Now Mrs Gratton, I want you to start off by telling us when you were born and where you were born.

Well I was born in Otahuhu in 1857.

How old were you when you left there?

I was only a little girl - about 6 I suppose.

That must have been about the time of the Maori War.

It was.

Do you remember anything about the Maori War?

It was going ahead when I came to Hamilton. I came to Hamilton with my uncle. When I came to Hamilton with them the Maori war was all going ahead then.

How did you come up to Hamilton?

We came up by a bus as far as Frankton and we had to stay there at night. We had to stay there three days that time.

Note: there were no buses, of course, they had not been invented. And I think she means coach to Rangiriri which is where the Great South Road ended and steamers went on to Hamilton on the Waikato River.

Was that by coach?

Yes. Then we stayed at the hotel for three days and then came up by steamer to Hamilton.

Weren't you frightened of the Maoris?

No. It's no good being frightened. They weren't busy in Hamilton at that time. They were busy further on.

What was Hamilton like when you first went there?

It wasn't much. 2 or 3 houses here and there, that is all there was in it,

How old would you be when you first went there?

Hamilton? I was 8 when I was in Hamilton.

So that would be about 1865? Do you remember anything about it at all?

No only that we had to go to school. We had milkers - we had cows there milking. 2 or 3 cows. I know I had to learn to milk. That is how I know I was only 8 years old. I had to tackle to and milk the cows before I went to school. We had 3 cows and we milked them before school. Then we got ready and went to school.

How far?

4 miles.

Walk?

Yes, we had to walk there and walk back again and then milk the cows and feed the calves.

When did you come over to this part of the world? How old would you be? When you came to Waihau.

When I came to Waihau I was 18 years old. I came to Waihau there for service.

Whereabouts?

At the hotel there.

What sort of a place was it?

It was no good. There were about 3 houses in it and there was an hotel and that was the place that I came out to be at service at and it wasn't finished. There was carpenters, painters and all in the.house the night we got there. We came from Hamilton with a two horse wagon, with a sick woman and a new born baby and furniture and all sorts in this big long wagon and two horses and the poor horses had to break their way through high high teatree. There was no roads, no nothing.