'Hard Work, Long Walks’ Kept Nonagenarian Fit

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31773, 2 September 1968, Page 5

' Hard Work, Long Walks’ Kept Nonagenarian Fit

Hard work and long walks are responsible for remaining fit into later years, according to Mr F. Minchington, formerly of Ohoka, who celebrated his ninetieth birthday recently, in good health and bright spirit Mr Minchington was born at the home of his parents in Jacksons Road, Ohoka, and at seven years, in 1885, was enrolled at the original Ohoka School, known as the Main School, Jackson Rqad. After two years, he was transferred to the Flaxton School, or the “Side School," just over the Main Drain. There was only one teacher, a Miss Hialt, who walked out daily from Kaiapoi. He said that the school supplied education to the sixth standard, and pupils wanting more, attended a seventh standard class at the Kaiapoi Borough School, there being no high school in the district. On his thirteenth birthday, Mr Minchington “took his swag” and obtained work in East Eyreton, 7.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. and milking six cows at 4s a week.

Later he went to the Inglewood estate, then to White’s estate (Ohoka homestead), as a cowboy. On his eighteenth birthday he was taken seriously ill and not expected to live until his coming-of-age. He returned to White’s as a shepherd and then moved to Eltham, North Island, milking 24 cows for nine years. Mr Minchington returned to Ohoka and employment on Mr William Smith’s gang operating seasonal machinery—threshing, pea shelter, clover sheller and a travelling timber bench, which “could cut anything to 20 feet” and he

recalled cutting timber in the Kaiapoi domain, opposite the woollen mills. After five years with the Rangiora County Council, he rented a 55-acre block at Femside for 23 years, until ruined by two hailstorms. Until Mr Minchington turned 80, he continued working on hay balers and threshing machines in the Femside district and then varied jobs in Kaiapoi. Mr Minchington is a former member of the Ohoka Football Club but he considers “they don’t play football now, only the man.” Although Mr Minchington considers that life was better in his early years, he can remember setbacks for those farmers, such as the 1888 earthquake “with everything jumping off the shelves,” a whirlwind which cut a chain strip through Oxford to Christchurch and a sudden blizzard on a Christmas Day which left 1500 dead sheep on White’s estate, just after the completion of shearing. School holidays in the winter, at seven years, were spent picking potatoes or mangolds. Mr Minchington married Miss Alice Watkins, of Femside, and their family comprised five sons and one daughter. At one stage, al) the sons were in a team of the Femside Cricket Club, of which their father is a life member. There are 10 grandchildren and nine greatgrandchildren. Friends and relations gathered at the home of his eldest son, Mr C. Minchington, Kaiapoi, where he now lives, to celebrate his birthday. His ambition is to attend the anniversary of the Ohoka School next March.