WIVES AND CHILDREN IN COWYARDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 16, 19 July 1939, Page 10

WIVES AND CHILDREN IN COWYARDS

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —I noticed in the "Evening Post" that Mr. Jull, Nationalist member for Waipawa, said that the Labour Government was driving the wives and children in Taranaki into the cowyards. I say that down through the years wives and children of farmers have helped in the cowshed, but under very different conditions from what there are now. I am the daughter of one of the older farmers and my mother cared for her family of six children and milked cows by hand and washed big milk cans, and worked very hard on the farm, with no such conveniences as electric light or hot water in the house or the cowshed. I never heard my mother complain of the lack of conveniences or the hard ! work. As children, we went into the shed, milked cows, and did our share of the \ hard work. I say, "Where are the I farmers of the old brigade who worked uncomplaining of their condi-' tioris?" We know that most of the! farmers of today have electric stoves and cleaners, and hot water and milk- i ing machines in their cowyards; they! have telephones and their cars (some of them very fine ones) for getting ! into town whenever they feel inclined, yet they do not seem satisfied. We know that the farmer can get j subsidised labour, that some of them j who are opposed to the Labour Gov- j ernment have had their interest and i mortgages reduced. i A deputation to Parliament a few days ago wanted assistance for farmers in a number of ways. Would some unbiased farmer kindly tell me through the medium of your paper the forms of assistance that the farmer of today receives from the Labour Government? I know we received none when I was a child, and did my share of milking and work in the cowyard when other Governments were in power.— I am, etc.. MARY.