70 Years on One Farm.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14274, 13 August 1910, Page 1 (Supplement)

70 Years on One Farm.

UNDER five MASTERS. At the recently held Essex Agricultural Show the first prize in a new class lor agricultural labourers wbo had served longest on the same farm was won by Mr J. Chapman, of Hole Farm, 1! mchingfield. Mr Chapman, is 81 years old, and has established a record of working on the same farm tor seventy-one years He was not able to attend the show at Witham last week-end, owing to the ong distance from Finchinglield: but his claim to the first prize was well established, and the judges gave him the award.

A representative of "The Daily Chronicle, ' who visited Hole Farm, found Mr Chapman, a typical Essex farm labourer, strong and healthy in .spile of his 31 years, at work in the sun hoeing a field of turnips. The genuine "son of the soil" told his life story in a plain straight forward way. that proved him to be blessed with" 'a good memory and unimpaired mental faculties.

"I was born here," he said, "my father being a horseman at Hole Fariii before me, and I have continued in this farm all my life. I never wanted to go away, and refused many offers, because I did not care for moving from the old farm, where I have remained under five masters, and always been happy." "I was married iifty-six years ago, when i was 25 years' old,' and mv master, Mr John Beddall, built Hole Farm cottage, for me to live in. We went in the cottage as soon as we got married, and there we have lived ever since. I don't intend to move now; the farm and the cottage suit me well, and I like this country district." The old man pointed with pride to the little cottage within view, where he has evidently found domestic happiness.

"Both my wife and myself." he went on, "now receive the full old age pension of ss. a week, and I never go to work before breakfast. I don't want to worry about work now, for I am better off at 81 than I was ever before

lin my life. The old age pensions come j like harvest-time all the year round. IWe are doing .so well. 1 earn os. a ] week on the average, and we have 10s. I pensions, which makes a total of los. !a. week. At niv vcrv best, when doing ■ full horseman's work, 1 hail only Ms. a week and the cottage. and l'-'s. »■ week when labouring on the farm. I "as never so well off before as 1 »m now.

: 'Things; have greatly altered .since 1 .was a young man. I well remember ! that my father was paid 7s. a, week as !a horseman on this farm; that was the regular wage then. When I got . married my wages were Bs. a. week. i but they gradually raisel to 145., and '. working men have become much better i off than they were sixty years ago. "The only school I ever went to was a straw-plaiting class held at a labourer's cottage at Finehingfiald; the : labourer's wife used to take the ehild|rei; in. We used to sit braiding the '.straw with a spoiling book in front of : us. but we never learnt to write. . Before I was ten years old I left school ' and went as horseboy to my father on , the farm, where I have worked ever since.

"\\c had a hard struggle in those days. Labouring men were paid little money, and bread was so dear a.s to be a luxury with us. Often we children had nothing but 'middlings and turnip broth' for several days at a time. ''When ] was a dozen years old I went threshing with the men in a barn with a flail, and was oaid 3s. a week I worked so well that my master raised ray wages to 4s. I did' not mind threshing with the flail; it was hard work but dry.

"The young farm labourers of to-dav don t work so hard as we used to; I behove many of them would sta-ve rather than do the hard work we had to do before machinery came on the bind. Although I worked hard, I was always well, and in sixtv rears, while paid in to the Finching'iieid Sick Club 1 had only a fortnight's illness, caused by being thrown out of a waggon when my horses ran away.

Mr Chapman has never seen the sea but he went to London once before he was married, when he and a mate from the village, walked the seventy mile< between Finclungfield and London and returned the same way. He is proud to say thai; be went on London Bridge, saw the Thames, and witnessed soldiers marching through the streets with the baud playing. After this sight he returned to resume his tranquil life at I'lnehmgficld.

-Ir Chapman has never smoked. He «as too poor in his younger days and docs not care to learn now. But lie hkes a glass of beer. "I always found a glass of beer did me good; it livens me up. I generally liked a drink fr.st ihmg in the morning. Now that I am so well oft with the old ago oension I have a small barrel of beer in the cottage, and have a glass w j lell I finish work."