OTHER DISABILITIES.

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 45, 21 February 1917, Page 11

OTHER DISABILITIES.

After leaving the sawmilling ■industry, Mr. M'Gregor devoted himself to farming, | and he well remembers the hard struggle the farmers had in those early days. Meat was plentiful, so farmers received very little for their surplus stock. Cartage was as much as £6 per ton.-: Land certainly was cheap, but what was the use of it when there was such a limited market for its products?. Potatoes and fruit were to be bad in abundance. Peaches grew most luxuriantly everywhere, and as there was absolutely no sale for them they were fed to the pigs. The operations of Mr. (now Sir) Walter Buchanan and Mr. John Morrison (father of Mr. Hugh Morrison) gave a great impetus to the sheep and cattle rearing in the Wairarapa. They bought up a great deal of'stock and took them to Hokitika. for the purpose of supplying meat to the miners on the goldfields. Before the advent of the freezing indusl try sheep were bringing 4s apiece, and the choicest legs of mutton sold for Is. Settlers had to do mitside work, and the ruling rate for unskilled labour was from •4s to 6s per day. An unskilled labourer in ihcse days jvas roaJJ[y a skilled man—