FARM LIFE 40 YEARS AGO

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1934, Page 28 (Supplement)

FARM LIFE 40 YEARS AGO

HARD WORK FOR CHILDREN. UPS AND DOWNS OF SETTLEMENT. There were no tar-sealed roads to the factory or electricity supplied to milking sheds in the period 40 years ago when Mr. A. McWilliatn was manager of the Manga toki factory. “Conditions on the farms were even more primitive than in the factory,” he told a News reporter, “and the milking operations, then all by hand, were often akin to slavery. Even little children had to be called in to take a bucket and help at the milking. It was great drudgery for the smaller ones and it had a bad effect on their school activities. Many would be so tired that they would fall asleep at their lessons. It was rather pitiable to see some of the tiny tots with buckets tied around their necks with straps, thd utensils being too big and heavy to hold between -their knees. “The settlers were all moderately hopeful of their lot, but they never anticipated that the future-held out much more than was then in view, and it certainly never occurred to them that there was to be the enormous rise in the price of. produce and land values that was subsequently experienced. When an offer of £9 or £lO per acre came along the auctioneering companies were glad to quit the farms that they were holding, and some prospective — buyers were candidly advised not to do so. “Some of the pioneer settlers were the Linns, Peases, Giffords, Perrys, ..Rogers and Wilsons, and these are still represented in the district. Some time later there cattle in influx of colonists from Tasmania the Marx, Phillips and Bloomfield’ families, and later the Sulzbergers, being among the new arrivals. “There were many amusing incidents that broke the monotony of life. On Saturdays the families would be bundled into the back of the drays and the settlers would set off info town to do their marketing. Whether they were successful in reaching their destination was often a question of good luck—with the roads in the condition that applied to many of them.”’ ... ,