Ploughman at Longbeach.

William Massey helped his father on the Tamaki plains farm until he was seventeen. Then he went to Canterbury to obtain a more thorough knowledge of work on the land, to qualify him to become a farmer on his own account. He entered the employ of Mr. John Grigg, the owner of the celebrated Longbeach estate, near Ashburton. His father and Mr. Grigg had been neighbours at the Tamaki.

At Longbeach Massey remained for over two years, chiefly as ploughman, and also for a time in charge of a threshing machine. Before he returned to the North, his father had bought a property at Mangere, the farm which was carried on by the family for many years. Presently he leased a small farm of his own, and he bought a steam threshing machine. a profitable investment at that period, sixty years ago, when wheat was grown by nearly every farmer.