Tui’s Annual
Rural women connected via the Tui pages in The Dairy Exporter, sharing recipes and home hints, and insights into their way of life.
Who was Tui?
The Dairy Exporter and Farm Home Journal was staple fare in the reading diet of tens of thousands of New Zealand homes. The Farm Home Journal section of the magazine was designed specifically for women and always had pages dedicated to children. From the 1920s to the 1950s, many dairy-farming families lived beyond the reach of reliable radio reception and relied on newspapers and magazines for a view of the world beyond.
It included a broad range of topics: cooking, gardening, sewing, and farm and home hints were regular features. Each issue also contained ‘Tui’s Tittle Tattle’, with writings from ‘Mrs B’ and contributions from readers to essay- and letter-writing competitions.
This essay competition from 1942, mid WWII, was ‘Women’s Part To-Day’, with entries from many rural women who were taking up the work on farms while the men were away at war.
Tui was a pseudonym. The first ‘Tui’ was Mrs A.J. Heighway. The second ‘Tui’ was Norah Telford Drummond, who was married to The Dairy Exporter Editor Charles Albert.
‘The Farm Kitchen’, February 1933
Copy of 'The Farm Kitchen', February 1933‘The perfect Wife’, April 1938
Copy of 'The perfect Wife', April 1938‘Family Planning in N.Z.’ November 1942
Copy of 'Family Planning in N.Z.' November 1942Home and Farm Hints, November 1952
Copy of 'Home and Farm Hints, November 1952‘Our Second Tui Retires’, January 1962
Copy of 'Our Second Tui Retires', January 1962‘Going to Spank Cows?’, September 1971
Copy of 'Going to Spank Cows?', September 1971
