Jim Ngaroma was a Maori fencer who worked on Struan Farm for over twelve years, at a time when it was a much bigger property. John and his siblings remember that he rode a huge Clydesdale horse, that he kept in a paddock with a long dangling rope around its neck for ease of capture and saddling. He would ride around the farm with bags of fencing staples on either side of his saddle and a hand carved wooden rammer.
He lived in a small cottage, which is still in existence today and still called "Jim's Hut," although it is now used for storage. He placed the same order with Rosemary each week for the butcher in Piopio, one that she could still recite from memory in her later years. He had gout so badly that John recalls he sometimes had to cut the gum boots off his swollen feet. All of them remember that he called many things "whatchamacallit" since English was his second language.
When Jim retired he moved away to live with family, leaving his carved rammer as a gift to John. Rosemary and Maurie attended Jim's "tangi" in Waimiha after he died.
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