FIRST PLOUGH

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20821, 3 June 1939, Page 27 (Supplement)

FIRST PLOUGH

USED IN NEW ZEALAND RECORD BY PLOUGHMAN Twenty years before New Zealand tad constitutional government, the farming industry was in operation. Last month occurred the 119th anniversary of the first use of a plough, which on May 3, 1820, turned the flret furrow on the mission land at Kerikeri, Bay of Islands. A record of wha; was then regarded as an event of gTeat significance ’■& recorded In a letter from I. C. Butler, an English immigrant in the employ of Samuel. Mars den. Church of England Missionary to rhe Province of New Zealand. The letter is preserved, under glass, in the Old Stone Store at Kerikeri, the oldest stone building in New Zealand, erected by the Church Missionary Society in 1534. The letter reads: — On the mor rung of Wednesday, May 3, the agricultural plough was for the first time put into the land of New Zealand at Kiddi Kiddi, and I felt much pleasure in holding it after a team of six bullocks brought down by the Dromedary. I trust that this auspicious day will be remembered with gratitude and its anniversary kept by ages yet unborn. Every heart seemed to rejoice on the occasion. I hope it will still continue to increase and in a short time produce an abundant harvest. L C. BUTLER The plough Is now an exhibit in the historical section of the Auckland Museum, but in the old stone building there are still a great number of tools and implements used by the pioneers of Marsden's day.