A CHATTY LETTER

Waipa Post, Volume 41, Issue 3185, 7 August 1930, Page 5

A CHATTY LETTER

FROM AN EX-PUAHUE SETTLER.

NOW RESIDENT IN ENGLAND.

By the latest overseas mail Mr W. G. Park, of Puahue, received a very interesting letter from Mr R. W. Simson, who left Te Awamutu district last year and is now resident at Kilburn Priory, London, and who shortly will take up farming in Sussex, as will be seen from extracts we have been permitted to make from the letter for general information:— . -I told you I had signed to lease a farm called Pondtail from Sir Meyrick BurrelPs son at West Grinstead, Sussex, and I am marking time until 25th September to get possession. We have a very nice house in.Lbndon to live in at present. We have been trying our hand at golf; and I may take it up as a relaxation when I get settled down in Sussex. We all went to the Empire Ball and Pageant at the Albert Hall, and had a great night last Monday.

Yesterday Alf Court and I motored in my car down to Bishop Stortf ord, and were shown over a 6000 acre estate, well farmed, and carrying pedigree Friesians. It was a beautiful place, but of course I saw it at its most wonderful moment. In one field there were 3000 pheasants being reared for the season's shoot; hundreds of coops were scattered about, each with a dozen or more chickens, with a Rhode Island foster-mother in charge. The young pheasants are fed on boiled egg, rabbit, and crushed grain in a mixture until they are liberated. //>,

The stock on the estate looked well, and there were some cows that had givven over 6000 gallons of milk in three years, with three calves. I inquired the price of the heifers—-there were about 100 from 15 to 18 months old!—and the owner said £4O for the pick would be the price. What breed to concentrate on , or just to have a mixed herd, is hard to decide. Guernseys are the favourite breed, and they command the best prices, but in milk supply the Shorthorn, Friesian, and Ayrshire breeds are all fancied by the commercial farmer. The Jersey is well fancied, but not so generally popular as in New Zealand. The month of May has been very unsettled, but the weather has not been actually severe; and at preesnt is settling and becoming warmer. The month of June is a time of excitement, and all the big functions are on tap then.

Miss Stella Empson and her father are still enjoying the sights. I am taking them up the river in my car when they have a day to spare, and I will take them out in a launch for a run to Maidenhead and back to our bungalow at Staines for tea. The Derby is close at hand, and of course everybody, including myself, expects to win the Calcutta Sweep. My wife is very well, and London agrees with her all right. Empire Free Trade is still progressing and beginning to get a hold on a great many people. Any gesture'that cOmes ; from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, or Canada is made the most of by Lords Beaverbrook and Rothermere in their big daily papers. If this country once caught on to the idea in the true spirit, and the colonies reciprocated, the British Empire would make the world sit up and gasp. It is a great chance, and if any party gave it a go and pulled it off that party would hold power for a decade without any other effort. Amy Johnson, the girl flyer, has caught the public imagination, and her stock is 100 per cent, with everybody taking their hats off to her. By the way, as I write the evening papers say sfie has met with a mishap on her .overland trip to Brisbane. Please convey my kind regards to all old pals in the district, about whom we talk very often. England in the spring is certainly hard to beat, but the people are not generally awake to their wonderful opportunities.