Feminine Interests

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 401, 9 July 1928, Page 5

Feminine Interests

HAMILTON NOTES (From Our Own Correspondent.) Miss N. Jackson left to-day for a holiday in Tauranga. Miss Vera Capper, of Hamilton, who has been teaching at Kawnia, has been transferred to Hokianga. Mrs. Thomsen, of Puketahe, who is leaving shortly for a long tour abroad, was the guest of honour at a pleasant, afternoon given by Mrs. F. R. Seddon on Wednesday. Mrs. Thomsen has been an enthusiastic member of the Puketahe Croquet Club, and the members asked her to accept a leatherbound diary. Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Dickey and Mr and Mrs. W. McLean, of Walton, who have been motoring through the Taranaki district, returned home this week. Miss R. Miller, of Feilding, is the guest of her sister, Mrs. N. c. East, of Walton. Mr. and Mrs. O. R. Farrar, Mr. and Mrs. Wyvern Wilson and Miss Kathleen Wilson, of Hamilton, were recent callers at New Zealand House, London. Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Polglase, who have lived at Wardville tor the last 12 years, are leaving shortly to take up farming in the Rotorua district. Last Monday evening a number of their friends visited their home to farewell them and make gifts. To Mrs. Polglase they gave a handsome dressing case, and to Mr. Polglase a set of military brushes. MORNING TEA AT BISHOPSCOURT On Friday morning Mrs. C. A. Cherrington entertained Hamilton and visiting members of the Diocesan Council of the Mothers’ Union to a morning tea party at Bishopscourt. The rooms looked very attractive with their big bowls of blossom, and cosy fires. LUNCHEON PARTY The visiting members of the Diocesan Council of the Mothers’ Union were entertained at a luncheon on Friday given by tire local members in the Wattle Tea Rooms. The decorations of the room were most artistically carried out in yellow jonquils and berries. Mrs. Barnett, the president of St. Peter’s branch, and Mrs. Beeche, the president of St. George’s, received the guests. Those present were: Mesdames. Mailing, Hitchcock, Holloway, Warren, Kay 11, Kemnthorne, Lionel Harvie, Jones (Frankton Vicarage), Turner, Gentles, Robertson, Kent-John-son, Mclnnes, Plowlett, Sandford, Luckland, Gilfillan, R. Clark.

BRIDGE PARTY • On Saturday evening Miss E. Norrish and Miss E. Wright gave a charming little bridge party at their home in Gray Street. Miss Norrish was wearing a handsome frock of black ring velvet and gold lace. Miss Wright was in a becoming frock of bottle green velvet. The guests were: Mrs. Sinclair Arthur, Mrs. S. J. Bennett, Mrs. Pringle Nelson, Mrs. Oswald Smith, Mrs. Walders, Mrs. E. English, Miss. M. Hodgson, Miss R. Burley, Miss Sherer, Miss El Sherer, Miss Turner, Miss E. Bourke, Miss O. Rowe, Miss Murray and Miss Spencer. WOMEN’S DIVISION OP NEW ZEALAND FARMERS' UNION The women’s division of the Farmers’ Union held its monthly meeting in the Winter Show Hall on Friday afternoon. The hall had been charmingly decorated with bright streamers, palms and autumn flowers and foliage. After the business meeting the members of the women’s division and also many members of the farmers’ division had a jolly party for Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Green. A splendid musical programme had been arranged. Songs were given by Mrs. Sherley, piano soios by Miss Mclntosh and recitations by Mrs. Green and a boy visitor from Horsham Downs. Mrs. Duxfleld, president of the division, asked Mrs. Green to accept a present. Mr. T. H. Henderson, of Horsham Downs, paid further tribute to the work of Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Green in the district. He thanked the women’s division for the invitation they had extended to the men to be present. The present consisted of a handsome manicure set, in a stand, a silver powder bowl, and a silver photo frame.

Among the guests were: Mesdames Duxfield. Greene, Stubs, Sherley, Shaw, Houlden, Cuidaille, Jamieson, A. Ramsay, Mclnnes, W. Ramsay, Jones, Thompson, Middlemiss, Henderson, Bell, Watkinson, Fleming, Feisst, Raw, Jones. Minchen, R. Allen, Misses Bell, Mclntosh and Elvey. CONFETTI FOR FROCKS Nothing is smarter this season than the spotted dress, and smartest of all is the one which is spotted in several colours. In fact, confetti effects lead the way, though few fabrics are actually printed in this manner.

There are several methods of securing confetti-spotting, some of which mean very little trouble. Should it be desired to ally a spotted jumper to a plain skirt, the simplest way is. to mark out the spots with the aid of a farthing in a seemingly haphazard way, being careful to avoid extreme regularity. Fill in these circles with chainstitch, using different colours, such as purple mauve, orange, yellow and various shades of green, on a beige ground, or pastel shades of pink, blue and green, on white or grey.

Small circles cut from suede of different liues will look effective on sports clothes. Leather scraps can be bought inexpensively for the purpose from leathercraft centres. To finish off the spots neatly, gold thread should be worked over the edges in blanket stitch. Wonderful confetti effects can be achieved upon soft satin simply with a brush and water-colours, but experiments should be made beforehand on a scrap of the material in case the colours are inclined to “run” on it. White spotted muslin lends itself well to embroidered or painted decorations, each spot being coloured differently from its immediate neighbour. This idea is specially suitable for little folks’ frocks. “LOtHESEr’:

OUR BABIES By Hygeia. Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society). “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top o J : a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.”

“Most of us have had plenty of personal experience of colds; but we do not usually take the trouble to marshal the symptoms and to notice the fact that they are just what We find in the rarer diseases which we all dread under the name of ‘fevers?’ In the case of colds, familiarity tends to breed contempt; but we should remember that far more children die of colds and their evil consequences than die of scarlet fever, measles, and all the other diseases of infancy put together, with the exception of infantile diarrhoea, and even that is predisposed to by the baby being subject to colds. Further, the same measures which render a child hardy and resistive to colds, and capable of throwing them off readily, also tend to render him safe as regards all other fevers and illnesses. BABIES’ COLDS “A cold, which is a fever —an ‘illness’—is a serious thing in the life of a baby. Yet children have often half a dozen colds in the first year of life, each one a check on progress which could have been avoided. “The leading authorities on the nose and throat are now satisfied that, along with such causes as careless bottle-feeding, the use of the dummy and pap-feeding (all of which lead to defective growth of the tongue, mouth, jaws, teeth and nose),, repeated colds are the main cause of adenoids.” THE PREVENTION OF GOLDS The most important means of inducing immunity and warding off colds are these:— (1) Proper diet—-breast-feeding during infancy. (2) A sufficiency of daily, active exercise. (3) Sufficient outing and exposure of the skin to the stimulating and bracing effects of moving air and alternating atmospheric heat and cold. (4) The surest of all preventives—namely, the morning cold tub. “All these measures are valuable because they provide sensory exercise. This is most important, because it is what Tuns us.’ It comes to us mainly through the skin, and is the main source of the stimulation of all our bodily machinery, including even the involuntary muscles. The essential vital organs (nerve centres, heart, lungs, digestive and excretory organs, etc.), depend for their incitements to activity almost entirely on stimuli coming to them through the sensory nerves; hence one cannot overstate the advantage of pure, fresh, free-flowing air day and night, of open-air outings, especially in the sunshine, and of the cold bath. “A large amount of exercise should be taken from a very early age, in the form of vigorous suckling, kicking, waving of the arms, and so on, and later on by crawling, walking, running and playing out of doors. Every such activity should be encouraged. “We are all of us so accustomed to the idea that a baby should be bathed in warm water until toward the close of the first year at least, that it comes as a shock to many people that it is a good thing fqr a normal, healthy baby to have a spongeful of cold water squeezed over the head and body before coming out of the warm bath from, say, three or four months of age —yet such is the case, and if the procedure is gone about in the right way the baby thoroughly enjoys the stimulation. Needless to say, he should receive a vigorous rubbing down with a dry, warm towel, and care should be taken to ensure a thorough warmingup afterwards. Needless to say, also, the child should be gradually habituated to cold water, starting by using water only a few degrees cooler than the bath water. The habit of the cold tub, established in babyhood, should unquestionably be carried on throughout childhood and adult life.” PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM INFECTION “Although children brought up on these lines are almost germ-proof, it is very wrong for people suffering from colds to kiss or fondle a baby or young child. A cold should be regarded as an infectious disease, at least as far as babies are concerned. PNEUMONIA “Even among babies under the supervision of the Plunket nurses bronchitis and pneumonia are the most frequent causes of death, and the majority of the deaths from pneumonia take place during the winter months. “From the remarks in this and the foregoing article it will be seen that the best way to prevent pneumonia and chest affections generally is to build the child up to be strong, hardy and resistive to disease. In nothing is good common sense more necessary and desirable than in this matter of rendering children hardy without going to extremes or risky exposure. Nothing predisposes so strongly to colds, bronchitis, and perhaps fatal pneumonia as coddling in warm, stuffy rooms. At the same time, fresh air, cold sponging, unhampered exercise, and so on, should all be regulated by the light of common sense, and no baby should ever be allowed to get chilly and miserable or be exposed carelessly to infection. 'Good mothering’ sums up the whole thing—sane, enlightened, and intelligent mothering.” j

LEAGUE OF NATIONS UNION The aims of the League of Nations Union were described by Mrs. John Cook at a meeting at Mrs. Eton Bond’s Mount Hobson home. New union members were enrolled and a vote of thanks was given Mrs. Cook.

THE WOMAN THE “MAN’S MAN” LOVES There is one woman of my acquaintance who is really hailed in a spirit of frank and genuine camaraderie by menfolk. The “man’s man” type. With no frills on, so to speak, beyond the ordinary decent courtesies of everyday good manners that men exchange. She has even attained to the breathtaking eminence of sole woman-mem-bership of a mysterious masculine fraternity that foregathers in a barn of a room to play jovial but expert bridge to a running accompaniment of epigrammatic persiflage. Do not run away with the wholly erroneous idea that this woman is in the plain-Jane-and-no-nonsense category. If she were (said she, with feline fervour), she would not be so popular with the lords of creation. Not even with those most prone to appreciate, in homeliness of feature and benevolent goodwill, a rest from the crystal-gazing role. On the contrary, she has outstanding CHARM. Spelt with capital letters throughout. She has what we are still pleased to define as a masculine wit, allied to quintessential femininity on all counts save one. She never exploits that femininity—not, that is to say, with Garden of Eden labels stuck all over it—in her comradeship with men. I have heard her called “old chap” so naturally and spontaneously that I realised the affectionate salutation had slipped out with unguarded ease. Despite her eloquent eyes that could so easily put over the come-hither fascination if she were so disposed. But such traditional tactics are tabu. She epitomises the permanent drawing-power of superfemininity whose long suit is to keep a leash on feminine importunities, while guarding the intangible aura of feminine allure. There are no staged caprices to irk a man’s content and ultimately to weary him; no tempera-mentally-paraded moods to baffle his uninterrogative philosophy and alienate his unsubtle heart.

This accepted comrade of the “man’s man” type would not be a woman were she innocent of pride in her achievement. Because she is so quintessentially a woman, it is a pride that inspires her to make a vigilant fine art of unobtrusiveness, mated to a rich mental conviviality, submerged at her strategic will in the shared silences of her companions, or made subtly provocative of their own choicest conversational efforts. She shapes her charm to contours so subtle that it ensures her the unswerving loyalty of the sex that is allowed to absorb it subconsciously. The perfectly sweet man-creature who hails her as “old chap” would be the last to believe her guilty of exquisite and indefatigable guile! E.V. OCTOGENARIAN GREETED MRS. J. E. NICHOLAS’S 89TH BIRTHDAY Flowers and gifts were among the congratulations given Mrs. J. E. Nicholas at the Ayr Street home of her daughter, Mrs. E. L’Estrange Barton, when she celebrated her S9th birthday yesterday. Among those who called to greet Mrs. Nicholas were: Lady Sinclair Lockhart, Lady Nolan, Canon and Mrs. James, Canon Grant Cowen, Professor Mrs. Algie, Mrs. Moss, Mrs. Kemp, Mrs. G. Kissling, Mrs. Adams, Miss Turner, Mrs. Wynne Williams. Mrs. A. Thompson, Mr. and Mrs. Clutha Mackenzie, Mrs. Trevor Holm den, Mrs. A. Gillies, Mrs. Pritt, Mrs. Brodie, Miss Heywood, Mrs. Beaumont, Mrs. Bailey, Mrs. Lawrence, Mrs. Stedman, Miss Hargrave, Miss De Renzi. Mrs. Roberts 'and Miss Roberts assisted Mrs. Barton in entertaining the visitors during the day.