ARE AUSTRALIANS LAZY ?

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 719, 15 January 1903, Page 2

ARE AUSTRALIANS LAZY ?

A gentleman named Krakoff has come all tlm way from Russia to Australia to report on farming in the latter country with the object of teaching the semi-civilised inhabitants of his own country how they may improve their agricultural methods. No doubt, they will be able to learn a good deal from Australian farmers, - But Mr Krakoff 'is not satisfied with his original intention. He no sooner gets to Australia than he begins -to find fault with the Australia* farmers, and especially with their wives and daughters. lie charges the.men# with lack of industry, and asserts that the women do not want to work —and that they prefer going to , picnics- and reading novels. Education in Russia has certainly improved since the liberation of the serfs in 18(11, but the Russian peasant farmer still finds his chief pleasure in getting drunk on “ vodka,” the national beverage ; and he certainly takes care that his women folk do their share of work. We are quite prepared to part of their amusement ; indeed,very believe that novel-reading forms no few of them could read a novel if they had it. Mr Krakoff has been in Australia only a few days, but he docs not hesitate to make the most sweeping charges aga'inst the Australians. Of course, lie knows nothing of the subject of which he talks so confidently ; and this is shown hy the facts ascertained by a representative of the Melbourne Argus not long ago. This gentleman went to Gippsland to gain some direct insight into tf,:\kind of life that is led by the people uwning little capital beyond a strong back, a sturdy arm, and a stout will, lie says that a more touching record of hcrc/ic womanhood could scarcely lie possible than this one of country women in Victoria—some of them mere slips of girls, and others older women becoming prematurely aged as the result of incessantly hard

toil, devoting themselves uncomplainingly and even cheerfullv to the performance of a full half-share of the work that day in and day out has to be accomplished on a new “ selection ’ if failure is to be averted. “ You ask me about women’s life on a dairy-farm,” one of them exclaimed to the pressman. We are just white slaves. We have neither holiday nor pleasure. We work from the time we are married till we are crippled,or till we die in our tracks.” Her mother had done this before her, and her daughter would probably do it aTrer her. .She accepted this as a matter of course so far as it affected herself —though she protested that “ women are’t meant for this,”—but she was concerned about the outlook for the family : “ I worry about the girls. They must work here for their father and me, and then they’ll marry urul work for their husbands and vftnh they were dead, as I’ve done time and again.” In this life, Sunday is like any other day, and Saturday the hardest of all. The work never ends —the farmer and his wife must he up by daylight to overtake it; they have no amusements, and their food is often meagre and uninviting. This is not the Jot of the pioneers in a district in Victoria only, but in nearly all parts of Australia. And yet this Russian visitor accuses the Australians of want of industry. If Russian farmers work harder than those interviewed by the representative o: the Argus, the, abolition of slavery in that country has not improved, matters much;