Preface

This is essentially the story of Fred and his wife, Esther, who gave their lives to “Build A Dream”. They were helped by their four daughters Mary, Edith, Alexa & Rewa and his brother and his wife, Sam & Lizzie. The boy from Dr Barnardo’s who came riding for a grocery list, the men who came to install the milking machines (staying two nights and sleeping on two Morris chairs), the neighbour who told them where to dig the well, all had a share in the story. So did the young men and women who worked on the farm and the haymaking gang and church friends.

It is the story of life in New Zealand over about 100 years from the early 1900s, years that saw the development of ideas that Fred had identified as important, a pump that would keep going, flexible water pipes, easy pour concrete. A hundred and one inventions that modern farmers take for granted.

I think that all young farmers would be interested in Fred’s apprenticeship on a Taranaki farm, (how many modern women would undertake an 8 hour drive to bring clothes to a young farm worker), but older readers will identify with many of the stories. The same things were happening in thousands of homes throughout New Zealand though some features are unique to the Waikato wooded peat country.  

Whenever money is mentioned I have kept to the £-pound/ shillings/ pence of those times. It is impossible to translate it into modern money. When a worried Fred wrote saying how fat he was getting staying at a hotel at 7 shillings a day while looking for a farm, it must be remembered his wages had been 25 shillings a week. When it cost him £1,422/12/1d to set up his farm, the cheques for that year were only £257/4/9d. Money is only good for what you can purchase with it, but the courage and determination which characterized Fred’s generation has left a legacy that must not be whittled away. 

Read for pleasure, all ye who dip into my book, but give thanks also for the inventions that make life so much easier today.