Shanty Town

Shanty Town On Thursday the class went to Shantytown to learn about the valley in the old days. We learnt lots of cool stuff about the old days. First we arrived and they told us what to do in an emergency then we got dressed in olden day shirts and waistcoats with a cap. After that we had morning tea. After morning tea we learnt that the Maori came over to the west coast for pounamu using the Noti raureka (Browning's Pass) and the Europeans came for gold. We learnt that the gold miners needed food so farmers came and cleared the trees for land. That was the start of farming on the west coast. Since there was lots of flax on the west coast flax mills were made to make rope. Dairy farmers drop off milk to the butter factories and most of that butter was used for the miners. They also supplied milk to the dairy factory that opened in 1901.