YOUNG PEOPLE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18890, 4 January 1927, Page 2

YOUNG PEOPLE.

DISCONTENT AND UNHAPPI-

NESS. CONTEMPT FOR DISCIPLINE. (JROH OCE OWR COBEB9JOKDIST.) LONDON, November IG. Mrs Philip Snowden, addressing a meeting of the Girls' Friendly Society, presided over by Princess Marie Louise: "You find certain classes of young people joining the Communist party—a party, ] may say, of which 1 thoroughly* disapprove. You won't find Communists among the eider __ pc.opic. Thev are young people, from 15 to 30, : expressing" their discontent, disgust, raid hatred in this political fashion. Thev arc growing in number. We shall, 1 think have to get out of the way and let them work out their own salvation. If they don't respect us. we cannot influence them. We can, however, influence those who are not fundamentally embittered, but only a iittle disappointed. My conviction which is not mere talk, but held more strongly after twenty years of public life is that the only salvation is a bold and splendid understanding of tho Christian faith and its courageous application to the institutions of thia country. "We ought to face the fact that a serious amount of unrest, discontent, a: d genuine unhappines3 prevails among young people to-day. There is a very much wider gap between young people and their elders than existed in the days of our vouth. We listened to our elders" with * respect, sometimes with carefully-hidden rebelliousness, but we did what we were told and were content to be effaced. That is not so today, except with those who have lived by 'Christian hearthstones and have l>een touched from youth upwards, by the Christian spirit. The prohibitions once laid on young people are nowgiven no .attention. The. influence ot the elders -is not regarded. Their warnings -are not respected. ihey themselves are not respected. The young people say they do not respect them because they are not respectable. I They are turning the tables on them. All sorts of contemptuous attitudes to them are adopted. There is often a great deal of selfishness in the attitude of the young to their elders; they gc their own way, have a good time, and lead their own lives. There must be in this country a host of parents and guardians suffering almost a kind of heartbreak as they x fwid young people for whom they are responsible going oh at tangent here and there. I do not moan that they yield to temptation and fall, but they are refusing to recognise that there is anything m the world they arc not entitled to do. Without any standards for themselves, thev have thrown overboard old standards. They are talking a>bout things that have never been talked about with an unreserve that is shocking. They are doing things we never dreamt of as if there were nothing else to be done. . , , , "Women, .have come . into contact with more, points of view, been given a bigger world, and had not always known what to do with it or how to interpret it wisely. It has, however, shown them that the elder generation has not always dealt straightly with them. TJtey say we ( have lied to them—maybe, it was for their own good—but they say we were hypocrites. Thev have found us out. A plain, elderly .woman complained bitterly to me that when she was young her guardians told her that men liked the domestic qualities best; that they flirted with pretty girls, but married the others. 'I have observed carefully that that is not true,' this ladv said. 'The pretty girls have homes and children, and the • hard-working, dpmestP cated women are left.' Men said they loved to look after women, but we found out that was not true when we went into industry. Our wages were lower, and almost all the sweating was of women and children."

WEDDINGS.

WARD—GOOSEMAN

St Mary's Church, Addington, was artistically decorated with hydrangeas and red roses for the wedding, last Wednesday evening, of Miss Kitty Wuir Ward, youngeßt daughter of the late Mr and Mrs J. R. Ward, pf Christchurch, and Trevor Charles, only nm of Mr and Mrs W. Gopseman, ot Spreydon. The Rev. Canon W. S. Bean was the officiating minister. The bride, who was given away by her eldest brother, Mr F. Ward, wore a model frock of ivory georgette, with sprays of orange blossom and silver tassels. Her embroidered veil fell from a coronet of silver lace and orange blossoms, and she carried a bouquet of Christmas lilies and white carnations and fern. , , She was attended by Miss Thelma Gooseman. Dunedin, who wore pale rink, satin and georgette, and a black flower-trimmed hat, and carried a louquet to tone. Three small bridesmaids. Misses Rexi, Goodwin, Vonie Buckett. and Ethne Buckett, wore mauve crepe de. chine and lace petal frocks, ana carried, baskets of pink carnations and maiden-hair fern. Mr H. Olsen attended the bridegroom as best man. A reception was held later at the Selwyn street Hall, where the guests were'received by Mrs Buckett, wearing petunia crepe de chine and a white hat with flower to tone. She carried a bouquet of deep red sweet peas and fern. Mrs Gopseman wore navy crepe de chine and a black crinoline hat, and carried a bouquet of red flowers. When the bride and bridegroom left later by car, the bride was wearing a beige model frock, hat to tone, and smart black repp coat. SEX IN ATHLETICS. (JROM OUB OWB COBRESFOJfDENT.) LONDON, November 16. . "The statement by a woman Channel swimmer, that woman can equal and even surpass men in athletics is just nonsense," said Dr. Harry Campbell, in a lecture before the Institute ot Hygiene. Man's greater height, he pointed out, depends upon his longer nether limbs, hence women are bad runners. There was no such difference in swiftness and muscularity in horses and dogs. Women have smaller lungs and fewer blood ■ cells—in the proportion of four to five. In women the vital fire does not burn so quickly as in men. It is thus obvious that women are not adapted like men for a strenuous muscular life. "This does not mean that they should lead sedentary lives they should seek to achieve and to maintain as high a level of physical fitness as their circumstances permit. Mentally, men and women differ in the realm of feeling rather than of intellect. Intellectually mon and women stand somewhat upon the same footing. While genius is more common in the male sex, so also is idiocy. "A woman should strive to retain the nimbleness of youth. The more a person can keep muscularly fit the better for physical fitness, and nimbleness not only. promotes well-being, but widens the range of vision. Dancing is a healthy occupation, but late hours are bad. While not wishing to hamper healthy frivolity, I feel compelled as a physician to ban night clubs. They cause more misery than happiness. The chief reason why women are not. great inventors is because they are not interested in inventions. Just as men have a passion for .mechanics, so women hare a passion for beautiful clothes."