JOYS OF A MAYORESS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 143, 19 February 1915, Page 7

JOYS OF A MAYORESS.

ENGLISH LADY'S EXPERIENCE To bo mayoress of a borough is the highest local honour tha can be conferred upon a woman. Which thought consoles her, to some extent, for iuumorable inconvenience. Many people look at the life of a mayoress from one point of view only, writes the mayoress of an English borough. They see only the glamour of it. I have seen the other side, for the present is the third occasion on which my husband has been elected chief magistrate of the borougii in which we live. 'My public duties cause me to be practically a stranger to home life. I have to attend official services at churches and chapels, distribute prizes to school children, be prosent at sports gatherings, grace innumerable banquets with ray presence, work unceasingly in the cause of charity, receive hundreds of callers, organise soup kitchens and distributions of clothing in the cold weather, and be here, there, and everywhere. Of my husband's society I enjoy but little. In the mornings he lias to attend the police courts, and then go on fc his room at the town hall to deal with his correspondence and his visions. Following this, there is probably a public luncheon at which his presence is desirable. In the afternoon he may have to attend a football match, a wedding. a funeral, or give away prizes. And iu the evening if he is not attending a public dinner—he is forced to dine out three times a week at least—he "will be present at some committee, public meeting, or charity organisation. I have more new dresses during my year-of office than any other year. The poorer classes thiuk my powers are limitless. I am bombarded with requests to stand godmother to children and to alio;-.-them to be named after me to obtain tickets of admission to hospitals, infirmaries, and workhouses, while more thari once I have received letters asking me to provide a couple of dress circle seats for the local theatre. And even when the corporation horses which collect the. dust assemble for their annual parade I am expected to attend and present each gaily-bedecked equine with an apple or a carrot, and the driver with some sll- | ver coins. An incessant round of gaiety, a lot of hard work, the constant enraging of dresses, the giving up of home life, being deprived of the society of one's husband, and a thousand pounds' less into the bargain, makes me grow a little discontented at times. Indeed, were it not for the fact that I am helping my husband, serving my fellow citizens, and that I have the bump of local patriotism strongly developed. I think 2 should be tempted to g> on .strike!