SOCIAL NOTES

Feilding Star, Volume 5, Issue 1203, 13 September 1927, Page 2

SOCIAL NOTES

Mrs F. H. Hartley uml daughters, of Rotorua, are spending a fortnight's holiday, at Mrs Yenell’s, Feilding, and Mrs Fames. ■ • Germany has its first woman judge, Fraulein Marie llagemeyer, aged DO, having just been appointed a district judge in Berlin. « * » • A new terror lias arisen for Paris wedding couples. Before all marriages names of the bride and bridegroom must be posted on hoards outside the Town Hall. . Mueli indication has now been aroused because a certain law office has begun sending circulars to brides and bridegrooms,' which arrive usually on tlicii wedding morning, stating conditions for a divorce, and how this can be obtained in two or three months. The senders of the circular offer to take the necessary measures on an instalment payment system. COMMITTEES—HOW TO KILL • THEM. A committee can he killed in many ways, concerted and otherwise. Here are a few worth mentionjug : —■ Don’t go to meetings. if you go, go lute. If (lie weather doesn’t' suit you, doli'L think of going. If you dof attend a meeting, lind fault with the work of the committee.. Never accept office, as it is easier to criticise than to do things. if asked by the chairwoman to give an opinion on some mutter, tell her you have nothing to say. After the meeting tell every one how things should be done.

ADVICE TO MOTORISTS

.V motorist in the sunny south, be-

ing charged with intoxication while attempting to drive his car, pleaded that he couldn’t passibly have been intoxicated because lie had only consumed live alcoholic beverages during the two hours preceding the alleged offence. Captain John ,T. Robertson, an army ex-surgeon, is pleading tit Home for the elimination of the word

‘■drunk" in a charge against a person who causes an accident, and says in the army a man is ‘‘drunk” when, by reason of having taken some in-

toxicant. lie is unable to carry out

efficiently the particular work that for the time being forms his "duty.”

A single glass of good ale would be enough when taken at the wrong time to bring a man before a court martial on such a charge. It; is not the

amount that matters—it is the effect

and the time. The extract was shown to an habitual motorist. He asked, "Could you please tell me where you can get the beer (be doctor refers to V”

GAMES

Two paragraphs from a letter writ ten by a "father to his son:—

“ . . I do not wish to put, any difficulties in the way of your playing games, if you want to; at the same time, should like you to know that l look on game players as those who have escaped from life. . . The

extraordinary craze (it amounts lo no loss) for games at Hie present day L attribute mainly lo the restlessness and unhappiness of the world. 'l’iiey

arc an escape from uncongenial work,

from worry, from nerve-exciting la hours. Too 1 tired in mind or over

strung in nerves, we seek the antidote of games to ake us out of ourselves simply because we are unfitted by .our daily tasks to pursue any in-

telligent hobby. "It may be necessary to play games occasionally. They provide a healthy

breathing space, as it were, in the

daily hustle. But don’t make them

an end in themselves. They won’t lead you anywhere, and are likely to

prove a handicap to your intellectual 'development by taking you out of the atmosphere of serious and consistent endeavour. . . An old fogey, am TV Well, 1 speak from experience. Among our relatives are an eminent naturalist, a bbld explorer, a pioneer of diseovbry, an original researcher in science, and half a dozen leaders of men. and none of them ever played any other game than the great Game of Life. Verb, sap."

ENVIRONMENT.

Environment may be either an advanutge or the reverse; it may mould the destinies of nations and of individuals for good or for evil; if may he considered as a limitation or as a

power for expansion. Thus in the case of the national development of

a country like Greece, or our own England, the near proximity of the

sea to all its p.Trts, on the one hand Chat of an island and on the other by a long indentured coastline, there is no doubt that environment —the wa-

tery environment of the deep, gave to those nations the power, the will and the incentive to develop their maritime life and lore. Again, small

states shut up in the 1 interior of great continents. ■ hemmed in perhaps by mountains on every side, will tend to

become, military nations, lighting for their existence along a rugged frontier, the very ruggedness and sterility of whose heights will aid the development of iron frames and hardy constitutions such as are required

among a soldier race. Again, a land of deserts is responsible for the growth of a nomadic people, wandering hither and thither in search of food, or more often, wa-

ter. Living from oasis to oasis, travelling with their trains of camels or

baggage mules, generation after generation, these same people wanderers still niton the face of the earth, for il is in Ihe blood, ever demanded

hv the environment of a sterile lmmo

incapable of receiving the more set

ill'll ebnclils of agriculture. Then again, we Jind the iniluence of en-

vironment affecting the whole mental and moral outlook of a people, iu-

llueucing their characters even more deeply than Ibcir mode of life and employment. The hot belt of the

tropics, the sultry sun-warmed at

mosphere of numberless islands in I lie southern seas, the lingering warmth which settles over great continent,al tracts, and languishes all through seemingly endless summers about thi' swooning shores of the east —all these tend to procure that

enervation among the people which

nothing can ever stir into activity, and on which the more hardy men of

temperate zones look down with contempt. almost unjust, considering the circumstances which tire responsible. From the hasty scansion of wider horizons, let us come down to the narrower consideration of the died of environment on individuals. Here we have no slid) vast issues to outend with; here, environment may consist of flic four walls of a house, a narrow street, or at most the boundaries of a, town or village. ' We Jive- m a little world; if is only given to the few and fhe fortunate to travel far and visit the great and glorious places of the world. Always it seems that our own home town is dull, exceedingly drill, because we are so terribly used to if. Many of us long

irTsproad wings and soar up and out of it all, but circumstances chain us to the particular niche life has designed for us to fill. Perhaps our ambitions go no further afield than tho next street, possibly another and more favoured suburb! Then it would seem easy enough to change mailers. But no, it is often just as impossible to move one iota Irom a certain position Chau to -travel a thousand miles.

It is no use preaching coutenlinen t; many are not content; many others are so horribly content and complacent about; things that tlTev arc even more annoying than the discontented. Environment more or loss is forced upon us for good, or for ill—-a thicket of thorns against which in divine unrest many are kicking against the piicks.

THE PA in IE It'S WIPE MAKES PUTTER BISCUITS.

In the summer, when her delicious butter, often commands no higher price than u a shilling a pound, tire farmer’s wife makes a supply of butter biscuits that will last until the first ‘‘flirt’’ of snow sweeps down from the northern hills that surround hei; home. For each hatch, of biscuits she begins by carefully weighing a pound of flour, which she sifts into an earthen ware bowl. One pound, castor sugar, scrupulously freed from lumps, follows the flour into the bowl. A pound fresh butter, roughly flaked between her finger and thumb, is next added to the flour and sugar. The whole is then worked together until it forms a compound of luscious, pale yellow crumbs. A teaspoonful of baking powder is well stirred in before the addition of. two newlaid eggs, previously whisked to a rich, golden froth. Stiffness is an important essential of this biscut paste, but should the mixture prove to stiff the fanner’s wife add a grudging portion of milk to reduce it to the right consistency. The mass is then turned out on to a lightly floured pasteboard, and roiled to the exact thickness, which is fully a quarter of an inch, for tins old-fashioned cook demands a his cult that is not a neglible factor when it is used to eke out a meal

As quickly as possible, and using a fluted cutter, sho cuts out the biscuits and transfers them to a moderate oven, there to begin the watchful baking which is necessary in order to render it certain that no tingo ol brown mam the rich, creameoloured top of the biscuits. 1

■Occasionally the farmer’s wire makes; a batch of biscuits that aro rolled to half Lite usual thickness. When special visitors are expected to tea she makes an icing which is composed of equal parts of fresh butler and finely sifted icing-sugar. This toothsome pasle is flavoured with almond oi* vanilla essence before a layer is placed sandwich-wise between tho bottom side of two biscuits. E. M. M.

MEDALLION STRAPS FOIL EVENING WEAR.

Medallions, in gay colours, rather like the cameo brooch worn in Victorian days, aro the very latest notion lor adorning evening gowns.

Instead of ordinary straps or sleeves a chain of little composition medallions supports tho dross across the shoulder. A row of ornaments of the same design may form •> uiruie or may descend in a straight lino Irom tho right hip to the hem of Lho short skirt. As a rule, these medallion ornaments aro oval with some quaint design from an old seal embossed upon them. Others are square and have a still more original effect.

■ Sealing-wax red is perhaps the most popular colour for this trimming, but a vivid grocu also looks extremely smart. Black medallions gave a simple' rather tight-fitting georgette frock an extremely chic and original air at a hig reception the other night. In the usual way medallions appear ox tlie little black dinner frocks that are so extremely fashionable at the moment. Chiffon is considered the smartest material for this kind • f dress, although there are signs that k new kind of shiny satin will sdon be equally popular.