CHRISTENING COWS

Hokitika Guardian, 8 October 1930, Page 2

CHRISTENING COWS

PROBLEM IN DAIRYING. If the comic Press is to be believed, there is enough trouble over naming one small baby; so the idea of finding names by the score is simply devastating. However, the good people who are the backbone of the country, the hard workers who make the butter and cheese upon which New Zealand’s prosperity rests, face the feat in nomenclature without a murmur. At least that is what one gathers from the observations in an action at the Supreme (Court Auckland. It was a rather complicated matter about cows, which wandered in and out of the story in a way quite confusing to the non-dairying person. There were two farms, one “top” and the other “lower,” and the cows not only migrated but other settlers came into the picture, also with cows, and bailments and other documents also bristled with cows, heifers, calves and other dairy impedimenta. In the end the person who only knows butter as stuff one buys at the grocer’s felt rather like Mr Jiggs when lie was advised to try counting sheep when he felt restless, got as far as a million and then had to ask Maggie what came next. One of the witnesses was a, girl of only 16, who spoke quite unconcerned. ]y of a herd of 110 cows, all. with names. In addition to this mob there were other cows on the farms, and they all had names ns well. The girl witness , was not quite sure as to the number of these extra animals, but she knew they had names, and at the suggestion of the Bench she. was given paper, pen and ink, and she set to work and made out quite a list. Among the names were all the familiar female appellations, with a touch in the romantic here and there, such as Eunice and Alberta, and there was even a “Melba.” “Millie?” said counsel.

“No, Melbali,” said the girl, with the accent on. the last syllable. Bis Honor: She was a singer, you" know.

The Bar made the usual “as your Honor pleases” inclination, and the girl wept; on with her remarkable feat in christening. ,

The same girl said she had . been milking cows since she was eight years of age.