Women the World Over

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 20, 14 April 1927, Page 4

Women the World Over

A WOMAN SCULPTOR

ONCE PAST FORTY In Melbourne a woman is becoming widely known for her work as an optician. She is Mrs. M. F. Gunn and as she is recognised as one of the leading sight-testers in the Victorian capital her views should carry some weight. The majority of women nowadays when they reach the age of forty require glasses while reading or working,” says Mrs. Gunn. “At this age women begin to suffer from eye-strain, which is an immense drain on their energy. Few realise this. They may not require glasses to see any better, but the glasses remove eye-strain, thus making the users less physically and mentally tired and at the same time preserving their eyes. Mrs. GUnn was quite definite on the subject. “And in my opinion,” she said, “the profession of optician represents an ideal career for women. It is somewhat of a puzzle to me that more have not gone in for it already.” A MONETARY TRANSACTION Evidently Princess Mary is a little superstitious. Opening a new hospital at Salop (Eng.) recently she was presented by the architect with a pair of gold scissors to cut the ribbon across the entrance. In exchange she gave the architect a ha'penny. IN BURMA The spread of woman’s emancipation in Asia is shown in a new place by the appearance of a woman' barrister in Rangoon. She is a Miss Hmee and she had to qualify for the English bar in order to practise in her native country. She is the first Burmese woman to so qualify. BAILIE OR J.P.? Why is. it that the word “bailie” bears itself with so much heavier a sense of dignity than the cognomen “J.P.”? In Greenock, Scotland, there are now four women on the town council, three of whom are councillors and one a “bailie.” If the new women bailies bring to their work the same spirited activity displayed by Scott’s famous “Bailie Nicol Jarvie,” who fought adverse conditions with a hot ploughshare, happy times are in store for Greenock. MADAME RABBITER Although rabbiting is an industry supposedly worked by men, woman really plays quite a large part in it and in Western New South Wales female rabbit trappers are by no means a rarity. In the morning Madame Rabbiter is up about six o’clock and goes her round, dresses whatever bunnies she catches and has them ready for the carter when he comes along to take them to the freezing works. Then she goes home to breakfast. Rabbiting is a W'ork that makes for physical fitness and when you see a woman out in the paddocks swinging along in her breeches, leggings, man’s hat and shirt, you will always be impressed with her healthy-looking complexion and springy stride.

BOOKS AND TEA Princess Lucien Murat, daughter of the Duke of Rohan, a descendant of an illustrious French family, has opened a tea-room bookshop in Paris. This little place is patronised by distinguished writers and artists and is called “Ferme la Nuit” (Closed for the Night) after a book of that name by Paul Morand.