THE LADIES’ WORLD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2545, 5 July 1909, Page 3

THE LADIES’ WORLD.

' : THE . CITY WOMAN; 'The “city woman” is becoming every year a less familiar figure. By “city woman” no reference, is meant to the army of typewriters, clerk-secretaries, and shorthand-writers who liock up from the suburbs' by the early trams, and who , look upon their work as a loophole by which they can escape the duiness of their suburban homes and earn sufficient pocket money to keep up to the: sub tub ap standard of dress. The business woman who is able to make her mark m finance and in trade is a woman of wide, education ancl great experience, .and lias no slipshod ideas of work and easily .: satisfied, ambitions.' A little misapprehension has risen, however, with regard to the statement respecting .the 'inclusion of women as members of the two great accountancy societies. ;\Tliese? matters are not settled at once, and although the draft of a bill containing the hospitable clause is to be submitted to the members of tlie Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Society of Incorporated Accountants and Auditors, it lias still to receive the approval of the members, and will then have to pass its third reading'in Parliament before it becomes law. At the present moment tho position of a woman accountant is a very anomalous one. She is,; of course, not allowed to append the important letters after her name which are the credientials to an auditor, and armed "-with which a man feels he carries 1 the baton of the marechal of his profession. It is a great mistake to imagine that women enter the professional field as rivals. As accountants they can keep within their own provnee. Nothing would be more unsuitable than that women e accountants should be given the auditing of hospital accounts, or at least be given charge of the books belonging to charitable and educational institutions worked by their own sex. Without registration it is almost difficult to get work as it is nowadays for a governess to'secure a post who has not earned a sheaf of diplomas. The withholding of the membership -from women has not been for the lack of asking. Miss Hands Smith, who has practised as a public accountant for, man" years lias, m fact, worked strenuously for a less equivocal position since the ’eighties, when her own training under her father —a wellknown banker —and her subsequent experience gave her every right to membership. In her opinion there would be a great future for women in the profession if draft and bill pass the double tribunal. Even in her case, where she is so well-known for her work, tho lack of registration is an irremediable loss. " There are several, other ladies besides who are practising auditors on various scales, and the work which they undertake is meagre compared with the possibilities of business were they admitted to membership on the same terms upon which men are now admitted. <. It is proposed, moreover, to register without examination —when the bill passes—those women who are already practising as bona fide accountants. If the measure becomes law, there should be many possibilities for tho city woman who keeps up the best ideals of lior profession. The examination set by the two societies may be stiff, but it is not more alarming than many which girls cheerfully undergo nowadays with no prospects beyond a small official, post and £IOO a year. The training is not quickly taken, and the- woman who wishes to succeed would probably have to face two years of amprent ices hip, articled to a registered accountant, and three jears spent in. hard study and grind in order to gain the required experience before she could hope to secure independent work on her own account. To excell in auditing and put straight the sometimes hopeless tangle of accounts which private businesses work themselves into requires more than a head for figures. A woman accountant, in charge of the business affairs of a large dressmaking establishment or a college, might have to do a good deal 'before the affairs of tho company were ready for the shareholders. To a woman, however, bills of lading, if they consist of bills of milor dress materials, would probably be far less of a puzzle than are such' details to a man accountant, who must Ariel many a difficulty in smoothing out the creases in the affairs of an unbusinesslike business woman.—London paper. THE SINGLE BLOSSOM. There has arisen a popular fashion for pinning‘a rose or any iarge flower well down in tlie centre of an evening bodice. The gold and silver roses are not now so popular as they • were; it is the silken flower of a rare color that is the favorite. It is surrounded by green leaves,' and is loosely caught to the lace or jewelled net, which is arranged in the front of tho bodice and makes a very smart touch. The wide open flower of an extra large size is preferred to the half closed one. While the gardenia or camellia is fashionable there are other flowers with , more color that are . more imposing. Among them are a poppy, a large orchid, an exaggerated iris, a peony, and the scarlet poinsettia is often chosen. *