Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News THURSDAY, APRILS 3, 1908. WHAT WE EARN

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43316, 23 April 1908, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News

THURSDAY, APRILS 3, 1908. WHAT WE EARN

This above all—to thine own self be true, And it must follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

According to statistics just issued from the office of the RegistrarGeneral the average yearly earnings of the male population of the Dominion is—or was in 1906, for which year the return is made up 2s 6d ; and the female earnings £42 7s. On the male side the earnings in the various occupations are given as follows : Professional, £144.8 ; domestic, £79.3 ; commercial, £115.9; transport, ; industrial, ; agricultural, pastoral, mineral and other primary producers, £73.3 ; indefinite, £95. Female earnings: Professional, £67.2 ; domestic - £37.3 ; commercial, ££7.9 ; trans; port, £59.8; industrial, £40.1 agricultural and other primary producers, £22.4 ; indefinite, £SO. The figures are interesting so far as they go ; but they would have been much more so had the Registrar-General made a comparison with other States of the Empire.

FARMERS AND THE VALUE OF SELF-CONTROL.

The farmer, in common with all men, has to exercise self-control over himself if he would secure good results. In all walks of life (says a writer in the Sydney Morning Herald), control of temper is desirable, but particularly so when men are dealing with live stock. Half the shying horses in the country owe this bad habit to, or have had i very seriously aggravated by, lack of control of temper on the part of the owner. It is a very common sight to see a young frightened horse being forced by whip and spur past an object at which it is shying. This is essentially a silly practice, for it generally means a horse being turned into a confirmed and dangerous shyer, probably with disastrous results in the end, where a cure might have been effected by control of the feelings on the part of the higher animal. And with regard to horses how often are valuable machines broken or seriously damaged by a hasty, foolish blow directed at a half-broken colt that has irritated the driver. And all these things hurt the man that owns the horse infinitely more than the animal itself. | On a dairy farm it has now become a first principle that the more gentle treatment the cows receive the better returns they will give. Certainly one of the best signs on a dairy farm of wise management, is to see the herd saunter slowly and contentedly into the milking yard, and thence to the bails, where they wait to be milked with cheerful confidence. Friendly pats and kindly words are., the rule in such a yard, and the catt>« come and go without having >beir nervous systems excited to the detriment of the yield of mil K * But while this is the admittedly wise course it is not always the' Actual rule. Nothing could be m p™ absurd or foolish from a businf 83 point of view than on a da:ryv' ?arm > where the owner looks to tbj y c °wto give him his bread and hvf& ,r > the herd being hustled and , biased down Lhe slopes

of the hills, or across the paddocks to [ the yard by yelping, snapping curs, and whipcracks and angry shouts, or driven into the bail with a smack from a handy piece of board, probably accompanied by a kick in the ribs. Nothing could be more pig-headed, foolish, and wasteful. The very man who does this sort of thing is generally the keenest on making money, and yet his brutality and want of control ‘ means the loss of pounds, shillings, and pence every day. Yet this sort of thing is to be seen far too frequently Right through the farm the evidence is that the higher animal —man —must learn to control himself and exercise perpetual patience if he wants success, The man who hustles along a mob of fat sheep or cattle with dog and whip j is knocking off the very condition that he has gone to expense and time to put on. The poultry farmer who rushes through his poultry house with excited birds on all sides of him flying in all directions to get out of his way, will not get as many eggs as the man who moves gently, and becomes a familiar, and friendly companion with his birds. With all kinds of stock the same principle applies. And not only with stock, but in a higher sense the same effect will be found with the farm hands. Men who are treated with consideration, and whose em-

ployer shows an example 01 maniy control, are a very goor class of men if they do not work with better heart and keener interest. Apart from being a better man himself, making his own life happier, and more worth the living, and becoming an object _ of esteem and respect to those about him, the farmer who learns to control himself is from a material point of view scoring all the time, for he is getting the best results from his men, his horses, his dairy cattle, and all the things from which his living has to came.