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 have spent their entire lives at Fox Glacier and still live there, opposite the hotel, in relative retirement.

I acknowledge that there may be some gaps in the above summary made understandable as time passes and the generations move apart. Most of us live our lives in relative anonymity largely unknown beyond the circles in which we move.

Apart from the few descendants still farming at Fox Glacier, others are scattered far and wide, both within New Zealand and overseas. As already stated, among the earlier generations it is the activities of the men which loom large in family accounts. However, as elsewhere in the world, WWII brought women into the work force. Like other families into their fifth and sixth generations, representatives can now be found in the legal profession, accountancy, architecture, teaching, farming, nursing, aviation, writing, engineering and religious orders among others. At the other end of the socio-economic scale will be found drivers, labourers, carers, and miscellaneous other occupations. All of these, it seems to me, reflect the egalitarianism of New Zealand with opportunities to achieve whatever goals each person may choose to set. Those who inherited land may be thought nowadays, when land prices are high, to have had some advantages, but against that greater opportunities and freedom existed for other descendants to develop their talents. Not everybody is suited to farming.

Over time all families have their share of saints and sinners but who is to say which is which. The Irish heritage ensured that some would be, as my mother described it, “too fond of the bottle.” Young children, fulfilling the old adage that “little pigs should be seen and not heard”, did indeed overhear many interesting adult conversations amid tut-tutting, but yesterday’s secrets are today’s ho-hum.

Family violence when tempers flared and the beatings to which children were subjected, both at home and in school would, today,