A CRISIS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 478, 10 April 1909, Page 10

A CRISIS.

BEING A TALK WITH MOTHER. [Contributed.] "When I was a girl," said Mrs. Silverley gontly, "wo had two or threo print dresses and a muslin 'best* for the summer, and a stuff gown for tho winter. That's all we had, dears, and 1 think, nay, I am sure, we had as happy a time as you. "But there wero no fashions, then, mother," said Enid. "Oh, yes, there wero—they did not change every six weeks as they do now, but they did change, and some wero very pretty evon if they only applied to tho cut of a print dress." "Was money tight then, mother?" asked Mabel. , • ' "I don't think it was. I can't remember. I don't think wo thought about those things so much as tho people seem to do now. Tern girls 'don't seem to caro for anything but now dresses, and your mirror. When I think what you girls cost to dress, I don't wonder that your father looks worried— the bills aro positively alarming. Look at that—ono Princess gown, £7 75.; trimmings, £1 55.; extras, 45.. Cd. Why, for less than that money your grandmother would have bought a silk gown that would have lasted

her ten years; this will be in the secondhand shop at this time next year, and Princess gowns will not be heard of. This sort of thing is why we never can save. If anything were to happen (here the voice trembled and the lips quivered the least little bit) I don't know what wo would do. : ' "Now, mother, don't talk like that —we can't help it," said tho observant one, withthe. book on her knee. "It seems to me that we are all living in a fool's paradise, without a -thought for the future. If we don't do as others do wo shall bo ■ marked for social extinction. Would you allow us to go to Miss Vernon's 'afternoon' to-mor-row in print frocks—now, would you?" "My dear 1" .' "No, of course you wouldn't—everybody would say—'What on earth is Mrs. Silverley thinking of to send those girls out like that I' or something like it, and that would be the end of tho print rigs. It's been a long drift, my dear mamma, and wo had to swim with the current or go under— socially." "I suppose you are right, Edie," said tho mother resignedly, "but where it is to end, I don't know. What I do know,'is that Lady

I'lunket let the truth slip when she first arrived from England, and a number of pcoplo aro beginning to realise it now. People, whoso husbands or fathers aro getting £200 a year, want to dress as well as thoso getting £1000, and tho £3 a week man's wife dresses. her babies in silks and lawns that would do for tho wealthiest infants. How they do it is a puzzle, but it is so, and how it is all to end rather worries me." "You dear mother; don't you realise that this is New Zealand, and vo are a democracy. Jack's as good as his master —." "Yes," said Mrs. Silverloy, "but ho doesn't earn tho same money." "I said ho was as good as he," said Edio,' "and ho tries to make good by dressing his wife and children well. How ho does it is best known to tho draper, and he won't tell. Lots of peoplo come from abroad to study us as if wo wero some curious exhibit, but none of them havo been ablo to solve tho riddlo you aro trying to. ' Ono thing will do it, but don't let's mako ourselves miserable talking of it. I'm off to bed. Good night."