WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 314, 30 May 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.") NOTES FROM LONDON. BIRTH-RATE PROBLEMS. London, April 7. Dr. J. F. Butler Hogan, medical officer for health for Tottenham, in his report on the health of that district, wrote: — "It ia, unfortunately, only too true that a gramophone has become more necessary in many homes than a cradle, and that the inhabitants of our popular centres have many of them hearts so sterile of child love or racial need that they refuse to be burdened with life's real riches. But understand this, the question is one of national importance. As a matter of fact, there are numbers of intelligent men and women here and elsewhere whose oft'spring would provide just the class that would be of use to the State, yet these are the very people who shirk their responsibilities as parents and citizens. The multiplication of the unfit goes on. Even in this district, with its population of 150,000," added Dr. Hogan, "it is noticeable that the birth-rate amongst the very poor in nearly five times as high as amongst that class which is usually designated 'comfortably off.'"

AN INFANTS' HOSPITAL. There is. in Vincent Square, an infants' hospital built and equipped by a Mr. Robert Mond as a memorial to his wife, who had taken deep interest in this work. Little ones suffering from the diseases and disorders of malnutrition are the patients, and the hospital is a centre for the treatment of infantile diseases and for the prevention of the conditions responsible for tuberculosis and other physical imperfections. There) are fifty cots in constant use, ten isola-. tion cots, a lecture theatre, and labora-' tories. I IDEAL LIFE FOR WOMEN. | Miss Stafford Northcotc is one of the I most prominent and successful women I farmers in this country, and owns a beautiful little dairy farm of her own' at Rbgate. At first, Miss Northcote undertook almost all kinds of work on the farm, it being what is known as a "mixed farm," but, finding that dairy farming pure and simple pays best, she now entirely confines herself to supply milk by contract to a firm. She worfrs early and late, getting up at four or five during the summer, and going on through the day. She attends to the poultry, in the season she takes part in the haymaking, and in the autumn helps with' the mangolds. Miss Northcote declares' that for a woman who possesses health and strength the life is a delightful one, and that women can help in almost all the work, except in one or two things, such as ploughing and rick-building, which call for too much strength. Also, she admits that women are at a disadvantage in a market buying and selling I cows.

BILLS CONCERNING WOMEN. | Mr. Philip Snowden, M.P., presented I Bills on Monday afternoon to enable | women to enter for appointments in the i Civil Service other than those in the,: Post Office; to render impossible the dismissal of teachers on their marriage; and to give women's claim for maintenance from their husbands without the intervention of the Poor Law authorities. AN ADVENTUROUS WOMAN. Mrs. Roby, who, it is said, is the first white woman who has travelled in the wilds" of Africa without an escort, and who has been out in New Zealand, has just returned from Central Africa. She is the wife of a distinguished brain specialist residing in Japan, and has had, for a woman, a remarkably adventurous career. She has explored many districts in China where no winte woman has ever been before, and has travelled widely in Japan and America. She was at Mukden during the Russo-Japanese, in boy's clothes, and went out to Australia as a nursemaid in order to study the problems of domestic service. A WOMAN ARCHITECT. It is good news to those interested in watching what women can do in the world to hear—after the disappointing conclusions of a masculine orator at the Women's Congress last year, that women did not take well to architecture as a. profession—that there is in New o.ork a very successful woman architect, Miss Fay Kellog. Medicine, according to an article in the Daily Telegraph, first claimed her attention,"but while pursuing her studies she devoted much time to drawing and mathematics, with the result that when she exhibited some of her work to the authorities of the Pratt Institute they broke all records, and admitted her to their architectural course. Here she not only made up two years' work in one, but acquired so much facility that now she writes her own specifications even for the plumbing and boilers of a house. After a period of training in an office she made her way to Paris, where she was the pioneer who obtained entrance to the Beaux Arts architectural course for women. At first the authorities flatly refused to accept her. Undaunted, she even went to the head of the Institute, only to meet the same adamantine denial. She quietly went on with her art studies, and was lucky enough to meet a deputy from one of the departments in the South of France. He was amused at her zeal, but came to see that she had right on her side. He got a law passed within ten days after her request admitting wo-, men to the course at the Beaux Arts. 1 Since she has been in business for herself; in New York she has done much good j work. She remodelled a block of five-' storey buildings in New York, and though she has a distinct reputation for bungalows, she> aspires to sky-scrapers. Architecture, Miss Kellog thinks, is a profession suited to women. They arc naturally home-makers, and from their practical experience they ought to know just what is necessary for comfort, and should be able to make the best of available space and material. WOMAN'S " FITNESS."

In a letter to the Times yesterday, Mr. Richard Whiteing, the well-known writer, says concerning women's intellectual fitness for a vote: "And, besides, what has the more intellectual qualifica-

tion to do with the matter? The more women differ from men in the point of view the greater the need for their cooperation at the polls. The vote is not a pass in« public examination; it is an attribute of citizenship. None of us get it because we are virtuous or preeminently intellectual; our claim is on the broad foundation of the right to have our say in public affairs." SCHOOL MOTHERCRAFT. A somewhat novel scheme of teaching what Lady Meyer recently aptly called "mothercraft" is in vogue in one of the schools in tlie Tottenham district. The scheme is a three years one, and two afternoon sections weekly are devoted to it. Practical demonstrations are given by the teacher on one afternoon, and the other is devoted to practical work by the girls, when each one does for Herself the washing and dressing of a celluloid baby doll, preparing and cleaning bottles, cutting out and making clothes, mending and darning, first air, metal polishing, and many other matters intimately connected with home life. Simple charts on infant feeding are hung on the walls of Seventh Standard class' rooms.

QUEEN ALEXANDRA. ■ Queen Alexandra, states the English i journal, The Lady, has been very busy : ever since her arrival from Sandringhora' [ at Marlborough House with the details of her installation. The general outlines had all been planned out beforehand by her Majesty, but it is only now that she has actually taken up her abode ■ jn the dwelling that was her home • for nearly forty years that she can reinstate herself satisfactorily. She always arranges every detail of her own rooms herself, and settles the place for each of her treasured belongings, although their name is legion. This was the case when, nine years ago, as reigning Queen, she moved to Buckingham i Palace and took possession of the splenI aid suite of rooms adjoining those of ' the King that face east over the garden I and Constitutional Hill. Then, as now, | her Majesty superintended the placing of every article of furniture and orna- , ment. She is very conservative in all I her ideas, and likes to surround herself I with the things to which she is aecustomI ed, and to find them in the same position : whenever she returns. It has been a J great grief to Queen Alexandra that j King King Edward died at Buckingham / Palace, since it could no longer be her home, and his room kept sacred by her./ Had the end come at Sandringham, shel would have had the consolation of feel-; ing that the spot associated with his last moments could always have remained to her loving kcepiii'.'. as h> the case in which the Duke of Clarence died. It remains cxactlv as it was when the Prince inhabited it, with all hi* familiar possessions in their usual plaices. The door is kept locked, and Queen Alexandra lias the key, and visits it herself each day when she is in residence in Sandringham. Marlborough House, like her Norfolk home, is full of memories of her former happy days, and it is in the widowed Queen's nature to cling to such associations, so that her return to the wene of her former life, though tinged with sadness, has no strange or unfamiliar element to strike a chilling note Queen Alexandra's time in London will be very brief; the King has lent her the Royal yacht, Victoria and Albert, and her Majesty, with Princess Victoria, will leave London on Monday and proceed straight to Genoa, where the yacht awaits her. She will go as usual to Athens and Corfu, and is likely to remain away until well into May.'