AN IMMIGRANT'S "LETTER HOME"

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5425, 4 July 1879, Page 3

AN IMMIGRANT'S " LETTER HOME"

•-In-the -Northern -JEcho, a paper published in Darlington^ England, weifind ther following letterlrom Hike's tys, under; the heading " AagarUngfeonj-Emigrant in New Zealand ,"": a ~"^ "" . ""., T a . •fc^lcolm 1 Mole left Darlington in December, 1876,- as -one of a band of aboutES^eP^iSundajcT^cholate". 3 and teachers .wkbkwe^aeMigratmg -tdl Zealand. The following letter to his p#enH''dated>".o?3 Mata/, ; 'New-Zealand, November £/•• ifcT^' 'will 1 be read \fritb:;mterests -:^M9Peat' rj Parents;--r did* not write last matPas^l/was 1 ' so busy building a house on my land". '"I can say now I have a f fiotise " and- bne ; hundred acres of latodujlmyiown^-whiohfl- certainly should never have been posß'essed'bf if ;I had .remained* "at y ßbme7' 'I will 1 give -you a fet£ details of 'building'^-In the first place, a tnan~ and myself (I pay the man thirtyk&billih'gs ;a -week and ifirid . all food) pitched our .tf&nfeGn I6tir „ locationi There •we cleared a pl%ce_..t.Q_ build a house sixteen feet long and sixteen feet, high, restlrigMw^yd^\bloc.ks.:vWe;feUed one trfffifotfafmea^rßg^ve ; W through.. | Out inio eight-fe^'lp. n gw^ * nd split into | boards,; "built , tne whole of ..jthe hou^i i^^alsd cleared thr.ee! quarters of an acre, iefling over fifty trees on that piece of land. There"is"a splendid view of the^-riVW in 1 ; front and the mow hills around. I have" called it Snow Hill View. I haye left a, neighbor felling ten acres of bush; i-wili sow in seed the other thirteen acres that are cleared; ' r The grass that is growing is a foot high now ; it looks splendid. I have a white pine tree seven feet diameter and ; dver 130 feet high. The house took five weeks building. Then wPhad totwalk from the bush to Waipawa to"catchrthe : aftern6on train. We started at6a;m.,gofe to f Waipawa at 1.30 p.m., and left by train for Havelock 3.30 p.m., walked a distance of twenty-two miles, and crossed two rivers, carrying our swags on our backs. After; harvest is over I intend to still further improve the land. I will have to split posts and rails to fence ; alsx& ißftWc; . seed-, yuplant -fruit . rtrses^ and inake^&>garderi.~or;So:you, ; will see I am spending* a./ ideal; ofc money and time, but i^'is;jbetteiMthani wasting mbnep at- the pub I Ho^hbuseV^as^ nearly t all my -mates do on«the o ßtatii64t Ifc is -now' bur^shearing tiftie:'T.'r aioa p busy J weighirig l all bales 'of wb'ol arid 'branding 'ihem G bef6re sending them off. J &&■ ilce a ? nana g e F* ? book all bJesi i] an t d^Kave V; men ii t6 : shift them when I'weigftedi ' ;I ; =also keep hydraulic ami 1 dumping' machine in ' working order. You will see I have quite a responsible biljet** We start gra r ss cutting in a fortnigHi?/ %hen } tTfteshi^ 'f hitf is a very busy time with us:* e We are having a dry Bea¥6^f^-ri§*Tain^tpf^ speak- itif- for* six months j and fear-for^ the harvest if no rain comeg soon. TherMaoris gave us ,a spFelafd Idance 1 : -it' was' very mnch a|pre^yd.°rndw I weigh^^^ 911».', ! and anl'ingooa'fibalth^' '',^ \ /.