GOVERNMENT HELP.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 303, 20 November 1935, Page 12

GOVERNMENT HELP.

BACKBLOCKS NURSING SERVICE. Advice has been received by the Dominion treasurer of the Women’s Division of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union (Mrs C. C. Jackson) from the Minister of Health, Sir Alexander Young, that a grant of £l5O toward the travelling expenses of travelling nurses and visiting housekeepers employed by the division has been approved. These nurses and housekeepers are employed to give assistance to women in the baeltblocks who may need help owing to ill-health or sickness in their families. For the year ended July 31 last nearly £IOOO had been paid out from the community chest fund (which is a fund built up solely by voluntary subscriptions from branches) toward wages for nurses and housekeepers supplied to needy cases.

JOHNSON QUADRUPLETS. Interesting facts concerning the Johnson quadruplets are contained in the annual report of the Dunedin branch of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children. Except for a few ounces of breast milk added to the daily diet during the first month of life, the babies, it is stated, have been artificially fed, their feeding and care being according to the Truby King methods. For the first two months they were given the routine treatment for premature babies. The next month they were ex-premature, and the hardening off process was carried out. Since the end of the third month, when they exceeded the 71b mark, they have been treated as normal babies, have been fed four-hourly, with no night feeding, and have slept on the veranda day and night. World figures show that a quadruple birth occurs once in 757,000 births, but it is rare to find at a quadruple birth four normal healthy infants such as the Johnson babies. ROSES IN NOVEMBER. IDEAL FOR TABLE DECORATION. From November onwards the rose is the most beautiful flower for table decoration. If perfect blooms are available, each rose, with its own foliage, should have a vase to itself. White or green vases are best. A pretty way of arranging specimen roses is to have a row of five vases down the middle of the table. Place a deep crimson rose in the centre, a red one at each side of it, and a pink one at the two ends of the row. Another arrangement in which single roses show to good effect is to place six vases in a circle in the centre of the table. Alternate yellow and pink or red and white roses, with silver cord or ribbon draped from vase to vase, give a charming appearance.

I?oses in bowls arc delightful, but to be arranged successfully they need some such support as a perforated glass bulb. Pale green china bowls filled with pink roses look well. Rambler roses have such an abundance of foliage, and bloom so freely, that we can afford to use them lavishly. For a novel dinnertable decoration take a basket, such as one sees decorated at flower shows, and give it a coat of aluminium paint. Fill it with the old favourite, Dorothy Perkins, twining some sprays round the handle. Place it in the centre of the table; and then lay sprays of the rose from the base of the basket to the corners of the table. Use rose-scented water for the finger-bowls, and let a perfect tiny rose float in each.

WAYS WITH ORANGES. Orange Sponge Pudding.—Take 2 cup castor sugar, 2 tablespoonfuls butter, 2 eggs, cup orange juice, 1 tablespoonful lemon juice, I cup water, grated rind of i orange, 2 cups flour, 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder, pinch salt. Cream butter and sugar together, add beaten eggs, and beat well. Add orange juice, lemon juice, water, and grated rind, and fold in flour, which has been sifted ■ with baking powder. Bake in a moderate oven for 40 minutes and serve with hot orange sauce. Orange Sponge Sandwich.—Take 1 cup castor sugar, 1 tablespoonful butter, 3 eggs, I teaspoonful carbonate soda, 1 teaspoonful cream of tartar, 14 cups flour, juice and rind of 1 orange. Cream butter and sugar together, add beaten egg-yolks, then orange juice and grated rind. Add flour (which has been sifted with the soda and cream of tartar), fold in the stiffly-beaten eggwhites, and bake in 2 sandwich tins in a moderate oven for 15 minutes. Fill with orange cheese and ice with an orange icing. Orange Meringue Custard.—Take 1 cup breadcrumbs, 2 tablespoonfuls butter, 2 cups scalded milk, 2 eggs, 2 tablespoonfuls sugar, juice and rind of 2 oranges. Soak the breadcrumbs in scalded milk, add the sugar and butter, beat egg-yolks and add them, with juice and rind of oranges, to mixture. Pour into a piedish and cook in a slow oven till set, make a meringue of the egg-whites, cover the'top, and cook in moderate oven till a golden brown.

ASPARAGUS POINTS. Ingredients.—l bundle of asparagus, 2oz butter, 1 tablespoonful of flour, 1 onion, salt, 1 egg yolk, 2 table,spoonfuls of cream, 1 dessertspoonful lemon juice. Method.—Wash the asparagus well and cut off the green parts into pieces one inch long. Put these into a saucepan with plenty of boiling salted water and cook for 10 minutes, then strain. Put them back into the saucepan with one ounce of butter, half a pint of water, and one peeled onion. Place the saucepan over the heat and simmer gently for about 20 minutes. Rub the remaining ounce of butter well into the flour, and when the asparagus is cooked, stir this in, in small amounts. Beat the egg-yolk and cream together, and when the butter has quite dissolved stir this mixture in also. Stir until it thickens and take off the heat. Add the lemon juice and serve in a very hot dish.

POLISH YOUR LINOLEUM. Linoleum makes an excellent table top, used in bright colours, and set in one of the modern natural woods. It is not advisable to wash linoleum when used for furniture. The water may sink in round the seams or spill over on to the wooden frame. By constant application of any good polish, make a “skin” on the linoleum; this makes it stain-proof. Do not let the surface become sticky with too much polish. Should this happen, rub the surface over with a little turpentine and polish with a dry, soft cloth. Several treatments of this will give an excellent surface. If necessary, a little polish can then be applied.

/ CLEANING TORTOISESHELL. Tortoisliell may very easily be kept bright by the application of rouge powder. If treated thus regularly, your tortoisliell will never take on an old and neglected lpok.