Kōrero: Farm families

Dinner at Manuka Point station, 1943

Dinner at Manuka Point station, 1943

Farm worker Ted Porter (centre) and his wife Grace tuck into dinner at the Manuka Point homestead, photographed by John Pascoe. Station owner Laurie Walker is on the right. Manuka Point was a large high-country station on the western side of the Rakaia River in Canterbury. It was only reached by crossing the river. In the mid-20th century women’s role on the farm increasingly focused on domestic duties. Often this involved cooking meals or doing the washing for other farm employees. Mona Anderson’s classic memoir A river rules my life provides a very good account of the life of a farmer’s wife in this area at the time.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library, John Dobrée Pascoe Collection (PAColl-0783)
Reference: 1/4-045899; F
Photograph by John Dobrée Pascoe

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Te tuhi tohutoro mō tēnei whārangi:

Emma Dewson and Jock Phillips, 'Farm families - Women in the rural family, 1880–1970', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/mi/photograph/19836/dinner-at-manuka-point-station-1943 (accessed 20 April 2024)

He kōrero nā Emma Dewson and Jock Phillips, i tāngia i te 24 Nov 2008