Joy of the Handworker.

Waikato Times, Volume 111, Issue 18619, 23 April 1932, Page 11 (Supplement)

Joy of the Handworker.

(Sir A. T. Wilson.)

The TECHNICAL SCHOOL has come to stay. Its influence deserves to be spread, by voluntary means, over a far wider area than at present, and welfare organisations who Ignore this aspect of social education are not doing full justice to their clients. Dean Inge says somewhere that creative work is one of the essentials of a joyful life, and it Is evident from his writings that he Is not unacquainted with the steady and lasting iovs of life as distinct from the fleeting sensations of pleasure. We all know from experience that the skilled man and woman is "steady" and normally cheerful, rt should be our aim to help men and women employed on repetitive work to taste the joys of creative work.

fl Nazarlne Carponter. No one ran put his soul into the rare of „ semi-automatic lnl,ip > r " 1(1 ln ,iroam nl ' a return In hand craftsmanship is vain. There remain the leisure hours; they cannot he 1 non, in a eardeu or an allotment by many, -1,0 r,, oloolno [L,., | S available —is within reach of almost T n their leisure hours, never as long " 'now. men ran lisle of the solace that fSclr forefathers hart ns they grew friendly 1 ,n the grain of limiter and the sharp tool " Sr wood Is a friendly material, pleasant IT touch, and to smell, and grateful io the 1 Working in wood may be to men what fmtiirw and sewing is to so many women. Christ''’as* brought up in a carpenter's shop. Y , H was to shepherds that the angels , to sing the gloria In excelsls; and, . 1 never knew one unfit for such a nnnoert Like all good men they delight rhfefly to speak of their art, and very wllUntrlv meet with others of the same profession: for they arc men called to the work ® n ?. fr! shepherd for nigh on forty * eii.i one to me " and I never had a ' Vml never will I works for them, 3T«S "Oil. ...I limy klinw, II." Proud of Hla Craft.

Thpro speaks the artist. prmid of his pnTfessiom and. ••nnseious of Ins P 1 ' n| s fellow- workers in Hu V'.m' below I lie fells have no less el,dm 1 * ‘ ... ~| '|')ie 1 1 ea 11 1 v of the eountry--olV' Uis the work of their hands, for it is not 'Vi beaut v being derived largely from u-J' O whim, laud is put. from the pati abOti” of many generations tor farmwilli I heir own hands, and to their prs , . urn built their houses, in live. in. as 1 '. ’ |,i look on. who cleared ami nied'lhe dehis ami built the wails, and ret, 0 , | .. (> .„| acres from swamp and wasio. toil througii the centuries made ths

The Machine and the Man.

land fit to live in; on the crops that the land brought forth they reared a sturdy race of men who are the salt of the earth, which they have done as much to people as 'any one • . .

As in industry, so in agriculture, the machine is with us, eliminating much painful labour of man and beast, but calling forth fresh qualities of intelligence and skill in those who guide the wheels. The milking machine has displaced the old way on some farms, hut is not by any means in general use; “good hands ’’ still have their value.

The Man Who Can Tend Horses. A man who can tend and drive horses and also do running repairs to a tractor deserves more wages than lie can at present earn in this country, where the farmer lias been for nearly a century the victim of short-sighted policies. A man who is skilled in thatching a rick, and still more a cottage, can earn a living in most countries, for a good thatch is warmer than any but the most cosily type of roof, and wnen well made costs no more in repairs than slate.

-Manual skill is everything to a thatcher—skill in laying tho straw, in binding it to tlio slats, skill in selecting, maturing and bending the split branches of beech to secure the thatch against winter gales—art in devising, as lie docs so, a pattern pleasing lo tlio eye.

Tho scythe makes cruel demands on the muscles of those who have not learnt to wield it—the most effortless swing of the expert is the despair of the tyro. To watt on cows at their calving and the ewes in the lambing season, Is a work as worthy of respect as to nurse the sick—and not less skilled.

Mon Who Can Grow Cabbages. To graft fruit trees and to prune them wisely needs good hands, as well as experience; there are some men for whom cabbages grow better than for others, some whose trained eye and memory enable them .Meteorological o(lire, luit ] have never met to foretell Ihe seasons heller Ilian Iho a weather prophet in the. country who was not skilled with his hands: the. greater virluo seems lo Include the lesser. Basket ami litinllc making needs peculiar skill, both in selecting material and In turning it to good account. As to the hedger and ditcher—one who can plash a hedge neatly is ever In demand from Candlemas onwards. To quote Martingall:— ’Twcrc well if some folks, who are greater and richer. Would copy John Tonvpklns, th« Hedger and Ditcher,