MY COUNTRY NOTEBOOK

Otago Witness, Issue 3854, 24 January 1928, Page 60

MY COUNTRY NOTEBOOK

By

MURIHIKU.

(Special for the Otago Witness.)

“ Summertime ” conies to an end on the first Sunday in March, 1928. The Act is then a dead letter, and has to be re-enacted, or “ daylight saving.” will not operate during the season of 1928-29. During the next session of Parliament, the present members of the House will have to re-consider the position. Many country members voted for it last session and all city members. It is quite possible that all the city members will still support the measure. What wilFthe country members do?

Those in favour of the measure said: “ Give it a trial for one season.” Well the trial is well on its way to completion. We have experienced the reform for three months. There is one month to go. How has it affected country people? Personally I always felt that too mych fuss was made about the business. I felt that those who expected great benefits would experience disappointment; on the other hand I was of the opinion that those who prophesied great inconveniences to farming people were very much overdoing the possibilities of suffering.

Candidly I believe that the opinion in Otago has gone against this alteration in our habits. Many who were lukewarm in the matter, but who mildly favoured it, are now sure that daylight saving is of no benefit. Almost certainly you will, find that these are family men, who have a growing family: I- believe the majority of mothers in Otago are now definitely opposed to the longer, lighter evenings. The children are put to bed; they cannot, or will not, sleep. In. some very well disciplined homes they may. Little ones about two, three, or four years of age are tired, and do go to sleep. But all who are of school age find great difficultv in going to sleep in broad daylight. I think this is indisputable. And it applies to town children as well as country children. - * .

Dairy farmers, who have a lot of cows, and who send milk to the cheese factories, certainly have to get up while it is very dull in the mornings. Particularly did this apply to the first months ot “ summertime,” and it will be just as noticeable in the latter end of February. Many cheese factory suppliers are getting very late to the factories. The dairy factory employee likes the innovation, the dairy farmer does not like it. Of course, if the dairy farmer is separating his milk, then summertime does not make any real difference to him. As a matter of fact if regular 12-hourly milking periods are good for the cows, then daylight saving makes it easier to start, say at 5 in the morning and 5 at night. However, the home separator does not get any great advantage from the measure; while, on the other hand, the cheese factory supplier is being inconvenienced.

Trucking sheep or cattle at the early starting points of trains is also more difficult while daylight saving is in operation. Everybody at these very early morning starts heartily abuse Mr Sidey. Those who have to get up and cook the early morning breakfast for those who have to travel on very early morning trains, do not exactly bless the member for Dunedin South either!

Undoubtedly many people are getting one hour less sleep under this new system than under the old. Especially is this the case with people who have fair-sized gardens. One is apt to potter about while it is still light enough to see, and the common remark on going into the house is: “Is that the time?” Generally it is time to go to bed : but when one has read the paper or written a letter,, it is a little past bedtime. But one - has to get up at the appointed hour, so one loses an hour or -half an hour from bed. Whether as s race we had too much sleep or not before “ summertime ” - came in, 1 know not. But these of us who have been getting less are quite convinced that Mr Sidey is responsible for our great, tiredness and lack of freshness that has been so much complained of the past three months. Perhaps this tiredness has been largely of ithe imagination, but more of us consider that it is a very real thing. That’s our definite impression, and we are not going to be put off lightly from it.

Unquestionably those working in offices and factories are still loud. in the praise of “ summertime; They have much longer evenings in which to play games. Tennis seems <td. have .had a tremendous fillip, and so has bowls. The question now is: “Do the disadvantages that we are ■ now cognisant of outweigh the advantages'of 1 Hie reform? Taking everything into consideration—the cheese factory suppliers against the tennis players ; the gardeners and bowlers against these who have to start, and those of us who have to catch early trains—weighing these all up in the balance, I believe that the tiredness of the children ‘in the mornings is going to heavily tip the beam against Mr Sidey’s daylight saving.’ As one who held no positive* belief either way, I believe that .the country view is now fairly solidly against a. reenactment of the measure. . But parliamentary victories and defeats are difficult things to piognosticate, and ■we win ijust Have-, to wait very patiently, much in the wait and see ” manner of the then Mr Asquith.

Summertime was a change in our sociaj habits. When we look ®back over th§ past .40 , or 50 years, what changes liavq been brought about. I was just ponder: ing over the change that has .come over our many littie habits, and to-day I would like to refer for a moment of two to jam-making as a typical alter: ation in our customs. In “ the day§ when I was a youngster, the staple jam§ were gooseberry, plum, black currant, and raspberry. All of these fruits we grew in the garden. We had a favouritq that was known as mixed jam—a com glomeration of raspberry and red currant a base of gooseberry. A good: coloured jam, and very tasty.

The black currant jam was potted iq bulk, in a big earthenware crock—about 201bs. It was good on bread, went into those old, boiled puddings known as “ roly-polys,” and made a favourite hot, sweet drink, when the season of coughs and colds was on. Because our currant bushes were so prolific, the ordinary pot was not big enough for the black currant boiling. 'What a time there was for thq boys collecting all the beer bottles for miles around, and then, with a piece of wool soaked in kerosene and set alight, the skilful cracking-off of the top. of the bottle. The making of jam pots from beer bottles is an art that has just about died out. * * * Afarmalade was made from those very sour Seville and pooF man’s oranges. Even we youngsters couldn’t eat them, so very little enthusiasm was shown in the making of marmalade. Only a glutton or one devoid of a sweet tooth would be so daring as to eat pieces of orange while the marmalade strips were being whittled off the fruit. Those were the davs when “ sweet island oranges ” were 20 a shilling in the shops in Dunedin! May the “Maui Pomare ” bring them back again! But we fancy that the fruit sellers of New Zealand are too well organised ever to let us have cheap fruit, even if there were 20 fruit boats running directly to Dunedin. In my day I have seen bananas that were not over-ripe shovelled by the cartload to the tip just outside Dunedin! And they were still 18 a shilling in th® shops. * * * In those early days the fruit grown tm or in the suburban garden was made into jam. Nowadays things have changed. Even farmers with ground to spare send to Waimate for strawberries and raspberries ; to Central Otago for peaches and apricots. The jams of yesterday will not do the fastidious folk of to-day. All the home crafts have been forgotten. Fac-tory-packed articles, packed securely in tins are displacing the old-time goods' In the winter 30 years ago We had dried peas, soaked in water, and boiled with a bit of dried mint, and we thought they were quite good, but to-day we buy a shilling tin of peas, and they ar» certainly much better. They cost us more, but that is the way of the world todav.

My mother used to make tallow candles. The old mould is still somewhere about. The tallow candle was used by almcst everybody in the house, and round about the stables in lanterns. A packet or two of sperm candles were bought at the store, and were kept high up on the pantry shelf, so that when visitors come and stayed overnight they were duly honoured with a “ wax ” ’candle. Ilia old candle wick was bought at the township store. You cannot buy it there to-day. But candle wicks are still used in New Zealand. Oh. yes! The old Maori made his cherished mat out of native flax. Then one bright spirit struck on a great idea—use candle wick which was already prepared. And to-day, when any second-class distinguished visitor ii presented with a mat, or when a wealthy tourist buys a flax mat, the flax may b« the flax of Ireland or India, it certainly is not the phormium tenax of New Zea* land. Certainly, in 1923, w e have manf new customs. besides daylight saving.