CONFIRMED BACHELORS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 258, 1 November 1932, Page 5

CONFIRMED BACHELORS

AUSTRALIAN CATTLEMEN SOME OF THE REASONS “CUT OFF FROM EVERYTHING” SYDNEY, Oct. 17. Referring to the cattlemen who took part in the recent rodeo in Adelaide, the Rev. John Flynn, Australia’s best known inland missionary, said: “They are super men. The tragedy is that so many arc leaving no sons behind them.” The men had come down from the great hinterland of Australia and were truly Australian types. They have many reasons for not marrying and half a dozen of them discussed th< problem when they met in tho offici of Sir Sidney Kidman, owner of th« stations on which they arc employed. It was emphasised by one of them that they did not want to bo confirmed bachelors, but it was not easy for them to find a wife. Like any other men they would like to look ahead to a snug home, a wife, and a family.

The position of these “supermen” was summed up in typical fashion by Mr Charles Smith, a cattleman employed away back on a station known as Bulloo Downs. He said, “First we’ve got no money. Then, where would wo park a wife? Where are we going to find a nice girl! And she must bo very nice to submit to the conditions out bavk. There is not one of us who would ask a nice girl to face that life. Then, being married, wo would want children. Education costs money, and we have not got it, and never will have enough to keep a wife as we would want to.”

“It is all right to say that there are tons of girls,” said Mr E. Skett, also of Bulloo Downs. “There is a sort of glamour about us. Roughriders, men of the outback, and all that sort of thing. But, getting down to tin tacks, what city-bred girl could really put up with the sort of home wo could give her! There would bo no electric light, no refrigerators, no anything that made for comfort. Most of us arc away from the homesteads for a week, or perhaps a month, at a time. I can tell you that there is no glamour about a man who has not shaved for a month, and who cannot even wash every day.”

“And here is another problem,” said Mr Smith. “We are men, and wo like life. We are jolly good fellows and get on well together. Give us cavh a wife and plenty of money. Leave all the wives at tho homestead while wo are out on the run. What is going to happen to five or six women left together for about six weeks! When we get back 1 shall be told off to tell Sketty that his wife has insulted my wife, or to cut a long story short, there will be strained relations between men who have been jolly good friends.” And all the stockmen shouted their

approval of this view. Others who joined in the discussion said it was the isolation that would get on a woman’s nerves. It was all right for the men. They had their job, but a woman was cut off from everything. The conditions were too tough and most of them would prefer to bo single rather than see their wives roughing it and becoming roughened in the pro-