This was the 20th week of no traveling due to the coronavirus.
Red Bluff Daily News, October 20, 1951. Remember this was 69 years ago.
“For the next three weeks at my new home 2 miles out of Darfield and 30 miles from Christchurch. There are five in this family, two young women in their 20s at home and a young man. This is a diversified farm mostly crops: alfalfa, swedes (turnips), lupine and white clover.
The girls are both very keen about flowers and today was their big day, as they both exhibited in the Flower Show of Spring Bulbs. It was really beautiful. There were classes for shoulder sprays both formal and informal, men’s boutonnieres; a presentation box suitable for someone ill in the hospital and such. Arrangements in miniature, novelty and etc. The girls won many prizes and the competition was stiff.
The Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) in this community is lovely. Everything is finished in dark blue; the carpet down the aisle, the padded cushions in the pews and the altar piece.
I have talked to the Darfield Farmer’s Club, Country Girls Club, and the women’s division of the Federated Farmers. I have really used my 40 lbs of literature I brought with me. The men are interested in the farm machinery pamphlets, California crops, trees, dairying and sheep raising. The women’s magazines and cook books are very popular as are the fashion leaflets.
Christchurch is the prettiest city I have seen in New Zealand. It is centered around the beautiful Cathedral, and is called the City of the Plains.
The food stores run advertisements in the daily papers, but perhaps not as intensively as those in the American papers. And of course there are the Woolworth stores and other 5 & 10 varieties. I can find a few American brands here, though made in New Zealand.
In almost all the homes it is the custom to dress for the evening meal. It’s rather nice. We change to a warm dress, heels, our jewelry and of course the men change to a suit, or at least add a jacket and tie.
The men’s work clothes are baggy woolen tweeds, beret caps, and a fitted wool jacket. Both men and boys wear berets.
The high school girls are not allowed to wear lipstick. I haven’t seen anyone other than a few school girls wear bobby sox. There are no dates until 17 years of age or older.
The big meal is served at noon, and it would be meat, potatoes, vegetables, dessert and tea. A light meal in the evening would be cold meat, bread, butter, honey, marmalade and tea.
While in Palmerston North, we saw some of the latest cars out.
The Ford Consul, a four-cyclinder, $1,420 car, with little chrome. It seemed very small to me. I also saw the Zepher 6, a six-cylinder car priced at $1,500. An American second hand ’48 Chevrolet sells for close to $5,000.
The flower gardens here are beautiful. It doesn’t seem possible that these belong to private homes. Because they seem like our parks at home. Beautiful shrubs, pools, fountains, flowering trees and green houses.
The people say they do not have any difficulty understanding me. But people do turn around as I walk down the street, because my clothes, accent and voice is different.
My hosts have a son learning to be a soldier under the compulsory military program. We watched the parade; their son was among the 1,050 boys marching before us, and so it was of special interest. The 18-year-olds have to train for 16 weeks, at camps in New Zealand and then there are refresher courses.
While at the Ellsmere Agricultural and Pastorial Show I saw Neil Lambie. Gee, has that fellow ever changed. He speaks clearly, and seems at least 5 inches taller, and I am sure he picked up several American expressions. We had a lot of fun comparing notes on our trips.
It was amazing to see the amount of stock in for only a one day show. Lorries (trucks) were parked everywhere. There was a good sheep show, with the Corriedale breed taking the lead. Others in the competition were the Southdown, Suffolk, Border-Leister and English Leister. Only one flock in the Romney Marsh class. The sheep dogs were on exhibition and judged for conformation. All the stock were held in the open, in pens. There was a large arena where the horse show was held, but no grandstand. The horses were good. They cleared the jumps so well, it was almost boring to watch.
There were complimentary tickets for me, and so I sat with a small group near the ring. It was here I met a member of parliament of the Christchurch area, who invited me to see the Parliament in session.
We got tickets to the English play “Bless the Bride.” It was given by the Christchurch Drama Society. It was a musical comedy.
The North Canterbury District YFC members were my hosts one day as we went on a tour of eight really nice farms in this area. This tour was conducted as our Agricultural Extension tour of outstanding farms in Tehama county each spring. I only wish we might have stayed longer to really see their farms and stock. An hour isn’t long enough.
GlenMark Homestead is an old place with lots of history to it. It was a sheep station. The fences and shearing sheds are made of cement. There was an old house built in 1871 and burned in 1891. The gardens must have been something, as they had six gardeners employed. Even had a heated goldfish pond and, a swinging bridge. There are still old rose bushes and lilacs. Saw the 110 stud Corriedales, 30 breeding Angus cows.
Heatherdale at Waikari, was next stop. We saw his Corriedale ewes and lambs; 1,000 range ewes and 200 stud ewes, 500 ewe hoggets. They shear in November and average 12 lbs of wool per ewe. Sell the wethers; a small group is sold off the mothers, and the rest fattened on rape. The ewe lambs are saved to be sold as breeding animals, if not kept for replacements. In fact, they set a record for two tooth Corriedale ewes at 10 guineas per head ($29.40.)
Woodford at Hawarden, had 500 sheep and cropping. Glen-ovis had 1,400 ewes of which 600 were stud (purebred) ewes. Corriedales of course. They were in midst of shearing, so were very busy. Saw their show string for the Christchurch show. Man. Will that be a show. Everyone will be there.
Another interesting stop, was “Hui Hui” owned by the Estate of the Late H. T. Little, Hawarden, established in 1878. They will have 55 head of Corriedales at the Christchurch Show. We had cocktails there, were supposed to have had afternoon tea, but it was then 5 p.m.
We were too late to go to the Hereford ranch we had intended to see. So we were only an hour for tea at the Macleod home at Loburn. We had tea and then went from there to the Harvest Ball given by the Fruit Growers Assoc. I was surprised to find that Macleods had an orchard. So immediately fired some questions at Jock. Poor fellow, between answering the door to the 27 guests, and being host, he answered my questions.
The apples will be harvested from January until mid April. Apples they raised were Gravenstien, Worcester Pearmain, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Jonathan, Delicious, Woolseley, Dunns Favorite, Sturiner Pippin and Rokewood. Average price is 10 shilling ($1.40) a case. The apples and pears were purchased by the Apple and Pear Marketing Board. Apples that are exported are: Gravenstien, Cox’s Orange, Jonathan, Delicious and Sturiner.
You know last spring I understood we were to “work, play and live” with these farm families. But there is not much of a chance to do much work, but I am certainly enjoying living and playing and going with them.
Jean Barton has been writing her column in the Daily News since the early 1990s. She can be reached by e-mail at jbarton2013@gmail.com.
