BLAZING THE TRAIL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 180, 1 August 1931, Page 2

BLAZING THE TRAIL

i THE WOMAN ON THE LAND. FOUR JOBS IN ONE. • • EC UNO Al 10 NECESSITY '' i In one of the Australian States there ! was a movement on foot some time (ago to raise a memorial in honour of | the pioneer women of the State, writes Laura Bunting in the New Zealand Herald. It was a movement that carried with it a wide appeal, for it was thought the time had come when honour should be paid to those women who had borne with such courage and fortitude the heat and burden of nation building. What Australia owes to them can never be computed, for women such as they—the satl of the earth—tak« the daily task as it comes and never stay to think that wero it not for them and their quiet heroism there could be no great nation arising in the southern seas. And in New Zealand our women have been not one whit behind their Australian sisters, but while we have honoured our statesmen and our public men we have not yet, honoured our pioneer women—neither the living nor the dead. Behind the achievements of these men and the adventuring of our settlers lies the untold story of the women without whose courage, fortitude, comradeship and inspiration but little could have been accomplished of thta wonderful work that has made New Zealand what it is to-day. • We who live in towns an] cities or in peaceful country districts, with all the amenities and convenience of modern life, find it hard to picture the difficulties faced by these women. There are tales handed down n pioneer families of women who rill they landed in New Zealand from Britain have never held a gun in their hands, yet when the occasion arose they rallied to the, defence of their nomes as intrepidly as ever did their men. There were times when women had to face, single-handed, hostile Maoris in defence of their children and their homes and how well they did it the annals of | many a pioneer family can tell. That, however, is only one side of the story. Atlventures such as these did not happen every day and it is the way in which the dull, savourless things of everyday life are met that shows the mettle of man or woman. For many of the latter each day brouglit its measure full to overflowing of the daily tasks of a home in virgin countiy. They cooked, they sewed, they spun, they kept open house, they brougnt into the world their children, sometimes with no one but a neighbouring settler’s wife to attend them.

Four Jobs in One. Although that phase of the country’s history has passed there is still a great deal of pioneering going on, and .sometimes the question arises in one’s mind, and will not answer itself satisfactor ily, as to whether the lot of these wo men of the earlier days was not easier in many respects than that of some of the women of to-day who live on small farms in far-back country districts. The former did not have to face to such a degree as these later pioneers so often do, the ceaseless drudgery of innumerable cows to milk day after day, night after night, of calves and pigs and poultry to feed, the burden of incessant child-bearing while working like men about the place, children to clothe and send to school, and the hundred and one things that women have to face nowadays. Women who belong to organisations that are working for , the amelioration of the hardships of ' the wives of struggling farmers some- I times ask themselves in despair if there I is any other country in which so much j is expected of women or so thought- : lossly taken for granted as in this. One case which was brought to the notice of a particular organisation was that of a woman on a small farm who every day, winter or summer, had to feed 150 pigs, and in winter time she had to wade through a sea of mud to reach the sties. This was in addition to her ordinary work. Her legs, with cuts and bruises and with knotted and twisted veins, were in a shocking state as a result of her work. Her next door neighbour, who faced much the same conditions, died when her seventh child was born. The doctor could not “rally” her. Se told him. that there was nothing to live for but cows and pigs and child-bearing’ These two women are examples of what far too many others arc doing—filling the place of at least three or four people —that of man about the farm, cook, housekeeper, and bearer of children, any one of which should be one person’s work alone. Would such things ever be asked of anybody but a v;->-man, one wonders? Is it at all surprising that our maternal mortality rate is. so high when women arc sacrifice 1 upon the altar of ‘’economic necessity” as these are?

Isolation of the Country. Yet another instance of what a country woman sometimes faces was that of a woman—mother of 12 children, of whom four had died. To reach the nearest town for her confinements the woman had to ride nine miles through the bush on horseback, to a road, unmetalled, on which again she had to

travel some considerable distance. One of her children becoming seriously ill, she decided to bring it in to the doctor. After riding through the bush with the child she met a lorry and travelled on it. Unfortunately, it be camo bogged in the heavy mud of the road and the driver left her to seek for help, telling her that she had better prepare to spend the night on the lorry, alone save for the child. Before morning dawned it had died! Strange to say there is a reverse side Io the utility of telephones and motors for settlers in the back country. They do not come into the. intimate touch with each other that they once did owing to this advent, and the old community Spirit, seems to have become more or less dormant. This was illustrated in the case of a returned soldier who took up land in the North and brought his bride to his little home. Neighbours frequently passed the house but did not interest themselves in their welfare in any sort of way. F'ive children were born, but three died because the mother, when they wero coming, had not had enough food, so badly were they off financially. Taxation and High Costs. It was the knowledge of such «s these that made the Women’s Division of the Farmers’ Union inaugurate their bush nursing and housekeper schemes, which is already proving such a boon to women in the back country districts. It is not yet so widely known as it deserves to be, but already it has be?n the means of bringing help and untold comfort to women whose courage had reached breaking point. The farmer in very few cases begrudges money spent upon comforts and help for his wife and family, but owing to the economic stress, the high prices of land, over taxation and the high cost of farming requisites, he in a large number of cases simply cannot make both ends meet these day, and whatever is made out of the farm has to go back into it again. The bush nursing and housekeepers’ scheme has touched a vital need in the very pressing problem of relieving their stress, but if the work is to roach all who need it much financial help will be necessary. Some of the outstanding work for the benefit of women and children in this Dominion has been organised by women on hteir own initiative, and not the least valuable is the latest scheme started by the women on the land for those facing greater odds than they themselves arc engaged in. To permanently endow such a work would be a fitting memorial to'the pioneer women of the Dominion.