THE CHEERLESS SIDE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 220, 10 June 1908, Page 3

THE CHEERLESS SIDE.

KEEP OFF THE LAND, YOUNG MAN. Referring to a .recent statement that a large number of young New Zealanders .showed a loathing for. farm work and a preference, for': Government billets at.£3 per .week, our Wairarapa correspondent says that anyone who put in a few years' .work cn .of he embryo bush dairy-farms won d -not be surprised at the action of young Now . Zoalanders who are quite prepared to forsako .the land for ever. The life of many of our dairy-farmers is very little short of slaverv for themselves, and unavoidable hardship for • ihoir families. From the time the little bush . shanty has been built. in 1 the bush clearing, : it;_ has been a life struggle for scores 'if dairymen and their wives. Tho clearing ;.f ,tho land,..and ,the buying and 'feeding cf stock, with the carting of tho produce to tho nearest creamery—often over, an almost 'm'passable: road—havo taken a: lot of time. And , then the cradle has been always full. It has . often been the .baby . which has kept the, fanner back, at least for a number of : years.. Then there have. been the yearlv •dangers.from bush fires, and tho loss of ; stock,'and as. the years creep on the farmer •tuids that his family has grown out of all proportion to the accommodation of his dweljing built when he first married. ; The resjlt is. that, in numbers of cases the farmor and MS iamily • are not housed so well as tha K°ck, and'it is not,to be wondered'at th'.t tlie children grow. up with an ■ aversion to' Crerythmg'connected with fariri- life: Th=ir wjiole surroundings are miserable, from tho' cowyard to their own homes. ..'One wonders how the farmer's wife exists, bile .sometimes bears a terrible burden. She is the extra man-of-all-work. Imagine her day s work. _ In addition to her domestic and, maternal worries,' she sometimes milks iZ : C T S, ' I ' erlli P s an d morning,' Until shape of her.hands i.s practically destroyed by tie muscular exerase required.. Then she often carts the milk to the factory, and on' her return home she has been known to dig post-holes or do a ■bit of fencing. ' Or perhaps she helps her man to .at the railway siding while tho children—four or five in numberalongside tho , wheels of the railway!

This is not an over-drawn picture. It can any p..tho,bush settlements, the! t,'m o man Ti!' , Hle l \ o . man are old before thei time.. The , hardship is inrceased ,f the farmer is paying a big<rent or heavy ;>in/iht.' Z , any woncl "-. that tho children ot these people are prepared to forsake the nn'thW a h, y + li. J l6 110 has shown them nothing,but wretchedness; and they naturfmLfn V o lm • 6 happiness which the? imagine they see in a town, existence. J° WeVer ' 88 tbo wealthier ones ? S - 'he farmers! are concerned, very few ?,nrf +v S0! - 5 pre - Dared to forsake tho land the scientific study of which, after a few years, enables them to live liko gentlebe "remembered, however, that, they start on a different footing altogether-, from that of many of the noorsr Thcy liav '°, not always been reunite n, '™' J 0 " J' eal V without rospito .or recreation, and they have >ou^ tlon gives them a bet-ter-understanding of life generally. ■■ ■ >