Treasurers found while cleaning out the garage thus saving one of the kids the job

There has been a history of "whoever is the worst kid has to clean out Dad's shed" for a number of years.

In pity, I started getting rid of some of the old, never be used again, aging treasures, some of them I will be putting up to show the crap that is in there.

Quite some time ago I acquired this magazine and put it away safely in the garage. The other day I was tidying up that unfrequented corner again and re-found the magazine again.

Looking through it some of the old articles are today, very quaint. I will try and copy some of them for histories sake. A lot will mean more to the Kiwis, everybody else will have to imagine it.

Remembering these were the homesteaders of the 1800s, and they faced many of the same problems that today's homesteaders face.

This is the second oldest, still in publication, magazine in NZ, the Catholic Tablet was started in 1873, and the now finished, Weekly News completed its centennial in 1971. The next oldest still running is the Salvation Army’s War Cry, that started a year later.

Initially, for the first 53 years, the Farmer was published monthly, it changed to weekly in 1937.

During World War Two newsprint shortages forced a retreat to fortnightly publication, in 1946 the NZ was removed from the title and the fortnightly publication remained until 1966 when a two-issues a month system was adopted [24 issues a year]

The cost of a copy of the magazine in 1882 was 1 shilling [10c] a copy or 10 shillings[$1] a year if prepaid. Fifty-two years later, in 1937 this cost had risen to 15 shillings [$1.50] a year prepaid.

Then came the weekly copy at 6 pence [5c] a copy or twenty shillings [$2] a year prepaid. By the time of decimal currency in 1967, the per copy price had risen to one shilling and sixpence or 15c where it remained until 1973 when inflation moved in.

At the time the magazine started not many farmhouses had running water inside, very few had baths or toilets and none had electricity or telephones.

The first telephone had been connected in Canterbury the year before, but it was to be many years before this luxury revolutionized country life.

Milking was all done by hand, shearing was done by hand driven blades, country roads were often impassable bogs and the North Island Main Trunk Railway was a quarter of a century off.

The South Island was still often referred to as the Middle Island, Steam power was just beginning to find it’s way on to farms, but the horse was to remain man’s best servant for a long time to come.

In 1882 there was half a page about the first frozen meat sent from the Dominion to England, a total of over 5,000 carcasses were loaded aboard the ‘Dunedin’ and all arrived in first class condition 98 days later.

The average price received was sixpence a pound [5c] in London and seven pence [6c] in Glasgow for mutton [older sheep] seven pence [6c] for lamb in London and eight pence [7c] in Glasgow, the pigs were also priced the same as lamb.

At the same time from the Scottish butchers complained of the weight of the carcasses being too heavy. Imagine getting meat at that price today.

One of the English consumers commented on the taste being better than English sheep because NZ sheep were bred for wool and were four or five years old when killed, compared to English sheep being bred for the table, were killed as soon as they were big enough, thus not having the necessary time to get a good flavour.

In 1885 over 60 percent of the population was engaged in farming and the biggest problem was a long, narrow country with very few railways for getting produce to the major towns.

Being registered as a newspaper meant that the Farmer could be posted anywhere in the country for half a penny [1/2 c] or one penny[1c] for overseas postage, this was a 32-page magazine of foolscap size.

Advertising rates were five shillings per column inch for a single insertion or two pounds five shillings for a year, twelve insertions. A full column [15 inches] was seven pound ten shillings[$15] on a quarterly basis or twenty-five pound [$50] a full year.

---

How to construct a ‘bush safe’ was described as follows.

A piece of prime board about an inch thickness, cut round, square, or even triangular to fit a corner, is suspended by a string or light wire to a hook or to fencing wire, which passes through the cork of a bottomless bottle partially filled with water. The water can be made more obnoxious to marauding ants by the addition of a little kerosene.

A series of screw hooks are fitted to the underside of the board, to suspend the provisions.

A bag of mosquito net or similar material is closely tacked along the edge of the board leaving the entrance to the safe from below. This should be closed with a string or tape when not in use.

The bottle, which should be a thin white glass one, may be cut by tying a piece of soft twine saturated in naphtha or kerosene round the required place.

Ignite the same and when burnt out plunge the bottle into cold water, a clean fracture will generally result.