The Advantages of Country-Life.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 27 September 1911, Page 3

The Advantages of CountryLife.

Tho farm boy is no stranger to work. Many and varied are the kinds of his employment. He begins with bringing the cows from the pastures as soon as he is big enough to let down thy rails and put them up again.He brings wood and kindlings for the kitchen t'ire,keeps the water pail filled and tho hens' eggs gathered, all before he is ten years old

A little later he learns to harness the horses, drive the light waggon, and assist regularly with-- milking. He does not like to get out of lied at five in the morning, but his father's A-oice wakes him from his dreams and he is out with tbe others doing the Avork beforo breakfast. At twelv« years we see him cultivating, ploughing, harrowing, for most of the working machinery of a i'urm to day is of a kind that c in be operated by any bey of ordinal-) intelligence. He soon rides the mower, and understands if; as well as a man; then comes the more intricate binder, which in a few hours' time he has mastered completely.

His association with the domestic animals teaches him kindness, end this care is a responsibility which paves the way for futuio ami greater ones when he shnll become a man mid enter the throat world of commerce.

The work is a blessing, not a curse, and to this fact we attribute much of the success which has con.c to country boys who havo left the farm and gone out into into tne world. TiiTi. too, the farmer boy learns the essential lesson of peisevorenoe. By his work on the plough, the harrow, the mower, the hindei, lie learns to work regularly and steadily, noi spasmodically, or when ho feels like it He accomplishes ivsuits slowly but surely. Day afterday, month after month, he keeps at it This to-day, something else to-morrow, but all the while he is rounding our. and developing a character and habits of industry which stay by him as long as he lives. The very fact tiiat he learns to work regularly is a saving element in his future wherever his lot may be east. Tho farm boy is accustomed to doing hard, often disagreeable things. He toils and saves with an eye to tho future when he will have a farm of his own which he can oill home, with the girl that he loves by his side. By self-denial we grow si;oag. Those which come easily wo do not prize as we prize those which cost an effort to obtain. So these boys, accustomed to toil for what they get. appreciate what they have more than boys who have every wish gratified by wealthy paronts. The oaktree on yonder hillside is subjected to sti'iss and strain of wind and storm, but it only results in roots being thrust, deeper into the soil, making it stronger and bet *r* abb*! to endure succeeding wind and storm. j

Has tho firm, buy a chance? Yes, indeed, lie has a chance to develop a character with habits of industry and thiift, pe* severance, self denial and integrity which, had he been bom in a city, he would scarcely hope to win in tlie s,ani.e pro.portion. Instead of hei-flg pitied he is envied by his boy friends who aro denied the advantages of country life.. <Ji cißirse our ■ boy must have an education to supplement that which he ? (Continued on next page.)

(Continued from page 3.) has already received from the book of nature during his earlier years. He must add a knowledge of how to do things. He must learn something of the mysteries of science and the arts, in order to be an all-round, educated man. ■ '

Other things being equal, the boy from the farm will forge ahead of his city-born classmates when brought in contact with them, Teachers every* •where admit that they get their best students from the rural classes, and the reason for this is plainly evident; they know how to work, and are determined to make the most of their advantages. As one teacher expressed it, " they know how to dig." Let me urge upon farmers,to stick to the farm. Never were the nrospects for agriculture so bright as at the present time, and never were the conveniences of modern life so plentiful. The rural residents may have all the privileges of the metropolis with none of its disadvantages. Rural delivery of mail brings him in direct touch with the commercial world, the telephone brings and carries messages from far and near. With a private water system made possible by expenditure of a moderate sum his house is furnished with a modern bath room and Bprinkling apparatus for lawn and girden.

The good roads movement has come

to stay, and before many years our , highways will be in a good condition Vat all seasons of the year. The farmer has his horses and carriages, a lux* ury few city men can afford ; he has at first cost, fruit, vegeteblos, cream and all that goes to furnish his table in abundance. He already has good schools, and the prospects ot centralised high schools for every township ; while for himself and his family he has the whole realm of heaven, and from horizon to horizon for an outlook instead of brick walls and dingy streets on every hand.

The man who owns a good farm, free from debt, and has a little money ahead, has the city man beaten to a finish, and can do more for his children "because he can give them better opportunities for charaster and development than the other can possibly do.

A rather amusing case of mistaken identity occurred in Ashburton recently (says the \* Guardian ').. A stout and florid-faced gentleman was speaking to soother person on the street in regard to electoral boundaries, and two prominent local no-license advo* cates, who werepassing by at the time heard the remarks and ventured a hasty conclusion as to the stranger's identity. "It's an easy matter to judge what patty he belongs to," said one of the temperance reformers. " LcokTrt~rhis-~bu]ky form and that unmistakable colour in his face!" The other friend acquiesced in the tell-ttde signs referred to, and both thereupon indulged in an animated conversation regarding the absurdity of the Licensed Victualler's Association paying an organiser to work the electorate in view of the defent that party Buffered at the last poll. Attending the Baring Square Church in the evening, where a no-license meeting was held, the two men were astounded when they recognised in the chief speaker of the evening, the gentleman whom they had taken to be the paid organiser of the liquor party, and who was none other than the redoubtable New Zealand Alliance worker. Rev, John Dawson, of Wellington. Moral: Judge of nothing (not even complexions) by appearances.