WOMAN’S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 April 1922, Page 10

WOMAN’S WORLD.

A NOTABLE PIONEER. THE LATE MRS. E. B. OSTLER. (By Sir Robert Stout in Auckland Herald.) Hardly a day passes without the mention, in one of our many newspapers, of the passing hence of one of our pioneers. I wonder if our young folk realise the “hardships”—though that word was not in current use in the early days of our Colony—which our pioneers had to endure? Low wages,’'no roads, no bridges, scant amusements, heavy toil, life on a lower plane than now, were ever present with us. Do our present pioneers—for we are still in the pioneer stage—re-echo the words of Whitman’s famous poem—- “ Pioneers, Oh, Pioneers”! Can they say:— We take up the burden and the lesson, Pioneers, Oh. pioneers. Perhaps reference to the life of one of our pioneers may stir up the spirit within us, so that our lives may be blessed. Mrs. E. B. Ostler, who passed away on Friday last, was one of our pioneers. I first heard of her about 36 years ago. I was engaged as AttorneyGeneral in a criminal prosecution for attempted murder. It was her mental ability and acumen that led to the discovery of the crime, and to the salvation of the life that was threatened. The criminal was found guilty and suffered condign punishment.

LIFE IN MACKENZIE COUNTRY. Mrs. Ostler was born in London in 1848 and came with her parents to Australia in 1852. She was educated in Sydney. Tn 1867, after her marriage, she settled with her husband in the Mackenzie Country in South Canterbury, he becoming the proprietor of Ben Ahau Station. In the following years pastoral pursuits were not always very profitable, but in 1879 a great slump had come. There was financial trouble in the United Kingdom, banks had failed and there was financial stringency. Still the young couple were full of hope and energy, and with the advances they had obtained from the Loan Company they had a right to expect many happy days. Alas! alas! One day accidentally a bale of wool fell on the bread winner, and Mr. Ostler, a brave and strenuous Yorkshire man, was no more. The station and the stock were mortgaged to the Loan Company, and the company could not or would not leave the management to a young woman of about 30 years of age. If they had known her “grit” they would have discovered she was able to even manage the station. What was she to do with three young children dependant on her? She was a. woman of courage. I have known none of all my acquaintances, male and female, that have excelled her in courage and determination. At once she began to work. Her education was PT.'cellent, and she sought pupils, willing to teach them in music and drawing and painting, for she was no mean musician nor mean artist. She had a considerable knowledge of English literature, and had a Jove of nature. She had made ,a considerable collection of geological specimens found in the Mackenzie Country, and she was therefore eminently fitted as a teacher.

DID A MAN’S WORK. In 1886 her only son got a nomination to the Blue Coat School, where some of the Ostler family had been trained. And in 1887 she bought out of her careful savings some land near Levin, in the Manawatu district, and she proceeded there to start farming. She built, with the aid of her elder daughter, her first house —“a whare,” and she did all kinds of farming work, for she had no means enabling her to employ labor. She was continually out on the farm doing what is called “man’s work.” .And so she worked on. Her son distinguished himself at the Blue Coat Schoo), gaining many prizes, and had he not determined to go back home to his mother a university career was open to him in Cambridge. He came to Levin and worked there as a’ bushman for some years. Then he entered the university, and has since distinguished himself. In the end her intellectual ability, her high character, her business knowledge, and her incessant toil were rewarded. She became well* off.

Never, however, during all her strenuous toil —and her hours of labor were not limited to eight hours a day—did she neglect the things of the spirit. She kept up her acquaintance with English literature, and had a considerable collection of the best books. She worked for human betterment. She was an ardent supporter of woman franchise, and she travelled on foot many a weary mile canvassing for its success, getting petitions signed for it and for the abolition of the drink traffic. To fight for herself alone was not her motto, and was foreign to her nature. The duty of a good citizen was recognised. She cared for others. Those who came in close touch with her revered her, and their affection for her increased as the ages rolled on. Such in a small compass is an outline of her life, and was it not a lesson for young and old to-day? May I venture to say that if our young settlers would follow her example they, too, would reap the reward of work well done. They would “carry the* burden” and “teach the lessons” that it falls to pioneers to carry and teach. She has left us, but so long as one lives who knew her fond memory will entwine her name with the sweetness of life and with the courage, ability, and goodness of one of New Zealand’s great pioneers.

INHUMAN TREATMENT. KIDNAPPED BOY TORTURED. TWO WOMEN IMPRISONED. An extraordinary charge of cruelty to a boy of 14 years was recently investigated in the Children’s Court in Perth, Western Australia. v The evidence showed that the boy' was takfen from Adelaide by two women. .Jean Joynes and Letitia Kennedy, and hired as cowherd to a dairy farmer at Belmont for Cl a week. He was clad in rags, habitually half-starv-ed. and frequently beaten by defendants, who received all his earnings. On March 14 he lost a cow. and on his return home, the woman Kennedy flogged him with a heavy strap, heated a spoon at the lamp, and held it to back for two minutes. A ..y-

wound was caused, which, according to the medical evidence, would give great pain, would prevent sleep, and would not be healed for three weeks. The boy’s employer stated that rhe lad was honest, and a good worker, and his wages were raised, but when, he lost the cow he was told that he need not come back. Next day the hoy brought a note from defendant’s asking witness to “use more kicks and less kindness to the useless little brute,” reduce his pay from 20s to 15s. and to “use a horsewhip over the little devil.” Witness reduced the wages to 15s, but gave the boy 5s for himself. Defendants took it all from him. The boy said his father gave permission for defendants to take him from Adelaide, but Inspector Smith stated that the father had notified the police that the boy was kidnapped in December. 1920, and he had been unable to trace , him. Kennedy, in a statement to a constable, said that she put a heated spoon to the boy’s back, to remind him not to tell lies, and it made him scream. The evidence for the defence was defendants had lent money to the lad’s father in Adelaide, and had the father’s consent to take him to Western Australia, and that the lad was only punished for telling lies. Joynes admitted that the lad’s father had tried to recover him, but she demanded 15s a week for his maintenance, and his fare to Adelaide, though the boy was earning £1 a week. Joynes, who called herself a nurse, and had had a few maternity patients in Adelaide, was sentenced to three months’, and Kennedy, who had actually burnt the boy, to six months' hard labor.

NEWS AND NOTES. New Zealanders resident in Britain and visiting that country subscribed a sum of money in order that they might make a wedding present to Princess Mary. They ascertained that it would be agreeable to Her Royal Highness if the major portion of the money were devoted to a charity. The gift, therefore, took the foi’m of a greenstone casket, mounted in silver, containing a cheque for one hundred guineas. The Princess directed that the cheque should be given to the Women’s Hospital for Children, Harrow Road, London, an institution that does very good work in a neighborhood largely peopled by the very poor. The High Commissioner, in a letter to the Prime Minister, mentions that the gift was handed to Princess Mary by Lady Allen, who was accompanied by twelve other members of the committee.

More about the cost of living —in America. An officer in the providoring department of a New Zealand passenger steamer trading to America, writing to a friend in Dunedin (states the Star), has something to say about the cost of living in America, and he gives the equivalent money values as stated in the -following extract from his letter:—“Things are coming round jii America.. Business is better now amongst the general business people, they say. than before the war; only people got used to living above their means, and do not like to come back to the previous level. The ruling wage for unskilled labor is 4dol. (16s 8d) per day. Living is cheaper and better than in any part of Australia or New Zealand. It is not hard to get living for 7 dot 50 cents (£1 li2s) a week, and boots and clothing are very reasonable. You can get a good suit for 30dol. (£6 ss), and a good pair of boots for 255; so you see it is not so bad as some people would like you to believe. There is no boom and no acute poverty. The climate in the Western States in winter is like the North Island of New Zealand. In California the weather is good all the year round. Here are a few prices of foodstuffs: — Bread, 41b loaf, 16 cents (8d); best part of bullock, 24 cents (Is) per lb; ham, 40 cents (Is 8d) per lb; eggs, 30 cents (Is 3d) a dozen; butter, 70 cents (2s lid) for 21b block; pipe tobacco, 80 cents (3s 4d) per lb; the best cigarettes, 16 cents (8d) per packet. And right- through it is the same. So you see their money goes further, and they get better stuff for it—and this is the high cost of living you have in U.S.A.” Is the male superior in the domestic sphere? It is significant that out of fity or sixty new labor-saving devices for the home at the Deliverance from Drudgery Exhibition, in the offices of the Design and Industries Association, in London, not one was invented by a woman. “Theoretically, the woman ought to be the inventor,” said Mr. Charles A. Farmer, secretary o-f the association, “but in practice the inventions and suggestion we get are from men. I only know of one household invention by a woman. The greatest response to our efforts to abolish drudgery is from the working and lower middle-class young wives, who have no assistance. Those who have new houses are particularly keen to find out what can be done to save labor, and also to beautify the home. Determined opposition comes from the ranks of the domestic servants. More often than not i they will have nothing to do with ‘modern contruptions,’ as they call them. The maids prefer to contract housemaid’s knee rather than use a wooden handle to which a brush, duster, or dustpin can he attached. Cooks won’t hear of those simple little gadgets for lifting hot plates out of. ovens. They would rather burn their fingers, or, -failing thal, spoil an apron.” Among the inventions at the exhibition are sets of mugs with measures marked by' rings inside, a porridge pot kettle from which the boiling water may be poured without taking the porridge off, a tiny combined cooker and heater \yhicii draws ample heat from an ordinary electric switch, a kitchen, chair that folds to any convenient height or angle, and an incandescent mantle for oil lamps.

The gracious act of five candidates withdrawing in favor of Mme. Marie Curie’s election as a member of the French Academy of Medicine is a fair 1 example of French courtesy. It is also i a fit testimonial to a woman who has devoted her life to a single unselfish end. Few women have been so honored in France or in any country. There comes to mind Mme. Lebrun, the painter. who was elected to the Royal Academy. and the Queen of Roumania. who is a- corresponding member of the Academy of Fine Arts. Some remarks which appear in an exchange concerning marketing in America are quite entertaining, and are as ' follow: —“Most of all, perhaps, there is no meat display, unless sometimes in glass cases kept at a certain r.emperni ture. The meat is kept in a refrigeraitlng chamber while the shop itself is practically empty. You ask for the meat you want. It is cut off, wrapped ’in clean white paper, and theji put in •a white bag. The refrigerating system, ■of course, has its disadvantages, necesI sary though it is in a climate of exItremes. It is rather like shopping by 4 post. Yqu 9 r

choose it, but then neither can anyone else. The question of choice is somewhat overcome by means of a broad system of grading, and each piece of meat has its Government stamp. In any case, American meat is not very good, and is largely a matter of luck. Less of it is eaten than rn England, partly owing to its high price. In this connection it is not cut up according to physical geography, as in England, but symmetrically, and the number of odds and ends that may be attached to a shoulder of mutton are quite nonplussing to the foreigner, especially before he finds out that the shoulder is there at all. It must be admitted that, while American food is far cleaner than English food, it is not, with the exception of eggs and milk, so good. And, while the American house is cleaner than the average English house, it has not the same well-kept look. Possibly you ca-nnot have both qualities. Another reason, however, is that in America the educated class is closely in touch with all that pertains to domestic Ij-fe. This is far less the case in England, where servants develop the mechanical precision which makes for general effect rather than for hygienic underlying principles.’’ “Profiteering has spread everywhere since the war, into all places, even into the Soudan, and has extended to all things, even to wives.” Lord Dewas made this observation when speaking at a concert at tire Leyaian Mission City-road. “Before the war a wife there could be got for four spea/r-heads,” he added, “now the price has doubled; you have to pay eight spearheads. In the cattle country it used to be four cows; now the price is seven cows.”

HOUSEHOLD HINTS. A correspondent writes to say that she finds difficulty in getting chocolate recipes to set firmly. Could any of our readers oblige with a well tried and reliable recipe for making chocolate squares. Salt in solution, inhaled, cures a cold in the head. Salt thrown on a sooty carpet will prevent stains. Salt put on ink when freshly spilt on a carpet will help to remove the stain. To remove scorch marks, damp with water to which a little liquid ammonia has been added, and then spread in the sun to dry. Repeat if necessary. To clean matting it should first be swept thoroughly with a stiff broom, following the grain of the straw, and then swept across the grain with a soft broom, which has been dipped in warm water. Then wash with salt and water. No soap must be used. Rub the way of the straw, but not across it, then wipe dry with a clean cloth. By using salt in the water it prevents the matting from turning yellow, and also brightens the color. To make lace curtains appear stiff when hung, add two or three tablespoonfuls of flour to the starch. Eucalypus oil applied to the collars of coats and mackintoshes will remove all grease marks. Cut flowers may be kept fresh by inserting the stems in a potato. Make the holes with a nleat skewer. If a tin of water is placed at night in the room where people have been smoking, the smell of stale tobacco will be "one in the morning. k If the fire is dull and smoky, and you want to boil or grill some food, throw on a small handful of rock salt and it will soon clear. When washing cut-glass add turpentine to the water in the proportion of one tablespoonful in two quarts of water. This will ensure a brilliant polish. Light one gas burner and place a sheet of iron on the top. This will become very hot, and several irons can be heated at the same time.

A cement -for glass and china is made by dissolving a little alum in an iron spoon over the fire. It should be carefully applied with a fine brush and left to dry. To prevent a cake from becoming heavy after it is taken out of the oven, allow the steam to escape from it. This can be done by putting the cake on a wire stand. To remove rush from steel flat-irons, first rub them with a piece of flannel saturated with ammonia. Then dry with powdered bathbrick and polish with a dry cloth. Fruit in little cakes that are quickly cooked often tastes very undergone, and to remedy this, first wash the fruit, then place it on an old plate or tin in a slow oven, where it will swell and partly cook. It may then be added to the cake mixture. If you want to break off a glass bottle or jar quite evenly, soak a piece of string in turpentine, tie it round the jar exactly where you want to break 'it, and fill to just the point with cold water. Then set fire to the string, and the glass will snap off all along the heated line. If a velour hat looks shabby, put some finely powdered salt in the oven, and, when it is hot rub it into the hat with soft paper. As soon as any piece of paper looks dirty, change it and use fresh salt frequently. Finish off with a stiff brush to bring up the surface of the'material. • Put a few drops of turpentine about the shelves of store cupboards. Cockroaches will avoid any place which smells even slightly of turpentine. In the same way ants will give it a wide berth. A few drops in cupboards, chests and shelves will preserve clothes from the attacks of moths.

If . a cellar has a damp smell, and cannot be thoroughly ventilated, a few trays of charcoal set on the floor, shelves and ledges will make the air pure and sweet. When the lid of a metal' polish tin has been left off and the polish has become hard, mix it with a small quantity of paraffin oil and the polish will be as' good as new. Wlicn making pastry, melt the butter or lard slightly, and beat to a cream before mixing it with flour, and you will find that only half the usual quantity will be required. To renovate brown boots and, shoes which have become dark-looking, wash them with warm water and soft soap, using a hard nail brush. This will remove all the old and dirty polish. A new dustbin should have about half a dozen small holes made in it. This will enable all water to drain from it. and prevent that nasty damp smell which so often comes when the lid is taken off. When mixing mustard, stir with a knitting needle. The mustard can then be made in the vessel in which it is to be served, and there is no waste or untidiness. Girls who suffer from tender feet at dances should try this hint. Bathe the feet, in salt and water before going to a dance. It makes them much less tender. Another remedy is to dab them all over with vinegar. When cleaning bottles, cut a raw potato into small pieces, and put them into the bottles with a teagpoonful of salt and two tablespoonfulk of water. Shake until every mark ja removed.