ODDS AND ENDS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 30 January 1926, Page 15

ODDS AND ENDS.

Every hostess who lias entertained the Queen sings ner praises as a most charming guest, for she loves to see all that her hostess lias to show her, and takes the keenest interest in every gadget and labour-saving device, as well as in antiques or curios. Old linen woven in the long ago claims licr interest as well as tapestry and velvet hangings. She is a notable housewife, and never bored by an exchange of experiences. “The easiest of all my women guests,’’ is the verdict of one very exalted subject.

Since women started the fashion of wearing shoes made of shark skin the mortality rate among the sharks in the Ear East has greatly increased. Scarce-

ly a ship arrives in the Thames from the Orient these days that does not have on. board a shipment of shark skins. Shark fins, long a delicacy in China, also are being imported into England. The coarser kind of the fins are used in making an explosive. The finer fins produce gelatines used in soups.

There is no colour that a London house cannot be, if it. likes. Lady Willingdon’s house in Lygon Place is an exquisite shade of mauve. Only, comments an English paper, how long will its gentle beauty last? Of all colours, mauve flies soonest in sunshine and gets brownish in damp weather.

To popularise the tise of electrical apparatus in households, ttie Sydney Cty Council in the near future may send experts along with demonstration waggons to the door of the users of el i--tricitv (states the Sun). Not only will the use and merits of electric irons, water-heaters, and so forth, be explained, but the council may sell those goods at very small markin of profit. Officers of tue electricity department complain f.n.l consumers do not u'<anything like the quantity of electricity they would otherwise do, be cause of the high prices cnarged by suppliers of electrical goods. They instance the price of electric irons, which cost about Its or Iss each delivered to warehouse in Sydney, but are retailed for about £2 each. Henec the idea o' 1 demonstrations from door to door.

The latest novelty prepared for men are shoes of white patent leather, with nacre scintillations. Nacre means mother-of-pearl colouring effect. Th.ro are shoes of this for'men, and they are quite sensational even seen behind glass (states a London correspondent.) When the women wear them they are not so conspicuous, for the effect with

a white dress worked with diamante is captivating.

The new umbrellas are small, but by no means unimportant, says a writer in an English paper. On the contrary, they are coloured in all the prettiest and most fashionable tones, and vuy often they arc shaded. Handles are big, frequently of wood roughly carved to represent birds or beasts or even human figures. Beaded handles are a novelty. They can scarcely be called practical perhaps, but multi-coloured beads look j.ust right when they cover the handle of a shaded silk umbrella.