Untiring Servant Has Many Duties On Tokaora Farm

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

Untiring Servant Has Many Duties On Tokaora Farm

With electricity is inevitably associated the case ofmodern life. Illumination, transport, domestic equipment such as radiators, ranges, kettles and jugs, even the most humble of electrical appliances to-day are most essential, especially to the farmer, who needs the aid of invention to cope with nature. Time is fear to the farmer, and what aids him more to keep ahead of the clock than the "simple" equipment about the farm and his home, which he so often takes for granted? Electricity in its crudest form— unharnessed water — is a necessity for life; electricity as it has been brought to the use of man and the service it gives him is as much a life giver. It provides a great ally to the farmer in his struggles against the possibilities and probabilities of nature and natural things. His stock he bounds by electricity; he quite often milks his cows by electricity; his home is lit and warmed by this same unseen force. The convenience of the telephone is his, and he finds relaxation and pleasure at his fireside in listening to the greatest comfort giver bom of electricity — the wireless, which brings the events of the day to the most isolated home in the back country. His command is over a physical force that he cannot comprehend. His part in the use of this force is but to press a button, push a switch, or turn a knob, and power, strong and silent moves unseen through wires. It is brought to the surface in humming force in dynamos which with an unceasing whirr, and a flick of passing belts, change it to a more tangible force which drives saws, pumps water, and most tangibly gives ghocks. This is the force which is in servitude to man; this is the vibrant being of the radio, of blinding light, of warmth, and of luxury in the modern home. Concrete examples of the work that it can do, and does, are common enough in the cities and the towns, but it is in the country that the real test of adaptability and latent power of electricity is found. No better example is there of what a boon electricity can be to the man of the land than the experience of Mr. and Mrs. H. J. Finlay, who were among the pioneer users of electric power when it was introduced to the Tokaora district by the South Taranaki Electric Power Board. Although the devices at their command are to he found to-day in many farm homes throughout Taranaki electric ranges and kettles were regarded more in the light of a novelty than a utility '

article when they were introduced into the life of Mr. and Mrs. Finlay. Electrical gadgets and equipment have been introduced into the farm operations wherever possible, and with marked success. Mr. Finlay has a holding of 97 acres which is sub-divided in accordance with rotational grazing practice, and each paddock is furnished with a concrete water trough, which is kept filled with sparkling fresh water from a well in the neighbourhood of the cowshed, an automatic electrical pressure pump maintaining a supply sufficient to meet the needs of all the stock on the farm in addition to the large quantity required for washing down the cowshed each day. Incidentaly, more than one and a half miles of piping is required to convey the water from the well to the various paddocks. The cowshed is . an all-electric one. The milking machine is driven by electricity, the shed is lit by electricity, electricity provides an ever ready supply of steaming hot water as well as the power for the wireless set and the telephonic communication between the house and the cow shed. The presence of a wireless set in a cowshed would not find favour in some quarters, but Mr. Finlay is of the opinion: that the reception of broadcasting during milking has a soothing effect upon the herd and makes the cows oblivious of noises about them. The dropping of a bucket or some other unexpected incident has no outward effect upon the cows, which remain unmoved by ' the * presence of strangers. In a shed attached to the cowshed there is an electrically driven grindstone and emery wheel. An unusual gadget in the cowshed is an electric fan for use' in the summer. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Finlay was one of the first in the Tokaora district to be wired up for general household supply of electricity. The labour saving capabilities of the washing machine were extolled during an interview. It was stated that not only were farm clothes washed 'more efficiently with less 1 effort, but also they lasted much longer when washed by the modern machine instead of by the old system of hot water and elbow grease. Work in the house has been made considerably lighter by the introduction of an ever-ready hot water system, an electric range, toaster, heater, cleaner, sewing machine, and iron, while among the articles calculated to bring greater comfort to the home are a wireless set, an extension wall-bracket reading lamp, and an electric clock.