71 YEARS ON ONE FARM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 875, 6 August 1910, Page 4

71 YEARS ON ONE FARM.

VETERAN ESSEX LABOURER SPEAKS OF THE OLD DAYS.

For 71 years John Chapman, a hale and hearty labourer, has worked without a break on the same farm at Finchingfield, Essex, and, if appearances count for anything, he may live to work many more years. At the Essex Agricultural Show, Chapman, who is 81, entered for the competition for agricultural labourers who had served longest on one farm, and, needless to say, easily outdistanced all rivals. Mr Chapman, when seen at Hole Farm by a Chronicle representative, dwelt in an interesting vein on his boyhood days, and expressed the opinion that the lot of the farm labourer of to-day is far more endurable than in the old days. “I was born here,” he said, ‘‘my father being a horseman at Hole Farm before me, and and I have continued in this farm all my life. I never wanted to go away, and refused many offers, because I did not care for moving from the old farm, where I have remained under five masters, and always been happy. I was married 56 years ago, when I was 25, and my master, Mr John Beddall, built Hole Farm Cottage for me to live in. We went in the cottage as soon as we got married, and there we have lived ever since. My wife and myself,” he went on, ‘‘now receive the full old age pension of 5s a week, and I never go to work before breakfast. I don’t want to worry about work now, for I am better off at 81 than I was ever before in my life. The old age pensions come like harvesttime all the year round, I earn 5s a week on the average, and we have los pensions, which makes a total of 15s a week. At my very best, when doing full horseman’s work, I had only 14s a week and the cottage, and 12s a week when labouring on the farm. Things have altered greatly since I was a young man. I well remember that my father was paid 7s a week as a horseman on this farm ; that was the regular wage then. When I got married my wages were 8s a week, but they gradually raised to 14s, and working men have become much better off than they were 60 years ago. The only school I ever went to was a straw-plaiting class held at a labourer’s cottage at Finchingfield; the labourer’s wife used to take the children in. We used to sit braiding the straw with a spelling book in front of us, but we never learned to write. Before I was 10 years old I left school, and went as horseboy to my father on the farm, where I have worked ever since. We had a hard struggle in those days. Labouring men were paid little money, and bread was so dear as to be a luxury with us. Often we children had nothing but ‘middlings and turnip broth’for several days at a time. When I was a dozen years old I went threshing with the men in a barn, with a flail, and was paid 3s a week. I worked so well that my master raised my wages to 4s. I did not mind threshing with the flail; it was hard work, but dry. Although I worked hard, I was always well, and in 60 years, while I paid in to the Finchingfield Sick Club, I had only a fortnight’s illness, caused by being thrown out of a wagon when my horses ran away.” Mr Chapman has never seen the sea, but he went to London once, before he was married, when he and a mate from the village walked the 70 miles between Finchingfield and London, and returned the same way. He is proud to say that he went on London Bridge, saw the Thames, and witnessed soldiers marching h rough the streets with the band playing. After this sight he returned to resume his tranquil life at Finchingfield. Mr Chapman has never smoked. But he likes a glass of beer. “I always found a glass of beer did me good ; it livens me up. I generally liked to have a drink first thing in the morning. Now that I am so well off with the old age pensions I have a small barrel of beer in the cottage, and have a glass when I finish work.”