WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 71, 14 September 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by ••icueen"). NOTES FROM LONDON. A DISTINGUISHED WOMAX. London. August 0. Miss Mildred Eaton Dobson, M.A., B.Sc, has been appointed by the University Court of St. Andrew's warden of University Hall, the University residential hull for women. Miss Dobson is the youngest daughter of Mr. Austin Dobson, the well-known poet and essayist, and she is a brilliant graduate of St. Andrew's University. THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.

The vexed question of whether shorthand and typewriting should form part of the routine education of girls in L.C.C. secondary schools has reached a critical stage. A number of girls in the schools complain that their education does not fit them for clerkships, and they therefore ask to be taught shorthand and typewriting in school hours. In the case of two secondary schools arrangements have been made for these commercial subjects to ba taught after school hours, but the following warning has been issued by the L.C.C. Education Committee:—"Parents who make application for their daughters to enter a class preparatory for clerical work, on payment of an extra fee, have presumably satisfied themselves as to the prospects of employment in clerical work, or, if they have neglected to do so, the responsibility rests with them and not with the council." Miss Helen Bartram, M.A., head-mistress of St. Pancras School, gave her opinion this week that it is becoming increasingly necessary for girl» to specialise. "Many are bent on becoming clerks, and it is no use giving tnem an education that fits them chiefly for becoming teachers." she said. "French and German should be retained, but shorthand should certainly be included. The business of a school is to fit girls to earn a living—if they must—and they should have that education which fits them for the particular employment they desire. So long as other subjects are not unduly sacrificed, no harm should be done." A proposal to introduce sewing machines into the London elementary schools is also before the L.C.C. Education Committee. In the first instance, it is proposed to supply sewing machines, etc., to 20 selected schools. The cost of such an experiment is estimated at £577. but it is assumed that of this amount the cost of the ma terials (£200) will be realised by the sale of garments.

MADAME CURIE. An interesting description of Madame Curie, who has been called the cleverest woman in the world, was given to the writer a few days ago. Madame Curie is still a young woman, being not much over 40. Her features are distinctly Polish, but her forehead is wider than one is accustomed to see in a woman. She is tall and well built, and her manners are a trifle distant—some call her austere. As in the fitness of things her hair is her "crowning glory," and it is arranged in a great roll behind her head, absolutely innocent of tongs or curling pins. Again and again has society, especially Parisian society, tried to lure her into its centre, 'but the more it seeks her the farther she flees from it, and now society is getting tired of pursuing, and leaves her alone. ARTWORKERS' CUILD. The problem of assisting the distressed gentlewoman without recourse to charity in any form is being solved in happy fashion by the newly-formed Lady Artworkers' Guild. Premises have been secured in New Bond street, where paintings and pottery, art needlework and enamels, embroidery and woodwork, and, in fact, all that signifies art enlisted in the service of labor may be inspected by those interested in a meritorious movement. The objects on view represent the bona fide work of ladies whose adverse circumstances have been brought about by events they have been unable to control. TITLED WOMAN AS PROFESSIONAL FLORIST.

Lady Angela Forbes, who recently embarked on business as a florist, is one of the most successful "flower women" of the season. Very clever in her designs and original in her taste, she has been called upon again and again to beautify the houses of her friends. Lady Angela is a sister of the Duchess of Sutherland and Lord Rosslyn, and a half-sister of the Countess of Warwick. WOMEN REPLACE MEN. At a recent meeting of the Metropolitan Asylum Board it was decided, subject to the sanction of the Local f>overnment Board, to increase the number of women clerks at the head office from 8 to 10 by the appointment of two additional women clerks to replace two men clerks in the accountant's department. THE MARRIED WOMAN TEACHER.

A claim of great interest to married women school teachers came before Mr. Justice Channell in the King's Bench Division on Saturday. The case was one in which Mrs. Davies, head-mistress of an infants' school at Beaufort, Monmouthshire, being about to become a mother, was called on by the Ebbw Vale Committee to relinquish her position for five months. She sued the committee for £32 due as wages. The evidence showed that Mrs. Davies had been headmistress of the school since M) 01. In September last she was required by the committee to relinquish her position. As a matter of fact, the child was not born till the following January, nnd she could have gone on with her school work for another three months. The committee, after receiving Mrs. Davies' claim, had considered afresh the question of engaging married women, and the result was that her engagement would terminate at the end of the present month. In the witness-box Mrs. Davies said the agreement was that a head-mistress was entitled to a month's absence for illness with full pay. In giving judgment for the plaintiff His Lordship said the contract clearly was that if there was an absence for more .than four weeks the committee had a right to consider whether they would pay the teacher her salary for the time of prolonged absence. If the evidence before him had been that the plaintiff's condition was such that the commitee were apprehensive that any day they might be called upon to make arrangements for her absence, then he would have held that their action was right, but there was no such evidence, and he could not say that the absence of the plaintiff during the months of October and November was due to approaching illness. Therefore the plaintiff was entitled to recover the amount she claimed. PROFESSIONAL WOMEN 1 IN CANADA. The credit due to Miss Orace Armstrong, erstwhile of Dunedin, New Zealand's first lady dentist, who has now an extensive, practice in Sask.. Canada, and her sister, an always-occupied hospital nurse, is great when we read in the Montreal Daily Star the following pessimistic conclusion: —"One might run over the whole list of learned professions, and in nearly every case one would find that the door was closed to women in Canada, if not completely, at least so far as to : make it dillicult and uncomfortable to I enter."

GARDENING FOR WOMEN. <| I have been gathering information j on the subject of gardening for women \ (writes the London correspondent of the . Leader), and am amazed to find how popular a profession it is in Great Britain. Horticultural colleges and schools are numerous, for, like everything else nowadays, a special scientific training must be gone .through before a position can be accepted. Everything is getting so terrifically strung up to a scientific pitch that now even the position of lady companion, which was the one opening left for gentlewomen who had no special training for anything else, requires a special course of study in languages, bookkeeping, nursing, and dressmaking. For gardening a course of from three to four years' study is needed in order to turn out a thoroughly practical gardener. The groundwork of her career is laid in a sound instruction in botany, entomology, and the chemistry of the soil. In the case of students who are going to start a nursery or market garden of their own the subjects include bookkeeping, poultry farming, beekeeping, jam-making, and even dairy work. At most of the horticultural colleges students may enter for single courses, such as horticulture, full course, two years; dairy work, full course, one or two years; poultry keeping, full course, one year; and so on. But it seems to be a rather expensive business, as this training costs anything from £BO to £l5O a year. Where market gardening, which includes fruitgrowing, is taught, the surplus produce is marketed, and the students keep the books in connection with it. French gardening on the Cloche system (growing under glass bells) is taught, but is not encouraged, as it is very hard work, and j the profits are small. Floral decoration is part of the curriculum, for in the large country houses, where a great deal of entertaining is done, the gardener | is responsible for the floral decorations throughout the house. This is certainly the century of specialism, and even gardening has its specialists. Ladies who specialise as landscape gardeners, for which they seem to have a particular inspiration, can command a salary of from two guineas a week to two guineas a day. The jobbing lady gardener, who specialises in pruning, grafting, and so forth, receives as much as dOs 6d to 21s a day, which seems a good deal, but really it is not when one remembers that her work is not continuous throughout the year. For the ordinary gardener the hours are long, but the life is a supremely healthy one, though, perhaps, not exceedingly lucrative, unless the owner of a small farm and garden. There are situations to be had of head gardener at £IOO a year and house, light, and vegetables, but £OO a year with a cottage is the average salary, and under gardeners do not get more than £3O and residence. Private appointments are less wearing than starting on one's own account unless the enterprising gardener has a great deal of capital, tireless energy, sound knowledge, an excellent head for business, and spirit enough to face the bad seasons as cheerily as the good. Gardening, I am sure, would be a most successful career for Australian girls, and the progressive person who starts a college for women only on thoroughly practical lines such as are laid down by any of the various institutions here would, no doubt, make money over it.

GOWNS IN "OUR MISS GIBBS." It ia said that "Our Miss Gibbs," due here on Monday, September 25, is a succession of beautiful gowns from beginning to end. Miss Blanche Browne makes an exceedingly dainty and attractive "Miss Gibbs" in her simple tight-fit-ting frock of pale grey crepe de chine, with collar and cuffs of Irish lace, and dainty grey shoes and stockings. Miss Browne also appears in a very pretty froGk of cosmea pink ninon, with a long coat of charmeuse of the same shade. Miss Nellie Wilson, as Madame Jeanne of Garrod's store, wears a Princess gown of black crepe de chine, closely fitting, and having a fringe falling to the knee, where the swathe-like draperies end, to the hem of the skirt. Another beautiful dress is of shell pink ninon with a lace polonaise, and worn with a smart pink hat. Another beautiful dress in Wedgewood blue replaces this delicate confection in pink and white. Miss Florence Vic's first gown of grey ninon over yellow charmeuse is especially attractive, and tho colors are beautifully blended. In the second act the same lady appears in an elegant gown of white crepe de chine, swathed with emerald green. These a're only a few of the many exquisite frocks 'worn in "Our Miss Gibbs," and which arc shown to the best advantage in the splendidly mounted scenes, first at Garrod's and later at the White City.