PIONEERING DAYS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21414, 11 February 1933, Page 6 (Supplement)

PIONEERING DAYS

(One of many told me by an old 'neighbour.) Our family landed in Otago. My father, a builder, immediately set about the erection of a house. Sawn timber scarce, it was only possible to secure sufficient for our larger room, having an entrance back and front. There \£as also a huge fireplace, where great log fires warmed and cheered us during the long winter evenings. The house stood on the side of a steep, bush-covered hill—warm and sunny on fine days, but during the rainy season water rushing down often made its way inside, giving our dirt floor a carpet of soft mud. However, father overcame this trouble by digging a trench across from .door to door. When flood water came the covering boards were removed, both doors opened and the muddy stream flowed through our channel, leaving the rest of the floor comparatively dry. Awful conditions ? Not a bit of it! We youngsters, perched up on the two big bedsteads standing on either side, thought it great fun. Mother used to sew or knit and often amused us by Jelling some of the wonderful stories she knew. An ideal wife and mother. Strong and capable and optimistic, she was always ready to cope with any emergency that came along. She brought 16 children into 'the world —three pairs of twins, one set of triplets and seven singles. You may smile, but it is quite true, and, what is more, she reared most of them. (One might imagine the old lady referred to a brood of chickens.) Our house was continually being enlarged. Laundry work was mostly carried on at the river, and our clothes were beautifully white, although untouched by any of the rubbish of present times. Of course, it was all very primitive, but what of that? Why; they say the newly-formed town council held a meeting sitting on the road with their feet in the gutter. Anyway, I think people were more contented than now. It seems to me that the perpetual craving for amusement and excitement is sapping the life of. our men and woman, lowering their ideals and dwarfing the growth of all that is highest and best in soul and character. —From Mrs. Ayling, 14 Sunnyside Road, Mount Eden.