WOMEN AND THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1917, Page 8

WOMEN AND THE WAR.

To the Editor. I Sir, —On reading your reports of vari- | ous appeals at the Military Service H Hoards, I cannot, lint fee] that, by the attitude -Captain Walker takes up on this ; subject, he ha.s never had the pleasure : of working on a dairy farm. 1 think it , is liicli tsme the Defence Department ' wa3 represented by someone who knows more of what he is talking about, when he gives it out that women must do more 'Mori; on the farms. Tt is all very well for Captain Walker, when (toss ex- . amining appellants before the Hoard to * trot out a book which he calls "Women's I War Work,'' issued by the British War ■ Office, and setting forth what the women in England, or a few of t'nem, have been j doing since the war began. Ploughing, I harrowing and killing pigs are casually i mentioned. i[ must own that J have ! never heard of but one woman in New j Zealand who was in the habjt of killing pigs and littje lambs for the purpose of i devouring same, and that woman was a 1 German! But I would be more than i pleased to prove to Captain Walker that the women on the farms in New Zealand : have been doing almost without. eSecp- ' tion. fur the past twsiitv years and ! more, all such agricultural iwork as is I mentioned above, plus other such light I work as chopping, sawing and carting | their own firewood, cleaning out pisrger- , ies, stables and fowlhouses, milking, any- ! thing from ten to twenty-five cows night I and morning, afterwards feeding as many calves. The mothers' helps have gone to town to replace the men in the ofTicc c . therefore the "lady of the farm" has to hurry into the house after the calves have been fed and duly wiped their little noses on her skirts, or rather ■her Migarbag apron—and prepare brcakf;u'( for husband and family of small children, takes a cup of tea herself to suffice till the children are away to school: for no time may he lost now. or they will be late. Mother's head ache l a little, but never mind that, she's only a woman after all! Docs she never get a holiday? Certainly. She lias a whole fortnight every second year in somebody's maternity home at a cost of £3 ir,s per week, or if she can afford to employ a doctor, well, he only wants .four or five guineas. If she can't, well, she's that much to the good. Captain Walker .placidly winds up a cross examination with: ,; Ycs. our women in New Zealand must do more than they are doing, or our married men must go." Some of your readers may ask: "If the woman on the farm does all this work, what does the man do?'' To those who would be enlightened, I extend a hearty welcome to visit our partly improved fetish farm that they may see for themselves by the odd sheds to be build, culverts to be placed across streams, clearing to be done for turnip, cows to be pulled out of the bog, and a thousand anil one other jobs too numerous to mention, that the fanner is, perforce, a .Tack of all Trades, and is kept going from five in the morning till nine at night for ."<» days in the year, and for what? Are we to lie allowed to work on, contented to' work and pay our taxes, or are we to sacrifice all, send our husbands to the war, and do a little , more.—X am, etc., YOUNG MOTHER.