THE SOCIAL. WORLD

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1473, 18 July 1918, Page 32

THE SOCIAL. WORLD

Announcements of engagements and contributions of interest relating to weddings and social gatherings should be sent to Lady Editor, “Sporting 1 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 In all cases the writer’s signature and address must be attached (not for publication).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.

Mrs. Porter, honorary organising secretary of the Women’s National Reserve, has returned to Wellington from a tour in Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne.

The engagement is announced in the Christchurch “Sun” of Mr. C. N. Denham, of the Bank of New Zealand staff and son of Mr. Edward Denham, Sumner, to Miss Ruth Livingstone, M.A., third daughter of Mr. T. Livingstone, Christchurch.

The King has awarded the Military Medal to six women for gallantry during an air raid in France which destroyed the -women’s auxiliary camp, and also for removing wounded from the vicinity of an exploding munition dump.

The engagement is announced in Wellington papers of Miss Gwendoline King, daughter of Mr. Thomas King, Bulls, to Mr. William Henry Gibson, of Beckfield, Kiwitea.

The chief thing noticeable sartorially at the Wellington steeplechase meeting, says a writer in the New Zealand “Times,” was the all-prevail-ing fur coat. Nearly every lady present wore one, either all day or at least when the air became keen towards evening, and those who did not sport a whole coat of fur wore stoles and muffs, some of these being very fine specimens. Next to furs the noticeable thing was boots, and it is evident that “war standard” boots have not yet been thought of in New Zealand. Boots were very high, and in some cases quite decorative articles of attire.

Staff-Nurse Violet Barker, N.Z.A.N.S., is leaving New Zealand on a further term of service abroad, this time on transport duty. Miss Barker returned to New Zealand from abroad after two years’ service about three months ago., and has lately been nursing at Trentham Military Hospital. * * * .4'

The Hon. W. F. Massey while in London opened the Babies of the Empire Mothercraft Training Centre, under the auspices of the Overseas Club Patriotic League. Mr. Massey said that thousands of children had been saved through the work of the Plunket nurses and the public health organisation in New Zealand.

Miss Mary Edwards, a Sydney artist, was in Wellington last week on her return voyage to Australia after a trip to Papeete.

Three thousand girls from the training colleges and universities have left London to assist in the harvesting of the flax crops.

Dr. Grace Murray, of America, who has been visiting New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, left Wellington last week for Sydney.

The wedding took place recently at St. Stephen’s Church, Dulwich, England, of Sergeant J. G. Smith (son of Mr. Jas. Smith, of Rangiora), of the New Zealand Mounted Ambulance Corps, to Sister D. B. Lawrence, of Homedale Auxiliary Hospital.

For over three years Mrs. Frank Messenger (New Plymouth) has been making leather hand and knitting bags, and devoting all the profits to war work. She has just completed a tally of 2000, a record worth having.

Women are never stronger than when they arm themselves with their own -weakness. —Mme. de Graffigny.

Nurse B. C. Roydhouse, daughter of the former editor of the “Sunday Tinies,” has returned to Auckland after a visit to her parents in Sydney. Miss Roydhouse was attached to the Whangarei Hospital.

Wife (as husband starts for the office): “Have you got everything, dear?” Husband: “Yes —season ticket, registration card, sugar, butter, and tea ration card, meat card, bread, match, and tobacco cards, and travel permit.”

Questioned in Christchurch regarding the food situation in England, Dr. Jessie Madison, who has recently returned to the Dominion, said that the position was not anything like as desperate as it was sometimes pictured. Rationing was under the charge of the Food Control Board, and was managed in all fairness. “Of course, it is a fact that English people are becoming thinner,” said Dr. Madison. “Personally, I lost a stone in weight, but I do not think people are any the worse for not being stout. The English people are taking the rationing of food very well, even humorously, and altogether the general spirit of ‘Now we’re in it, we’ll stay it through,’ is one that promises very well to assist in every way the determination of our Empire’s leaders to pursue the war to a victorious finish.”

Mr. and Mrs. W. Wilson, of Takapuna, are,on a visit to Christchurch.

The Christchurch Red Cross has established a kitchen at its comforts depot to make cakes for the soldiers in the military hospitals.

The engagement is announced of Miss Doris Mclntyre, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. H. Mclntyre, Lower Hutt, Wellington, to Staff Q.M.S. lan A. Mackay, son of Mrs. K. J. Mackay, Parnell, Auckland.

Mrs. Chateau, wife of Mr. Leo. D. Chateau (representing E. J. Carroll’s interests in New Zealand) has come up from Wellington to spend a holiday in Auckland.

“How are the girls turning out as telegraph messengers?” inquired a “Dominion” reporter of the Superintendent of Telegraphs (Mr. Talbot). “Excellent!” said Mr. Talbot. “Much, very much, better than expected. They are smart and attentive to duty, and in these times, when it is simply

impossible to get boys, the girls are answering splendidly. Mind you, we are looking after them well. I have 40 girls at work in Wellington, and so far have not refused any that look at all suitable for the work. Their neat costume has been much admired, and everyone says how well they look. The girls start at 15s. a week, and, in addition, we provide them with a dress, overcoat, macintosh, cloth hat, sou’-wester, and leggings, so that they are always well protected in all kinds of weather. The experiment has proved quite a success. No girl messenger is employed after 5.30 of an evening; indeed, the greater number get away at five o’clock. Only boys are employed of an evening.”

A “Silver Trail” evening, organised by Miss Basten and her students, is to be held in the Town Hall on Thursday (July 11). Admission is Is. and two clean tins with lids. The tins are required by the Dominion Gift Committee to pack sweets, cube sugar, tobacco, cigarettes, etc., and any size up to will be accepted. The function will take the form of a conversazione and there will be a few stalls for cut flowers, fancy goods, golliwogs, sweets, etc. The main feature, however, will be a silver trail competition. The whole of the net proceeds will be handed to the Auckland Women’s Patriotic League. Mrs. J. H. Gunson (Mayoress) will open proceedings.

The marriage took place at the Roman Catholic Church, Parnell, on July 4, of Miss Violet Nathan, third daughter of Mrs. J. A. Millar, of Auckland, to Mr. John R. Mackenzie, of Hamilton, a returned soldier. The bride wore a smart cream gabardine costume with white fox furs and a cream hat. She carried a lovely posy of violets. Miss Ivy Nathan was bridesmaid, and Mr. Percy Lomax, of Motueka, was best man. The bridegroom will be remembered as one of the All Black football combination which toured California a few years ago.

To have beautiful hands care should, 'first of all, be taken as to how the hands are washed. Tepid or warm water, soft water should be used, and a good emollient soap should be selected, and after washing the hands all soap should be rinsed off before they are dried. This latter process should be thorough, so that the flesh is not left moist. A rub over with oatmeal powder is advisable, as the meal will absorb any lingering moisture. By going to a

toilet specialist every three or four months to have the hands and fingernails attended to, and watching attentively how the work is done, a girl should be able to do her own manicuring at home in the interval, and thus keep her hands in perfect condition at very little cost.

A glimpse behind the “mystic veil of the future” discloses just a hint of the trend of spring fashion, says a Sydney writer. Already some of the shops are in the throes of midwinter sales, in preparation for the incoming stocks for brightening weather. Variety is conspicuously the keynote of advance styles, especially in coats and skirts, which, judging by the frequency with which they meet the eye, are to be greatly worn during the spring and early summer. Coats follow on no stereotyped lines, though there is a decided fancy for straight-cut examples buttoned closely from bust to hem, loose-fitting and having a big patch pocket low down on each side, and on the left side of the bust the usual little slit pocket.

More than three hundred and fifty nursing members have died in the service during the war (writes Olive Dent, author of “A V.A.D. in France”). A tiny roll of honour, it is true, compared with the greater one. But chivalry still lives, stubborn, tenacious, and we women are shielded from every danger that can be kept from us. We are very proud of our honoured roll, proud of the deeds of our

dead' and the companionship they share. Killed by shell, bomb, torpedo, drowning, dysentery, fevers, sickness, cut off in the flower of womanhood, life was very sweet. But they least of all would regret the cause of their going or wish it otherwise. Only we who were brought close to them think at times of the eager, willing feet, the gentle, every-ready hands, the neverflagging service, the easily-earned laughter, the abundant welling sympathy .... the sweet tenderness of the help given to restless wanderers through the Valley of the Shadow. And now they in turn have crossed the Valley and gained the glory of that company. Imagine a sun-bathed hillside, receding to a purple blue haze and stretching to a silver-rib-boned river, a green film on each levelled brown field, each bush and hedgerow an abiding place of song birds. Round an open grave stand “at attention” nursing women and khaki men. a cordon, a firing party, and a bugler. Under the Union Jack is a rough wooden coffin with a slight girlish burden, and over it comes the mellow, dignified tones of the padre in the words of the Burial Service and an address —“Be faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”

One of the most wonderful things in these wonderful days has been the attitude of the women (says the “Daily Mail”). At the front the women in khaki, the nursing sisters, V.A.D.’s, and W.A.A.C.’s have done their part in hours of great danger, under heavy shell fire, with a quiet determination worthy of the mothers and sisters of our Empire. At home the vast hosts with dear ones on the fighting front keep their anxieties hidden and face the world with the demand that something more may be found for them to do to help England. Work is awaiting them. This is to be the women’s year. They have already done enormously in this war. They will do much more. The call has gone out for many more recruits for V.A.D.’s —i.e., untrained voluntary assistant nurses in hospitals. The able-bodied young woman without definite war occupation will soon be looked upon with the same reproach with which three years ago we regarded the young man who had not entered the war. An American visitor recently told me (continues the writer) that what chiefly impressed him in England was the way our women had undertaken war work. “I have visited the different Allied countries,” he said. “Nowhere else have I seen anything like it. The large numbers of young women in khaki and the great armies of them in the munition shops are a revelation of what women can do. Young girls are not content to wear pretty uniforms. They are working hard, ugly work, working long hours,- at hard physical tasks, and looking so cheerful over it that one would believe they really enjoyed it. Your women are the real goods.”

The queen carnival in the Thames district in aid of the Red Cross funds has concluded after a six weeks’ campaign. The voting for the local queen closed on Saturday night, with the result that the Hauraki Plains queen, Miss O’Carroll, was elected by a considerable majority over the Valley queen, Mrs. Bax, the voting being: Hauraki Plains, 222.346; Valley, 162,363; Soldiers (Miss Marie Clendon), 102,791; Navy (Mrs. S. Hague-Smith), 74,084. For each vote a charge of threepence was made, with the result that £7019 16s. was secured. There is still more to come in.

Such a suggestion is utterly foolish, says the “Nursing Mirror,” referring to the proposal of a New York authority to test girls desirous of becoming nurses by liberating white mice in the room where they are being examined. “Many a girl, keen, hard-working, sympathetic, reliable, and even possessing special aptitude to act as a nursing helper,” it is added, “might be foolish about the wee, sleekit beastie, but would not feel a tremor when assisting at the dressing of a terrible wound.”

Mr. and Mrs. R. Wynyard and Miss Wynyard, of Devonport, Auckland, are at present on a visit to Wellington.

In New York there is a good plan for helping the Red Cross. Every shop has a depot, and each customer is asked to give an hour’s time helping to roll bandages or to give a donation.