Sale marks the end of an era
One privilege I had late last year was to write up a history of Longsdale Friesian Stud at Motupipi in Golden Bay. The Nalder family have been farming here continuously since 1869, the current owners being Jim and Sonia Nalder.
Earlier this year, Longsdale celebrated 100 continuous years of breeding pedigree Holstein Friesian, a New Zealand first for Friesian breeding in this country and a credit to the Nalder family whose work spans four generations on the farm as well.
A complete dispersal sale on the farm on April 12 marked the end of an era that is worth reflecting on.
The story of Longsdale goes back well before 1918, the year Herbert and Charlotte Nalder purchased their first pedigree bull calf, Heather Prince of Willowbanks, from John F. Rose of Takaka, one of the founding members of the Holstein Freisan Association.
This was followed shortly after by the buying of a pedigree heifer called Rosebud Beauty from George Gardnner of the Medbury Stud. Longsdale’s M, D and H line cow families all originated from this line, 15 generations worth over the 100 years.
The family’s New Zealand story really begins though in 1856 when Charles and Mary Ann Nalder emigrated from Reading in England with their four children, arriving in Nelson on the immigrant ship Cresswell on October 6.
The father quickly set about building a sod house on a site along Bridge St, later the family moving to a roomier house in Hardy St, on a site between where the old Masonic Hotel and Union Bank used to stand. It was in this second and larger home that Mary Ann and Charles became known for taking in lodgers.
Buoyed by the business of hosting travelling government officials and civil servants in the growing provincial town, Charles set about building a larger boarding house in lower Hardy St, opposite the ‘Technical School’, which they called ‘Airedale’. Under their management, there establishment enjoyed a ‘top end’ reputation.
It was their eldest son, also named Charles, along with his wife, Mary Ann Winter, who made the boldest business move of the family to date in New Zealand when they purchased in 1869 a 150 acre block of mostly forested land at coastal Motupipi in Golden Bay. The price of the coastal land between the Takaka and Motupipi Rivers was £5 an acre, in line with what other European settlers were paying for flat alluvial blocks in the district at that time.
The Motupipi area had been originally surveyed into smallholdings around 1842 in anticipation of it becoming an extensive settlement, the total area of arable flat land estimated to be between 1400 and 1500 acres. Having just turned 28, Charles was in the prime of his life for the venture he was embarking on.
It was all hard labour. Building a homestead, breaking in the thick bush, stumping and digging drains all went hand in hand with setting up a viable farm with livestock and a garden of edible foods.
Like many other early colonists, Charles and Mary Ann saw themselves as bearing a responsibility to create a better society and to raise upstanding children they could be proud of. Charles became a lay reader in the local Anglican Church and served on the committee of the newly established Clifton Cemetery.
For the education of their children, Motupipi Public School was a godsend, not only for its close proximity but quality of its education. One of the first schools set up in provincial Nelson, Motupipi School opened in 1856.
A 1905 report put the number of scholars on the roll at 60, even though the average daily attendance was only 45, this discrepancy reflecting the dire need for family labour on farms back then.
Charles planted out hops at Longsdale in the late 1890s, filling the land all the way to Scott’s life in 1903 says a lot about how busy this pioneering farmer and family patriarch was. He had gone out in the morning and planted two bluegum tree seedlings and two oak tree seedlings in a paddock that runs alongside the main road at Motupipi, just south of Cassidy’s Corner.
This sharp bend in the road had been named after a settler who died when his cart overturned here one night when he was returning home. Drink was said to be involved but never proved.
When Charles finished his tree planting he came back home and killed a number of pigs which he then hung up in the killing shed. He did not feel well after all the exertion and later suffered a severe asthma attack, dying at around 9pm that same night. He was 62.
One of those bluegums still survives, towering alongside the road at Motupipi at the end of the three Oaks straight. In a visual way at least, it remains a lasting memorial, a towering tribute to all the hard work and vision upon the property.
New Zealand has long been favoured for primary production, especially its livestock. Other countries may boast larger areas of pasture and numbers of animals, but the quality of breeding stock from this country has rightly earned a reputation as being second to none.
Nature has certainly helped by endowing good soils and a most favourable climate, but a large measure of the success of our early stock raising has been put down to the enterprise and energy of our early pioneers such as the Nalders.
Reflecting back after their milestone dispersal sale last week, Jim and Sonia said they thanked their ancestors for all the work they did. ‘‘But we live in a modern world,’’ says Jim. ‘‘And it’s time to move on.’’