SOCIAL AND PERSONAL

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1986, 17 February 1914, Page 2

SOCIAL AND PERSONAL

An "at Home." On Saturday evening an "at home" wa<s given by Mrs. Dainbridge in the Oriental Hay Kiosk, at which the prizes obtained by hor pupils for music and singing were awarded, the Rev. S. Ogden officiating. An enjoyable programme of instrumental music, songs, and recitations was contributed to largely by those wlm had been successful in obtaining prizes. Misses Irene Woodward, Don's Stevens. May Wilkinson, and May Leiiion played pianoforte solos; Misses Grant, Hunter, Maclure, Ola Richardson. Ward, Mr. Jones, and Master Rodney Pankhurst contributed songs,, and Misses Macdonald, Doris Stevens, and Master I'auklrilvst several recitations.. Mrs. Bainbridge played Chopin's ■ "Fantasie Impromptu," as Well as ail tho accompaniments, with the exception of 'one played by Mr. Ogden; Supper was laid on prettilv-decottitad tables in tho tearoom, and later the guests dispersed, after having spent a very pleasant evening. Wanganui's Carnival Queen. Great excitement centres upon the Queen of the Carnival electron in connection with the Beautifying Society's an* jiual floral carnival next month. There are twelve candidates for the honour, and their supporters are energetically working on. lines similar to the cletcion at the recent Napier carnival.—Special, correspondent. A .Book of Travels. "My.Wander Year; or Some Jottings in a Year's Travel" is the name of tlio book in which Mrs. Hobnail,.the wife of the Premier of New South Wales, has incorporated tha impressions of her visit abroad. Originally the greater number of. 'tho articles were published in the "Sydney Daily Telegraph," but 1 sinco the return to Australia of the writer she has had them collected and reprinted in book form. During the time spent in Groat Britain Mrs. HcJman saw a great deal that was of much interest and met-many people who loom largely before the public eye, and of them all sho has written vividly and with much informative knowledge. "Round About Loudon" covers, the first seventy or eighty of its pages, and in them Mrs. Holiuan pives her impressions of tho vastest mty in the world. It probably came as a surprise to some of W. readers to learn that "thcro is no grimo or grit fljiiywhere. I have never seen so much as a scrap of paper on a London and no awful garbage boxes decorate tho froiit entrances as in some cities one knows of.' Debris is got rid of. as. by magic." London's theatres, music-halls, its wonderful places of interest, its rich and its poor and liow they live are given glimpses of, and otto realises the tremendous fascination with which London binds to herself the visitor from over the seas, in spite of the awful poverty and grim struggle for existence that every now and again forces its way through the comfort, magnificence, and orderliness of its outward aspect. Tho Abbey Theatre and ,-th.e Irish Literary Revival are mentioned, and in touching upon Irish writers, Mrs. Hotmail briefly disposes of Mr. W. B. Yeats as he* ing "chiefly a word spinner"—a somewhat surprising ■ statement to make of one who' is pre-eminently the representative of tho Celtic genius. Mrs. Holman ■ also essays to esplain the secret of ..Celtic melancholy, a-somewhat difficult thing to do. Paris, its theatres, its gaiety ( its, fashions., and .its lionise* keeping make particularly .interesting reading and picturesque descriptions are given of the great cities and ports called at on tno voyage back to Australia. .""'■■