A few Englishwomen have been elected as formation members at a subscription of £5 55., and they will in a sense act as hostesses. “The widow of one of the most loyal and lovable men who have ever been . among us has let us her house. These

premises feel his spirit of kindliness still, and here in his home it seems to welcome you,” said Princess Louise Duchess of Argyll in a little speech at the opening ceremony.

At. St. Peter’s Church, Wellington, on March 7, the wedding took place of Miss Doris Dall, second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. G. B. Dall, of Kelburn Parade, Wellington, to Captain Irwin Eric Faris, N.Z.M.C., son of Mr. I. Faris, Audit Inspector of New Zealand Railways. The bridesmaids were Misses Wilberfoss and G. Hayward. The best man was Lieutenant Doughty, and the groomsman Lieutenant Jones, both of whom belonged to the bridegroom’s unit, the latter having recently returned to New Zealand after having been three years on active service.

In Paris, according to an overseas fashion writer, many women are now wearing their pearls inside their blouses; they do not care a bit whether they are seen or not. It is known that pearls “die” if they are not in constant contact with the skin; so the Parisienne is keeping her pearls beautiful against a happier time when she will again wear them with her decollete gowns. Sometimes

three or four rows of pearls are allowed to glisten under the fine chiffon of the blouse, giving an effect which is discreet and charming at the same time. Of course, this is confined to a small group, for the generality of women in Paris are not so much concerned with that sort of elegance just now.

No English mother I have ever heard of would do as the French mother does — put oil on her children’s bread and then just sprinkle it with salt, writes Grace Curnock, in the “Daily Mail.” Oil, I know, is dear in the rich man’s store —6s. IQd. a reputed quart; but in the poorer districts it is still 2s. 6d. and 3s. 6d. Oil is used only in salads in England, and then it is but a mere drop in comparison with the vinegar. Who, again, will willingly substitute cocoa-shell tea or weak camomile tea, or even cocoa or coffee for the thick brown brew from the teapot on the hob? Yet once leave off drinking tea for a few weeks and you will find the over-sweetened brew —all sugared tea is over-sweetened — a nauseating drink. Comparatively few people eat curry, the best substitute dinner dish in the world. Few know how to make it, and fewer want to know. The “poor” will never eat it, neither do they care for soups or macaroni dishes, or maize or oatmeal except

in porridge. Casserole cooking is looked on as “messy”; slow cooking and steaming they do not understand. “Plain roast or boiled or fried is good enough for me,” they say, and will not try further, though, it may even be easier. We are now paying for one of our greatest mistakes. We have up to now neglected to educate our palates.

At the annual meeting of the Auckland Ladies’ Golf Club, held at Middlemore, the election of officers resulted: —President, Mrs. T. Copeland Savage; vice-presidents, Miss Horton (re-elected) and Mrs. J. L. R. Bloomfield; captain, Mrs. E. Dargaville (reelected) ; secretary, Mrs. A. J. Edmunds (re-elected); treasurer, Miss S. Payton; committee, Misses Gorrie, Cooper, Henderson, K. Clark, E. G. Buddle and K. Holmes. The secretary (Mrs. Edmunds), in her report, stated that very little golf had been played last year, club fixtures being the only matches. Miss S. Payton won the club championship, defeating Miss G. Gorrie in the final. No New Zealand championship matches were played last year, as the New Zealand Ladies’ Golf Union had decided that no championship matches be played until the conclusion of hostilities.

“There is an unselfish side to personal vanity. When eyes are bright and the skin clear and luminous, hair glossy, the little ribbon binding the hair being exactly of the right tint, the hat just cocked enough, undersilks rustling just about as loudly as leaf to leaf of a poplar tree, when the skirt is just short enough to display a daintily embroidered scarlet flower upon a black silk stocking, rising out of a dainty shoe with silver buckle, whose ‘talon’ is high but not too high, being perhaps armed with a thin plate of metal which rings pleasantly upon the pavement —surely when these things are and adjusted with distinction and taste, their possessor being happy sheds happiness, because being pleased with herself she is in the humour to be pleasant to her friends. People—men and women —who take pains to look nice are public benefactors. ‘I look pretty,’ very nearly means, ‘I am pretty, and so are you.’ ” —“The Silver Chain,” by Sir William Richmond.

To be well dressed is to be appropriately dressed, and therefore to go about arrayed in brilliant colours and elaborate fashions while the horrors of war are daily breaking hearts around us is bad taste, and argues callousness, says an English writer.

Life has become so terrible, so real, such a struggle for existence, such a grappling with stern problems, that the clothes which women wore when men indited sonnets to their eyebrows are now impossible. Much of charm, grace, and feminine allurement must vanish with the essentially feminine flowing lines and veiling drapery; but the sterling sterner qualities which come to the front in war-time are more appropriately clothed in utilitarian attire. The average English woman buys too many clothes, and indulges overmuch in bargains. To buys things because they are cheap is a stupid fallacy. True economy consists in restraint as to the quantity of our garments, and not as to their quality. Buy one well-cut coat and skirt of good cloth and live in it, and you will be well dressed. Fill your wardrobe with of inferior cloth and indifferent cut,' and you will never look as a lady should. Cheap, ill-fitting gloves and boots are another pathetic delusion. In the end they cost far more than the expensive glove or boot, because there is no stability in them.

Here is a paragraph from the “Daily Mail” that will appeal to those interested in “Save the Babies” campaign: “Lord Plunket, late Governor of New Zealand, has set himself at the head of a fresh effort to reduce the heavy infant mortality in this country, a mortality which now reaches 130 deaths out of every 1000 children before they are a year old. Lord Rhondda made a great effort in this direction when he was President of the Local Government Board, and laid plans for the establishment of a Ministry of Health. Lord Rhondda reckoned that the work of this Ministry would save us 50,000 infant lives a year. Lord Rhondda himself has explained how departmental bickerings and differences delayed the Bill, which is now shelved. Since the Government has declined to act voluntary efforts are to be attempted. Dr. Truby King, the founder of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children, has been sent over to aid the campaign. Dr. King is an enthusiast in its cause, and has done most splendid service in New Zealand. It is hoped that he may do the same here. A babies’ hospital will be started and other measures taken. The aim of the society is to reduce the infant mortality to 50 per 1000. The causes of infant mortality are varied and cannot be solved by any simple formula. The proportion of deaths of children in Shoreditch, for example, is several times per thousand more than at Hampstead. Anyone who visits the alleyways of Shoreditch and sees the conditions under which the children live ceases to wonder at it. To save children the home must be built up, the mother must be protected, the food conditions must be studied, and healthy surroundings provided. Part of the infantile death rate in poor districts is due, no doubt, to ignorance, but much more is due to unfavourable conditions under which none but the sturdiest can live. Lord Plunket’s committee has a big task before it.”

Speaking at the annual meeting of the Women’s National Reserve in Wellington, the Hon. G. W. Russell said: Up to the present time the people of New Zealand had not realised the possibility of women’s labour. Women in Britain were doing all kinds of work. There were women in the post offices, munition factories, trams, and offices. The women of New Zealand were just as eager as their British sisters, and just as capable; but their services had not been utilised as they could have been. When the combing-out process continued, women’s services could no longer be refused. Over 100,000 men had already left these shores, and the married men had not yet been called up. Still, there were many young, active men retained here whose places could be filled by women. These men should certainly be sent away before the married men go.