WOMAN’S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 December 1922, Page 10

WOMAN’S WORLD.

AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE, SINGLE, MARRIED OR WIDOW? “HUSBAND” PETITIONS FOR NULLITY OF MARRIAGE. FORMER MARRIAGE RECALLED. “She is an adventuress, and a very dangerous woman,” declared Mr. P. W. Jackson, in the Wellington Supreme Court on Saturday, referring to a woman named Doris Gelatly, from whom Frederick Francis Hall pleaded for a decree of nullity of their marriage. Counsel went on to say that the respondent in this case was the respondent in a similar ease in 1920 before the Chief Justice. “Shortly after this,” he said, “she went through a form of marriage with the present petitioner. A witness from Taranaki, who is here, sir, was the petitioner in the last case.” His Honor (Mr. Justice Salmond): Has there been no prosecution? Mr. Jackson: No, sir. She is a Scotch girl, born in Leith. His Honor: That is .no excuse. (Laughter.) Mr. Jackson: I was going to say, sir, that the present petitioner married her in the'Old Country. His Honor: Yes. Mr. Jackson: Goodness knows how many times she has been married. His Honor: Perhaps you had better keep her. Mr. Jackson. If she is divorced, she might only marry again. (Laughter.) Anthony Jackson, paint manufacturer, stated that he went through a form of marriage with a woman named Doris Gelatly in England, in 1919. The following year, ascertaining that she had already been married, he obtained a decree of nullity form the Chief Justice, who heard the case in Wellington. Respondent, on that occasion, was in court, and conducted her own case. She then admitted that she had been married to a man named Gelatly in England. "When he first met her she was known as Miss Bagnall, and later as Mrs. Bagnall, confessing that she really was a widow. Before the marriage service she murmured something about Wilson, and he later found that she had signed the register as Doris Wilson. When they got to New Zealand he found that she was married to Gelatly, and that she had been receiving hio allowance from the military authorities. The witness also stated that the respondent had forwarded him postcard photographs of two English actresses, which she had purported to be herself. A photo of the respondent, handed up by Mr. Jackson, was quickly recognised by the witness. His Honor: This woman might, have, been carrying on a career of bigamy for years for all T know. The ease was adjourned.

THE WIFE OF A POOR MAH. (By a Thoughtful Woman.) What type of girl makes the best wife for a man of limited income? Obviously not only the blatantly extravagant. but in my opinion, the ostentatiously economical is also to be avoided. She who, so to speak, wears her poverty on her sleeve is not the right -companion to sweeten the “simple life.” Many women are extravagant with nothing to show for it, and some —the pearls of their sex—can achieve luxury (in the finer sense of the word) without extravagance. By luxury I do not mean concrete possessions but the exclusion from domestic life of the ugly, uncomfortable, and jarring, and the Introduction of the graceful and pleasant. For, believe me, this is not so much a question of expenditure of cash as of energy, taste, and ingenuity. Heaven defend a man from the woman who doesn’t “mind what she eats" or what she wears. This willingness to “go without” is often indolence masquerading as selfsacrifice —an economy of effort rather than of money! No, the woman to pray for is she who with the minimum of straw will make the maximum of bricks. ‘She may have to wear last year’s hat, but at least it will always be on at the right angle. The dinner may have been very cheap to buy, but it will be well cooked and daintily served. However heavy her handicap, she will never throw up the sponge. Because she cannot have expensive clothes, she need not submit to wearing unbecoming ones. Pretty colours are no more expensive than ugly ones. Amazing the wonders that can be wrought in food, dress, and furniture by contrivance! She may not always resist a not “strictly necessary” purchase, but at least she will never waste money, on buying the wrong thing because it is cheap. Neither will she fall into any of those common errors of mistaken and truly wasteful saving. It will not be the lot of her dresses—waiting for an occasion which never arrives—to waste their sweetness in the cupboard until they become old-fashioned though unworn. She will not mistake the. means for the end, and will never make a vice of necessity. Above all, she will be endowed with that wealth of inward happiness which makes human beings independent of the amusements and pleasures that are bought. Terself a. fun-provider—diffusing her own atmosphere like a. glow-worm its light—she will be full of that automatic enjoyment which makes a “lark” of the most ordinary routine. I Mrs. Harriett Parsons, who died recently at Te Kopuni Hospital, on the Kaipara Harbour, bad just entered into her hundredth year, and was the first white woman to arrive at the township of Paparoa. about sixty years ago. She was the widow of the late Mr. John I Parsons. A letter which she wrote her brother, Mr. Thomas Cockayne, on Ist January. expresses the fine spirit which animated many of the early settlers in this country. The letter, dated from Paparoa, was published in a Not■tingham paper, and was as follows: “Although 1 have spent many nappy Christmas Days in England. T eonfidontIv declare we never felt so free, so well, so happy, and so thankful aa on this

Christmas Day. I have had my house built. It is large, strong and weatherproof. It coat £2O. We have wild pig, pigeon, and fresh fish. No bad debta, no returned bills, ana no anxiety at all, free as a bird. We have no rates and taxes, but free shooting, free fishing, and free hunting. I give my advice to all to come, let nothing stop you.” Mrs. Parsons is, survived by several children, and many grand-children and great-grandchildren, at Paparoa and elsewhere. She is the last survivor of a gallant pioneer band, which helped to lay the foundations of New Zealand’s prosperity . Dr. Sophie Bryant, who died while mountaineering in Switzerland, was the first woman to take the degree of Doctor of Science. Her career was most brilliant. From 1895 till 1918 she was head mistress of the London Collegiate School for Girls, where she was highly esteemed and much liked. Tier chief recreation was mountaineering, and she climbed the Matterhorn twice. She published several books, and just before going on her last trip gave into the hands of her publisher a volume on “Liberty, Order and Law, under Native Irish Rule.” On the subject of the “ill-luck” which is supposed io be attached to the wearing of opals, a. writer in an exchange says:—There is nn more beautfid gem than the rainbow-hued opal, and undoubtedly it would be worn very much more than it is if it. were not saddled with a reputation for -bringing misfortune on its wearer. The prevalence of this superstition is very curious, for it can be 1 raced back to nothing more unlucky than Sir Walter Scoot’s famous novel. “Anne of Geierstein.” This book i introduced an opal that brought sorrow on all its possessors, and. so widelv was i 1 read •» eontm--- urn. when Sir Walter was at the zenith of his popularity, that, the gem began to be credited with the

evil power he gave it in the story. But j there is no reason why we moderns | should be influenced by an almost for- i gotten piece of fiction, which most of us > have not even read. In real life opals are no more unlucky than any other ’ ditone, and plenty of people who posses* | them can point to happy lives. The . opal is the synjlbol of hope, and is. said . to sharpen the aight and strengthen the faith of its wearers. It is considered : particularly the stone of the October- i born.