At last, you will say I have written to you!  But as you know about Xmas is a very busy time for dairy men out here, on account of the haymaking.  

The box has at last come, with £1-5-8 to pay.  I had to get an agent in Auckland to take delivery of it for me.  The duty was only 5/- as I had no invoice, & the customs people opened the box at the bottom, so found nothing but book  & never saw the linen!  But really the charges are made up of such a curious collection of things, such as - freight, cartage, examinations, exchange, customs, agency, attendance on examination etc.  etc.  

Now I want to thank you very much for all the turning.  I'm sorry you had such difficulty with it but I thought you would enjoy turning these different woods, as I do receiving them back again.  Also for the bog oak, I know how difficult it is to turn.The XXX is beautiful wood & what a bright polish it takes.  The shell tops XXX very fine, the brass one is mine the other is Ralph's.  I will write to him about it.  It really is nice having all my books again.  When they came I really did not know which one to look at first!  I wish I had an English dictionary, but Daisy spells well, so I can get some help in that direction!  I have just got my hay in, a paddock of eight acres.  I bought a secondhand mowing machine for £17.00.  As I had never driven one before I did a few rounds near the house!  The horses were rather frightened by the rattle, but I saw how it all worked.  I had to watch all the nuts and bolts as they come loose, so in the end I got a centre punch to work & burred them a little.  I had six men to help including an old maori "Hire Mate" (" come death").  He built the stack, I paid him 2/6 per hour.  It turned of very windy day, everyone is most surprised I never got it built at all!  We had to put a ladder on the hay, on the windy side to keep its down!  I now have a boy to help in the shed, so Daisy is now a " a Lady of Leisure!"  He is a curious chap, really a ship's fireman & has many curious our ideas.  But like so many of them out here he is fairly skilled in most farm work.  We get through the milking in an hour or an hour and a quarter. Thwaite's hay is now also in.  It was lucerne & very heavy to fork. Findsen he's now mowing his & we hope to get it in on Monday.  Today we have been working at Kivell's hay (next door but one) but as he came on wet we came home.  I must tell you about the electric motor in the shed.  It is only the size of a large football & is 2 H.P!  It is called a three phase motor having three wires coming into it and one return.  The current is alternating.  The power comes from the huge great power station at Hora Hora on the Waikato river.  It then goes in high tension wires of 11,000 volts to Te Awamatu where they send it out in all directions still at 11,000 volts to various breaking down stations where it is again reduced to 420 volts.  In other words the Te Awamatu Power Board, buy the power wholesale & retail it to the farmers for milking, pumping & light.  This motor of mine goes at 1420 RPM so I have to have a large pulley on the shaft.  I have one light in the shed, which in winter is very handy, as it is so bright & can't blow out.  The Alpha Laval separator that I have is very much more satisfactory than the Wolsely I had at Tauhei.  I have the skim milk tested every month & it is now running about 0.03 to 0.02 per cent butterfat left in the milk.  Now I must tell you of the testing of the cows.  Nowadays this is most important and most interesting.  It consists of keeping each cow's milk by itself and weighing it & taking a small sample for four successive milkings each month.  These samples are put in bottles numbered. XXX goes with them giving the name of the cow & the weight of her milk.  The dairy XXX take the samples & put them in a machine which tells you how much butterfat there is in the milk.  From this & the weight, they work out how much butterfat each cow gives for each month of the year.  Some give a lot of milk, but not much fat & vice versa.  Just now they are averaging almost 1lb of fat per day each.  I have now dehorned  the whole herd & very much better they look.  I was very lucky not to have had some of them hurt by the " boss" cows.  The Ranger was out the other day & was very pleased with the look of them.  I used a tenon saw & put some tar on afterwards.  Thank you so much for the photo you sent me so long ago.  To get back to the wood again, I sent you so many kinds, just for you to see, if they would not turn, which I did not expect they all would, it is no fault of yours.  Totara is very brittle anyhow.  I thought the taure would be good, it's does looked so much like beech.  The handle I think it is hinou a greasy sort of wood.  Re. Matakana Island .  We wrote  to Gavki about it & found it was not in their hands, but we got the address of the syndicate that is running it.  However we wrote to the "Matakana Development League" but they have never replied.  I have just had my final bill for interest etc.  for six months £120 in all.  Of course I have not got the money so they will have to wait.  It's a pity as they knock off £8.00 if I pay in a month.  But the XXX Ranger is quite satisfied with what I have done here so we'll put in a good word for me.  I have had just £100 from the cows so far, but then the Dairy XXX are always a month behind in their payments & they do not make the final payment till the Xmas following!  However as there are so many hundreds of ex soldiers on the land who can't pay they have now set up a " revaluation board" who are going to come round & go into each soldiers affairs & XXX what must be done to make the farms really pay.  The Govt.  Has appointed outsiders & if they XXX do what the Board advises it will be a great thing for us.  They are going to make 1/3 per lb.  butterfat the base (we may get 1/6 this year) & from this they have to make out a balance sheet for each farm, taking absolutely everything into consideration, such as cost of land, labour, running expenses etc. etc.  

I now hear you are really leaving poor old Bingfield, perhaps by the time this reaches you you will be already a way.  Well it has come at last, no one is more sorry than I am to see the family leave the old place, but with things as they are, & most likely will be, there was nothing but sentiment to keep you there.  But it does seem hard, after all these years we have been there, & all that has been done to the land to have to leave it, because the people, the people, many of whom we have given money to & given work to, now have the upper hand, we & our class are no more required, respected or looked up to as the owners of the " big house"!  I know you will find it very hard to go, but when you do get away & make some new friends, the memory seems to fade a bit, but it is hard to forget altogether.  Well now I have been writing a lot of rubbish so will draw to a close.  Daisy sends her love to you, & says she is very taken with the turning.  I have put brass screw eyes in the picture frames to hang them up.  Daisy is very well & in good spirits.  She gave me a big vice for my birthday, a bigger one then you've got!!!

But I still hanker after an anvil & forge!  Basil has gone back to Puketiti.  I tried to get him here, but just missed him.  Aunt Madge has at last gone away for a holiday to Hawera etc.  I do so hope you are feeling really better.

With much love from Daisy an myself