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Peggy and Colin Barker were subsistence farming during the 1950s at the southern end of the Hokianga Harbour. They talk to Jack Perkins about their life and times.
The Barkers describe the little two roomed red house, set on farm scrubland and came with nine cows. They had no money, the farm earned 90 pounds a year. They talk about the multi-purpose Briggs and Statton motor, the lean-to kitchen which doubled up as bathroom and wash house and the problems they had with fleas.
They didn’t have a car, but their neighbours loaned them a bike. Another neighbour gave them ‘the Grey goose’ which was a station wagon with a Morris Oxford engine; a very temperamental machine.
The Barkers recall some social mistakes they made due to a lack of understanding in local customs; they describe an invite to a wedding and a dance. They found the local pigeon-English dialect very difficult to follow. They tell of the support received from the Women’s Division when their first child was born as an example of the way the community rallied.
There was a social hierarchy that was strictly adhered to and dictated by one’s historic ties to the area and family’s profession. They talk about a small area of bush on their farm that was deemed tapu but they sought help from the Māori to lift it. They describe the native plant life’s dramatic transformation following the ceremony which cost them twenty-five pounds and a cow.
Following the death of one of their cows that died from a poisonous shrub, Colin set out to dig a hole deep enough to bury it. Needs must, meant he found himself digging at midnight. The shadow his body cast from the lamp in the hole high up above ground startled locals returning home on horseback after drinking, and it wasn’t long before a rumour of a ghost in the district began.
After Colin received complaints about people getting bitten whilst using the dunny he tried to source the problem. He applied white spirits underneath the toilet seat and shortly returned to the darkened room with a match to note the results. However between the spirits and methane below, the flame set the place alight and he began running to and fro with his gumboot full of water much to the amusement of Peggy. Another had to be built.
They had a pet lamb, named Lamby who grew into a very large sheep that decided to start butting everyone. On one occasion he charged Colin, significantly hurting him and received physical and verbal retribution. Lamby would bully the children walking to school as well as inside the classroom until he eventually got barred. Colin decided enough was enough and sold him to contribute to a hangi, telling tales of Lamby’s bullying right until the end.