AND NOW GUMBOOTS!

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 28, 13 March 1942, Page 5

AND NOW GUMBOOTS!

WAR COMES TO THE FARMS MILKERS' FOOTWEAR IN DANGER

"Much ado about gumboots"— ' the distinguishing mark of New Zealand's army of cow-milkers — both ladies and gentlemen— might well be the description of what follows. Gumboots are headline ucavs (as the BBC might say). Gumboots are made of rubber; but alas! those terrible .Taps have grabbed the land where the rubber trees groAV. So the future of the gumboot industry is a bit uncertain. Read the Beacon and Avhat do you see? Why a local establishment that supplies everything made of rubber has a line big advertisement. It is really a sermon on gumboots. Watch your gumboots (it says), patch them, pet them, and make them last a lifetime, because gumboots ai - e going to the scarce until Ave can kick the Japs out of Malaya. So there iioav, Mr Farmer! Treat your gumboots as tenderly as you would your Avifc. After all, gumboots arc more important than Avives. You can ahvays get another aamfe (so it seems), because Henry VIII had no difficulty in getting half a dozen,, and Bluebeard collected still more. But gumboots—Avell they certainly Avill not be plentiful in the future. This "really is serious. A farmer may manage to run his farm without a Avifc (or other encumbrances) but lioav on earth : can he potter round his coAvshed without encasing his lower extremities from the knees doAvnAvards in gumboots? It just can't be done. True, the old-time Maori got along quite Avell Avith bare toes, but then he did not have coavs to milk, nor Scotch thistles to tread on, or concrete to stand on in midAvinter. Meamvhile there are still enough gumboots, iicav or needing first aid to keep the feet of farmers still going strong a bit longer. At least, we hope so. So pack up your tootsies in your old gumboots and smile, smile, smile, or better still, laugh.