The Story of Leslie Harris Brough

Leslie was born on October the second 1907 at Kihikihi near Te Awamutu.  The firstborn to Thomas Henry Brough and Isobella Amelia Grace Winter.  Leslie's father was born at Barry's Bay, Banks Peninsula.  He did most of his schooling in Inglewood.

     He was an excellent woodchopper, very athletic, especially fine at the High Jump.  He was an excellent rugby footballer.  He had a good memory and ability to understand any subject.  He played several musical instruments including the accordian, mouthorgan, flute concertina and the jaws harp.

     Thomas married Isabella Winter in Hawera.  They settled on land in the Aria District that bordered the Piarere and Arawhauwhi Streams.  The hills were of sandstone and papa, shell rock was found under the papa stone.  The quality of the land varied considerably.  Every little gully had its spring.  At first they lived in a tent, but the mosquitos were so bad, they slept in the fern every night, and even then found it impossible to sleep.  Isabella was often nervous when the dogs snarled at wild pigs, and wild cattle roared on the hill above.  They first built a small cottage and later a homestead was built.

     In those days travel to Rira was on horseback over narrow trails.  Bella was never a good horse rider.  At the time of her first pregnancy (carrying Leslie), and nearing completion, she was faced with a long ride out of Rira to Te Kuiti.  Her horse got caught on one occasion in Corduroy.  Corduroy consisted of Kahikatea laid over boggy ground.  Bella travelled with neighbours Con Riddle and wife, who was also expecting a baby. Both Leslie and Lily Riddle were born in October 1907.

    Leslie Harris Brough's journey back to Rira was packed with incidents.  His mother often told him of the trip.  Apparently it was a wild trip from Te Kuiti to Poi Pio in Hathaway's Buggy.  At Pio Pio Thomas met her and put her on a horse with Leslie in front in a box.  They rode through Pai Mako and met the Rev. Mitchell, a Congregational Minister who pointed to signs of a storm.  He rode into Wairere to inform the Hutchinsons who ran the punt across the Mokau River.  The storm hit them but soon passed leaving them saturated.  Mrs Hutchinson supplied Bella with some dry clothes, and a dry blanket to wrap Leslie in, as Bella wanted to go to Wallace's farm. 

     They went up a hill via a shortcut, but found Bob Riddle had put a fence across, so they had to make their way back to the road.  As they neared Wallace's place, Bella could no longer ride as the horse skidded about on the wet clay.  She managed to get along mainly on her hands and knees.  Thomas threw a crate of fowls and luggage under a tree, carried Leslie wrapped in a blanket in the box, and led the horse. Bella got along the best she could.  From Wallace's gate thay called out and they heard Bert Wallace say, "its Tommy Brough."  Bert warned of a hole he had dug for it was night time.  Thomas lit a match and saw  the hole right in front of him.  The next day they arrived home.

     Leslie's parents had six sons and one daughter.  One son Aubrey (Aubrey) died at birth.  Shirley died 8 years of age.  Three others, Aubrey (the second), Allan and Luke.  The youngest a sister, named Doris. 

     Leslie's father remarried later to Ella Riddle.  He had a son Trevor by that marriage.  His father died when Trevor was three years old, at the age of 57 years.

     Leslie's father never made a will so the Public Trust took the lot.  His brother Aubrey quickly took the horses down to his place.  Word went around the district that if any one had any old or worthless cattle or sheep, to bring them down to Brough's farm and exchange them for a good one.  The Public Trust held an Auction.  The community stood together and nobody would bid, causing them to have their Auction elswhere.

     Leslie never had a secondary education, but was blessed with a photographic memory and a continual desire to learn.  He went to school three days a week at Rira and later three days at another school.  He would run over the hills or ride horseback six miles to school.  He had many happy memories of school days.  There were 14 pupils at the opening of the Rira School.  The teacher was Mr.Duckworth.  The hall for the school was built by settlers, it was a real bush school.  Leslie often laughed about the time the pigs got in and wrecked the school room.  His nickname for his school was Punga Whare.

     Grandma Gedge (Laura) said when they first met Leslie, he had the most terrible scrawly handwriting.  But with continual practice over the years he developed a very clear and legible handwriting.  His teacher told him he had no coordination and was hopeless at drawing, but later in life, he painted some very nice pictures.

     Leslie loved the native bush with its birds.  He knew by their singing exactly what type of bird it was.

     His first trip out of Aria was at sixteen years of age.  That was to Te Kuiti.  He saw a train for the first time (1923), but was twenty one years old before he rode in one.

     As a young man he left home to work in a dairy factory at Te Awamutu.  Although he never said, others say he rose to 1.st Assistant in the Butter Factory.  Later he transferred to Te Kawa Factory, where Charles Gedge was manager.

     Leslie was an agnostic, but under Mr Charlie Gedge's influence heard the Gospel and was converted. Soon after he had a big bonfire and burnt all his agnostic books.  It was at the Gedge's home he met his wife to be, their eldest daughter Esther Ruth.  It was definitely not love at first sight, says Esther.  She would have been about 12 at the time, and Les couldn't stand her, although she thought he was wonderful.

Mrs Laura Gedge was a member of the well-known Jacobsen family (from Sweden).  One of Leslie's clear early memories that impressed him was to be taken by Charles Gedge to the Jacobsen home.  Various members of the family were there, but that which stood out clearest in his mind was to see Mrs Inga Jacobsen sitting tall and straight, looking like an old patriarch reading and explaining the scriptures to dear old Mrs. Neilson (Mætte) who was nearly 100 years old.  She was Laura Gedge's maternal grandmother (from Denmark).

     Les spent some time with Robert Lawson and also Robert Auld on the Bible Carriage.  Ivan Forlong remembers as a little boy going with his father Ralph with Les and Robert Lawson round the East Cape.  Leslie would take him for walks in the bush and tell him the names of all the trees and name all the  birds to him.  He can still remember seeing Leslie's head sticking outside of his tent, asleep with a mosquito on the end of his nose, as a result, he had a red lump on his nose for a few days.  He also assisted Charlie Gedge with his tent mission in Morrinsville in the earlier thirties where many came to the Lord.  One being the late Philip Samuels who became a fine Maori Christian leader. 

     Eventually love blossomed between Esther and Les.  They were married on December the 31.st 1934 at the Levin Gospel Hall.  Esther was 22, Leslie was 27.  Their first home was at Piriaka near Taumaranui.  They lived in a little cottage on Haultain Forlong's farm.

     Leslie was doing missionary work amongst the Maori  people there with the Open Brethren.  He knew  some Maori, but also possessed  the ability to explain things simply to those who did not readily understand English.  It was while they were living at Taumaranui their firstborn child, a son named Kelvin Leslie Thomas, was born.  Esther's sister told me Kelvin was never their choice of name for him, they would most likely have called him Thomas Leslie after his grandfather, but Esther's brother Kelvin pleaded so earnestly that they call him after himself, thus, out of softness of heart they gave in.

     Still in the Lord's work, they moved to Te Kuiti, first to Taupiri Street and then to King Street.  Four other children were born to them there.  Isobel, Beulah, Thomas and Peter.

     At the outbreak of war, WW2, Leslie was called into military service, but because of the size of his family he was never sent overseas.

     They lived in a large old house in King Street.  Their home was always open to others.  Mrs Myrtle Mitchell and her son Clifford lived with them for quite some time, her husband had been killed in Ethiopia in missionary work.  Two of Esther's sisters stayed with them while their husbands were in the Army.  Their babies were born while they were there.  They lived a lot by faith.  At one time they ran right out of food and money except for some flour.  There was nothing for tea, so Esther decided to make a batch of scones for tea with the remaining flour.  Just after she had made them, an elderly couple arrived for afternoon tea, and didn't they love freshly baked scones.  As a result there wasn't enough left for tea.  Esther's sister Serena who always had a pile of empty medicine bottles was about to take them to the Chemist for a refund when Mr Mc Cann, an elder from the Assembly Fellowship arrived at the door with some money he owed them.

     Leslie contracted all the childhood ailments when he was at Te Kuiti.  Such as measles, chickenpox etc.  Having lived so far out, he had never had any of the usual childhood ailments or illnesses, and was quite ill with them.  He related to us of the time he went to the Dentist in Te Kuiti and the dentist asked him if he wanted it painless, he said, "yes,"   So the Dentist took something that looked like chewing gum off the window pane and put it on his gum.  He said it did nothing for the pain and thinks it was just gum.

     Sadness hit them when their eldest son Kelvin fell across a copper of boiling water when he was climbing up to get something off the shelf above.  He was so badly burnt that he nearly died.  With many people praying he pulled through.

     While in the Army, he became involved in Everyman’s Hut, a Christian outreach.  Also while at Waiouru, he sat his Second Class Boiler Ticket, he was later discharged into vital industry. He went from Waiouru to Ongarue to work for Ellis and Burnand.  After about a year the family moved down from Te Kuiti to Ongarue and settled there. While working for Ellis & Bernard, he sat his First Class Boiler Ticket.

When on duty one night, the kiln went up in  flames. It was a rare sound to hear seven steam whistles from the mill in the Mangakahu Valley.

Two more sons were born while at Ongarue. David came quickly. There was no doctor or nurse present. A local Maori woman, Mrs Hoar delivered him. Luke was also born while there.

Les wasn’t afraid to experiment when trying his hand at cooking, which he did when Esther was in the nursing home. He mixed cocoa powder in the mashed potatoes to see what they would taste like. They were revolting.

While at Ongarue, he went into hospital to have a hernia operation. They cut him open and then found they had cut the wrong side, so stitched him up. He later went back for them to do the other side. It was not a success either. As a result he always  had to ware a special brace for support.  

During the Polio epidemic at the beginning of 1948, the family shifted to Auckland to 16 Couldrey St, Eden Terrace. Three more children were born in Auckland; a daughter, Zelda and two sons, Nelson and John.

The family attended the Mt Eden Assembly. While there, Les led the young adults bible class. He was working for Henderson & Pollard in Mt Eden. As he did not get on very well with the senior official, he took up a position with the Kauri Timber Co at Penrose (Later Fletcher Timber) in 1951.

The family shifted into a factory house in Great South Road, Penrose. There the family attended the Ellerslie Assembly. During Leslie’s years at Penrose, he became a lecturer at the Assembly Bible School, which was located at the Missionary Home Lovelock Ave, Mt Eden. He carried on when the bible school was moved to another factory house in Laud Ave, Ellerslie. They eventually build their own home in 26 Gavin St, Ellerslie.

Because certain elders in the Ellerslie assembly were antagonistic to his teachings, he left the Ellerslie assembly and went to the Te Papapa Assembly. Then later he went to the Otahuhu Assembly, where he had a happy fellowship.

Leslie never ceased to study. He himself said that study had never been difficult for him. Over the years he had studied Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Maori, Biblical Exegesis, Theology, Church history, ancient history, philosophy, biology, anthropology, Steam Engineering, book keeping and commercial law. Later in life, he passed a degree through the Melbourne School of Divinity.

When he was a young Christian, Charles Gedge told him, a lazy man never makes a good Christian, or a good anything. Although Mr Gedge was a good successful evangelist, he did not always practice what he preached. He was known to have a lazy streak.

Les never wasted a minute while waiting for the buses and always took his Greek New Testament with him. Isobel remembers how one day he went to catch a bus. He was so engrossed in his book that he let the bus go by and had to come home. He always studied at work and had a small table there with a pile of books. He would study while he was looking after the boiler.

There was at least two students who came to him for coaching when they were studying Greek at University. One son-in-law noted a student asking Leslie for a book on a certain subject and Leslie went to his large shelves, pulled out on set of books to reveal another set behind. The son-in-law was quite taken aback by the large gathering of theological books that were stacked in two rows, one behind the other. Many who sat under his ministry sought his advice in exegesis and translations of the Word when they became missionaries themselves.