Jottings Of A Lady About Town

NZ Truth, Issue 1195, 25 October 1928, Page 19

Jottings Of A Lady About Town

Alarming People TO welfare-work or not to welfaref work— that is the question. In these days of . uneriiployrnent, . the young or middle-aged lady,' for whose

"pretties" Papa pays, feels that she is taking the bread ••■ from needy and much-annoyed rriduths if she enters Jnto competition with the : working ' classes proper. .".There! are, of course, original enter T

prises which a woman can take up, , but failing 'those, there is the huge 7 arid' thickly-populated field of welfare '; Work.' ■" . There are welfare workers and w'elw . fare workers. The .first requirement . of the woman, who warits -to take. up welfare work is tact. The- poor have their pride and their privacy and it is^not meet that> with th'eV.best inten•7 tions m the VoHd,' we should be allowed to damage: either of these. In that way\ the "sponger",, on social charity is made. One reads with • a certain amount of nervousness the ' statement ' -made^ m v Dunedin by Madame Paul Aaldaigne,

Belgian member. of the National. Coun-

cil of Women,-, .that. m. her .country, the ; ' Council members- have now the right of entry; into any home. But what a monument of tact, good sense arid' good heart must be the lady deputed to choose the representatives

who shall be given this right of entry! The Inquisitive woman, the patronizing woman, the clumsy woman whose spirit, indeed, is willing, but whose flesh is rather annoying when planted authoritatively .m one's kitchen— what a. keen eye and firm hand must be required to keep these out. 'Organized charity is, a contradiction

m terms. Charity must be .spori- > tarieous, arising from generosity of '•' heart. It must be 7humble, too, before " the greater suffering," greater experience and frequently greater endurance of those it visits. , .'' ' [' „ ■ •*.-•' - * ;• '*'7 : --7 . . Leader of Women lUIEET Mrs. Annie Fraer, daughter of - Dunedin's well-loved Sir George McLean, wife of Rev. C. A. Fraer,' of Phillipstown, Christchurch, and leader of New Zealand women. ... Mrs. Fraer is Dominion president of the National . Council of Women, an organization which has world-wide-branches and' aims .to become the - official voice of worneri throughout the . world. :■'.■■■■

Here m the Dominion, it has done-^---arid continues to do— magnificent work; its leader is" the- best type of social worker, free from the intolerance and prejudice' which so' ofteri characterize the woman who wants to "get things done," ,but who spends her time hammering. . brick -walls I- instead of looking for gate's^ -'-•-•; : /,

.Mrs. Fraer's many ■ activities have called for tact. She is the, vice-presi-dent Of the 1 League of Nations Union m New Zealand, the vice-president of the Canterbury 'Mothers' Union, and was, at the. regent : Pan-Pacific Conference,, leader of the. delegation of New Zealand women.

She lias some -exceedingly interesting. things to say about the conference, at which '. 150. delegates from the nations of the Pacific basin were represented.

All „ were housed m the beautiful buildings of the Pounahbu School and at the lavish social function np delegate was ever. !seate.d next to the same neighbor twice, so that real understanding was established between the races represented.

Mrs. Fraer is{ 'now chairman ; of the N.Z. Committee of 'Continuation, which,' as its name implies, is to carry Into • practice some of the conference recommendations and to make notes Jor use Q^ future- occasions.

After The Pact i • . THERE'S a new shop — and a dainty one — m town. The label it wears is just the one'woi'd "Accessories," but the gay window, soon makes the meaning clear. After my lady's gown is an accomplished fact, she is still far from the fully-feathered . state m which she prefers to face the world.

, are scarves, hankies, tiny feathered posies and glittering .handbags—all the last little touches which make a dress. . -'.'.•'"

And the accessory shop provides for these. It's rather handy, when one has just indulged m .a Sunday-best new dress, . tp^ be * able to fly m and' get at the. one shop everything wanted to make the -to\vn turn its head. ■';,;-, .« ' r - ' i k # - # * Greetings To Norma

WERY winsome— and very far fromthe "hard-as-nails" type of woman athlete— did. little Norma- Wilson look as she stepped off ..the gangway of the "Ruahine:" „-.7. -.7 !' 7. , ' Nomia.is just back from London and has.,dpne some: shoppirig there, as her pretty black coat, outlined with grey fur and matched with a .sriiall black velour hat,- bore witness. 7. The girl runner from Gisborne looked as fi-esh as-a claisy, .'despite the strenuous life she has ' been leading of late and the fact that . she spent most of her first night m. New Zealand unpacking.- She's, had a gay .time, but is glad —exceedingly glad— rt'o be home again, and isn't/ at ■-. all " sure that another Olympiad would tempt her away from these s.hores.i :.-.." ; -.. . . "All the team, and its helpers, were very kind,? . sai Norma, "but I d think, that trainer should b provided arid tha it should be mad easier, for tear iri embers' to ge massage. Th cinder tracksafter New Zea land's grassmade my muscle so sore that could hardl. move, but one of the men attached ;to the -team helped me out by a little massage. "But, as I was the only runner m the team, I had to run all alone; there was nobody to tell me faults m my style or to give me hints, so I found it rather hard to get back to form. "When we went to Amsterdam, I was rather disillusioned. Holland, which looks so quaint m pictures, is another thing m reality; the canals— l'm sorry to say it — actually smell. Amsterdam itself is a mathematically-planned city — -hot very -pretty.

"The course itself is wonderful. -First, comes the green oval of the track, then the red cinder running-path; then the steep,. white belt where the cyclists fly past at the most impossible angles; and, ' last, the stadium'- where the ci'owds sit, packed so tight and black that they look like flies.

"The women from different, nations didn't mix much, perhaps because ' of the language difficulty. ... I liked the Canadian "girls. best, I think, but almost every nation sent out some splendid types. .-..'' ' ' ..' • • "I' think the idea . of a woman's separate Olympiad quite good, but it is unfair .to suggest that women cause trouble m>a team. They are quite as keen m training as the men; I, for One, would have, .been glad of a harder system of training.'*. . _ __.