IN OTHER LANDS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 26, 25 October 1907, Page 3

IN OTHER LANDS.

.Tho .subject.of,, cookery ; isbeing-made a much more .unportaiit ,factor- in the educarS'i i, glr S thin hitherto. bm schools are' being founded in various parts of the country, and a State inspector --a quite ■ new; official-hiis been appointed.' Tho Urst to occupy : this position is a lady, Fru Bngitte. Berg Nielsen. By the now law just passed women will be elected on to the chan.ty .boards 5 : of .Denmark -..That centre of intellectual life, the City of as decided upon taking a new step m tho education of girls. Shortly there will to opened m this city, a Girls' High School w),'; i ra ® f : - S ' "'M-' aim and-.object- of which, is to girls .whose tastes and talents he in, a' practical rather than in a intellectual .direction. A course at the school, will cover a period- of. four; years, --'M 8 r two. classes of "iris— those who; wish to, .well trained for-home hfo; and those who will havo to iabour for .a: living; - ' . Th'o date of* the first:congress\of tho National Council of ;Womon' in Italy lias been fixed -1908. The'congress will bo neld_ at[ Rome under the auspices iof the President, La Comtcssa; Gabriello Spallotti. ~ Ihe eyes of all those;.interested in women's work are fixed at the present-time on Firir l .'. Amongst the Bills' already introduced by jiho w?men who in March last were elected members of Parliament is (1) dealin" with .woman s legal position: all parties consider , that the justice and sound development of. the Finnish nation require that mail and_won:an shall be equal iij- social "arid Jfpl respects; (2) concerning tho position of illegitimate j children ; (3) the enlargement of the. mQthor s-right to her children; "(4) tho raising the ago of marriage from fifteen to eighteen years. " Of the nineteen women members; seven are teachers, three are editors of. papers, three are the wives of workmen (peasants), one the wife of a minister onc_the wife of another M.P.; ono a textile worker, ono a dressmaker, one is an agitator (propagandist), and one officer of tho°Socinl Democratic Woinen's Club.

Thc : animal confnroncc of tho National Onion: of Women' Workers is to be hold in Manchester this week, and is to deal pro minently' with ' subjects affectine women'" employment-. Some of the chief' lonics are to be the position of women in skilled and unskilled, industries as, paid ' workers- as teachers, and as school inspectors; the' relation between men's 'and women's labour • and tlic wage-earning of married women! There will be an important meeting 1 to discuss women's trade unions and the co-opera-tive. movement.

Recent investigations into the conditions of the workors in the laundries of Franco have been made by La Ligue Sociale d'Achctonrs, and have revealed • a state of things which is far from satisfactory. The art of "blancliissage" . is brought to such perfection Mn-France that 'itseems natural to assume it must bo performed under ideal conditions. Such, 'however, is not the case. Tho health of tho women workers alone

gives cause for alarm. Those women become in, large numbers tho victims of consumption, and suffer from; other serious and unpleasant diseases to an extent which no class of human creatures should, if their work is healthy. Then their wages are very variably, and they sufFor, especially in Paris, from periods of slackness and depression. Sinco they number nearly l a hundred thousand in l'aris and tho neighbourhood, it is felt that tho time has come when some serious effort should bo made to ; ameliorate their lot. This the Liguo Socialo d'Acheteurs is endeavouring to accomplish. ' A movement is being initiated in certain quarters in France to bring about the ropre : sentation of women on juries. It has long been felt that to try women for crime boforo a court whero : tho jury is. composed entirely of men is an unnatural 1 and-unfair proceeding. No man can understand the motives influencing a woman in a way that other women can,, and .if men prisoners get the benefit of being tried before a jury formed of tneir own sex it seems only reasonable that women should have a similar chance. A caso that recently came beforo tho Soine Assizes has roused the feelings of a large number of French women on tho subject, and resulted in an open letter being written to the members of the jury after the trial was over. Amongst the arguments used is one that if women are not fit; to servo'on a jury they should not be '-accused and'brought up beforo the courts, for their irresponsibility is the. only natural corollary consequent on their incapacity. ; .