Leading from the front issuu

HE WAS ON TO A WINNER
by rob magill
Anyone who knows my father, Pat, would agree he has an
enquiring mind. When I was growing up in Westshore,
one of his rituals was to walk leisurely along the beach to
buy the Sunday papers at our local dairy. At the same time,
my mother, Catherine, would cram me and my five siblings
into her Morris Minor for the short drive to St Mary’s
Church at Port Ahuriri. Catherine had good intentions —
giving us a religious education but I thought church was
an hour of extreme boredom. I envied Pat and realised he
was on to a winner — walking along the beach and nurturing
his enquiring mind with the latest news and views.
Pat grew up in Cameron Road, on Napier Hill, and went
to Central School. His route to school was down the “99
steps” to Milton Road, up the ramp to Colenso Ave, then
up to the crest of the hill. One early memory of his: when
he was five years old, his classmate and friend, Alan Peake,
arrived at school with his arm in plaster — a chimney had
fallen him during the ‘31 Hawke’s Bay Earthquake. Excitement
— and Alan received a lot of fuss from the class!
Pat also worked on a milk run as a lad, sometimes
starting at 3 or 4 am. He loved it. He also attended
Napier Intermediate, then Napier Boys’ High School. In
his first year at NBHS, he did extremely well in the steeplechase,
which he said came as a surprise. He didn’t
perform so well in the classroom though and wasn’t a
natural at chemistry or maths, but a little better at geography
and history.
He was streamed near the bottom at high school, and
took Commercial (shorthand, typing and bookkeeping),
which was bad steer really, but he still has a good typing
speed. At the end of the third year, his parents went to
see the teacher, Mr Foster. Pat enjoyed spending time
on farms in the holidays, so it was decided to try him
on the Agriculture option. His grades came up and it
proved to him that if you like something you’ll do well
in it. He got on well with the Ag boys, who were usually
farmers’ sons. His growing-up years in Napier, he said,
were pretty carefree. He was healthy and never worried
much.
Following high school he enrolled at Massey College
in Palmerston North, where he did a 2 year general sheep
farming course. He worked on farms in Manawatu during
the vacations and played rugby in the local competition.
Following Massey, he returned to Napier, worked briefly
in his father’s drapery shop (Robert Magill), in Carlyle
Street, then headed for the open spaces. He worked
for Lou Harris initially at Brooklands Station near Napier
and soon after at Mangatutu Station in the foothills
Kaweka mountains after Lou had purchased it. Pat told
me once the view of the lights of Napier was impressive
from those heights.
During his time at the station, he had an Army Indian
motorbike, which he rode to and from Napier. The
big bike didn’t handle the back-country roads too well
though, and it was a cool ride in winter!
I’ll always be grateful to Catherine and Pat for the holidays
we had around the countryside as it gave me an introduction
to, and a huge appreciation of what we have
at our back door. The highlight was the trip we had to
Fiordland to walk the Milford Track.
There was the holiday too we had at Puketitiri in the
early 60s, which inspired Catherine and Pat to purchase
7.7 hectares of rough farmland with a creek running
through. There was some native bush on the property,
though it was mostly secondary growth — the area having
been milled. It was decided to let the area which
contained most of the native vegetation to regenerate.
And I’m appreciative too for them fostering in me the
desire to learn about the significance of our unique natural
heritage — forests, mountains, lakes and rivers etc.
This has guided me in my life and my career.
Above: Bluff Hill revisited 2021: Meet Rob, the family’s historian who managed to discover quite a lot of extra information about Pat
that was new to us, and much to our delight.
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A big presence in our lives