New Zealand Memories Issue 155

APPETISER
A Colman’s Promotion?
An upgrade from ‘dog power’ for this homemade sledge on Surat
Beach in the Catlins dated between 1895-1900. Of interest is the box
on the sledge; it is marked ‘Colman’s Mustard Oil’. As a bull is part of
Colman’s product branding, perhaps this was an advertising gimmick?
Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington,NZ. Ref:1/2-140528-G
1

EDITORIAL
Dear Readers,
This anonymous quote was sent in by a reader, “Sometimes you will never know
the value of a moment until it is a memory”. So true! Writing memories down
not only allows us to relive the experience but it also secures a valuable permanent
record for future generations. And many are doing just that. Since I took over the
editorship of the magazine, contributions have increased tenfold. My own father
died when I was in my mid thirties and I did not ask the pertinent questions about
his childhood and World War II service in Egypt and Italy (although I do know
that he falsified his age in order to enlist early and a blind eye was turned by the
authorities). How I wish Dad had recorded his memoirs.
The Hill family will certainly not be short of family stories; David’s leading article, The Unswinging Sixies,
will strike a cord with Wellington residents and with young men and women whose independence began in
a boarding house. Gordon Tait follows on with the next stage during early marriage; the hosting of dinner
parties a decade later. Lack of restaurants - and lack of cash - prompted this trend. Every hostess had a specialty
and mine was Bombe Alaska. The dish called for ice cream coated in meringue to be placed into the oven and,
despite my qualms, it never did melt.
Who remembers the children’s session on Sunday morning radio, or Portia Faces Life with a chance for Mother
to put her feet up? Preserving fruit and jam-making, belonging to a marching team, betting at the races, the
local telephone exchange, motoring memories - everyone will relate to a topic in this diverse issue.
Life was not without serious challenges in the first half of the twentieth century. As we read in Claire’s account
of the Blackball Miner’s Strike of 1908, New Zealand workers fought dearly for the rights we now take for
granted. Grievances resulted in much hardship. Then along came the wars. Renée Hollis has supplied a POW’s
World War II recollections which make spellbound reading and serve as an example of survival against all
odds. While searching for a relevant Red Cross illustration for this article, I met Isabel via the Inver Museum,
Northern Ireland website, and the photograph on page 15 was kindly supplied for publication.
Take care, stay safe and here’s hoping life is back to the old normal before I write again.
Wendy Rhodes,
Editor
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2

Editor
Wendy Rhodes
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Contributors
Albertland and District Museum
Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, NZ
Auckland Libraries Heritage Collection
Basham, Barbara
Benge, Geoff
Bourn, Christopher
Christchurch City Libraries
Cowan, Bill
Crean, Mike
Duncan, Claire
Exisle Publishing
Finnie, Maureen
Hill, David
Hollis, Renée
Inver Museum, Larne, Northern Ireland
Isted, Bruce
Marsh, Harold
McKinnon, John
Meadows, Dudley
Mingins Dorothy
Moore, Anne
Shields, Ted
Stables, Bert
Stewart, Graham
Tairawhiti Museum
Tait, Gordon
Turley, Alan
Walsh, Eddie
Walsh, Graeme
westcoast.recollect.co.nz
Opinions: Expressed by contributors are not
necessarily those of New Zealand Memories.
Accuracy: While every effort has been made to
present accurate information, the publishers take no
responsibility for errors or omissions.
Copyright: All material as presented in
New Zealand Memories is copyright to the publishers
or the individual contributors as credited.
Contents
The Unswinging Sixties 4
From Napier to the capital: David Hill in Wellington.
The Dinner Party 8
Gordon Tait recalls socialising in the seventies.
Saved by Hank the Yank in Bari Hospital 10
John Richardson, prisoner of war. Courtesy of Renée Hollis.
More on the Wireless… 16
‘A Switched On Era’ and ‘Children’s Session’ by Christopher Bourn.
‘Radios and Records’ by John McKinnon.
Trains 20
A nostalgic poem from Mike Crean.
From the Regions: Gisborne / Eastland 21
Love is a Marching Girl 28
Alan Turley examines the popularity of marching teams.
Education in the Twenties 30
Anne Moore attended Mati School near Matamata.
The Chief 34
Westport horse finds fame. From Eddie and Graeme Walsh.
Centrefold: Standing the Test of Time 36
Auckland’s Royal Oak Hotel.
Striking Out 38
The Blackball Miners’ Strike of 1908 by Claire Duncan.
All in the Line of Duty 46
Geoff Benge’s uncle was a stoker on the ship ‘Achilles’.
The Sad Tale of an Ancestral Bible. 48
Bruce Isted recounts the story.
Preserving Fruit 63
No shortage of produce for bottling writes Anne Moore.
From the Regions: Southland 50
Harry and Connie Stables 58
Bert Stables remembers farming at Wharehine..
Motoring de Luxe, 1923 64
A daring South Island drive; compiled by Ted Shields.
Can You Help? 67
Mailbox 68
Index and Genealogy List 70
Editor’s Choice: Coffee Break 72
The Gaggia expresso machine impacts Christchurch.
Cover image:
ISSN 1173-4159
“Donated by the Frost Family” with no other details. April/May 2022
Turn to page 67. 3

STORY
The Unswinging Sixties
David Hill
Just over sixty years ago, I boarded a railcar in Napier, and came to the capital for the first time.
I stepped off at Wellington’s lofty main station, its foyer dominated in 1960 by William Trethewen’s
grandiose plaster sculpture The Coming of the Maori. Six decades on, reworked in bronze, and retitled The
Kupe Group, the work sits on the waterfront by the Star Boating Club.
In my grey flannel trousers with turnups, brown slip-on shoes and green sportscoat, I took a taxi to the
boarding house my Dad had found via several toll calls. I’m pretty sure the fare was two shillings.
The taxi tipped me out onto the footpath in Sydney Street West, about 400 metres behind Parliament Buildings.
Old Parliament Buildings: Basil Spence’s Beehive wouldn’t start rising for another decade.
I’d never been in a boarding house before. This one was a two-storey wooden straggle of high, square rooms
jammed up against a bank below Bowen Street.
Sunlight never touched the place from late May to early August. Inside, it smelt of cooking gas and damp
wallpaper. Outside at the back was a dilapidated laundry where we washed clothes in concrete tubs and a hand
wringer.
Yet I ended up staying three years there, paying an exorbitant two pounds per week. I’d probably have stayed
longer, if the Ministry of Works hadn’t bought and bowled it for the proposed Wellington Motorway.
Eight young men cooked in our boarding house’s tiny kitchen, frying damaging quantities of meat in equally
damaging quantities of fat on the crusted, rusted gas stove.
We shared the one bathroom / toilet, with its gas calafont that sounded like an asthmatic bulldozer. It gave enough
luke-warm water to sit in hip-deep. We bathed maybe twice a week, and thought ourselves exceptionally clean.
The corner of Bowen Street and The Terrace, Wellington.
Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington. Ref: EP/1955/0449-F
4

STORY
Milk bar at the Opera House in Manners Street,
Wellington c.1962.
Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, NZ Ref: 1/1-015555-F
Our landlord had negotiated a deal with Victoria University’s Weir House Hostel (restricted to men only in
those days), where we paid ten shillings for five weekday lunches. I remember Watties Tinned Spaghetti and
Watties Baked Beans, sometimes served on the same plate, and frequently followed by Watties Tinned Peaches.
I caught a red-and-cream tram to the Basin Reserve, to watch Plunket Shield cricket. The legendary Bert
Sutcliffe got whacked on the head by a bouncer, wiped away the blood, carried on. Helmets? Get serious. Brain
damage was a badge of sporting commitment.
Another tram took me to Athletic Park, where men in gaberdine raincoats and hats packed the Western Bank,
on which the lofty Millard Stand was beginning to rise.
There, I saw the equally legendary Wellington rugby captain Neven MacEwan make such masterly use of wind
and sun that you wished he’d been a general in World War One. The towering lock forward later battled all sorts
of personal demons before becoming a splendid prison chaplain and celebrant. He talks about them powerfully
in his 2019 autobiography, When the Crowd Stops Roaring.
The 1960 All Black, all-pakeha team to tour South Africa was announced from under the Athletic Park
grandstand: “Fullback – D. B. Clarke, Waikato....”. In our boarding house, we crowded around a valve radio at
2 am to hear South African referees cheat us of victory.
5

STORY
“Our girlfriends wore straight-line pencil
skirts and back-to-front cardigans. Arty ones
among them turned out in black duffel coats.”
There’d been a few protests before the team left, mostly from students in brown duffel coats, whom we’d now
call politically motivated, but whom we then called long-haired commies. Yes, even university types put rugby
before decency in those days.
I’d like to tell you about 1960 Wellington nightlife, even if that phrase is a self-contradiction. Mine involved
walking to the St James Theatre or the Opera House, to see The Kingston Trio in their neat striped shirts;
the Howard Morrison Quartet with their neat narrow ties; Danish comedian Victor Borge with his glorious
Phonetic Punctuation monologue.
We couldn’t watch TV, because it didn’t start till halfway through 1960, and then only in Auckland, for three
hours a night.
We could go to the few coffee bars, where bitter Cona coffee bubbled in glass pots. Brave souls tried the even
fewer, totally alcohol-free nightclubs.
Mostly, we went to the movies. The flicks, sorry, especially the Saturday 8 pm session. The National Anthem
as in God Save the Queen played, and everyone stood up.
Next came Movietone News in a BBC accent, a couple of trailers, a cartoon or two. Then interval, when
everyone opened Wellington’s 8 O’Clock newspaper with that afternoon’s sports results, and the cinema lobby
filled with cigarette smoke. Passive smoking? Never heard of it.
After interval, Anthony Perkins terrified everyone in Psycho, or Kirk Douglas showed his torso and limited
acting skills in Spartacus. There was also La Dolce Vita, which we went to for its artistic significance, (meaning
Anita Ekberg’s torso, which differed markedly from Kirk Douglas’s).
Substance abuse? Well, there was beer. And more beer. There was also an appalling thing called Merry Widow,
a mixture of orange juice and gin that no chap in a green sportscoat would be seen near.
You drank the beer at student parties, where some people talked and stood around, while others drank and
fell around. Sophisticates went to The Skyline cabaret at the top of the Cable Car, or The Pines at Oriental Bay,
and their photos appeared in the social pages. We sneered at them loudly; envied them furtively.
At Victoria University – three brick buildings, mainly: the ivy-wreathed Hunter; the square Kirk; the handsome
6

STORY
Submarine USS Halibut left, out at sea, and Naval officials onboard at Wellington on 27 April 1960.
Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, NZ. Ref: EP/1960/1468-F, 1470-F.
new Easterfield, opened in 1959, I studied English (Shakespeare and Charles Dickens and TS Eliot – no NZ
content); History (medieval Europe – no NZ content either); French.
Ian Gordon lectured us in his soft Scottish accent about language; Joan Stevens made us laugh with her
accounts of early horror novels. Peter Munz, historian and translator, had escaped Nazi Germany with the rest
of his Jewish family in early 1940.
I’d seen their names on books and pamphlets at high school; now I realised they were real people. Hard to
believe. They called me – if they ever had reason to speak to me – “Mr Hill”. Harder to believe.
I was at University courtesy of the taxpayer. I was a Division U student, accepted by the Ministry of Education
for future high school teaching, and paid a pretty decent allowance all through varsity. All I had to do after was
go to Training College and then teach one year for every year I’d been at University. Goodness, we had it easy.
What else do I recall about 1960 Wellington? A US nuclear-powered / armed submarine being warmly
welcomed into the harbour, without a single protest vessel in sight. (The sub was called Halibut, which struck
me as such a silly name for a killing machine.)
I remember how Asian faces were still rare enough, except in fruit stores, to draw second looks, and how, when
an Afro-American student spent a term at Vic, people collided with lamp-posts as they gaped at him.
We were a small (2.3 million), isolated, conservative country, secure in our farming exports, convinced the
UK would always grant us favourite nation status. Yet my friends and I knew we would change the world.
We were so trendy in our flannels and sportscoats. Psychology students were trendiest of all, in brown
corduroys and even – degenerates! – scarves. Our girlfriends wore straight-line pencil skirts and back-to-front
cardigans. Arty ones among them turned out in black duffel coats.
There were guaranteed careers ahead of us, multiple holiday jobs to choose from, a booming economy. The
Cold War was half a world away; the hot summers unblemished by any knowledge of climate change. Even
more blissfully, jeans had begun to appear in the shops. For an 18-year-old of 1960, blue denim heaven was just
around the corner. n
7

WORLD WAR II
Saved by Hank the Yank,
in Bari Hospital
John Richardson, Prisoner of War.
10

WORLD WAR II
I
had arrived in Bari hospital on the 20th December 1941, after being captured in the Libyan Desert on
the 22nd November.
The night I was captured, my truck had been blown up by a German tank, and had rolled down an
escarpment. I had a severely fractured lumbar spine, a broken right knee and left arm. Shrapnel was
embedded in both hands, in the left side of my face, and my leg.
I had been put in a German truck and carted around the desert for the next five days. During this time the
truck was dodging British tanks and aircraft. The young German soldiers were very short of water, but they
shared with their prisoners what they had. It wasn’t very palatable as it was drained out of the radiator tanks
of smashed up trucks lying around the desert. I wasn’t often very conscious but these soldiers would shake me
awake to give me my ration. It was never very much but without it we wouldn’t have survived the long hot days
travelling through the desert.
I saw the German General Schmidt walking past with Colonel Fraser, a Kiwi artillery officer. He stopped
when he saw me and told the general that I was a New Zealand officer. I was then placed in the German Field
hospital until 16th December.
General Schmidt came to see me to tell me that
Bardia was about to be captured by the British, so I
was being transferred to Bari hospital in Italy, by the
hospital ship Aquilla. We were at sea for four days,
and I experienced no ill-treatment during this time.
However, when we arrived in Bari, and I was being
taken out of the ambulance, a gang of six blackshirted
Mussolini thugs turned up and started beating me.
They kicked in my ribcage, doing extensive internal
damage. All the good work done by the German
doctors in treating my gun and shrapnel wounds was
undone in minutes.
Finally they were shooed away by a small nursing
sister who appeared at the door of the hospital.
Profusely bleeding by this time, I was taken inside to a
small six-bed ward. It was then I met “Hank the Yank”
as I later used to call him.
I heard this rough Brooklyn voice address me, “Hey
sonny, what have these wops been doing to you?” I
couldn’t answer him because I couldn’t speak. My
jaw had been dislocated. Hank disappeared and came
back with a nurse, and together they tried to clean up
my wounds.
Bari hospital was an unrelenting nightmare, but
for Hank the Yank. He was a remarkable character. I
learned that he was an Italian gangster who had been
living in Brooklyn, New York, and had been deported
back to Italy from America. He loathed the Italians,
referring to them always as “Wops” in the most
derogatory terms. He had been assigned to the lowly
job of cleaner in this hospital built by Mussolini.
Courtesy: Inver Museum, Larne, Northern Ireland.
11

Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 3-698-221
36

Standing the Test of Time
Business premises on the corner of Campbell Road and Mount Smart Road, Royal Oak,
Auckland photographed in about 1910. The Royal Oak Pharmacy and a Post Office
occupy the downstairs areas and J. E. Butler, dental surgeon, has rooms upstairs. A
postman can be seen in the doorway.
The building at the rear with the chimney is the original Royal Oak Hotel built in 1853.
The inset shows the Royal Oak Hotel in 1878 situated at the junction of Manukau
Road and Mount Smart Road. It was the third public house and the first brick building
erected in the locality of Onehunga. In 1908 the hotel lost its licence to sell alcohol and
had to cease trading; the building was operating as business premises by 1910. (The
suburb of Royal Oak was named after the hotel.)
When the wooden structure was added is unknown. Standing the test of time, the
building remains a valued Auckland landmark.
Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, NZ. Ref: 1/2-001197-G
37

GENEALOGY
Sad Tale of an Ancestral Bible
Bruce Isted
On Monday 14 August 2017, I gave a brief talk to the NZGS Whanganui Genealogy
Branch about a family heirloom.
From oral family history, it was thought the family Bible was given as a wedding gift on 3
September 1866 in Christchurch to my maternal 2 x great-grandparents, George Shepherd (born
1836 Hexthorpe, Yorkshire, England; died 1911 Wanganui) and Greta Sarah (Margaret) Hullen (born 1847
Whitechapel, London / Middlesex, England; died 1935 Timaru). However upon further research, this date
proved to be not quite correct, though not far off it.
The family Bible was more likely to have been given to Margaret when she reached 25 years of age (1872) by
her parents (my maternal 3 x great-grandparents), Heinrich (Henry) Hullen (born c.1809 Hannover Province,
Germany; died 1884 Waitohi NZ) and Ann(ah) Margretha Wiessner (born c.1813 Bavaria Province, Germany;
died 1889 Waitohi NZ). Possibly in the 1830s this couple emigrated from Germany to England. Henry had
several known occupations during his working life (20-30 years) in London: sugar baker, charcoal labourer,
and skin dresser. On 29 August 1859 they and their children (including Margaret) emigrated to New Zealand
aboard the ship Regina. Henry’s New Zealand occupation was a farmer.
The Bible was published in 1871 by William Collins, Sons, & Company of Glasgow & London (the firm was
known by that name between 1868-1880). It has dark brown full leather binding, with blind stamped, indented
linear borders to front and rear, five raised bands to spine with gilt title in second compartment, bevelled
edges, brown endpapers. It doesn’t have a clasp. Text is divided in two columns with two smaller columns of
parallel passages between them. It has copious footnotes and is illustrated with some coloured as well as black
and white pictures. Useful appendices are at the back. The Old Testament has 942 pages, then two pages on
historical connections and The New Testament has its own title page, preceded by the family details pages. The
New Testament has 288 pages, Scripture Chronology, Names etc, followed by Biblical Antiquities, Biblical
Cyclopaedia and The Psalms of David. The whole bible amounts to around 1,383 pages (excluding pages with
illustrations) and measures 340mm length x 250mm width and weighs 4.5kg.
Sadly after page 944 (about three-quarters of the way through the Bible), the two most important pages for
a genealogist had been cut out at some time (probably during World War One because of the anti-German
sentiment) by my maternal great-grandmother Eliza Shepherd formerly Culley nee Wood (1871-1958). She
married William Shepherd (1867-1928) on 21 March 1901. n
George and Margaret Shepherd c.1870s;
the photographs were possibly remounted in
the early 1900s by Alfred Hardy of Timaru.
The 1871 Family Bible where two pages
containing family genealogy were removed.
48

STORY
Preserving Fruit
Anne Moore
Dad had planted a good orchard of Burbank plums, peaches, nectarines, quinces and apples; this
included the welcome Irish Peach apple which ripened in January. It did not have a long shelf life so
was rarely seen in shops. We did not have a lawn mower, so the grass in the orchard and in front of
the house was kept low with a scythe.
The Bowler Brother, who came from England, had a well-established orchard and gave us Christmas plums,
Early River and Green Gauge plums, Northern Spy and Russett apples and walnuts. In Autumn we could sit on
our horse and pick walnuts off the tree till our hands were stained brown from the green pod over the nut.
Fruit was peeled and cut up and pressed into two quart preserving jars with screw bands on the outside of the
neck. A rubber band was put in the lowest spiral ready for the screw top. The jars were almost filled with hot syrup
(sugar and water) and the metal screw top with its porcelain inner was screwed down lightly to allow for expansion
and the jars placed in a large preserving pan of water which was boiled on the top of the stove until the fruit was
cooked.
The jars were lifted out, the lids screwed down tight and the jar turned upside down. As the fruit cooled it was
watched for air bubbles inside the jar which meant that the lid was not air tight. Any leaking jars were uprighted,
a circle of brown paper was cut and smothered in flour and water paste and smoothed over the lid and part way
down the jar. The warmth of the jar and the fruit soon dried the paste and all were stacked away in the cupboard
to be used in winter and spring. Housewives took pride in showing visitors their cupboard of jams and preserves.
Lots of jam was made, sugar bought in 50 lb Hessian bags which made good oven cloths, peg bags and milking
aprons. The fruit and sugar was boiled until a little, cooled in a saucer, set. It was then ladled into hot jars and
covered with wax or brown paper and flour paste, or a lid. Jellies took at least two days; the fruit boiled and tied
up in cheese cloth which was hung over a broom handle lying on a chair and allowed to drip all night into a
bowl. Next day sugar was added to the juice, cup for cup, and again boiled until a little in a saucer set. It was then
poured into hot jars for storage. The lovely clear colours depended on the fruit, pink for apples and peaches, red
for raspberries and purple for blackberries.
Blackberries were gathered from the river bank, the most luscious hanging over the deep pools. Dad had made
us a canoe out of two sheets of corrugated iron in which we could float down the Waitoa picking blackberries.
One summer there were some particularly luscious blackberries hanging under our bridge. With my billy, I slipped
into the knee deep water and started picking when an eel came up and bit me on my calf. I was determined to get
the blackberries so I stood on one foot and kicked and splashed with the other until I had all the berries. I had six
small punctures, three top and three bottom, on my calf to prove my story.
Years later when Dad owned a New Beauty Ford car we’d have a picnic day with friends on top of the Kaimai
Range and fill two four gallon tins with huge blackberries. We would place 12-inch wide boards on top of the
vines and walk into the bushes to pick. This large berry variety has disappeared now, only the small bramble kind
is left in hedges and wastelands. Mid afternoon came all too soon and off home we went to milk cows with our
purple hands. n
49

MAILBOX
Teaching at Waitaha - Issue 153
Mail Box
Dear Editor,
It was with delight and much interest that I read the article Like a Foreign Land to Me by
Malcolm Smith as my husband was the sole charge teacher in that remote little school
during 1967/ 1970.
At that stage there were only 13 pupils and after we left the roll got down to nine and was
then closed, only to reopen some years later and become a two teacher school for a while.
The schoolhouse is now a farm worker’s cottage and the school has become someone’s
holiday bach. The valley at that time had about 15 houses, mostly smallish dairy farms and
one cattle and sheep farm at the end of the valley. Conditions were much easier by then and we took electricity
as a given and had an electric stove to cook on. The roads were all tar-sealed but the school was still considered
a ‘remote’ school which meant, because the school was ‘30 miles’ from the nearest bank and men’s hairdresser’ -
blow the wives’ hairdos - we were allowed to close the school one day a term for the chance to go shopping. We
usually stocked up with food every six weeks.
On the subject of food, I remember the pupils bringing us small buckets of blackberries and the same of
whitebait to sell; it cost three shillings and sixpence for the whitebait! They also brought us opossums to skin
when the word got round we were keen to cure some skins. Still on the subject of food, we had a 15 cubic foot
freezer so we bought literally a half cattle beast; it took me all day to cut and bag it and we had to put both
extensions out on the kitchen table for the beast to fit on. Luckily I was a trained Home Science graduate and
had the expertise to know which cut was which.
Malcolm mentioned the rainfall - 128 inches I believe. We grew great vegetables but to do so we had to dig a
one-foot square trench all around the plot to stop the vegetables floating away!
The teachers on the Coast made a point of getting together regularly, even though it sometimes meant an
80-mile return trip (i.e. to Fox or Franz Josef) but it did keep us in touch. We were considered from far away
coming from Canterbury and positively really foreign when the locals discovered we were originally from
England and Ireland.
A last wee story, the Church was used by several denominations and one local vicar was also the local electrician.
On one occasion my husband went to communion to find he was the only member of the congregation. He
declined the offer of singing any hymns and then found the communion cup was missing. The vicar requested
my husband pop across the road to the hall to see if there was anything suitable. The only vessel that he could
find was a very tea-stained thermos flask lid. A memorable church service!
We loved our time in Waitaha; it was a great place to bring up our two young children and a wonderful
experience.
Sincerely,
Anne Gentleman
Dear Editor,
Malcolm Smith’s article Like a Foreign Land to Me brought back many similar memories of life teaching in a
remote rural school.
Sadly so many of these schools are now closed with all traces of their existence all but forgotten. Malcolm, and
other readers, may be pleased to know that Waitaha Valley School has recently been purchased by a private
owner who is living in the schoolhouse and having the school painted and restored. Over the road the much
older (1919?) Anglican Church continues to serve as a family home while the neighbouring community hall
still survives. Today primary school children of the valley go north to Ross School and older students south to
South Westland Area School at Hari Hari.
Mike Whittall
68

Farming Holidays - Issue 151
Dear Wendy,
My sister Di, who lives in central Otago, just sent me Isuue 151
of New Zealand Memories. It is fantastic. Imagine my surprise
and delight when I realized the cover photograph was of my
beloved Aunt Aileen. Beverly Broad’s memories of holidays on
our farm (called Onawe after the peninsula that juts out into the
harbor) rekindled my own.
I lived on the farm until I was 18. I did everything a boy could
dream of, from bottle-feeding fed orphan lambs to teaching
calves how to drink from a bucket. And yes, they all sucked your
fingers like crazy. I even learned to ride a horse on ‘Friar Tuck’.
One memorable day, I was riding in front of Aileen and she
dismounted to open a gate. Friar Tuck got impatient and not
so gently took off up a steep hill between our farmyard and the
house I lived in. We trundled up the hill with Aileen running
screaming behind us. Tuck and I arrived safely at the top of the
hill where he stopped. I was two years old. At the age of five, I
rode my pony to school every day until I was ten and went to
boarding school.
I still think our farm is in one of the most beautiful harbours in
New Zealand. Alas, my family sold the farm in the 1990s.
Many thanks to Beverley and your wonderful magazine for
evoking my own memories. I have lived in northern California
since 1986, where the scenery is very much like parts of New
Zealand.
Best regards,
Steve Kay
stevecbw@aol.com
Rationing Coupons - Issue 153
Dear Wendy,
I was interested and surprised to see a photograph of a
particular ration book featured with the article in Issue
153. I remember these being in use for various purchases,
especially petrol, during the early 1940s.
The ration book featured was issued to “Selwyn K. Searle,
Annat” who happens to be my first cousin (Selwyn
Keith Searle 5 July 1928 - 9 May 2008) previously of
Annat, Canterbury. I thought the extra detail might be of
interest.
Kind regards and keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Ian E. B. Piner
69
Mailbox 155.indd 69
29/03/22 3:44 PM

INDEX and GENEALOGY LIST
A
advertising 1, 51
aerial tramway 40
alcohol 9
All Blacks 5
anti-german sentiment 48
Arbitration Court 43
Argyll motorcar 64
Athletic Park 5
Auckland 36, 47
Auckland Islands 54
Aunt Daisy 16
aviation 52
B
BAKER Ella 31
Iris 31
Mr 52
Balderstone & Party 45
BANK Jock 33
Mick 33
BANKS Audrey 31
Jack 31
Joan 31
Mick 31
Bari Hospital 10
BARTON Don 31
BASHAM Maud 53
Basin Reserve 5
Battle of River Plate 46
BENSLEY Margaret 52
Bermaline loaf 52
BEVERLY Margaret 31
May 31
Nessie 31
Bible 48
Black Ball Shipping 39
Blackball 38
Blackball Creek Coal Co. Ltd 45
Blackball miners 39
Blackball Miners Strike 39
Blair Athol team 28
BLENNERHASSET Bush 31
Bluff 55
Bluff Post & Telegram 55
boarding house 4
BORDONI Lt. 14
BORGE Victor 6
BOWLER Billy 31
Nelson 31
Bowler Bros. 49
BOYES Lyall 16
BRANKS Russell 53
Brunner 44
Buller River 33
Bullock team 27
BUTLER Mr J.E 36
C
camera (homemade) 61
Canterbury 64
Catlins 1
cattle farming 58
chanting (alphabet) 30
children's radio 17
Christchurch 72
cinemas (Wellington) 6
Cleddau River 52
Coal Mines Act 40
coalmining 40
COCROFT Sgt Major 14
coffee bars (Wellington) 6
COLEMAN Mr 52
Coleman's Mustard 1
Communist Party 45
Conservator of Forests 52
coracle 54
CRABB Archie 31
crystal sets 18
cuisine 8
CULLEY Eliza 48
cycling (Wyndham) 55
D
Danthonia seed 58
DC3 Dakota 52
De havilland bi-plane 52
dining (1970s) 8
dinner party 8
Dinner Party Cookbook 8
Disappointment Island 54
DODDRELL Elsworthy 22
Dominion Hotel (Greymouth) 45
DUDDING Bill 58
Dunedin 57
Dunedin (marching) 28
Dunedin North Post Office 57
Durban Chief 34
E
Edmonds Cookery Book 8, 53
education 30
Education Board 30
ELLERBECK Charles Joseph 22
Harry Syers 22
John Henry 22
Lawrence Anderson 22
Ellerbeck Studio 22
entertainment 6
F
Fails Café 72
family genealogy 48
farming 58, 64
fashion (1960) 7
Federation of Miners 43
FINNIE Allan
`56
Carolyn 56
Maureen 56
FITZGERALD Mr H.M 43
food parcels (POW) 15
food preparation 8
FRASER Colonel 11
FRASER Peter 43
FROST Miss 30
fruit preserves 49
FW Niven & Co. 51
G
Gaggia expresso 72
GALT Mr 52
Georgetown 53
GIBBS Nick 60
GILMOUR Robert 51
Gisborne 21
Gisborne Photo News 23
GORDON Ian 7
John 16
gramophone 18
Grand Hotel (Invercargill) 52
Great Strike 1913 44
H
handwriting (school) 31
HICKEY Patrick 43
Homer Tunnel 53
HOPPERS Arthur 31
Ethel 31
Len 31
Olive 31
horseracing 34
Howard Morrison Quartet 6
HULLEN Annah 48
Greta 48
Heinrich 48
I
Indept Political Labour League 43
industrial relations 43
infant photography 22
INGER Ed 60
INNES Mr J 22
Invercargill 50
Invercargill landmarks 50
Invercargill Municipal Baths 52
Italian Campo 57 12
Italy (WWII) 11
J
jam making 49
JOHNSTON Gwen 31
JOHNSTON Jack 31
JOHNSTON Norman 31
Joliffetown 40
K
Kauri 61
KELSO Dorren 16
Kingston Trio 6
Kuaotunu 22
L
Lamphouse Store 18
LECKIE Bill 53
Lochiel team 29
LONG Sam 60
M
Macduffs team 29
MacEWEN Neville 5
Maia School 57
Malone Joe 31
marching girls 28
marching teams 28
marching uniforms 28
MARSH Dorothy 62
Grace 63
Harold 61
MASSEY William 43
Massey's Cossacks' 43
Matamata Junior High 30
MATEER Hugh 12
Mati School 30
MAXWELL Brian 31
70

INDEX and GENEALOGY LIST
MAYBURY Jack 16
McLEOD Florrie 29
Milford Sound 52
milk bar 5
Millars bakery 52
miners 39
Miners' Union 43
Moonlight Gully 40
Morse Code 56
motoring (1920s) 64
MUNZ Peter 7
Murchison Police Station 66
N
NAC 52
Napier 4
NELSON Elsie 53
nuclear submarine 7
NZ Dominion 34
NZ Forest Service 52
NZ Larbour Party 39
NZ Marching & Rec. Assn 28
NZ Marching Assn 28
NZ Socialist Party 43
O
Opera House 5
Opua block 61
Oruawharo River 61
Otago 28
P
Pakarae 25
PAYZE children 31
Peria district 30
Philosophical Expedition 54
phonograph 18
photographer (Ellerbeck) 22
photographer (Marsh) 61
physical education 33
Pines, The 6
Pinkney's Store 53
PLUNKET Governor 21
Plunket Shield cricket 5
POTTS Jean 31
Reece 31
POW conditions 14
POW food parcels 15
preserving (fruit) 49
preserving jars 49
prisoner of war 10
Progressive Readers 31
publicity 1, 51
Q
R
radio 16
radio comedies 16
radio kitsets 18
radio quizzes 16
radio serials 16
rationing coupons (WWII) 69
Read's Quay 21
records 19
Red Cross 15
'Red Feds' 43
RICHARDSON John 10
RNZ Navy 60
ROACHE May 31
Tom 31
ROTHBURY Miss 30
Royal Hotel 67
Royal Oak 36
Royal Oak Hotel (Auckland) 36
Royal Oak Pharmacy 36
rugby 5
Runanga Coal Mine 43
S
Sargettes team 29
SAVAGE Michael 43
scab' workers 45
SCHMIDT Genrel 11
School Journal 32
school monitors 32
SEMPLE Bob 43
SHEGADEEN James 60
Shegadeen's Store 60
SHEPHERD Eliza 48
George 48
Greta (Margaret) 48
shipping Aquilla 11
Dundonald 54
Gradisca 14
Graf Spee 47
Hinemoa 54
HMNZS Achillies 46
HMS Herald 54
HMS Neptune 46
Regina 48
USS Halibut 7
SHONE Phil 16
SINCLAIR Pete 16
SKURR John 25
Skyline Cabaret 6
SMITH Merv 16
Social Democratic Party 44
Southland 1, 50
Southland Times Co. 51
St Georges Primary School 52
STABLES Constance 58
Dulcie 60
Harry 58
Ray 60
Star Boating Club 4
Station 4YZ 53
steamers 51
STEVENS Joan 7
Stewart Island 54
strike (1908) 39
Surah Beach 1
SWAYNE Bertha 31
SWAYNE Jean 31
Sylvan Cove 54
T
Taramakau Bridge 64
Te Wheau 59
teacher training 7
telephone operator 56
Thornbury School 56
Thornbury telephone exchange 56
Thos. Dwyer 18
Timaru 64
Tokomaru Bay 25
toll calls 57
TOOGOOD Selwyn 16
TOWNLEY Major John 21
traction engine 27, 57
trains 20
Treaty of Waitangi 54
TRETHEWEN William 4
tributism 45
Tweedsmuir Intermediate 52
U
Uncle Tom 16
Union Line shipping 50
unions 39
United Labour Party 43
Unity Conference (1912) 43
V
Victoria University 5
von Langsdorf Capt. Hans 47
W
Waihi Miners 43
Waimakariki River 65
Waitaha Valley School 68
WALSH Eddie 34
WATSON Hilda
Mona 31
Watties tinned food 5
WEBB Paddy 43
Weir House Hostel 5
WEISSNER Annah 48
Wellington 4
Wellington (marching team) 29
Wellington Winter Show 28
Wellsford Motors 60
West Coast 38, 64
Westport 34
Whangara 23
Whangara Hotel 23
Wharehine 58
WHITE Mr W.B (Brian) 46
WILLIAMS Edward 54
WILLIAMSON John 53
Williamson Construction 53
WITHEFORD Constance 58
Guy 59
Isobel 59
WOOD Eliza 48
World War Two 10, 46
WRIGHT Annie 33
Norrie 33
Ted 33
Wyndham 55
X
Y
Z
Each issue of New Zealand
Memories contains an index
and, in keeping with genealogy
ideals, all surnames of
individuals are listed in capitals.
71

EDITOR’S CHOICE
Coffee Break
Woman operating a Gaggia espresso machine in Fails Cafe
located at 82 Cashel Street, Christchurch Central c.1955.
Courtesy: Christchurch City Libraries.
72