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Extracts from the Farm Life Diary
12 November 1865
 Rode to pa and engaged two natives to come for docking, agreeing
to pay them five shillings a day if they worked exceedingly well.
1 November 1866
 Sent two sheep to show and won prizes with both. 
7-9 February 1867
 Left Wellington for Hawke's Bay via Manawatu. Bought horse for 
£15 from T Cook of Manawatu. Own horse unable to travel.
12 February
 Arrived Oruawharo.
30 May 1867
 Bridges on Oruawharo and Tamumu washed out. Ngaruroro River
changed course. (Tamumu was a neighbouring property which
Sydney managed for his father John).
29 June 1867
 Meeting at Napier about boiling down. Entry on 27 November
that year records,‘Paid Braithwaite £30, being £3 per share on
10 £5 boiling down shares.
30 July 1867
 Bought additional 869 acres at Oruawharo,
paying five shillings an acre.
March 1868
 Oruawharo ear mark registered. 
12 November 1868
 Maori shearers at Tamumu taken away by (Chief) Karaitiana
owing to massacre of whites at Turangi.
30 November 1868
 Rode to Waipukarau to attend meeting about stockade.
Meeting decided stockade should be built at Waipukarau.
12 February 1869
 Rode to Waipukarau, swimming Maharakeke. Tukituki River
higher than ever known.
22 December 1869
 Received particulars of one-horse mower
recommended by Mr Dixon of Masterton.
4 April 1870
 691 sheep driven to Waipukarau for boiling down. Boundary rider
engaged for between Tamumu and Omakere at £74 a year.
29 April 1870
 Meeting at Waipukarau to consider best means of preventing
spread of sheep scab in the province.
5 October 1870
 Passing sheep through arsenic trough for foot rot.
14 March 1871
 Delivered 61 three-quarter-bred Cotswold rams to Mr Hamilton
and received in exchange, 60 seven-eighths Lincolns.
December 1872
 14,000 sheep shorn at Oruawharo.
4 March 1873
 Bought 14 stud Lincolns from Tanner. Average cost £12.
1 July 1873
 Men planting furze.
17 October 1873
 At show in Havelock North. Took prizes for fat ewes
and quarter-bred hoggets.
28 May 1874
 Sowing cocksfoot on land cleared by burning near site of new house.
15 October 1874
 Rode from Tamumu to Hastings show and afterwards travelled
to Napier by train (first mention of train travel).
1876
 Stocking with cattle began.
1 September 1876
 To Waipukarau for opening of railway from Napier.
10 March 1877
 Bought double-furrow plough.
12 March 1877
 Railway opened to Takapau.
14 January 1878
 Large fire burnt about 2000 acres.
29 May 1878
 Began building dip.
2 January 1879
 Railway engine set fire to 500 acres of grass.
26 March 1879
 Bought reaper and binder with sufficient wire for 300 acres.
(Before this, crops would have been hand-tied.)
30 March 1879
 Cutting chaff by hand.
1 April 1879
 Man engaged to cook for farm men at £1 a week.
15 May 1879
 Wheat to Onga Onga mill and flour brought back.
8 August 1879
 In Wellington. Arranged with my father to lease Oruawharo
at rental of £3,500 a year.
18 September 1881
 To Napier to meeting about new freezing company.
31 December 1883
 27,563 sheep shorn at Oruawharo – 1880 Merino,
the balance Lincoln-Merino cross.
6 March 1884
 Sent 520 half-bred wethers to Nelson Bros Tomoana works
for freezing. Drew 10 shillings a head in advance. (Later when
sheep paid only four shillings a head, had to return the difference.)
Hoggets put on turnips.
December 1886
 28,030 sheep shorn at Oruawharo. Average fleece weight 8lbs 3oz.
3 March 1888
 Purchased Oruawharo under terms of my father’s will.
Paid £3 per acre plus agricultural implements and stock –
22,000 sheep, 100 cattle, 30 horses.
17 November 1900
 Began machine shearing.
12 May 1903
 Worrall (station manager) left for England, due to health.
14 October that year received a cable from Freemantle saying
Worrall had died at sea. “I received this news with deep regret.
He was in my employment for over 25 years and was a most
valuable servant and good friend.”
June 1903
 Felling 150 acres of bush on back country.
1 February 1904
 Leithead who had been managing Mokoia, took over management
of Oruawharo at £250 a year.
1947-49
 Christopher (Johnston’s grandson) worked as a rouseabout and
shepherd on nearby properties before becoming manager of
Oruawharo in January 1951.