GENERAL ITEMS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 28, 29 December 1917, Page 3

GENERAL ITEMS.

A' Gazette notice declares: "If shall not be lawful for any person to use invisible ink in writing, or to procure possession of invisible ink for for the purpose of such use by himself or any other person, or to sell or deliver to any other perfon invisible ink for the purpose of such use; or to manufacture invisible ink for the purpose, of such use. In this regulation 'invisible ink' means any* fluid, or other substance capable of use as ink or as a substitute for ink,i and not immediately, dearly, and permanently visible on being so used. In this regulation, 'writing' includes typewriting,'printing, and any other method of producing a document."

It is reported from the Amberley and surrounding districts that the caterpillar is making such inroads on the standing crops that farmers generally are cutting oats quite green. The pest has travelled over large areas already, and is still journeying and ravaging the district. The opinion is freely expressed that the mild winter failed to restrict or keep down! the pest, as a severe winter of frost' and snow will invariably do, and the consequences are that the pest of some six or seven years ago is to be repeated.

In a certain institution in flawke's Bay some little time ago the chairman of the Hospital Board was shoW-J ing round a doctor who had been sent up by the Public Health Department at tlie request of the Hospital Board in order to give them the benefit of his advice (says the Telegraph). At the conclusion of the tour of inspection the chairman remarked "Now, 1 doctor, you have seen the condition of the whole institution, what do you advjse ,us to do ?" The doctor remained silent, but plunging his hand into his pocket produced a box of matches which he handed to his questioner.

On visiting the marble bars and the American lounges of Wellington one is at first inclined to be amused at the dainty and bang names given to the more fancy dishes. But the names which appeared on the menu of a feast.,in the times of Charles' I. would certainly turn a modern bill-of-fare green witli envy. Below is' given some of the names of the strange dishes in those far-off days : "A soup of snails," "Green fish buttered with eggs," "A powdered goose," "A dish, of Lombard, pie," "A hedgehog pudding," "A rabbit stuffed with oysters," "Poloniah. sausages," "A spinnage tart," "A carbonadoed hen," "A pie of aloes,"' "Eggs in moonshine." These appear among others, and were washed down with cock-ale, surfeit-water, canary, sack, and Gascony wines.

"By pressing cigarettes upon Avounded and convalescent soldiers in such quantities, a generous public is unconsciously making it more difficult for us to get them well," said an officer sitting on a medical board of the overseas contingent to a representative of the "Daily Mail." "When you get these lads just out of hospital suffering from shock, heart trouble, and all manner of nervous disorders, smoking, and particularly cigarette smoking, is as bad for them as drink; in fact, we should like to see it controlled in the same way as liqour, if it were possible. In a normal case the smoking of a cigar will send up the pulse 18 to 20 beats a minute, so the effect of, 20 to 30 cigarettes a day on a man in a weak condition may be easily gauged. We do not want to stop smoking, but we ask for something in moderation. A pipe is the healthiest smoke."