The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 1927. THE BETTER HALF.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 June 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 1927. THE BETTER HALF.

Oxe of the speakers at the Kokatahi Winter Show, when referring to the wonderful <1 ispiny set out of home cookery on exhibition, stated how fortunate the farmers of the district were to have wives and daughters capable of turning out snub delectable goods for homo consumption. The remark called to mind the special value of the better half about the farm, and turning the thought over in the mind, it lias to be confessed that it is not alone in the kitchen that fTie wives of farmers find their greatest service I to the head of the household. A writer in a northern newspaper to whom .something of the same thought has occurred, says that: If a day conics when a history is written of the economic development of New Zealand, as far as pioneer settlement is concerned, a lot of space will need to he devoted to the value of the work done by the wives of farmers. Many had to adjust themselves to quite novel conditions, and to face hardshps they little dreamt o£ when they left the Homeland. Evidence given by a farmers' wife, recently. showed what a great asset a woman’s patience is to Tier. In this particular instance, the wife ltad a herd of cattle of her own. and she explained how she built it up from' one sickly calf which her husband did not think worth saving. Woman-like, she just mothered the weaklings, and whenever a calf was declared to lie not worth rearing she got it given to her, and then eared for it. From her house allowance, she at last saved enough to buy a young Jersey hull, and the result of her work was a herd of 3o dairy cows. The lady had her own brand, and because the herd was grazed on her husband's pastures, he was allowed to have the butter-fat cheques, the wife being content with increasing the number of her cattle. Her husband had a horse which met with an accident. This, also, lie decided should be destroyed, hut his wife legged it off him. and by her care got it well again, so that she had also a horse of her own. It is these little economies on farms that tell in the end. but Were are times when the best laid plans go astray. All the blame for the miscarriage of the plans should not be laid at the door of tli@ woman, but still mistakes will happen in the best of regidnted families, and the woman often lias to bear the "brunt of the blame. An instance of this occurred

to the wife of an oreliardisl. She decided that some money could lie made Itv drying apples, ami spent a lot of time paring and slicing the windfalls. These she spread out oil sheets of corrugated iron in the sunshine for drying purposes. Ji'st as her labours were about finished in that particular respect an old mare that was grazing in the paddock found the apples and also learned thatHhoy were good to eat. The farmer saw his mare just after it. had finished the tipples and had been to the creek for a drink. The mare's lateral development after the wafer got inside was wonderful, for the reason that dried apples swell to almiil seven times their size when they are snaked. The farmer, niter making some emphatic remarks about feminine foibles, got. the mare on the end of a long rope, and kept: it galloping round in a circle for an hour or two. which no doubt saved the animal's life. He then advised his hotter half to keep her dried tipples in a safer place next time she made any. Tt did not occur to the husband, of course, that he might share in the future roxpnnsiblity by making fences more secure and keeping the stock from wandering into the unwjiniedi precincts of i.ie homestead. 'Perhaps the husband in the ease quoted, learned the lesson, nevertheless, and took it seriously to heart.