A DEFINITION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 98, 18 April 1914, Page 4

A DEFINITION.

Sir Gerald Strickland, Governor of New South Wales, speaking at a meeting at the Royal Society's rooms, Sydney, undertook to give a definition of the word "wowser." A distinguished statesman from England, he said, had asked him the meaning of the term. He in turn had not asked the advice of his Ministers, hut had relied for his answer upon the definition recently given by a Premier of West Australia—one that would probably appeal to aritists as well as to all others who worked. The definition was that a wowser was a person who was very shocked at seeing two or three inches of open-worked stocking, but was not shocked at people getting too little remuneration for their work. His friend thought the definition hardly suitable for English appreciation, so he had had to think out one for himself. He had come to the conclusion that a wowser was the husband of Mrs Grundy. Everypne in England knew Mrs Grundy, even if' they did not in Australia. She had only one husband, and no followers. In these circumstances, if there was only one Mrs Gundy there could bo only one wowser, and they would wait to see who he was, until they saw the first objection raised to the proposal to encourage art by means of an art union.