WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 158, 3 January 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.") CAPTAIN SCOTT'S BABY CHASE TO THE ANTARCTIC. Mr. Bums, of Messrs Band, Limited, (says the London Evening News) started from New Bond street on a 15,000 mile journey, to take Captain R. F. Scott, the leader of the British Antarctic expedition, a photograph of Peter, his baby boy. Captain Scott has not seen his heir for a year and a-half. The child was born in 15)09, and before he was old enough to speak his father had set out on his dash to the South Pole. Little Peter Soott has now grown into a fine boy, and Mrs. Scott determined to send her husband, as a Christmas present, two photographs of the child. They are not ordinary photographs, but are taken by the Kinora process—l2So photographs done up in two rolls, which, when wound round under a stereoscope, show Peter moving and laughing in play. The Kinora pictures are, in fact, kinematographs of Peter, in such a handy form that they can be packed up into a small box.

There are two rolls. One shows Peter playing with a ball, which at last he throws to the operator; the other shows him struggling with all the might of his two and a-half years to get out of a "nursery playground I " —one of those quaint pens to keep children safe. Finding he cannot get out, Peter makes? a face and threatens the operator with a stick.

The original idea was to post these Kinora pictures to Captain Scott, but Mrs. Scott found, too late, that the mail for the expedition had gone, and there would not be another for a year. So she and Messrs Bond, Limited, the proprietors of the Kinora process, have sent Mr. Burns overland to Marseilles, thence to New Zealand by P. and 0. liner, and thence to Victorialand and the expedition as best he can. If he is able, he is to catch the mail on the way out; if not, he is to push right into Victorialand and establish communication with one of the mail posts of the expeditionlonely parties, placed one every hundred miles, which keep Captain Scott and his crew in touch, in some kind of way, with the outside world. If he misse9 these, Mr. Burns is to gather a little expedition of his own, push inwards until he finds Captain Scott among the eternal snows, and deliver his baby's photograph into his hands. What the expedition will cost can hardly be estimated, for that depends on when the messenger overtakes the mail, with its two days' start. Neither is it known how long the journey will occupy, but, at all events, the bundles of films, which took half a minute each to take, will be months before they arrive in the fur-clad hands of Peter's explorer father.

QUEEN'S CORONATION GIFT. i The Queen has decided to devote the Coronation gift to her from the Marys of the Empire to a Holiday Home for Working Girls, in connection with the London Girls' Club Union, of which her Majesty is patroness. For this purpose a house has been bought at Whitstable, in Kent. When the amount collected from the Marys of the Empire for a Coronation gift was presented to the Queen, it was her Majesty's desire that the whole of it should be applied to some charitable purpose. The members of the committee, however, thought the donors, while deeply appreciating the spirit by which the Queen was prompted, would prefer that at least some portion of the gift should take a . personal form, and her Majesty, yielding to their view, agreed to accept a personal offering, while stipulating that the great bulk of the fund should be devoted to a, charitable object. The investiture of the Prince of Wales as a Knight of the Garter was then just approaching, and the committee decided, with the Queen's approval, to present to her, on behalf of the subscribers, the insignia of that noble Order set in diamonds. Messrs Garrard, the Court jewellers, were commissioned to carry out the work, and her Majesty wore the jewelled insignia on the occasion of the investiture at Windsor, which was one of the most notable ceremonies of Coronation year. Portraits of the King and Prince of Wales formed the other part of the personal offering, and it was authoritatively stated that the Queen would apply the balance of the fund to "an object very dear to her heart." Now that all the preliminaries have been successfully arranged and the necessary building acquired, her Majesty has authorised this announcement. Originally a cheque for £12,500 was handed to the Queen, but since then other sums have come in, including £7OO from Canada, so that the amount available for the home will be a considerable sum. The total is made up of subscriptions from every portion of the British Empire, as well as from British Marys living in foreign countries. South African Marys sent £233 15s, those of Victoria £266, New South Wales £73, New Zealand £2l, the Bahamas £o 9s lOd, British Guiana £sl, Queensland £124 13s 6d, South Australia £63 17s 6d. Scottish subscriptions numbered nearly 60,000 and Irish 31$0 Q. Yorkshire had the enormous total of 30,000 gifts, and other counties showed .lip well according to their area and po- ' puliation.

THE QUEEN IN INDIA WONDERFUL DEESSES. Ini.Va is a.country of gorgeous apparel and dazzling jewels, and the Queen ha» kept m mind the native love of the beautiful in choosing her gowns. Wonderful dresses of great variety of texture and design have been made for her Majesty. Some are of delicate silk of dainty coloring and adorned with priceless lace; some of rich silk or satin beautifully hand-painted, and others of delicate muslin or delaine, pure white or richly flowered. The cloaks and mantles include filmy cream and straw-colored gossamer-like coverts for day wear, and rich heavy fur mantles for evening wear. Her Majesty took with her to India the robes worn at the Coronation. They had been lightened as much as possible. The Durbar, the only ceremonial at which they will be worn, taking place in the day time, the great weight of the robes as worn in England would be too fatiguing. The hats and toques whick the Queen took for day wear have been designed so as to afford as much shade as possible to the face. They are made in a variety of delicate shades of silk, velvet and satin. Her Majesty's outfit is completed by a number of exquisite lace-covered or edged sunshades, some of them hand-painted, and all with handles of delicate manufacture, and many boxes of silk gloves of fine texture. The Queen lias several cases of jewels, chief among them being the beautiful diamond crown worn at the Coronation, in which is set the famous Koh-i-Noor. Her Majesty will frequently wear a lotusflower pendant of the purest diamonds in her corsage. The jewelled Orders will include the Insignia of the Carter, presented by the Marys of the Empire. Ropes of pearls and other priceless jewels will complete the list.—Sydney Mail. i