A DAY WITH A DUTCH WOMAN

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 229, 16 December 1927, Page 5

A DAY WITH A DUTCH WOMAN

I looked at the well-filled engagement list and gasped. “Surely, you can never keep all these in a day.” My Dutch friend smiled. “Oh, yes, there is time for everything, if you waste none of it.” Her early morning was taken up with housekeeping. Her dressmaker was coming at 11 a.m., and at halfpast she had to see a man about an electric stove in the kitchen. Then she was duo at a big official luncheon, after which she would be back home to take her two children for a walk. The afternoon hours would fly quickly, divided between a lecture on economics and a meeting of the town council. She was going to do some shopping in between, and she had to be home “fairly early,” as she and her husband were going out to dine and to a theatre afterwards. There were also letters to write and a call or two to make, and some English relations were arriving by the afternoon boat. She just might manage to meet them. Every day like this one? Oh! more or less. She sat on half-a-dozen committees, presided at a council, looked after an infant welfare centre, ran her large house with the help of three servants, went herself into every minute detail of housekeeping, and yet, while devoting so much time to purely official duties, she was no stranger to her husband and children. It seemed as though she had actually arrived at the ideal of a modern woman: a public servant and a perfect wife and mother combined. “And how do you manage to do it ” I asked. She smiled again. Her philosophy was simple and practical. No minute of her day was ever wasted and nothing she did was done in a rush. “If yon hurry, everything gets so slow,” was one of her quaint sayings. “Do one thing after another—steadily. Don’t clutch at two things at once and expect them to get done simultaneously. As likely as not, neither will come out. I don’t believe in women who can write their letters, interview the ccok and order a new hat at one and the same time. This is mere waste of energy.

LATE MRS. J. A. CAMERON Another pioneer, Mrs. J. A. Cameron, has died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. J. V. Wyborn, Te Aroha, at the age of 78. Arriving with her father, Dr. Florance, in the ship Captain Cook in 1864. Mrs. Cameron was married in 1872, at Levuka, Fiji, where her husband was engaged in planting. After seven years they returned to New Zealand and Mr. Cameron was engaged in farming In Hawke’s Bay and Taranaki, later living at Hawera for many years. Members of the family are Messrs. Herbert; Cameron, Brisbane; Augustus Cameron, Mangere; and Mawson Cameron, Onehunga; Mrs. J. V. Wyborn, Te Aroha; and Mrs. Tom Hastie, Pukekohe. A COIFFURE CAUSERIE The wave continues to form the basis, as it were, of every new style of hairdressing. Straight, sleek heads have quite gone out of fashion. One characteristic new coiffure mode is a : mass of tiny curls either all over the head or at the back only. This “bebe” ! hairdressing is beribboned for the I evening, or is encircled by a jewelled ; band. When waves, as distinct from curls, are the chosen coiffure foundation, M. lo coiffeur now' takes the waved tresses in a swirl right round the head, leaving the front brushed back from the forehead and the back close cropped. A style that is pure Greek in its inspiration is much liked by fashionable brunettes. The hair coming from the centre front is brushed in swirling waves on to the brow, where it turns back on the edges in little flat curls, like a Hermes statue. Derivatives from Empire modes are modified ringlets and a row of curls from ear to ear across the top of the head. Then there are various arrangements of curls at the nape of the neck, or in chignon style, indicative of hair-growing activities! Though the fringe is still in evidence, this season sees it limited to the thin, straight variety, with an uneven line.