EULOGY ON THE COW.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4848, 3 July 1925, Page 4

EULOGY ON THE COW.

MAN’S BEST FRIEND. INTERESTING DISCOURSE. In proposing the toast of "Her Majesty the Cow” at the smoke concert of the North Canterbury Dairymen’s Association at Ohoka on Friday Mr E. Parlane said, inter alia: — "The cow is man’s best animal friend; meek-eyed, gentle, and generous, mother of the whole bovine race and foster-mother to the human race. Queen of the brute creation, long may she reign. Day and night, year in and yea‘r out, she works for us; receives no pay and asks for none, only her board. There is not a home in the whole English-speak-ing world but into which she brings comfort with her abundant s gifts. From the tip of her horns to the end of her tail she is a veritable treasure trove ; her horns are made into combs and her tail into brushes. Her hair keeps the plaster on the walls of our homes, and her hoofs are made into glue to bind our furniture. Her blood is used to whiten our sugar, and her bones are ground for fertiliser. From her skin we get our boots, harness, travelling bags, footballs, and a thousand other useful articles. Her flesh is the national food of the AngloSaxon, a race that has never been conquered since history began. Her milk is the most complete and nourishing food known in the 1 , whole wide world, and from it we get cream, butter, cheese, milk sugar, condensed milk, milk powder, and casein. From her fat we make our soap and glycerine, and explosives. From her entrails we make tripe; from her skin oil.

“She gave her sons as food and ail her products without stinting for the use of our gallant soldiers and sailors during the Great War, and since the war she has footed the bill for £150,000,000, with more to follow, from her island home, New Zealand. It was she who stood behind our pioiieer parents when they converted the wilds of Manawalu, Taranaki, and Waikato—of the far north—into grassy landscapes, and well they knew ■she would pay the bill with interest. It is she still who pays the interest on our mortgages and' finds work for thousands o.f the sons and daughters ■of this country. “Should she cease to function our banks would have to close their doors, the wheels of commerce would be spragged, dur graveyards would overflow with infant dead, .and our proud Dominion would revert to the wilderness whence it came. May ill befall the thoughtless, heartless man who would inflict on her wanton cruelty. Had I the power I would take the milk, butter, cheese, roast beef, and steak from his table, and the shoos from his feet, and leave him to repent on dry bread and water. Let us be kind to her ; provide her with abundant feed, water, and shelter, and select for her a consort of aristocratic lineage so that her sons and’ daughters may not bring her to disgrace. “Long may she reign queen of the brute creation I God’s greatest gift to man. Fill your glasses to the brim and drink to the health of man’s greatest animal friend.”