HARD TIMES.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 698, 10 January 1922, Page 5

HARD TIMES.

THIRTY YEARS AGO.

BUTTER 4d PER LB.

A racy description of life in Waiuku thirty years ago was given to a Times representative a few days ago by a well-known merchant of this town.

“I remember working as a young man in a grocry store in Waiuku,” said the gentleman, “and what I learned there has stood to me all through life. We sold butter.for 4d per lb, and it used to come to us wrapped up in old pieces of clothing, and was frequently flea-bitten in appearance. 'We used to sell a lot of this butter to grocers at the Thames, most of whom went bankrupt.” “Land on the Aka Aka could have been bought in those days for 7s 6d per acre, but I hadn’t the price of one acre, so I couldn’t get hold of any. I used to canvass the district for orders and the rule at each farm house was that I could get the order if I stayed for dinner. I remember having had four dinners in one day, and then arriving at a) farm house in the Aka Aka where the old lady said she would give rne a good order on conditions I had dinner. I did not want to lose the order, so I consented. Imagine my horror on having a whole mullet put in front of me. I managed to get through that somehow, and nearly expired at the next course—a whole roast chicken. I got the order, but I earned it alright.”

“Those were hard times alright. I boarded with my boss, and for breakfast we had prayers and stiff porridge and one egg. The prosperity of the store did not run to glass wdndows, and kids used to come along and stick their fingers in our famous line of 4d butter.” “I remember once walking to a place on the Aka AJka plains where a man lived in a bacon box covered with gauze to keep the mosquitoes out. (He chased me with a hay fork and I never visited him again.” “Money was really scarce in those times, one rarely saw actual cash at all, and finally my poor old boss could not stand up to it any longer. The combined troubles of :a sick wife and farmers w r ho couldn’t pay drove him to file, and with my savings (£3) I set out for pastures new and left Waiuku for the South..”