New Zealand Memories Issue 160

STORY
“… our penny-a-week each pocket money was spent in buying
a comic, a bag of conversation lollies or a lucky packet…”
The next task was to bring the property into
cultivation - a backbreaking task achieved with the aid
of a post-hole borer, a slasher and grubber, a couple
of horses, a plough, and a set of discs and harrows.
My mother, who had enjoyed a privileged life, was
now indulged in slashing gorse and blackberry and
grubbing out roots in the soil. This life diminished
her spirit and she became withdrawn with only the
occasional brief glimpse of her happy self.
My parents toiled all day. At night they burned off
the huge piles of cut scrub. Concerned about this
nightly burn-off, one of the neighbours contacted
the police. As our family were from a country which
had fought against Britain during the Boer War, this
neighbour felt we were more aligned to Germany, and
with Redoubt Road on a high rise, visible to both the
Waitemata and Manukau harbours, we were sending
signals to lurking German raiders. The police came,
and they found a young exhausted family trying to
make a life for themselves and went on their way.
In the newly-built house we had a kerosene stove
and tank water was used for cooking and washing.
Candles and kerosene lamps provided us with lighting.
Groceries were bought in bulk from Laidlaw Leeds
which later became the Farmers Trading Company.
Bread and meat was obtained from John Hall’s general
store in Otahuhu and was delivered three times a week
by horse and cart.
On Saturday mornings my sister and I would walk
down to collect mail from a small post office on the
Great South Road, a short distance south of the
Redoubt Road intersection. At this shop our pennya-week
each pocket money was spent on buying a
comic, a bag of conversation lollies or a lucky packet,
which was a gaily coloured packet containing a few
lollies and a small gift.
There was no radio in those days and we had to rely
on ourselves for entertainment. This generally took
the form of a visit to others’ homes, occasionally for a
meal, but more often for a social evening and singsong
accompanied by a piano. Once in a while there was
a concert at the Flat Bush School. I remember one
occasion when the guest artist was a Miss Christina
Ormiston who was regarded by some people as New
Zealand’s ‘queen of song’.
Sometimes when several families organized a picnic
or outing, a four-wheeled farm wagon was the form
of transport. One Boxing Day around 1917, we went
to Weymouth Beach; it took us two hours each way.
So more often we went to Howick where there was
a wharf. I can remember coming home in the early
moonlit evening singing such songs as Little Grey
Home in the West, Keep the Home Fires Burning and
There’s a Long, Long Trail Awinding.
On one occasion we schoolchildren were taken in
this same four-wheeled farm wagon to Onehunga to
visit the Woollen Mills and then to Royal Oak to a
private zoo owned by a Mr Boyd. (I believe that this
zoo provided the nucleus for the present Auckland
Zoo.)
I recall when a school friend and I robbed pears
from a tree growing on Murphy’s property at the back
of the school. Our felony was seen and reported to
the Mr Tidmarsh the Headmaster. He didn’t punish
or reprimand us but instructed us to go and see old
Mrs Murphy after school to inform her what we had
done. She gave us a lecture and told us what naughty
little boys we were and then gave each of us a dose
of castor oil because the pears were green. After that
all was forgotten and forgiven when she gave us a
most scrumptious afternoon tea. I can still taste those
scones and cream cakes!
“The lions at Onehunga Zoo, Auckland which are now being taken on a tour of New Zealand owing to the bylaw
which prevents their retention in their former quarters.”
From the Auckland Weekly News dated 10 June 1921. John Boyd owned the private zoo between 1915-1922.
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