MAKING AN AUSTRALIAN MAGAZINE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9410, 2 April 1909, Page 3

MAKING AN AUSTRALIAN MAGAZINE.

There must be a limit to the amount of reading matter a_ magazine editor can afford to give for sixpence, and we thought The New Idea had reached that boundary with its last enlargement. But the April issue comes along with the notice that there is still another change for the better. It is eight pages bigger, is printed on better paper, ; and decided improvements in general get up have been made. The editor announces that, in response to a general demand for more fashions, he has engaged an expert to control a complete fashion section. This opens with an authoritative article on the trend of fashion, and is followed by sixteen pages of the very latest designs—l3o in all. But, though the fashion side of the The New Idea has been so strengthened, a sufficient number of pages have been added to the reading matter, so that those who are not particularly interested in the world of fashion shall not suffer. Conspicuous among a number of special articles is a finely illustrated account of a “Day in Fiji,” by Charles Nuttall; an entertaining description of a free Kindergarten by W.. A. Somerset, and a series of interviews and sketches by Lillian Turner, Katherine Prichard, and others. Un the practical side, several new series begin with this number. For example, Mrs M. Wiehe, an authority on the subject, contributes the first of a number of articles on the making of a home; the idea being to show women how to make ;tbeir houses 'beautiful as well as useful. Rosa Campbell, needlework expert, shows patterns and gives directions for a new style of lace, as well as a choice selection of designs for advanced needle workers. The very latest style of hairdressing is shown in three photographs specially taken by Talma and the method of acquiring it is explained very carefully by Mrs Ward. Side by side with this article is one by a beauty expert, which is the opening chapter of a course on reasonable methods of making the most of, and adding to, such attractiveness as Nature has seen fit to bestow upon the reader. | Of the fiction, it would be hard to speak too highly. The stories, both short and long, have evidently been chosen with great care, and they are fine, wholesome tales of everyday life. Throughout the magazine there is a distinctively serious strain; the girl who ;oan keep a secret is written about by Henrietta P. Serjeant, and “What Shall I Tell My Little One* ’ is a very charming page that every parent will appreciate. Altogether, it is an astonishingly ample sixpenoeworth.