ADORNMENT.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4740, 20 August 1924, Page 3

ADORNMENT.

THE WAYS OF MODEEN WOMEN. DU THEY WASTE TIME ON IT ? Canon Alexander has been criticising modern women for so often allowing “their opportunities fpr good to be hti'owii away in useless and trivial engagements or in time given to personal adornment of which the results in refinement an’d beauty did not always seem adequate to the labour expended." Theoretically, this indictment is perfectly sound with regard to numbers of women —though like all general statements it leaves out of account at least as many women as it takes in—but practically it seems to me rather useless .to inveigh against natural instincts (states John Blunt in an English exchange). From time immemorial women have had an instinct to adorn themselves, and the suggestion constantly put forward by moralists that the present feminine generation is more the victim of fashion than any previous generation is a complete fallacy. The truth is that every generation of women is frightfully preoccupied with questions of dress and of adornment. it its in feminine nature so to be, and it is just about as useful to say that the tjde ought not to come in as to say that women ought not to bother about such mundane interests. I am quite in accord with the canon when he asserts that the results bf all these efforts do not always seem to justify the trouble involved, but that fe a different question altogether. After all, the results of life do not always justify the trouble of living but that truism will not prevent people from living. Equally, to tell women that they often do not improve upon Nature, but just the reverse, will not prevent them in the least from trying to improve upon her. And, indeed, If women get great satisfaction from adorning themselves and imagine that they are either glv-

ing great satisfaction to others or causing great envy—either of which adds to their happiness—why should we be down on them ? It ip true enough that they spend money that could be spent in other ways, and it is also true enough that they spend time which could be spent in other ways, but if they are fulfilling an inner need of their nature, what can one say ? 1 have noticed that severely practical woman who despise dress and are addicted to higher thought are frequently, though not always, the possessors of extremely unattractive personalities. Their more frivolous sis--ter-® sometimes bring more happiness to the world, though’ their ideas are less exalted. Now, one may argue philosophically that this is all wrong, but it takes a very long time before philosophical arguments ehange the nature of mankind. In years to come it may be —though 1 doubt it—that women will cease to have any desire for adornment and will all adopt one type of simple and inexpensive cpistume. But I hope I shall have ceased to be alive by then, and I strongly suspect that even the husbands who now 1 groan audibly when they peruse their wives’ bills will object violently to the change. For if women like to adorn themselves, men like them to be adorned. So long as that double instinct exists I do not see women abandoning the contest, of fashion.