STATEMENTS AT FIRST HAND.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1789, 30 June 1913, Page 5

STATEMENTS AT FIRST HAND.

BUDGET NO. IV.

1. Are tho Schools in your neighbourhood training boys and girls jatisfactorily for life on tho farm ? t. Do the farmers in your neighbourhood get tho returns they reasonably should from the sale of their products? , 3. Do tho farmers in your neighbourhood receive from the railways and roads service they reasonably should cxpGct. ■ i. Do the farmers in your neighbourhood receive from tho postal service, rural telephones, etc., tho scrvico they reasonably should expect? 6. Are the farmers in your neighbourhood obtaining direct benefit from the holding of Agricultural Shows i 6. Has the work of tho Department of Agriculture been of direct benefit to the farmers-in your neighbourhood? ...... 7. Are the farmers and their wives in your neighbourhood satisfactorily organised to protect their mutual buying and selling interests? 8. Are the renters of farms in your neighbourhood making a satisfactory living? 9. Is the supply of farm labour in your neighbourhood satisfactory. lo' Are tho conditions surrounding wage labour on tho farms in your neighbourhood satisfactory to the labourer? 11 WHAT IN YOUR JUDGMENT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT SINGLE THING TO BE DONE FOB THE GENERAL BETTERMENT OF COUNTRY LIFE? . '

To-day appears the fourth instalment of I tho Teplies to N TiiE Dominion's questions to country residents. Tho names of many of the contributors to the correspondence now in course of publication will be familiar to all who know anything of country life in New Zealand. The writer of tho opening letter, Who has seen much of life in remote up-country ■ districts, touches on a number of matters concerning the medical services in the backblocks which deserve more than passing attention. A large number of letters are still oh hand, and will be published in due 'course. \ HEALTH IN THE COUNTRY HOME. AND SOME SCHOOL PROBLEMS. A reader who has wide experience of life in back-blocks districts in the North Island send 3 the following letter touching on a. number of matters of great interest which have been little discussed I.—Yes, I think the schools are satisfactory. 2.—l' think that the Railway Department on those sections of the railway whs-re there are only two trains a day, one up and one down, should provide an ambulance motor so that in case of accidents a patient might be conveyed immediately to the nearest hospital, or that a doctor might be able to lose no timo 'in reaching his patient when sent for in emergency. i.—Yes, and I recognise, moreover, that t.h© Postal Department are increasing facilities each year, but I think it a hardship that (when a farmer consents to tho instalment of a telephone bureau in his house for tho sake of his neighbours) the farmer's wife, who is usually the postmistress, and consequently a prisoner in her house, should liave to pay every time she uses the 'phone for her personal requirements. 11.—I think that the Education Department should be asked to consider the question of providing tutors for the children of the backrblocks where there are.no schools. I have in my mind a block of land just opened up, in area, say, 40, miles long, by -10"unites-' wide. . Efforts are being made by the settlors for the erection of schools, but it is obvious that the' Department cannot put a school at every man's back door, or wherever such may deem to ba required. Needless to say, tno parents are on the horns of a dilemma: (a) Either to negleot their children's education, or (b) to send their children.to the nearest school at the peril of their lives. The Department, on the other hand, experiences a difficulty, bocause they may erect a school to benefit the majority of the ohildren, and year the parents sell out and the farms ore occupied by bachelors or young married people with only infants, or perhaps no children at all. The appointment of a tutor for such a. block of country as I havo described would for the time being meet the needs of tho district. He would form his ■ own centres, and visit each centre in, turn, taking two a day, one in the morning and another in the afternoon, and so on. The Education Board would by tho examining of his monthly returns be in a far better position to judje than they are already of the most suitable centre or centres wherein to erect schools. At present I know of many school buildings which owing to the restlessness, of the population to-day are practically -useless. I know of other centres where there ought to be schools, but where none exist owing to want of funds. In so many cases, I may observe, in the back-blocks, the parents are in the prime of life, and their children are very young. j. regret that you submitted no specified question on the relation of the Health Department' to farm life. Children are brought inta tho world under the most lamentable conditions possible. A clause should bo provided for in tho Midwives Act, protecting the lives of yonng mothers. I have in my mind a young Wellington woman, who married a backblocks farmer. Not being accustomed to riding, she was unable to come out to the nearest nursing home. The farm whero 6ho lived, and home in which she lived, were impossible for a registered nurse to approach, much less live in. At the timo of her confinement she solicited t.ho services of the nearest woman possible who had experience in such nursing, but was not registered. Consequently this "good Samaritan," because she came to the Tosoue, was reported to tho Health Department for committing a breach of the Midwives Act. To the oredit of tho Department the complaint was ignored, but lor several,days the acting, nurse-feared by every post she woiild receive a caution or notice of prosecution.. I recognise that tho Midwives Act has the interests of infant life at stake, but there should be in it either: (a) An explanatory clause that any nursing by way of "first-aid to the injured" does not involve a breach of the Act; or (b) tho power given to doctors to issue "permits" to reliable people to nurse young women, provided that (i) The doctors are absolutely satisfied as to the capabilities of the actin" nurse; (ii) such "permits" be returned within six weeks of the confinement, together with a report of the confinement in writing to the doctor. Then, without casting any reflection upon the medical profession, I do feel that the Government should arrange or draw up a schedule oi fees for medical attendance,' or at any Tate empower the Health Department tc make grants to the patients. I know oi one case in which a person was seriousij ill. The doctor was telegraphed for, anc his charge was .£25. I know of anothei instance in which a confinement cost : farmer -£1S or X2O. I (lo not fay th< doctor was undeserving such a-.fce; I wil go further and say that he was entitle;, to every penny of it; but I d? say thai 6uch fees are absolutely prohibitive foi the average young farmer, and something ought to be done to overcome the diffi eulty. Speaking of vital matters, th< Marriage Act contains a clause to whict attention should be drawn. It affect: town as well as country life, but mor< seriously the latter. 1 mean the pay ment of doublo fees where the couple live in two different registration areas. I ob iect to this clause for two reasons:—(V Whatever we do for the country, we musi do one thing, and that is—prevent inter Tflftrriflgp. Anyone - convcrsnnt viti country life in England knows the penalti we have had to pay for that. When ; bridegroom finds a bride inside the are: in which he lives, he should, if he pay, any fees at all, be charged half, lnstc-af r'. (2| It may be urged that i onder the circumstances the bridf-jronn lives three days in the brides district. h< avoids the payment oi the double fee. Thi is bid lor two reasons: (a) The J 11 "™ 3 proam (or in the case of elopement,_ tn bride) registers himself or herself in i district wii-ere ho or she may bo unknown and an unsatisfactory marriage is tho re 6iilt; (b) a temptation (which I trust i rarely availed of) is put in the way o the bride and bridegroom to cohabit be fore marriage.