Farm Life Up the Kaipara.

Observer, Volume X, Issue 607, 16 August 1890, Page 12

Farm Life Up the Kaipara.

PLEASURES AND CHARMS OF COUNTRY EXISTENCE. (Br an Observer ) I was the successful applicant for a situation advertised a short time ago in the daily papers, as follows : — WANTED —A thorough good man for a sheep aud cattle farm ; reliable, efficient, steady, active, single, experiencpcl. liandy, all-round. Having had some seven years' experience cadeting and assisting in management on various large runs on this IsTand. I obtained the appointment, and started for the farm (which comprises 24,000 acres in the Kaipara district) with my employer, in full confidence of being able to assist him creditably in the working of the place. After reaching Helensville, the remainder of the journey is made by bout-, >md we duly arrived at the landing place ab-"int nine a m. Immediately the stea.mer's whistle blew, I looked out for congenial mates among the station bands, who, as my employer informed me, were expected down to help unload some stores. The first to come over the hill was an old black n:an, with the unmistakable features of an Africnn negro. Shortly after oanie a bandy-legged, ragged, and" tan-looking boy, with shirt half out, trousers J full of tears and rents, hair down to his shoulders, and a j hat tied down over his ears. On asking my employer if these were the only hands on the place, he replied, ' Yes. and quite enough, too.' We (my employer, the woman who travelled with him, and myself) landed. The woman stopped on the beach to converse (in his own lingo) with the worthy negro, to whom (she afterwards confidentially told me) she was very much attached. My employer, who is said to be exceedingly wealthy, led the way past a two-storied house, most of the windows in which were broken, to a dirty looking whare, with mud half an inch thick en the floor, into which dripped the grease from two old hams hung to the roof. There were three bunks in the whare. The whole place was begrimed with smoke, and the general odour around wag most foul, reminding one of an old Maori habitation. I looked around for a place to put my things, and was informed that I could sling anything I was not in immediate want of up in a small loft above, begrimed with the dust and suet of ages. I soon found that ' handy all round ' included my taking my turn at cooking. Tho hours of working out of doors were from daylight until dark, Sundays included. Presently the boy came up and proceeded to get lunch, which consisted of rancid butter and ship biscuits. After putting the tea billy on the fire, the boy took a smoky, gveasy cloth from the wall and proceeded to wipe the plates, etc., from the morning meal. I asked him if that was the way he washed up. He replied that they washed the things in water nearly every day if they had time. I promptly said that sort of thing would not suit me, and put a kettle of water on the fire, and when boiled started to wash up mypelf. There was only one tin to hold water, in the whare, which had to do service also as wash-hand Vasin, so I used thia. The buy wishing to assist, offered to wipe with the dirty cloth. T declined the assistance, preferring to let the plates steam dry. After the meal, the boy went out to receive orders, and 1 followed. Mick picked up a bone (a cattle-beast's shank) at the corner of the verandah. The boss thrust his head through a broken pane in the glass door and told me to take the boy aud bring up from the boat landing to the house a couple of cases of gin, besides other things. This done, I went to see what next to do. My employer this time came on to the verandah, where he would have made an amusiv.g sketch for an ariifit. He had a suit of clothes on that a beggar actor j might have envied, a pair of boots with wooden soles ! about two inches thick, to which the uppers were fastened by tin tacks driven in as cose as they could well be placed, with an iron band resembling a racing 1 plate fastened round the bottom of the sole. The second day I was on this notable farm I found the only billy in the whare missing, and on making enquiries found that our employer, having nothing to boil water in, had taken the utensil for his own use, so we were reduced to the kettle. And yet this man is said to be immensely wealthy. Any one seeing the house he lives in and the way it is kept can scarcely believe this to be true ; but as he is also able to keep a valuable -town residence, I fear it is a fact, and if so he must be an inveterate miser and a good study for a phrenologist. Though there are 500 head of cattle on the place, one never sees milk ; and for meat, I saw or tasted nothing but wild pork, though the run is curving about 3,000 sheep. ' I need scarcely add that I have left the Kaipara district, and that the gentleman farmer is again looking out ! for a ' reliable, efficient, steady, active, single, experii enced, all-round.' Any experienced all-round idiot, who | want? a spell of dirt and starvation, would be suited to ; a T. in the situation I have vacated.