In Praise of Hens.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19332, 9 June 1928, Page 14

In Praise of Hens.

The sixty-first Annual Show of the Christchurch Poultry, Pigeon, Canrfry, and Cat Club opened in the King Edward Barracks on Thursday does much, one feels sure, to promote a healthy spirit of rivalry among the lesser (in point of size) domestic animals. And it is a tribute to the efficient management of the officials concerned that, although the club admits to membership such diverse creatures as eats and canaries, no untoward incident has marred the present gathering. Human beings will be interested mainly in that noble bird the hen, which, in view of its utilitarian function in life, is no doubt held in high contempt by such leisured aristocrats as the canary or the more decorative varieties of pigeon. Our debt to the hen is a very great one indeed, and it is doubtful if there is any other domestic creature that serves man so long and in so many capacities. At any period between the egg and the grave she may be called on to contribute to some department of our complex civilisation. The chicken that escapes being nothing more than an omelette will as like as not end its days with.a pie-crust for a sepulchre. If pullethood is attained a dreary round of egg-laying is her lot, with the additional prospect of having to raise several very large and troublesome families. • Even when death brings a welcome respite from such labours .the probabilities are that her corpse will be desecrated in the interest of a feather-bed. Mankind has been singularly remiss in acknowledging its debt to the hen, for while literature abounds in graceful tributes to the dog, the horse, the pig, the goat, the lamb, and even the rabbit, the merits of thjp unrbmantic bird seem to have escaped notice. Samuel Butler even goes to the length of dismissing her briefly as " an egg's way of reproducing itself." The show at the King Edward Barracks might well be regarded by the public as an opportunity to pay a tribute to a conscientious but neglected public servant.