THE BACKBLOCKS WOMAN.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1810, 24 July 1913, Page 11

THE BACKBLOCKS WOMAN.

TRAGIC STORIES; HOW CITY WOMEN MIGHT HELP. Sir,—The backblockers generally . have been very interested in the articles appearing from time to time in your paper, re country life, and especially in the many letters received lately in answer to the question in your special country issue. • Evidently from tho men's point of view country life is not too bright a thing; what then must it bo from the women's? Though occasionally an article will touch on the hardships a woman has to put up with, it is only a lightning flash, and does not reveal the terrible burden that slowly but surely crushes the spirit, tho reason, and tho life out of her. Probably the reason for this is: that the woman who suffers the most has not the strength to fight her own battle, or it may be that tho subject suffers by being discussed always in the abstract, no concrete examples being given.

I am myself a backblocks woman, living in the hinterland of Taranaki, and have the usual ten-mile track before getting out on a road, miles away from anywhere. I have suffered many things—but that is a story I do not intend to relate this time. However, I have gathered quite a collection of tragedies, some from the relations of the victims, and some from the backblocks missionaries, who are noble fellows, and,lead the hardest of lives. The few instances I relate will serve to illustrate the wanton way in which the lives and reason of aioble women have been sacrificed—and T would like, in the name of . our common womanhood, to ask all women to help their,unfortunate backblocks sisters. in their fight for roads to get in and ; out of. their homes. This they could do by asking their M.P.'s to vote roads, instead of railways. The first spells "Life," the second only "Riches."

I append a short list of "hard-luck" cases picked out, not because of their singularity—for there is a common likeness running through them all—but because they illustrate the points I wish to make: that tho want of roads, by cutting off a woman from everything that makes'life bright, induces nervous breakdown, suicide, heart-break, insanity, etc. The true addresses and names I am sending to you —not, of course, for publication, but as a guarantee that each story is true. There are still no roads to those frightful solitudes where these tragedies happened, and as history repeats itself, these scenes may be re-enacted again.

Case No. I.—Mrs. A., a highly-educated and cultured woman, married at nineteen a backblocks settler. There were only tracks to the property, the easiest road being along the bed of a stream, and it took four hours to get to the nearest dray road, and' then still five miles to the township. Mrs. A. lost five babie3 at birth, one after another. She would work herself up to a nervous state—she was alone all day, and sometimes for days together, when her husband was away at sales, etc.—and. then, after a while, would fancy /she saw someone shooting at her from the hillside. This' would bring on a crisis, the result being: the birth of an immature baby. At last she got 60 ill that she was removed to town, and though under the care of a doctor and nurse,-she took an overdose of morphia, and so—gladly—died. Case No 2.—Mrs. 8., a bright Salvation Anny lass, married a backblooker in a similar position. There were no roads, only mud tracks, and the nearest neighbour was half a day's journey away. The result was that when her husband returned homo after a few hours' absence, he found his wife had hanged herself. Case No. 3—Mrs. C., a backblocker's wife, for nino years never saw another woman's face. At last, getting ill, she was carried' on a stretcher sixteen miles, thence by coach to the nearest hospital. She got well, and was seemingly very bright and happy. It was pitiful to seo how thoroughly she appreciated seeing folks. She used to stand at the window of the house where she was staying, and, hidden by a curtain, eagerly scan tho passers-by, glad to see human faces again. At last, being quite cured, she was told by her husband to prepare for going home. She quietly said: "I cannot go back—it will break my heart." When the day for her departure arrived she was found dead in bed. The medical verdict was, "died from heart-break." Case No. 4.—Mrs. D., a woman in the prime of life, was a backblocks' settler for twenty years. There were no roads, and she was scarcely ever out. She brought up a family, and was seemingly engrossed in her household duties. Without a single ray of human sympathy or friendly interest, this woman gradually turned into a dangerous maniac, always rnving about the people she imagined she was visiting, or who were visiting her. It was not hard to toll, poor soul, what had upset her brain. Need I cite moTe cases? There are hundreds of them. Ask the backblocks missionaries—they could unfold tales that l would freeze one's bloodi

The cry of the backblocks woman is: "Help us. Send men to Parliament who will give us a way out of the wilderness into which some of us have had to bo carried blindfolded alone the tracks."— I um, etc., CLARA STUART. Pehu.