WELLINGTON MILK SUPPLY SHORT

Shannon News, 21 January 1924, Page 4

WELLINGTON MILK SUPPLY SHORT

TRANS-PAEKAKARIKE DISTRICT CALLED ON, Asked as to how the recent dry spell was affecting the city’s milk supply, the general manager oi ! the municipal ■Milk Department (Mr. R. E. Herron) yesterday statjed that next week milk purchased under contract with the Wellington Dairy Farmers’ Co-op. Association would require to be. called in frpm over the Paekakariki hills, that is, milk-which is at present supplying cheese factories in -tno Lower Manawatu. As showing the effect of the dryness of the present season, Mr. Herron pointed out that the complete absorption for the city’s use as wholp milk of the milk available in the area this side of the Kimutaka and Paekakariki hills is about two months earlier this season than last. It is only about six weeks since the Mangaroa cheese factory (which absorbs thje surplus milk controlled by the Wellington Dairy Farmers’ Association) could not deal with the surplus then avilable in four 800-gallons cheese vats, and the shrinkage in supply during this period has amounted to.,something like 8500 gallons, or to put it another way, today’s production in this area is. down about 45 ppr cent, below the. peak production of early December.

In the Lower Manawatu the farmers have experienced some good rains during the last few weeks, and accordingly to-day the supply going into the Rahui (Otaki) factory is only about 20 per cent, less than the peak production of early December.

The present position would seem to indicate, that in the coming autumn and winter the corporation will havp to go further afield than usual for its milk supply, which keeps the Milk Department busy in making the necessary arrangements for cans, transport and adjusting the work at the milk station. The shortage in thje near-by area does not affect the price payable by the corporation as the. present contract does not expire until next spring, “If I had my way, in every nursing home there would be a little ‘Movie’ for the convalescent patients,’’' said a doctor in a London nursing homjs. “It is not impossible,’’ he added. “Behind the bed of a patient a little cinematograph could be fixed, and a sheet could be placed on the wall opposite the bed, at such a hjeight that that patient could, without the least eye strain, watch the pictures as they flickered by. I would have something funny -for n’ervy, depressed patents; and there could be pretty - country scenes, a travel series, and other pictures. There would be nothing exciting, but films sufficiently interestiiig to hold the patient’s attention and take his or her mind away from ‘self’ during the long and trying days of convalescence,’’

- ■ A. nerve specialist with whom I discussed the-question said in his opinion the idea was excellent. Even the mere fact of watching the slight flicker of ■the film would have a soporific effect on a patient suffering from insomnia, and the result would be refreshing sleep.

The installation of a little cinematograph in a children’s ward would be a great joy. Children in the convalescent stage are very difficult to amuse at times by the most Cleveland understanding nurse. . The children of rich parents with an unlimit ed number of toys to beguile convalescence, are more than often a little ‘ ‘ tiresome. ’ ’ There are days when the most amusing toys fail to attract. What a relijef it would be to mother or nurse if for half an hour or an hour tho child were able to forget aches and pains and fretfulness while watching some funny scenes on the cinema. Cheerful self-forgetfulness is, as every nurse knows, the halfway house to recovery.