THE SOCIAL WORLD

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1584, 2 September 1920, Page 24

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 In all cases the writer’s signature and address must be attached (not for publication).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. Miss Ailsa Newton, Wellington, is leaving on a trip to Fiji. * * * * Miss Rosalind Whitson has returned to Dunedin after a visit to Auckland. ' * * * * Mrs. Rupert Morrison, of Blairlogie, Masterton, has returned from a visit to Sydney. * *. * * Miss Dora Horton, Hastings, has left for Glasgow, where her marriage is to take place. *** - * Mrs. Claude Sawtell has returned to Christchurch from a visit to Auckland and Rotorua. * * * * Mrs. Peter McLaren, Homebush, Masterton, and Mrs. Milne have returned from a Visit to Australia. * * * * Mrs. C. Eugene Smith, of Wellington, has been on a visit to Mrs. Gordon J. Lennox, of Remuera, Auckland. * * * * Mrs. G. R. Davidson and her daughter Beryl, of “Tiro Hia,” Paeroa, Thames Valley, are on a visit to relatives in Canterbury. jj* Me * . The four bridesmaids at a wedding at Oatlands Park, Surrey, received silver cigarette cases from the bridegroom. # ❖ * * Miss Amy Evans and Mr. Fraser Gange were tendered a reception on their arrival in Christchurch by the Cambrian Society. » * ♦ * Mrs. Guy Williams, winner of the Australian ladies’ golf championship, returned to Auckland last week. Her mother, Mrs. Hope Lewis, accompanied her. * * * * Miss Lockhead, matron of the Patea Hospital, has been appointed, matron of the Hawera Hospital. At a farewell gathering at Patea she was presented with a purse of sovereigns. * * * * The engagement is announced in an exchange of Miss M. Innes-Jones, daughter of Mr', .and Mrs. H. InnesJones, of Te Awamutu, to Mr. Guy Hessell, late captain in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, and formerlv of Auckland. * * * * At St. Andrew’s Church, Hastings, on August 16, the wedding took place of Lena Esther, sixth daughter of the late Aiderman John Briggs, of Guildford, Surrey, England, and William Joseph, the second son of Mr. Joseph Wilson, of Hastings. The Rev. R. T. Hall officiated. '** * * A suffragette lecturer once brought down' the house with the following argument: “I have no vote but my groom has. I have a great respect for that man in the stables, but I am sure if I were to go to him and say, ‘John, will you exercise the franchise?’ he would reply, ‘Please, mum, which horse be that?’ ” * * * * The interest aroused by the spectacle of a one-armed tennis player at Wimbledon recalls the great feats by a lady player similarly handicapped (says the “London Daily Chronice”). Miss Hilda-Hitchings, who was born with only a left arm, succeeded in winning many championships, notably those of Palmerston, in New Zealand, in the singles and ladies’ doubles. Miss Hitchings.,- who is at present living in London, still plays a fine game, and is quite likely to be seen in some of the tournaments this summer. She serves in a wonderfully clever manner by holding her racket with three fingers of her only hand, and a slight toss of the ball, which is held by the remaining finger and thumb, followed by a quick twisty tap with the racket, results in a fast low service, which is anything but easy to take.

At a bazaar in' honour of the jubilee of Dr. Barnado’s Home, to be held in London in December next, a stall for the sale of New Zealand products, under the charge of Lady Allen, will be provided.

Commander Eva Booth, preaching to a congregation of over. 5000 people at Congress Hall, Clapton, said she had lived in the slums, had dressed in rags and sold matches in London in order to learn how the poor lived.

At a meeting of members of the Christchurch Ladies’ Golf Club, Mrs. M. H. Godby presiding, it was decided to make arrangements for entertaining the visiting players in the New Zealand ladies’ golf championship, which is to be played at Shirley during the last week in September. A committee, comprising Mrs. Algar Williams, Mrs. Eric Harper, and Miss Humphreys, was appointed to make the necessary arrangements in connection with an “At Home.”

Miss Flora M. Allan has resigned her position as lady principal of the Otago Girls’ High School, Dunedin, after 30 years’ continuous service. She has been asked to withdraw her resignation until next year, when the school will celebrate its jubilee.

Benno Moiseiwitsch, the great Russian pianist, whom unfortunately New Zealanders will not be able to. hear, is the father of a little girl, Tanya, who already promises well as a musician. Tanya is a little over five years old, and it is not yet definitely discovered whether she favours her father’s instrument, the piano, or the violin, on which her mother, Daisy Kennedy, has made her great reputation. A little while ago in England the fond parents thought they had evidence of her preferring the piano. One night they saw her rise from her cot and creep to the music-room. Remembering the story of the youthful Handel, who had once been caught in the middle of the night playing an old spinet in an attic, Mr. and Mrs. Moiseiwitsch hoped for their daughter to do likewise. But the child was engaged on a very different adventure. She had been forbidden chocolates, and had merely gone to retrieve some which she had hidden in the “works” of the grand piano.

The correspondent of the “Daily _ Mail” at' Paris states that as a result of war losses French women outnumber the men by 2,000,000. Professor Carnot, a prominent member of the Faculty of Medicine, urges the Government to adopt a novel scheme for attracting young men to France from Canada, California; and the Argentine. He believes that “the beauty of the French girls, once seen, will suffice as a guarantee of marriage.”

As an instance of the usefulness of the cookery class in connection with the Wellington Technical College, a number of soldiers’ wives, who came out from England, have received instruction in how to make bread. Their husbands have gone on the land, and in order to be able to. provide bread for the household the young women (who are mostly - city, bred) have availed themselves of the opportunity of learning special lines of cookery likely to be useful ■to them in the future.

How a cup of coffee changed the whole outlook of a New Zealand soldier’s life makes interesting reading, and goes to demonstrate once again how j the smallest incidents vastly affect the careers of people, as well as the destinies of nations (says the “Otago Daily Times”). Though the soldier was actually a New Zealander, he was serving with the Australians, and marched with his comrades into a village Just about the time the armistice was declared. They had had a long march, and were tired and hungry. The New Zealand - Australian soldier was addressed by a Belgian lad in French, and asked if he would like a cup of coffee. The soldier had a smattering of French, and he gladly replied that he would. The lad thereupon took him to his home,.where he was made most welcome, given, a cup of coffee, and something to eat. He visited his new friends’ home on several occasions, and fell in love with the young daughter of the house. On returning to England he obtained leave, returned to Belgium, and married the girl. In due course he arrived with his bride in Dunedin, and he has now taken steps to bring her father, mother, and the family from Belgium to make a new home in the Dominion.

Gay and fanciful ornamentation is a characteristic of this season’s fashions in parasols. Many of the new sunshades are embellished with high-ly-coloured representations of birds and animals of all kinds. * * sjr * , Lace should be ironed on the ironing blanket, with the wrong side up. By this means the pattern is pressed up well.

Mrs. Lloyd George has been apOrder of the British Empire in recognition of her services towards war charities, for which she raised over £200,000.

The engagement is announced of Miss Ailsa Brown, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Brown, St. Stephen’s Avenue, Parnell, and Lieutenant R. D. Oliver, D. 5.0., R.N., Kelso, Roxburghshire, Scotland.

There has been something of a flutter in Sydney social circles because of the rebuke levelled at them by the Rev. J. H. Chaseling, rector of St. Peter’s Church, Watersleigh. The reverend gentleman has been expressing indignation regarding the introduction of evening dress into the church on the occasion of fashionable weddings. “I have no doubt,” he said, in giving public expressions to his opinions, “that what is called evening dress for women is the correct wear in certain circumstances.

It appears to be compulsory on the sex to half undress for the theatre, and everybody in the social swim nowadays must bare the back and as much of the front of the female form at very great risk, I should say, of getting a cold in the head.. But the place for this display of the latest fashionable wear is not the church. I have entered my strong protest against evening dress at weddings in my church, and the verger has been instructed to refuse admission to any not' properly clothed; and anybody misbehaving in the building before or during the service will be rebuked. Sometimes a wedding is turned into something in the nature of a burlesque by the behaviour of the spectators. Women are not permitted to come to church bareheaded. Yet many of them come barebacked, bareheaded, and barechested to weddings, to the great offence of the reverent, who look on the sacrament of marriage as something more than a mere puppet show. Conduct that would not be tolerated in a theatre is indulged in the House of God.”

Miss Ernelie Polini, the delightful actress, who was here in “De Luxe Annie” and “Eyes of Youth,” is retiring from the- stage for about 12 months, and will live privately at a property in New South Wales, recently acquired by her husband.

A Taranaki resident now travelling in the United States, writing to a friend, says: “Servants are becoming very- scarce here, and people are building smaller houses and going in for all kind of labour-saving devices; such as washing-up machines, which are a huge success.”

Mr. Baxtei* Buckley, whose death took place in Wellington recently, was one of the most brilliant pianists in the Dominion. He was a feilowstudent. with Mark Hambourg, who expressed his astonishment when he came to New Zealand some years ago to discover Mr. here in comparative obscurity. The late Mr. Buckley was born in Lancashire, and he began his musical career with Max Meyer in Manchester. He studied in both Berlin and Leipzig in 1893 and 1894. and gained many honours. He was under Rubinstein in 1895, and Nozkoroski was one of his tutors. After that he travelled in many countries, including South Africa during the Boer War. He came to New Zealand in 1903, and from then onward his recitals were invariably highly successful' from a musical point of view, but financially were not a very great success. He was very alert in the matter of the works of the “moderns” for the pianoforte, Sapellnikoff, Debussy, Mac Donnell, Rachmaninoff. Scriabine, and he was a brilliant interpreter of the works of Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn. and Brahms. He did much excellent work as a teacher. Mrs. Buckley survives him.