1950 - Chudleigh, E. R. Diary of E. R. Chudleigh 1862-1921 - CHAPTER XXIV. TORONTO; SPAIN; CORNWALL; N. Z. AGAIN [ETC.], p 443-454

       
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  1950 - Chudleigh, E. R. Diary of E. R. Chudleigh 1862-1921 - CHAPTER XXIV. TORONTO; SPAIN; CORNWALL; N. Z. AGAIN [ETC.], p 443-454
 
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CHAPTER XXIV. TORONTO; SPAIN; CORNWALL; N. Z. AGAIN [ETC.]

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CHAPTER XXIV.

TORONTO; SPAIN; CORNWALL; N. Z. AGAIN; ABNER CLOUGH; WHAREKAURI; AT ORONGOMAIROA, NOW THE CHUDLEIGH ESTATE, TO LIVE; DRAINAGE TROUBLES; D. POTTS MANAGER; A. SHAND DEAD; ALSO J. G. ENGST; STARTED THE MILKING MACHINE; CLARA DIX; AT THE CHATHAMS.

October 6th, 1907-December 31st, 1911.

At Toronto Oct. 6.

"We got in Melbourne in good restaurants three good course meals for 3d. a course, a far better meal for 9d. each, good soup, a choice of 3 or 4 flesh foods and vegetables and a choice of 3 or 4 puddings. Good clean food, tea or coffee and bread and butter all included for 9d. [Here] we had to pay 1 1/2 dollars each for 2 mutton chops, no vegetables, one cup of tea and a little bread and as much butter as a walnut. Robbery pure and simple.

I have long wanted a two wheeled spring cart of some sort and in the Canadian caleche I have found the desired article. The great feature is the leather springs. The old American buggy that used to be in N. Z. was the best carriage for rough ground I ever knew. You cannot get one now. I saw about the cost of a caleche 250 dollars packing and freight extra. A caleche has a strong hood and apron, seats for two and driver, place for box before and behind. I made up my mind to buy one. The caleche will be sent direct to London. I hope it will turn out a good one.

We are fleeing from Canada a month before we wish to simply because of the way they extort money from tourists.


1908.

1st March. [To Lisbon from Gibraltar.] We lay at a place called Faro all day taking in almonds, baskets, corks, sardines and pigs. Four officials came on board. They said they were glad the king [of Portugal] and his son were killed and they hoped all the rest would be killed. It would save a civil war. They did not want to be a republic but wanted a king that would give them liberty. These men told us the graves of the murderers, patriots they called them were quite covered with flowers. It is the nature of devils not men to think and act as these anarchists do.

6th. Lisbon. We looked on the dead bodies of Don Carlos and his son lying in state in full uniform. The king was not much

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changed but the wound on the side of the princes face looked red and bad. I am glad I saw the poor dead men. I walked over the spot they were murdered on. I saw many cut throat looking people in the towns of Portugal. The country people and fisher folk are not a bad race.

13th. We reached Cordova [Spain] and walked about before dinner at 7.30. The Hotel Washington is very Spanish.

14th. At this hotel we met a Mr Foster of Newcastle. He told us a great joke about ourselves. We came into dinner a little late and were put at another table by ourselves. We noticed even one looking at us but as that was usual in a lesser degree, I, at least, took no notice of it. Mr Foster has been mayor and sheriff of his town and as such has entertained many bigwigs. To come to the point I was mistaken for the king of the Belgians and Mr Foster said he was certain I was as he had to receive him and show him his city. When I went out he gave me a marked bow and so I became the king of the Belgians. When I walked in the Square I thought people unusually rude they stared so. Then my guide took me to an office to get full permits to see all the Cathedral. Directly I entered, the two old gentlemen in the room got up and made me a profound bow and gave the guide my permit and asked him a question in Spanish. He said, A gentleman from the Hotel in English. Still I knew nothing and I should have left knowing nothing if Mr Foster had not told me and then he added, And really, even now if I could disbelieve you after what you say I should still take you for the king of the Belgians. All this coming after what my guide in Seville told me and some other person I forget where made me remember the Seville guide. He said I once had the honour of doing guide for the king of the Belgians and when the hotel manager pointed you out as the gentleman requiring an English guide I said, That gentleman is the king of the Belgians and if you only allowed it I could still think so. I put these two pleasantnesses down as a fish for more dollars but Mr Foster could have no such end. Anyway it is rather risky in these days and these countries to be mistaken for a king. It means more dollars if not worse.

2nd September. Cornwall. Mabel and I motored in the afternoon, rushed on at forty miles per hour when we had a straight road which was not very often to Pencarrow the home of the Molesworths, a lovely place. The grounds are very fine, the hot houses good, the house large and sound and full of good portraits of the family and celebrities, one of Sir William the great states-

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N. Z. Again--Started the Milking Machine--Clara Dix.

man, the father of the self governing colonies. I well remember Sir William and used to trot about with him as a boy but the first figure at Pencarrow now is a little vivacious old lady Mrs Ford a sister of Sir William. She was much delighted at my remembering her celebrated brother and at my recognising the bust and portrait of Sir William in Ottawa and also that I knew all about the family in early N. Z. and her brother Lord Peters history there. She gave me a life of Sir William and some other things. I was much pleased with my visit.


1909.

24th February. Returned to Christchurch. Izard and I drove out in my Canadian caleche. We called on many people and many walked round the new idea and two young ladies had a drive in it. The trap was very easy over bumpy ground and not heavy to pull. We had a very tall horse to match the caleche. Brabner the coach builder is to keep the caleche.

4th March. To Wellington. Found out that Mrs Ford [sister of Sir W. Molesworth] had sent out an iron structure in the early days to be used as a beacon or monument of some sort. This was finally sold for old iron and broken up. I suppose the lighthouse and point was called Pencarrow instead of using the beacon.

5th March. At Napier. I met [R.] La Nauze and many other old friends. I then called on Capt. McAllister who was out but a charming young daughter entertained me. I walked on the great breakwater till dark when McAllister came and we had a great talk about opening a permanent trade with the Chathams. I asked Mr Williams the controlling owner of the Toroa his point of view. He wanted to do so but the Islands, id est A. Shand, put in impossible conditions and so sold the Toroa. The boat was built to suit the Chathams and other ports with deep water. Alex has deprived us of a good boat and the friendship of a good and very influential Company. Next appeared Mr and Mrs [Maui] Pomare and a little boy and Mrs Pomares only brother Woodbine Johnson. They get off at Gisborne.

6th. [Gisborne.] All the passengers in and out had to be swung in a great basket which took a long time. The great hawsers parted many times with the report of a gun. Mr Woodbine Johnson has been ill with a diseased bone in his jaw, brought on I believe by boxing. He is a fine looking man. Mrs Pomare is nicer than ever, quite charming in her manner, so refined. I hope she is happy. Her heart is devoted to her home and children.

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7th. At Auckland. Spent the evening with George Draper. He is very deaf and much aged. Miss Shuttleworth, Con and Julia constitute the household so they are happy and comfortable. Blessed are those who can do without servants.

8th. Spent the afternoon with Mrs [Jane] Brown [of the Chathams]. Mr is dead and Mrs has moved into Remuera. She was delighted to see me and hear of our travels.

9th. Reached Hamilton. The train was thronged by passengers for the new trunk railway from Wellington to Auckland via the so-called King Country. There never was a king of New Zealand at any time and the self styled king was simply chief of a little district. Ruapehu and Ngaruhoe are very active just now-covering the district with ash, and lava is flowing from Ngaruhoe.

I had a long talk with Mr H. Roche, Land and Estate Agent of Hamilton. He is coming to Orongomairoa to see the place. If I break up the block now called Orongomairoa it wall be called the Chudleigh Block.

10th. The whole land is dust. A neighbour came to see me and was very pressing that I should break it up myself, not sell to a syndicate and make £8 to £10000 out of the transaction. Abundant food, cattle everywhere.

13th. We looked over the Piranui portion but the great drains are not deep enough yet. Mr Roche thinks the property very good but advised me to keep it and live on it and reap the value myself. I saw grand country and 1000 acres of grand young flax and food everywhere.

16th. To Taumaranui by through express. The country and little towns were all more advanced than I expected. Had bed but no sleep or breakfast at Taumaranui.

17th. Left late. We lost two hours stuck in a tunnel in the spiral. No lights had to back down hill and send on one half of the train at a time. Found a train load of animals detained by our train. 6 or 8 Elephants and dozens of other large animals. It was 11 o'clock before we got to the dining car and breakfast.

29th. Ch.Ch. Packing all day. We leave everything here as we are going to desert much loved Wharekauri and leave my all of 40 years creation. It is a crime and grieves me.

10th April. Arrived Waitangi. I decided to go round the Island in the Ripple, call at all the places and show all concerned that they must keep the Ripple on. Mabel stops at Mrs Palmers now Mrs Carstairs for the night.

12th. At Pitt I. I saw old Abner. He stands out alone, an

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N. Z. Again--Started the Milking Machine--Clara Dix.

old Norseman tall and hard in body and mind, a wild drinker, his all destroying vice, a splendid worker and at all times worth a host of modern men. The Islanders sent for their children and grandchildren to come out and see me. Mrs Paynter has I think 30 grandchildren. All the children are splendid specimens of young humans full of vitality. Mothers at 18 years and going strong, a beautiful sight. I hold them in higher esteem than their sisters of higher degree that do nothing for their race or country. These women are well worthy of a vote if they want it.

15th. Left Flowerpot and landed at Waitangi. Held a committee meeting and agreed to renew the contract with the Ripple.

17th. Left for Wharekauri. Called in to see Clelland and family of 9 children and more on the way. Do. Mr and Mrs Guest the schoolmaster and growing family, then Mr Engst, Mr and Mrs Meikle look after him as if he belonged to them. Then on to see J. J. Fougere where I got a sod of buffalo grass and another sod of some native grass and then to old Dennis Murphy who looks very well for his age. Wharekauri has missed its master and mistress. Miller has worked the Run well and done what he can. He could not do more.

14th June. [Returning to N. Z. taking up 6 fat cattle.] I found the cattle all tied with their heads to the side of the ship instead of to the centre. Absolutely wrong. If we have bad weather there will be heavy loss.

15th. After a rough night many of the cattle were on their sides and could not get up. Nellie Bly our pet cow was down and too heavy to get up. The floor was timber instead of coal or shingle and no battens. Half the cattle were loose there being no fitting to hold them. We had to put all the hay on the floor and drag the beasts under the hatch. One died and was thrown overboard. Jack Dalberg looks after the stock splendidly. He runs a quite unwarrantable risk of his life, no battens and cattle loose.

17th. We began to unload cattle. My six pet cows stay on board all night and then are put right into a truck. I fear Nellie will never stand again.

23rd. Attended Addington saleyards. A splendid lot of cattle. No buyers, no spirit, my 5 cows did as well as any, average £6. 10. No profit. The result in the Ripple having no fittings. 8 cattle of one man are dead. There will be more trouble. The Company courts disaster and they will find it sooner or later.

6th July. In Wellington. I think I have got the old age pension for Abner Clough but nothing on account of his fathers

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assistance in hoisting the first British flag on the South Island and helping the officer of the Britonmart. I saw about appointing J. J. Fougere a justice of the peace.

14th. At Orongomairoa. We are going to live at the farm. Mrs Cochrane finds and does for us at £1 per week each. The wife looks after our bedroom and does the washing.

19th. Wife and I walked the drains for many hours. The lower ends of all my drains are obstructed by a neighbour called Bell. I must put pressure on him.

21st July. Drove to Mr Hannahs the chairman of the Drainage Board. We told him we wanted an outlet for our main drain, that is for Bell to open his drain from where I stop and also the Waihekau drain. Mr Hannah only required a request from me in writing.

22nd. Mr Tom Phillips [Mabel's uncle] arrived. He thinks the property a very fine one and so do I.

24th. We walked through the swamp to the top boundary drain. The swamp was very deep, a 6 ft. stick did not reach the hard. We ploded on through mud and water constantly going to our knees, I found it very tiring. The top drain was 3 ft. deep and 5 ft. wide. It is just a line 6 inches deep and full of rushes, of no value. We then went to the diagonal drain. Here the depth of the swamp is 7 ft. The drain is not finished yet. It is a fine drain and doing much good but it will not do instead of the Waihekau. That stream must be opened. We got home after dark a mass of mud and water. I am very glad I have done it but I do not require a second dose.

The land is here and the drains are doing good work, but fences, buildings, implements all are in a bad state. £2000 is required at once.

3rd August. Donald Potts will in all probability come here in October to take charge. He likes the place but thinks there is a vast amount to be done. No one knows that more than I do. The swamp under the downs and out to the main drain is simply splendid, a foot deep in grass. There are 73 head of cattle of mine on the place.

23rd. Christchurch. At U. B. A. and Izard. There will be no trouble about working Orongomairoa in moderation.

16th. Orongomairoa. I drove to Matamata via Whakaroa, Mr Firths great estate of 30 years ago. His great plans and mighty enterprise ended in a great collapse not many years after Whakaroas "sad deflection and disgrace" as the old Maori lament sings.

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N. Z. Again--Started the Milking Machine--Clara Dix.

Matamata is now a thriving district and Whakaroa will be as soon as the absurd restrictions are taken off Maori lands.

21st. Mr Laird objects to my bringing my water through his land. He can not stop me but I shall have to appeal to the law for leave to open a natural creek that rises in my land and flows down through his and other peoples till it enters the Waihekau stream. The banks of the creeks are quite filled up by willow roots. He says his father in law and owner Mr Bell will never allow it.

24th. Bought 35 head of mixed cattle making 105 head.

1st September. Cochrane commences as manager today £3 per week. Mrs Cochrane finds us at £1 a week each and cooks for the men. All stock but my own and Cochranes leaves the farm at once.

7th October. Mabel and I collected rubish and burnt it all day. I never saw any place so covered with domestic debris in my life. The grass is growing well on the far side of the Waihekau.

12th. Mr Reid commenced to build the mens house.

16th. A nice soft rain falling. This should be a grand season for milk.

28th. Heard from Izard. He agrees that I and the [Drainage] Board have full power to drain [into Bell's land]. Laird is not pleased at the turn of affairs. He says I must agree to give him compensation for damage done.

8th November. Heard from Donald Potts. He and teams and furniture come on the 11th. Thank goodness.

26th. Mrs Cochrane made things hot for Mabel while I was in bed with a chill. She and her horrible boy cleared out as did her step daughter next day. My one desire is to be at Wharekauri again.

Heard the bittens boom like great bulls a long way off, a rather terrible sound when you think they are bulls. I was given a remarkable shell found 40 fathoms deep off Cuvier I. [between Coromandel Pen. and Gt. Barrier I. It is called the Carrier Shell Xenophora corrugata. It protects its own shell by sticking small flat shells on its back like slates.]

21st. Auckland. I got my caleche and three boxes to the Railway shed and paid £2. 3. 8 freight to Waihou.

23rd. Made caleche safe for the night. Mabel and I walked to the drains made by my monster swamp plough and scoop.

26th. William Bauche came to see me and have an Island talk. He gave me a copy of his book. Where the white man treads.

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28th. Mr Bell by some means has got the Drainage Board to do all the draining through his property as somehow his land is left out of any drainage board. He has also got the Board to divert and keep diverted all the water of the Waihekau from my top boundary and turn it down a diagonal drain through my property into the Piranui which also runs through my land but not through Bells. It is not the present blocking of the Waihekau nor the diverting of its waters but the ceding for all time of a valuable public right that I object to.

10th December. Mrs Jane Brown arrived just before lunch. She had been at Te Wakaroa Maori meeting. Maui [Pomare, her nephew whom she educated] is thinking of standing as Maori member for this district.


1910.

13th April. Donald [Potts] came back from Sydney. Mabel and I walked the swamp and lit fires. We both fell into crab-holes a name given to swampy country when full of holes and full of water in wet weather but dry now. These holes were hip deep to me and the poor little wife nearly went out of sight but she stuck to it.

21st May. Mowing fern to clear a place for the first house to be built for milkers to live in. I have decided to build a new house for us and to move the old one away as a house for milkmen and put up one new milkmens house and milking shed.

18th June. Got a box of butter at 1/2d. per lb. Every man demands his lb of butter per week and all other things that the labour law allows.

23rd. I heard by mail of poor old Abner Cloughs death. His father was an old sea dog and Abner died like an old Norse hero with his flag mast high.

24th. Went to the drainer. He is behind with his contract, has new men and only works four hours a day. I hear his wife had been seen working with him in male garments. They were a young couple out for a spree and never began work before midday.

1st July. The drains are full and the diagonal drain is over its banks where it enters the Piranui. There is no alternative for me but an action for heavy damages against the Drainage Board.

5th. We laid out the milking shed etc on my original site and all accessorys and then a second dwelling house for the milkers of the second herd.

16th August. Alex Shand is dead, burned to death in his own

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N. Z. Again--Started the Milking Machine--Clara Dix.

house. It is surmised that the flames prevented him getting out of the door and his rheumatism prevented him getting out of the window. All his Moriori M. S. S. and his Moriori dictionary ready for printing perished with him. Poor Alex. He lived a hard life and a long one as regards home. All his lifes efforts perished with him. He wanted to marry. His next birthday would be 70 and he was an unsound cripple. He was a good Colonist and a most useful Islander, also a good brother. He had his other side and who has not. No better Maori scholar existed.

22nd. Bella McLurg is coming to stay here for a change. She and her youngest child are both out of sorts. She is too large and her child about five, lacks vitality an unusual thing in her childen.

23rd. Both are now well. Bella looks young and her grandchild is the same age as her youngest child.

17th September. The work is making a show at last. The oats are growing well. The drains are doing good work. The fences and gates are springing up in order all over the home block. Plough and drill going. Teams carting from the station posts and timber iron wire and the portable steam engine is here also the double bagger chaff cutter. All the milking plant will soon be here. There are 24 people on the place. Mabel is the first person up in the place and has the longest hours.

19th. The daily round of a country life and I know no better. The Hannas and Shearers are leaving the district. Both have sold their farms for £16 and £17 per acre. We went to say goodbye. We used our caleche and liked it very much.

23rd October. Had a look at the new yards and milking shed. I do not like the yards or the way many of the gates are hung and fastened. The gate department I am certain is going to give trouble.

1st November. My birthday 69 and in fairly good order.

I did not mention the death of my old friend and excellent neighbour Mr J. G. Engst of Mounganui Ch. I. in his 91st year. He came to the Chathams in 1842 as a Missionary [almost] direct from Germany to the Chatham I. There were many of them [5] all master tradesmen with a highly educated gentleman as their head a Mr Shearmaster [Schiermeister]. Mr Engst has lived a clean strong life, his mental and physical powers were quite beyond the average. He never rested. He was a worker of great skill and in many branches, to see an article was to know who made it finished within and without. A gardener of great merit. A Christian of the Order of Cromwells Ironsides. He would face man or the devil

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bible in hand but he would take a stick to a rushing cow. He often quoted Cromwell saying Fear God and trust in Him but keep your powder dry. He was very human, very hard especially on himself yet one of the kindest and best men I have ever known.

6th. The young grass is very satisfactory. I wanted to look at a weed called ragwort. It is there, the seed blown there from the hills. My idea is pull it up now. They say, let it alone, a wrong principle.

10th. At factory in the afternoon. I lit the fire in the engine that worked all the machines as yet ready. All went well. Mrs Casey and her girl started at our cows. I think the Casey family are a good lot. Mr Reid [erector of sheds and machines] is very pleased with his work. A five roomed cottage is to be built for Donald [Potts, manager] close to ours.

24th. In Ch.Ch. I was two hours in Dr. Nealeys [dentist] hands. He said I had a set of teeth better for my age than 1 in 10,000.

1st December. Clara Dobson and I had a spin in Mr Izards new motor car. We went about 45 miles.

2nd. Left Lyttelton in S. S. Breeze 18 passengers. The Breeze is 1/3 larger and 1/3 more horsepower than the Ripple and not nearly so good a sea boat and no faster. The passengers had to camp anywhere.

5th. At Waitangi. Miller goes up this boat. His mad fiend of a housekeeper has decamped with her goods and two young black swans all on a little pull sledge. She left Wharekauri on Monday, arrived Waitangi Friday.

10th. Saw Meikle. He took to his bed the day he buried Mr Engst [who had boarded with them for 10 years till his death]. He looks very ill indeed. Stopped the night at Mrs Palmers. Her daughter Allice now Mrs Trevor Tovey is with her. Tovey is at Fougeres. He is the Champion Hornblower and has 11 gold and silver medals and several S. Af. stripes.

11th. Went to Bellas [McLurg]. She told me she and Bob wished Martha to go to Orongomairoa with me to go to school from our house and help Mrs Chudleigh for her board. Martha came on with me to Wharekauri and Clara Dix was already there. Wharekauri always looks well.

15th. Wharekauri is slowly falling back. I am inclined to sell the old home and never see it again. Clara Dix is quite unable to run the place. She has no system.

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N. Z. Again--Started the Milking Machine--Clara Dix.

I went to the new potato ground, every stalk flat and black with blight and then finished spading the paths, they are full of grass and hard as rock.


1911.

6th February. Mail arrived do Miller with wife and a Miss McDonald, a good sort I hope. I knew something of her. Millers brother William, not desired by me. I think of him as the Incubus, one leg is three times too large, the other wasted and both covered with varicose veins.

Everything wrong at Wharekauri, it needs the masters eye all the time.

11th March [S. S.] Storm came in, took off 1365 of my sheep and three passengers [E. R. C., Clara Dix and Martha McLurg.] Clara and Martha had the only cabin turning the cook and steward out. I had a blanket in the dirty little den called the saloon. All the cabins are filthy except the captains. He is called Broadhouse and appears far too good a man for the ship or its company. He is a naval reserve man and was for many years in the Southern Cross Mission steamer and the Mission stamp is on him.

31st. I drove Martha to Waihou to get her entered at school. She goes on Monday and makes five from here. The sheep shipped from the Chathams may bring 2d. a head. The drought is responsible for the prices.

15th April. Mabel and I cannot endure the waste that goes on in every branch of this farm. Money is spent like water.

8th May. Five men are sowing grass seed on the 800 acres of burnt swamp. If this does well it will give us a lift.

18th. Clara Dix ill in bed. Wife has it all to do.

22nd. I went to the station with the dear little wife to see her off [to Christchurch. Mrs Potts ill.] Donald went to Auckland on his own business. He is a mistery generally silent. It makes us anything but a happy party.

30th. I went to Te Aroha and left Martha at school and picked her up on the way home. Found Clara in bed, a bad attack of liver I think. Bother people getting ill so often.

31st. Martha [aged 12] and I had a day of it. All the day things bucked with poor Martha.

1st June. I sent for Dr. Kenny. He pronounced Clara very ill. I take her to the Hamilton hospital tomorrow by the 11.45 train.

2nd. I took Clara to the station in the caleche and the first

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class being quite full I put her in the guards van and stayed with her myself. Clara was taken to the womens ward and Kennys diagnosis of pneumonia and inflamation of both lungs was confirmed.

3rd. I saw the Matron. She told me Clara was very ill but did not say she was in danger. I left the hospital in low spirits. Clara is a bad subject. Poor girl.

7th. Wire from hospital. Clara Dix much better.

10th. Another wire Clara Dix condition very serious.

11th. Sunday. I was ill from a very bad cold.

12th. Cold and raw. Went to the station. Got a telegram to say Clara died on Sunday. I went on to Hamilton. I went to the morgue and saw poor faithful Clara in her winding sheet. The good traits of the females of her race were stamped on her face. It was dark before I got all things in order. I then went on to a chemist who gave me medecine and and sent me to bed.

13th. Cold and damp. I drove to the hospital with Mr Roche, a nice old man, one of the city fathers. Mr Corvie buried Clara. The coffin was blue and white. I paid the funeral expenses £9 and the hospital £1. 10. I brought all her things back with me. Little Martha brought the caleche to Waihou and drove me home. My cold is very bad but loose. I wrote a long letter to Mrs Martin Kaepa Ada Dix [Clara's mother].

16th. Everybody ill. Had to get the doctor. Wrote to wife. Hospital nurse comes tomorrow to nurse John Delaveau's boy. [John is the French cook for the station.]

17th. Got Claras room and 2 others ready for the nurse and boy. I am very seedy.

28th. Louis out of danger. I got up late. Am better. I had an interview with Donald re my status here. Things must change very much or I shall stop all work and put the place on the market now instead of later.

19th July. I went to Waihou for Mabel. She looks very tired. [Mrs Potts ill.] My beautiful Rushan coat was hanging on the bedroom door. Mabel put the candlestick on top of a jug. The door opened and brought the coat over the candle and got badly burnt.

31st December. The farm has advanced in grass drains fencing and general appearance very much but the day of returns has not yet come. Over 90 cows are milking now but the cost of milking is so high that 100 cows bring little or no profit. 300 would pay me.


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