After the top went off the whare, I came down to the township, I knew a friend and she said to me "What's the matter?" and I said "Oh, the top's gone off the whare" "Come on in with me, we've plenty of room" So I went and stayed with her a while and then I got a house up the top end - a little house it was with three rooms in, but very comfortable. I lived there then till my husband came back from the survey. He went across the river to buy a piece of land and he went across and got a piece of Government land next to 2-3 neighbours over there and then he got a bit of timber and built me a house.

Would that be over where Harrysville is now?

Yes.

What did he pay for it, do you know?

He got it from the Government.

What was life like making a farm in those days'

Tea-tree and wood! We got the worst piece of land there was over there. There were three other neighbours and they all picked their piece of land out. This was the only 7 acres that was left, it was a three corner piece and it was nothing but swamp, wood, rushes and wet when we first got it. Then he drained it and cleaned it up and got a house built and then I shifted over there. It was all right then and we could work it ourselves. The children were going to school and when they came home after school they would get a drink, put on some old clothes, then we all would go down the swamp and would root out a whole lot of wood. We had to get the ground fixed up. Then when their Dad came home he would tackle it. That's how we lived.

You worked very hard.

I worked hard all my life to tell you the truth.

When you went over to live at Herrisville was there a bridge across then?

No there was a railroad bridge, just a railroad bridge. There was no way for anybody to get across. Then they put a plank from the side of the bridge to another place so that we could walk on that and we had to be careful when the train was coming that we didn't get run over.

But you would remember even before the railway bridge went up?

Yes I do.

How did they get across then?

We used to go across in the boat. There was a punt then.

Whereabouts was that?

Straight down where the bridge is now. Before the bridge went up there was an old man, Mr Everitt, who built a punt and had it running on a wide long chain from one side to this side and then when we wanted to come across from Waihau to Te Aroha, we called out and he would come over to you, you would get on, then he would come back over. Then you could go up and see the township or whatever you wanted and then when you were going back he would put you back all for sixpence. (Tape ends here)