NOTES AND COMMENTS.

White Ribbon, Volume 1, Issue 13, 1 July 1896, Page 9

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

A farewell demonstration was held in the Melbourne Temperance Hall on May 26th, on the occasion of Mrs Harrison Lee’s departure for England. Mr John Wale presented her with an autograph rug, which contained the names of 600 of her friends. The gathering, which was most enthusiastic throughout, was brought to a dose by all singing “ God be with vou till we meet again.” The Woman's Voice (Australia) says that, among the many reforms inaugurated by the bicycle, one of the most important is the banishment of the corset. A woman bicyclist, with a tight corset, red faced and short of breath, presents a very ridiculous and unpleasant sight, even if she does net topple off her wheel in a dead faint. So the decree has gone forth.

The Edinburgh Branch of the B. W. T. Association is petitioning the shipowners of Scotland to banish the use of intoxicants on board their ships, alike for sailors and passengers. This, they point out, has already been done by one of the finest passenger steamers on the Clyde, as well as on many other vessels, with advantage to all and detriment to none.

Parents’ Institute.— ln Illinois an enterprising White Ribboner has initiated a Parents’ Institute. Having for a long time been fully persuaded of the one-sidedness of holding the mothers entirely responsible for the care and training of the children, it was a satisfaction to find the fathers of one community, at least, alive to the broader view of parental duties. There was an all-day and evening meeting at Houston, and a similar one at Baldwin in the neat and commodious hall erected by the W.C.T.U. at that place. The young fathers and mothers, and the babies also, were present inconsiderable numbers, and questions of heredity, physical and moral culture, received thoughtful and earnest attention. One young couple stated afterward that they were very thankful that they had become acquainted with the W.C.T.U. literature along these lines in their early married life, and before the birth of their children, as they had found it exceedingly helpful.” * We are glad to notice that so many of our Women’s Societies all over New Zealand are expressing their dissatisfaction at the policy cf the Legislative Council in throwing out the C. D. Acts Repeal Bill. Resolutions have been forwarded to the Speakers of both Houses, and to the Premier, by the Women’s Franchise League, the Women’s Democratic Union, the Wanganui Women’s Political League, and several other prominent societies, as well as by a large number of the various W.C.T. U. brandies. * Treatment of Inebriates Dr. Nickson, President of the Newcastle Medical Society, pleads for the rational and scientific treatment of inebriates in suitable asylums, “instead of the present expensive and absurd method of charging them time after time with being drunk and disorderly, punishable by fine or short term of imprisonment, with the usual result of either confirming them as chronic inebriates, or, what is worse, transforming them into criminals;” and (we may add) what is still more terrible, bringing into existence a race of puny, diseased, cri-minally-inclined beings. Is not the cry of such pre-natally cursed children ever sounding in our ears ? * Food and Alcohol. —“ The poorer the workman’s food budget, the more inclined is he to the use ol stimulants; the less rich is his food in albumen, the greater is his need of strong drinks.”

The Economic Independence of Married Women. —The Lyttelton Times of July 6 published the draft of a Bill to provide for the Economic Independence of Married W omen. The Bill provides that the earnings of a man and his wife shall be equally divided, and that each shall be equally responsible for the expenses of the home and the family. We regret that we have not space for the full text, but the Bill appears to be well and carefully drawn, and we commend its study to the thoughtful women of the colony.

Sick Nursing and Alcohol. Sir Benjamin Richardson says :—“ I have been cognisant of the duties of the sick nurse for half-a-century, and I am bound to say I never saw those duties so well performed as when the nurse was removed altogether from the stimulus of alcohol. The abstinent nurse is the best of all nurses.” * A Recent writer on Temperance Instruction in Schools suggests that, instead of adding to the labours of teachers and taught by making it a separate subject, temperance should be “ worked in.” In arithmetic, sums can be set dealing with the amount spent in alcoholic drinks; in history it is quite easy to give examples of the effects of intemperance; in dictation, extracts from books dealing with the subject; in grammar, proverbs can be parsed, such as—- * When the wine goes in the man, Then the wit goes in the can.* ” Our New Zealand total abstaining teachers may take the hint. * Isabel, Lady Burton, died at her residence in Baker-street, on Sunday, March 22. By birth an Arundel of Wardour, she married in 1861, Captain, afterwards .Sir Richard Burton, the great traveller, explorer and linguist. She accompanied him in many expeditions, sometimes in the disguise of a boy —a part she could play well, being an expertfencer, a good shot, and an excellent swimmer. She was possessed of no mean literary ability, and helped her husband in his literary work. Everyone will remember her refusal, after his death, to accept £6OOO from a publisher for “ The Scented Garden,” a translation by her husband of a Persian poem, of which she destroyed the MS. This high-minded act, performed at a time when the money offered would have been most acceptable, gained for her the respect even of those who regretted her action. Her life of her

husband, besides being the record of a remarkable man, and, it may be added, a remarkable woman, is a romantic love story. In his tomb which she had erected at Mortlake in the shape of an Arab tent, she reserved a place for herself, where she now rests beside him.