Much Money Need Not be Spent to Brighten Farm Homes

Taranaki Daily News, 30 September 1940, Page 24 (Supplement)

Much Money Need Not be Spent to Brighten Farm Homes

Grgnted that age and weather have Hgd their effect on timbers that should have been painted long ago. Granted, aleo that hundreds of farmhouses throughout the province appear to have been built to a standard pattern that did not emphasise comfort, there reshainS no reason why the interiors should not radiate the pleasing aspect of well chosen appOintments. Every district has its quota of farmers who drive to town in expensive cars, but on reaching home, garage their sleekness in old sheds and enter uncomfOrtable living rooms. Reason For Better Homes. Now that petrol restrictions and the exigencies of war time enforce fewer excursions and less holidays, there is every reason to turn a critical eye on the. "livableness"' of the home. This dees not mean an immediate inquiry as to the state of father's bank account for much can be done to brighten home life on the farm without a great deal of expenditure. Farmers' wives and daughters who are so discriminating in their personal appearance have only to apply the same taste and the same thoughtfulness to their homes in order to produce a transformation. They ' need only confer together to find practicable ideas and work together to put them into practice. The Family Circle.

It woqld be entirely wrong to imagine that all fgrmhQUses, or even the majority, in Taranaki are lacking in comfort and brightness. On the contrary, there are hundreds of homesteads built more than a generation ago that are centres of social life. Neightbours. gravitate towards such homes for reasons that would be difficult to describe in words. but which the mind can appreciate without analysising the cause. They are invariably presided over by women of some refinement, and, athough the furniture may be old and far from costly it has always the sense of perpetual use, of ease and of good fellowship. There is another aspect of importance to parents. Every move they make towards a happy home means less inclination on the part of the children to seek a pleasurable evening elsewhere. After a hard day on the farm or a delayed milking, there is usually a strong reason why the younger generation will leok to interests other than an evening at home to occupy the remainder of the day. '