The living room of this little house was the largest room and the centre of daily activity. The wood and coal burning stove was the most important piece of equipment. It measured a little over a meter wide and half a meter deep. About a third was made up of a fire box and ash tray, the rest was oven and hot water chamber. The whole thing was manufactured from cast iron. Its doors and fittings were ornate. The very efficient structure was regularly polished by my mother to a shining black. The stove was lit first thing every morning and was the last thing attended to each evening. On the wire shelf above the stove and in front of it damp clothes, wet shoes on paper and many other things were dried. After our bath, my brother and I would stand in front of the warm stove to be dressed for bed and say our evening prayers.

As Sunday was 'the Lord's day' we were not allowed to play games. The morning Church service started at 11 o'clock . After the service the members would move into a room at the back of the hall for lunch, While it was being prepared we children would stand around talking to family and friends. After Sunday school the families rushed home to milk the cows and return for the evening service at seven o'clock . While I was very young. Church activity ceased after Sunday school. Later on we had to attend all church services. Mother had a lovely singing voice, 1 remember sitting on her knee during services with my ear pressed against her. It was a very intimate way of hearing the sound and vibration other voice,

Except for milking, Sunday was totally devoted to religion. I had a very religious upbringing as you will see. Father started preaching but that was not enough. Somehow he became interested in printing. In his keenness he bought some second hand type and then an old treadle printing press which had been through a fire. One of his friends spent a week with him to teach him

how to set up type and get it ready for the press. Father then edited and printed a monthly broadsheet entitled "The Good News". It was a fundamentalist paper urging people to believe in Jesus to ensure their 'salvation' so that they would go to heaven rather than hell when they died,

The farm lounge was emptied and turned into a printing workshop. Every evening and whenever farm work allowed, Frank would be busy in his 'printery'. The "Good News' was published monthly for over thirty years and distributed free of charge for most of that time to the Open Brethren groups in New Zealand . It reached a monthly circulation of over fifty thousand copies. Years later, as Managing Director of Cooper Brothers Ltd, I made the final decision to cease publishing about the year 1950, But more about that later.

By 1918 my father had insufficient time for both fanning and printing. The farm was then sold to one of mother's brothers, George Ward. I am sure the price was about $40 per acre. The Cooper family moved to a two acre piece of land in Manawaru close to the Gospel Hall. The new house was slightly bigger with bathroom and wash house included under one roof, A separate building for the expanding printing work was erected, The cost of all this building was $1,290. The press was now driven by a one cylinder engine housed in a little

shed attached to the building. A flat 100 mm belt was passed through the wall to pulleys on the press- Electric power was installed into the house when power was first brought to the district two or three years later.

I was too young when we left the farm to remember much about the place, but I have many happy memories of the few years spent at Manawaru. Edwin and I lived within easy walking distance of several cousins we liked to play with. Most of our toys were home made, A piece of wood and cotton reels became a truck and sticks and cotton became electric power supply. Father used to milk the cow night and morning. He would smear Vaseline on the cow's teats to keep them soft. We thought we would like to play at milking so we went to the cow bail. In turn we dropped our trousers, got down on hands and knees and the other applied a handful of vaseline to the dangling member. At five I had just started school. It was not a pleasant or successful game and never repeated. Homosexuality was not for me.

Father bought a second hand lever-operated guillotine. It would cut a ream of 500 sheets of paper 580 mm. wide. Father allowed us to play on this machine after putting us on our honour never to touch the operating handle and we never did. We would stand upon it to turn the clamp pretending it to be a steering wheel- The gauge handle in front became the starting handle. We would pile things on the back and pretend to be delivering goods about the district. I think father showed a lot of patience and a willingness to put up

Our home became the centre of much religious fervour. There seemed to be a constant stream of evangelists, prayers and Bible talk. Hanging in our living room was a piece of wood on which were indelibly poker worked the words; "God is the head of this house, the unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener to every conversation". What a commitment to the Christian religion! I felt the humourless power of God's shadow hovering over me all my younger years.

My mother said that God knew and saw everything we did, said and even thought. I remember lying in the long grass thinking about that I certainly did not like that idea when it was first presented to me. 1 could not see God but I could imagine him up there in the sky. While still five years old it seemed to me that God was a very judgmental person who was observing my conduct all the time. He felt dangerous; someone who would punish my smallest transgression. This unseen God was spoken of as the most important person in our home, somewhat like a big boss who was always to be feared and obeyed. The constant repetition and indoctrination was a form of brain washing. Looking back, I find it incredible that those doctrines stayed with us until much later in life We did not even notice the contradictions and inconsistencies that flood the Bible. Logic was bypassed. The message became accepted as though there was no alternative, I became used to the idea of a God and accepted the belief without question as unassailable

The Life and Philosophy of Steve Cooper truth. After all, my parents said that it was true.

At one time, when I was about five or six, we had a Shetland pony on the property. I was keen to catch it all by myself. Finally father agreed to let me try. He stood nearby as I put the bridle over my arm and walked toward the animal. Each time I neared the beast, it moved away. The distance from my father and security increased. As the pony neared the fence it turned to face me and bared its teeth. That was just too much for me, I dropped the bridle and ran. Years later, in analysis, I relived that experience in every detail and emotion I could feel the bridle on my arm and experience the rising fear as the distance from my father and security increased. I also realised how much my father trusted his boys and was prepared to allow us to express our adventurous nature,

My father was always very busy printing, preaching and answering letters. He called his work "serving the Lord". He bought a typewriter and became an efficient and fast typist using three fingers. My memory of him is of a tolerant and loving man. But he was far too involved in his religious work to be interested in sport of any kind or children's social activities which were not directly connected with Sunday School or Church activities. Yet he always treated his two boys as persons of worth. His dream, of course, was that Edwin and I would one day carry on his Christian work.

Father used to put his empty printers ink tins under the printery where he thought we could not retrieve them. We had heard about black children from visiting missionaries. Of course we found the tins and smeared black ink over our legs, arms and faces. We were pretending to be black people. Mother was entertaining a few women at the time. She wanted to show off her two little rascals and called us. We rushed to the outside water tap but water would not remove the black ink. Mother continued to call urgently so we just had to appear, two little Negroes, I am sure she forgot about being proud of us. What a job she had to remove the sticky stuff off our skin and clothes.

Some of the pleasant things I remember were the arrival of electricity to the district; the gradual change from horse drawn wagons to motor vehicles; the Model T Fords with their high transverse single rear spring and we boys doing such ordinary things as climbing trees or playing in the fields. Our cow Coalie provided milk from which my mother made cream and butter. Of course she also made Devonshire cream. She was a Devonshire lass after alt and would eat tomatoes with cream and sugar. The cow was our pet to ride and dress up with a bonnet. Toby, our pet dog would chase the neighbour's chickens but would leave our own alone. The cat, the dovecote, the garden and trees, all provided ideal surroundings for growing children. The first school I attended was a two room two teacher school Just across the road from our house,

All this time my brother and I were absorbing the Christian influence, Bible stories, hymns, prayers and Father Christmas who came down the chimney were all taken without resistance as literal truth. When we found that Father Christmas was a game, we accepted it without recrimination. Apart from Bible stories, I do not remember children's books being read to us, nor were books like "Winnie the Pooh" the "Biggies Books" or comics ever seen in the house. We were taught and therefore felt that we were different from the other people. Others were not 'children of God' as we were, but sinners who needed to be 'saved'. To be 'saved' one had to believe in Jesus. What people did which made them into sinners I was not quite sure, maybe smoking or drinking but there seemed to be so many who were not 'saved' I never did feel comfortable with that exclusive idea. It put a barrier of distrust into my mind. It was frightening being separate and suspicious of so many other people.