Waikato Business News April/May 2021

10 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS April/May 2021
Three waters and
Waikato local council
amalgamation
The proposed Three Waters legislation that is being
promoted by the Labour Government will have a very
large effect on Waikato local councils.
In reality it is all about funding. By
separating out a large proportion of
local council revenue that is derived
from the three forms of water to a quasi-government
organisation that focusses
solely on the three waters across the
Waikato, the Government will diminish
substantially the revenue and functions
of local councils.
The consequent vacuum will be
basis for some form of consolidation
of those local councils by central
government.
The Waikato Chamber of Commerce
has been advocating for the Amalgamation
of local councils for many years
because business is finding their boundaries
artificial and arbitrary, costly to
work with, time consuming, illogical,
and unproductive.
There are 12 territorial authorities
across the Waikato, governing 500,000
people. 12 replications, 12 governance
bodies, 12 bureaucracies, 12 large cost
centres, 12 voices singing off separate
song sheets, and unfortunately 12 separate
entities with different rules for
business to deal with.
Waikato families and businesses
work, play and live across those boundaries.
Those boundaries are unnecessary
hurdles. They create unnecessary
complexity. They create competition
rather than collaboration. They have
no natural logic. The lines that define
these territories bear no resemblance to
reality.
Drawn in the 80s they are archaic
and are holding back the Waikato from
achieving a prosperous future Amalgamation
needs to be pursued willingly
to a destination we all want, or we will
have it foisted on us in a manner that
we do not want by Central Government.
At stake is strong local democratic
representation and also bureaucratic efficiency.
If we do not have the conversation,
we will not have our combined
voice heard in the outcome.
The Waikato Chamber of Commerce
By Don Good, Waikato Chamber
of Commerce executive director
is not advocating a super council but
suggesting that a debate on amalgamation
needs to be spurred on by our
leaders, with our voters, ratepayers and
businesses contributing substantially to
the conversation.
There are lessons to be learnt from
the Auckland super council model. It
has not been without its faults, but from
a business point of view, it is one homogenous
area in terms of the rules and
regulations. That makes it very easy for
businesses to work with. We should be
looking at both what was successful
and what did not work in that merger
and its activities since.
It is also about our democratic voice
and a fair share of our tax being spent in
our region. The Chamber of Commerce
wants the region to have a united and
stronger voice but one involving less
bureaucracy.
We will not put a figure on what we
see as the optimum number of councils
for the Waikato but want the discussion
to start as soon as possible.
Otherwise, Three Waters will lead to
a Government imposed council merger
that is not led by those who live, work,
and play in the Waikato.
Margaret Wallace and Vicki Dromgool share memories of their
times with the business. The framed photo shows Margaret’s
sister wearing the wedding dress which Margaret made for her.
Part of city’s
fabric for 50 years
By RICHARD WALKER
For five decades, people from around the Waikato have
been walking up a flight of stairs off Hamilton’s Ward Street to
get their clothing altered. It is a remarkable run of continuity for
the city business.
Early on Monday
morning, May 9,
1971, Margaret Wallace
walked up the stairs at
25 Ward Street in central
Hamilton. She spent time
making sure everything
was in order, including
her prized Bernina sewing
machine, took a deep breath
and at 8am, with a mixture
of excitement and trepidation,
opened the front
door. Hamilton’s newest
business, Margaret Wallace
Clothing Alterations, was
open for customers.
She had rent of $9 a
month to pay for the first
two months, $47 in the
bank and no guarantee this
would work out. But she
was determined.
The Bernina had been
bought the year before,
from a Te Aroha dressmaker
called Mrs Sleep, as Margaret
had begun to think about
starting her own business
and getting ahead. “I was
working for a tailor. And I
thought, well, I can't go on
like this with a funny old
car and renting a flat. I've
got to do something about
this.”
Aged 42, she was stepping
into the unknown.
Fifty years later, she can
still remember the first customer:
“It was Mrs Ericsson,
and her husband was
the manager of the Waikato
brewery.”
That first day she made
$2, the clothing stores
turned up in droves to give
her business, and she was
on her way.
The work poured in.
They were long days,
from 6am till 10pm, and
seven-day weeks. That
included working at home
every evening and at weekends.
There was no end of
trousers to take up, suits and
dresses to take in or let out,
coats to alter, zips to replace.
It was three years before she
took her first holiday. “I worried
myself sick the whole
time I was gone.”
She also did curtains. “I
used to get in the car at night
and take the tracks and put
them up at night time. I would
work till 11 o'clock to fit the
curtains. I had to do that to get
where I wanted to be.”
Margaret was solo for
the first 15 months before
employing her first staff member.
That followed advice
from well-known Hamilton
businessman Morty Foreman,
who knew her from her previous
job at Wilkinson’s.
“He came to see me and he
said, ‘I'll give you a few tips.’
“He said, ‘You're working
so hard, and you can't do it
with two hands. If you employ
somebody, you'll get more
work. As you get more work
that'll make you more money.
And don't put your prices
too high. Keep your turnover
high by having your prices
cheaper.’”
Margaret heeded his
advice, and went on to employ
eight staff as well as outworkers,
as the business in the
G E Clark building thrived.
Customers came from across
Waikato, and included the
Masonic Lodge, the Police
and the Fire Brigade.
Building owners G E
Clark, who sold plants and
grains among other products
(“you name it, they sold it,”
Margaret says), had an office
upstairs as well as a shopfront
downstairs. Her shop was off
the landing to the right facing
the street, and later shifted to
the back of the building on the
same floor.
“When I first went in, there
was an old lady with a milk
bar on the other side of the
road, and there was the black
and white coffee lounge.
There was a barber shop, there
was Pollock and Milne.”
Margaret also remembers
a restaurant upstairs called
La Gershinshaws, while she
says Laurie Jenkins Menswear
went in downstairs for a
while before shifting across to
the Government Life building
which opened in 1980, followed
by Centreplace in 1985.
And in the intervening
years, Margaret got
married (“the best
thing I ever did”) and developed
a loyal customer base.
Now 92, her memories of the
time are as sharp as ever.
One woman would come
in to have her clothes let out.
“I don’t know why I put this
weight on,” she said to Margaret,
“I hardly eat anything.”
Soon after, Margaret popped
across the road to the Diana
Coffee Lounge to get a sandwich
and noticed the woman
sitting at a table, her plate
loaded with pastries, from
sponge cake to donuts.
Margaret can still recall the
measurements for one particular
lawyer. “Leg 28 and the
bottom of his trousers, eight
inches across. He just used
to send them around with a
girl and I knew what to do to
them.”
Margaret also has a photo
showing her and her staff
wearing Lions’ jerseys made
for much bigger frames. The
back-up jerseys of the touring
rugby team had been dropped
off at short notice, for the
numbers to be sewn on.
Then there was the time
Margaret was phoned at 11pm
because a netball team had
realised they had left their uniforms
behind and they were