WOMEN AND FARM LIFE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1223, 21 March 1914, Page 4

WOMEN AND FARM LIFE.

Farm life appears to be fascinating to some, but to the woman it is often a case of drudge. A case in point was ventilated in tbe Hawera Court, when a woman named Louisa Rocker proceeded against her husband for persistent cruelty to her and her two children, and she applied for a separation order and the guardianship of her children. lu the course of her evidence she said that she was married seven years ago. Trouble commenced over the work. In addition to her household domestic duties, she was obligee, to assise with the milking, feed the calves, and chop the nrewood. She used to go into the shed between and four in the morning, when she milked 25 to 30 cow: out of a herdofii2. She had milk the same number of cows in the evening, and did not finish until close upon 8.30 o’clock. She was obliged to milk up till the night before her first child was born, and three weeks later in the shed again. When asked as to what money he had given her during the past six years, she replied : “One pound—nine shillings on one occasion, eight shillings on another, and three shil-

lings on yet another.” She had to rely upon her mother for money, from whom she got about £io. The defence was a denial of cruelty. The husband maintained that the children were in a dirty condition, and on more than one occasion he had to sponge them. If he ever refused her i ney, i‘ was because he had not any change.