The Pahiatua Herald. with which is incorporated THE PAHIATUA STAR Published Monday, Wednesdays, and Friday. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1902. THE PIONEER’S WIFE.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume IX, Issue 1200, 28 February 1902, Page 2

The Pahiatua Herald. with which is incorporated THE PAHIATUA STAR Published Monday, Wednesdays, and Friday. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1902. THE PIONEER’S WIFE.

Tin- womnn who today enjoy almost uvory comfort, or at any rate all nconssary comfort, of well-pro-vided homes, and arc fond of complainin'’, would do well to pondor on the experience of wuy.hack wives of pioneer settlers. A lady member of the otah of the Molbourno Argus has been mnhing enquiries in Gipps as where, in some of oup qtyn hack districts, pioneering ia still going on. Bhe paints a terribly picture of the hardships endured bj

the overworked farmers’ wives of Victoria. There are she says, some large and prosperous farms in the district, but the two-roomed hut with earthern floor, is the most frequent building seen. Even in the case of tho larger farms and more pretentious dwellings, it is pointed out that the farmer and bis wife who own such a place have won it after half a lifetime of such toil as town-dwellers could hardly understand. Of the two it is probable that the wife has worked harder than the man, for beyond her household duties and the care ot many cbildron, she has helped him in every process of the outdoor work. There is nothing about a farm that some of these Gippsland htroines cannot do —clearing, burning-off, fencing, ploughing, harrowing, lighting fires, killing sheep and even bullocks for meat, planting orchards, packing the fruit, milking and butter-making. The life is hard for the ordinary farmer’s wife, but it is ten times harder where dairy farming is pursued. One dairy farmer’s wife, who was interviewed by the representative of the Argus, told her story in the following simple and expressive language: “There’s no beginning and no end to a woman’s work on a dairy farm, me dear. From the time ye twist up yer back hair in the dim of the morning till yer pull eut the hairpins at night, you are going, going, going I never stop, I’ve had no holiday for fifteen years. I'm a sort o’ machine wound up for milking and washing and scrubbing. I hear ot my sister in town going to a picnic at Christmas and another picnic at New Year. Picnic I The only picnic I ever get here is when harvesting is on, and my work is doubled. Do you know how we spent Christmas ? The man and the boy gave notice. We had everything to do ourselves. One night we never went to bed at all. The crops had to be cut, the potatoes to be dug and the milking—that’s it, always the milking. You can’t get away from it. You can’t leave it over. You can’t for one day in twenty years forget the cows ’’ Think of it! “You can’t for one day in twenty years forget the cows !’’ Well might “ The Song of of the Shirt ’’ be tuned to lament tho tragedy of the milk pail. Yet there were others, upon whom this same poor drudge could afford to spend sympathy—who were in worse case than herself. There was her neighbour, for instance, with all her children down with measles, who had, with her husband, to milk 80 cows twice a day, whose oats and grass had nearly all beon licked up by a bush fire, while the inspector was daily expected to look in and condemn some of their cows, and a meal of meat was not seen in the house once a week. Child slavery is almost a natural consequence of woman’s unending servitude. The children, at first a hindrance to the mother's activity, are soon made useful, and seven-year-old bushmen have milked the cows while the rest of the family fought bush fires. These Australian country children ate acquainted with hard work almost from their birth. “ I’d milk the cows in the morning," said one woman talking of her earlier marrried life, with the latest baby in a pram near me, and the other children playing about somewhere in sight I had baking to do of course and I’ve often made bread with a baby in my arms ; as for that, I’ve done washing with one hand, the baby on one arm, too sick and fractious to be set down. ’ And another, while her husband was down with influenza, ploughed for a fortnight with the latest baby watching her from the safe harbour ot a big box in the corner ot a paddock. Is it any wonder that these women that these children are prematurely aged, lean and bronzed ? "We generally keep very good health " was the cheerful remark of one body, “and we deserve to, for we dont keep much else. When we are young we worry about our looks, but when we marry we have no time for nonsense. And yet strange as it may seem, these farmers’ wives of Victoria do not complain of their hard lot, but rather, according to a lady interviewer, tako a certain pride in their achievements and in their country life. Nevertheless those who exist under more favourable circumstances may well accord to the pioneering women, as well as to pioneering men, the honor that it due to industry endurance and courage.