HALCOMBE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19478, 23 December 1925, Page 3

HALCOMBE.

(From the “Chronicle’s” Special Correspondent). Butter-Fat Returns. For November dairy farmers in and around this village got Is 4d for their butterfat. This was a bit of a surprise, as most of us did not expect more than Is 3d. For tho same month last year the price paid was Is 5d and in 1923 Is 6d. Not since 1922, when the return was Is 2d, have suppliers received less for the November output. Tho amount of butter manufactured by the company was 223 tons. Compared with November, 1924, the output shows a decrease of 7 per cent. The figure for the Dominion, however, tho directors say, is 10 per cent, below what it was last year for November. The circular states that the average grade for last month’s butter is 94.29 points. “This satisfactory result speaks well for the general co-operation of suppliers in sending good quality cream to the factory.” Suppliers are urged to continue doing their best in this direction, especially during the warm weather, to keep cream well protected from the sun; and to give particular attention to regular deliveries. The directors are of opinion that tho cause of the fall of prices in London was due to the shipping hold-up. It appears there are hidden accumulations of stocks in London as the result of abnormal buying at the time of the strike, and tho anticipated shortage this month has not occurred.

“Apparently the multiple stores, who hold these costly stocks, are endeavouring to keep up the retail price. This, of course, has the effect of cheeking consumption, and tho demand will not improve until the retail price is reduced.” Bacon Industry. Tho executive of the Co-operative Pig Marketing Association have, we are told, commenced exporting baeoners on consignment. Unless a supplier specially directs otherwise in sending in his | pigs it is being assumed that he leaves the decision of whether to sell locally or export to the directors. There is a cartage charge of Is Gd on each exportable pig from farm to killing works, but there is no charge on unexportable pigs. Problematical. Most newspaper writers have a superstitious dislike to writing about the weather. They say that if they make a few observations about the weather it generally changes completely by the time their words are printed. I therefore publicly assert that this has been the windiest, the wildest and tho worst ■December I ever remember. Now let’s see if this emphatic statement will give us a bright holiday time. Holiday Occupations. Seeing the sights and sighting the seas. Seriously Hurt.

A young woman named Doughty met with a serious accident on Sunday afternoon. She was exercising a horse by riding it bareback round a paddock when the animal bolted. Miss Doughty threw herself off when the runaway got near some trees. She was picked up unconscious, and a Feilding doctor, who arrived quickly in response to a ’phone message, pronounced “concussion of the brain.” There were other injuries but of less seriousness. The patient, who is lying at “Bushlands.” Mr. H. Rcdmaync’s residence, is doing as well as can be expected. A Wool Record. Recent prices for woo 1 are stated to be depressing. Not so depressing—for the buyer—as the first lot of wool from Australia sold in London in 1821, one bale of which realised 124 d per lb. « .Hay. Haymaking is now in full swing in these parts. Crops are not nearly so heavy as last year, and it is asserted that the price of hay next winter will I break all records. Latest Wellerlsm. “Baek to the land,” as the idler said when ho reclined, face upward, in the hay field. Personal. Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Peffers, who have been staying with relatives and friends in Taranaki for a couple of months or so, are at present in Ilalcombe. Early in the New Year Mr. Peffers takes over the management of a big farm in Hawke’s Bay. Friends of Mr. G. Burrows will hear with concern of his serious indisposition.

Mr. Richards is just now a patient in Palmerston North public hospital, and it is feared by his friends that ho will not be home for some, weeks. Mrs. Dives, of the Stanway School, was given a gift, subscribed for by the scholars, on Friday night, on the occasion of her leaving the school. A Losing Game. Out of 8,000,000 American girls, says a Yankee journal, a million of them will get the wrong husband and a divorce. The other seven million will merely get the wrong husband. ‘ ‘ Movies. ’ ’ In reference to the remarks of Sir I James Parr at Napier anent film posters, a discussion took place in Halcombo recently on the influence of films on the minds of children, when it was pointed out that while we have children’s books and plays, no serious attempt has been made by the “picture” people to cater adequately for the youngsters. Boys and girls are among the most constant and devoted patrons of the cinema. In some towns, we arc told, they will visit it two or three times a week regularly. The “pictures” now absorb the spare pocketmoney that used to go in playthings. But I W’onder sometimes why they go, and whether they really enjoy the show's presented to them as much as they should and might if some of the entertainments were more adapted to their tastes. I dare say the quaint comicalities of Charlie Chaplin amuse them as well as their ciders. Quite probably they get a really delicious thrill when the heroine, inadequately protected from the inclemency of the weather by an openwork blouse and silk stockings, is adrift on a raft and in imminent danger of being swept over a raging cataract.

On the other hand, I doubt whether they appreciate some of the other ■scenes. I am sure they are merely bored by the love episodes. Children are not sentimentalists, and the “heart interest” leaves them cold. Even the baby does not allure them-—they know

too much about babie*. When the virtuous but deserted wife clasps the infant to her bosom, ami the sub-title talks of the eternal glory of womanhood, or words to that effect, children begin to fidget. I believe there arc, or have been, such things as children’s films, but one does not hear much about them, and they are evidently not widely disseminated. Perhaps they have been tried and found wanting from the box-office point of view; perhaps they are not popular with the youthful patrons. If so it is because they arc the wrong kind. If they were of the right kind they would be as popular as children’s books and plays. We are always’ hearing that the “pictures” ought to he a fine educational agency. So they might be, but there are not many signs that they are. Some years ago I saw beautiful pictures of flowers growing and blossoming under one’s eyes, and magnified birds and bees in their nests and hives. Why do we not have many more films of this kind shown everywhere, so that every child could see them frequently? We might have history taught by the cinema. It would be much more entertaining to look at great figures and scenes of long ago than to read about them in even illustrated books. Why should the children not be shown the fairy tales of our childhood? The “pictures” would then do an immense amount of good, and would bo a moral, a social, and an educational, as well as a financial, success.