WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 212, 6 March 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

{Conducted bj "Eileei.") AMERICAN FASHIONS MAORI WOMAN AS CRITIC. A Maori woman Hini Rawei, is in Chicago with her husband on a lecturing tour, and the following alleged interview with her is given in the Chicago Sunday Examiner:— "For large-built women to wear fashionable tight skirts is the same a» t» try to get a 20-inch man through * 14-inch hole—you might get him in, but you can't get him out," said the dreamy-eyed Maori. ''ln New Zenland the native women don't dress §o absurdly, and imagine they are fashionftble. "Now, another thing about your women," she added. "They go to clubs until they can't see straight. One woman was a member of 20, and when she joined the 21st she told a friend, 'I did so to get rid of the other 20.' What with being members of clubs, mistresses of homes, good wives—and existing! Oh!" Here, came a most wonderful expression of earnestness and emphasis into Mme. Rawei's eyes. "And then their ideas ,of entertaining are so funny. They invite a whole lot of people in for afternoon tea. They fill the room; they jamb it till the doors bulge out"; the 1 women chatter—then leave. New Zealand women have not so much company I as friends! "And then these mothers let their girls out on the streets iate at night! Oh, my! Why, in New Zealand they lock them up atn ight, and if the girl goes Out the people wag their heads and say, 'Too bad, and she used to he such a good girl, too.' She is out of the pale, that's all. And you pamper your girls too much. Let them breathe. They won't get cold. New Zealand children live out of doors all the time. Every native child swims when a babe. Why, j there was a little baby girl two years old I who fell in a well—and drowned—contrary to all precedents. The only comment on the death of this little girl was: 'Why didn't the girl have sense enough to swim?' And our native women all ride horses—in any fashion—bareback or any other way outside of a circus; some can ride that way, too. In the interior they still hold to the good old practice of throwing their children into the nearest river when they wish to punish them, and when they swim to shore throw thejn back again and again until exhausted. Then they put them to bed: "If you put children on cushions at

their ease they will have cushion muscles and cushion brains. They need to get out and run. And another thing young men and women don't use in New Zealand is rockers. We sit erect in straight backs. The rockers we preserre for old people and frail ones."

GUARDING SPRING FASHIONS SPIES AT WORK IN THE WORLD OF DRESS. London, January 17. There is rivalry greater than that of Dreadnoughts, or aerial fleets, of scientific discoveries, even of cricket teams. While the nations of the world are foolishly vying with each other in futilities of this kind, questions more numerous and far-reaching are being decided behind drawn blinds and locked doors in the four great capitals of Europe. In London, Paris, Vienna and Berlin the arbiters of fashion hold separate and secret council, designing, combining, evolving and realising. But when these creative geniuses wipe their brows and gaze satisfied at the ".mbodiment of a cherished thought, they •re still haunted by the fear of the nemy. To their minds, detection may be seated at their very board, and treachery lurk behind the chair. Experience shows that no precaution is superfluous, and that betrayal at the eleventh hour is more than possible. Thus stupendous plans have been baulked, and the laurels wrested from an anticipating victor.

"No," the head of a great London house said with sombre determination, "decidedly not. We can give no indication Whatsoever of the nature of the model which we will launch in the spring. They are locked up in the strong room. The faintest hint of what lias been composed during these weeks of strenuous mental effort would spell disaster to our ftrm. Already we are surrounded by enemies, and London- is at this moment swarming with foreign spies, more subtle and un■scrupulous tha!n any with whom the Admiralty or War Office have to deal with. "Do we take an interest in Continental fashions? Why, certainly!" with a bland smile. "But our experts who are studying abroad could scarcely be comprised in the category to which I have just alluded. As an artist studies the different schools of painting, so must the fashionable designed be acquainted with all modern manifestations in tht universe of dress."

A HUSBAND'S VENGEANCE WEALTHY RANCHER SHOT IX A CROWDED HOTEL. New York, January 14. A telegram from Fort Worth, Texa,?, states that yesterday evening Mr. J. B. Snead, one of the wealthiest ranch-own-ers- in Texas, shot and killed Mr, A. B. Boyce, another wealthy rancher, in the crowded hall of the Metropolitan Hotel at Fort Worth. .Mr. Boyce recently eloped to Winnipeg with Mrs. Snead, who is stated to be mentally deranged. Mrs. Snead later returned to her husband, and the shooting is believed to be the outcome of the elopement. Mr. Snead entered the hotel without speaking, drew out an automatic revolver, and shot Mr. Boves four times.