Overview This interview of a Waipango/Riverton native covers her family, her home at Birch Bush farm in Waipango, Southland, her grandmother’s home in Riverton, domestic life, her schools, her family’s farm and its workers. Also covers her early employment, start in nursing, illness with tuberculosis, and experience as both a patient and nurse at Orangapai Sanatorium in Waipiata; her marriage to Charles Lake; and their life as a hired farming couple on several different farms in the Southland and...

Overview In this interview Thomas talks of his early years growing up on a farm at Ermedale. His father was a contractor building roads around Ermedale. He talks of marrying during the war years and his return after the war when he purchased a home at Gummies Bush. Thomas goes on to talk about the mechanisation of the contracting business and working for Wallace County as well as for farmers. He shares stories of road constructed and anecdotes of things that happened to him during this time. He goes on...