JOSEPH LIGGINS’ TWELFTH LETTER
Longburn Dairy, Longburn Junction, Nr. Wellington, N.Z. February 4th, 1887 Dear Will, I will not commence by excusing myself for my delay in writing, as you know nothing but not having the time would have prevented me from writing before. I have received your papers and letters all right from time to time; many thanks for local newspapers. You will all be pleased to know that we are going on all right. We are just now in the very thick of the milk season. We started with a lot of milk and have run up to 900 gals. of milk per day. Of course this has taken more hands, we have been forced to employ a storekeeper who acts as clerk for us too. The store trade has improved considerably; we in the month of December sold £308-2-3 worth of general stores. This means more profit than you would expect at home as 20% is taken on many things though we have to pay very heavily for freight, insurance and wages, etc. We have made a great quantity of cheese and have now about 20 tons, as the sale of cheese this season has been slack owing to the very good season they are experiencing in Victoria and Queensland , our usual market for cheese, and also because many new factories have been started both in the North and South Islands. Still we are sending to our Wellington firm a ton a week to a standing order which will gradually lower our very heavy stock. To enable us to work the increased quantity of milk we have had to build a larger new cheese room and have purchased, from Corbett's, Shrewsbury, 8 new double presses. The larger supply of whey has enabled us to keep more pigs and we have now some two hundred. We don’t know to 40 or 50 as they run loose in secure paddocking, feeding from large troughs in the open, and we count them as we kill them. Probably we shall have upwards of 100 bacon pigs; we thus this season commence bacon curing and smoking. Notwithstanding that in consequence of very heavy rain for some months after we commenced operations, our cheese room ,which was built of white pine sawn off the green log, was a very bad place for new cheese and we had a good few damaged thereby. Still, as we are making such a large quantity this season, this unwelcome check will not be felt by us. The greater loss was in the labour that was required to keep the cheese decent. As you know labour here is a serious item. We now employ a storeman; myself, a male helper and a female helper in the factory, also Sarah has lately helped me with the cheese, so that 5 hands are always employed. We found that our helpers were so abominably lazy and not to be trusted that it was an imperative necessity for Sarah to lend a hand too and things have gone on much better since, though the work is very fatiguing. I have been very hard worked as I find that milk in this country is not to be depended upon for cheese making by keeping the overnight milk till morning althoughwater may be liberally run round it and the cooler nights are the most deceptive, in consequence the evening's milk has to be turned to curd at once and the whey run off, then the curd will keep. This performance entails being at work from 7 in the morning till 10-30 at night. Lately Sarah, with the girls help, made up the nights cheese for me once a week when I have taken what I call my day off and gone to bed at about eight. Tonight I am taking my day off in writing this letter. Sundays too you know. But in the latter end of May I can take a long Sunday and can sleep as long as I like as dairying will be stopped for the Winter months. I believe we shall do very well this season but cannot tell positively till the end of May when we take stock and when I will further inform you of the state of the poll. Since writing you last the Wellington line has come close to us and a station built just opposite us. This has much improved our property; if I can get a photograph of the place then I will, then you will see what it is like. We have had the front repainted and lettered thusly:- Buick and Co., Cheese and Bacon Manufacturers, Drapers, Grocers and Ironmongers, Purchasers of Farm Produce and Longburn Store. Letters not less than eight inches, words not less than six feet long. It is more than probable that my present partners, one or both, may leave me this season and probably one of the great Wellington merchants may join me in the working of the place. This would be a great advantage as the difficulty of the disposing of the cheese would be overcome. You have not the slightest idea of the difficulty of disposing of goods either for cash or exchange out here. We may grow or manufacture produce here but that, by no means, means that you are going to sell it. Hundreds of tons of potatoes have this year rotted in the clamps and butter is not to be even looked at from this same cause, over supply, and no demand. We are selling our cheese simply because we are large purchasers of stores, but other factories are full up and cannot at present sell. So that you see the advantage of being connected with a merchant. If this idea of mine turns up to be correct my partner or backer, one or both, will probably be Messrs. H and G Turnbull and Co., Merchants, London and New Zealand. Now, of ourselves, we are all well although fairly hard worked; we have all we require in food, clothing, shelter or money for the present, and the future prospect is cheering. Katie stays at home now for a few months; all the others, except Edie and Maggie, go to school and they are all well and happy. Tell the youngsters that the children here have all several fowls of their own and they collar all the eggs they lay and it is very surprising that, although Sarah has as many fowls of her own, her hens apparently do not lay at all and the children’s fowls lay at least four eggs each hen per day, not mentioning the cock who doubtless is answerable for all the rest. So, as their Mother's hens are such poor layers, they make a fine market of their eggs by selling them to her. They invest their capital in "lollies" (sweets), marbles and other works of the -----, I mean pomps and vanities of this wicked world. Part of the plagues of Egypt are again in season with us, mosquitoes with a vampire thirst are always with us. Flies in the early morning bite like fury and fleas, that you can hear drop on the floor as they jump off you, are numerous and hungry. The mosquitoes we can smoke out. The flies do not bother us except in the early morning, but the flea is always with us and as I sit I feel them up my legs where they aspire to the most secret and tender of places, unmentionable and otherwise, and then bite like demons. Your fleas are as Lilliputians to our Brogdignagians. We have had no serious disturbance since the terrible "Tarawera" volcanic display. Slight earth shakes but not much. The season now is hot, very, 120 degrees in the shade sometimes and we have a drought. Artesian supplies are giving out, the milk has decreased at least 150 gals. per day in less than three weeks. My cheese room has registered 85 degrees and the fat run out of the cheese notwithstanding a wooden extra cover to the roof and ventilation and liberal supply of cold water. I cannot tell you how we longed for Mother's small beer. The beer here is expensive and unwholesome. Do not run away with the idea that we can get no beer here, we have a case of Bass bitter and Sarah makes hop beer and we these mix to make a gigantic drink and even then forget the small beer. 8th February I am now in Wellington selling cheese and have done very well. I haste to write this while I wait for dinner. I will write again, soon as I can, but will write longer letters in the Winter. I have not yet taken up any land and perhaps never may, but will watch my opportunity. Many people get bitten in speculation. I am more wary now I hope. I hope some day to be able to purchase a cleared farm so that we can take it a little easier when we are tired of so much work. A friend of mine has gone to the Old Country to be cured of cancer of the tongue, a Mr. Sly. I hope to come some day (soon), I was going to say soon, but that cannot be. It may be many, many years yet, but I believe that I shall see you all again yet, but I shall come back here again. Tell Mother and all that we are all quite well. That we are pretty much as we were when we left only my head begins to shine at the crown and I am getting a little grey round the jaws and am a stone heavier. Sarah is well too. Only just now the work is a little too long. Katie is housekeeper. Charlie boss of the cow. Sam and Harry are always off bathing, crab fishing, eel catching and other intellectual amusements and generally arrive home with the arse out of their breeches or other deplorable calamity. Sam was off all one day bathing and his back was peeled by the sun. I hope to direct their energy after a while to earning their "tucker" by milking. I am glad you are all well, give our love to all. I must perforce conclude as the enemy "Time" is on my heels Love to all, I am Your Affectionate Brother, Joseph Liggins
Longburn Dairy Since I wrote to you last, a railway station is placed just opposite the factory and in about two months time the new line will be opened to Wellington. We have had the front repainted and lettered thusly : - Buick and Co., Cheese and Bacon Manufacturers, Drapers, Grocers and Ironmongers Purchasers of Farm Produce Longburn Store
Home | Surnames | Name List | Letters | Gallery | Downloads | Search |
