Bay Harbour: February 21, 2024

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Bay Harbour News Wednesday February 21 2024 18 NEWS Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz ANTICIPATION: Crowds gathered to view the art fence for the first time. It is located on Poranui Beach Rd opposite the Birdlings Flat Community Hall. Bare fence becomes gallery BIRDLINGS FLAT artists unveiled 14 creative works on Sunday in a celebration of the different aspects of life in the settlement. A crowd gathered to see the blank fence at the heart of the community reimagined as a canvas. “Because we’ve got so many artistic people here. We thought it would be good to give everybody a chance to do what they want to do rather than having to comply with an overall design,” said organiser Jan Reeves. ‘Bike Trail Bike’: Linda Luscombe’s artwork represents the Little River Rail Trail track with wheels from bicycles and trains. ‘The Locals’: Steph McEwin’s artwork hopes to capture Birdlings Flat residents during different time periods and activities. ‘Leading Lines’: In Barb Gaeth’s piece, the white lines in the stones depict journeys to Birdlings Flat. The people on these journeys are represented by the koru stone. The lines intersect, change and some do not make it to the end. ‘Our Place’: Jan Reeves’ artwork represents the vast landscape and the village. The piece hopes to capture the varying aspects of Birdlings Flat life from the human community to the natural world. ‘Beach at the end of the road’: Steve Lowndes’ artwork hopes to symbolise the liberating feeling of viewing the horizon from Birdlings Flat beach. Lowndes said the used elements of sky, sea and shingle are infinitely variable and help to capture the feeling of freedom. ‘Passing Time on the Beach’: Joy Dixon’s artwork asks the question, how many hours are spent on the beach? Dixon is also referencing how vehicles often get stuck on the rocky beach. DELIVERERS WANTED Get fit with part time work delivering newspapers and mailers into letterboxes. • Regular weekly work • No experience necessary • We are a locally owned company • It’s easy, we drop the newspapers/mailers to your door Email: deliveries@alliedpress.co.nz Include your name, address, email, phone number OR SCAN THE QR CODE TO APPLY
Wednesday February 21 2024 Bay Harbour News TREASURES FROM THE PAST 19 The 1951 lockout – 151 days of hardship • By Jenny Betts Watersiders election meeting, 1951. Te Ūaka Lyttelton Museum ref 9061.1 https://www.teuaka.org.nz/onlinecollection/1129245. Right – padlock, watersiders lockout, 1951. Te Ūaka Lyttelton Museum ref 9080.1 https://www.teuaka.org. nz/online-collection/1129264 A LYTTELTON girl introduced her new boyfriend to her father in the 1970s. Her father said: “You’re not going out with that boy. His father’s a scab.” Two decades on, the memory of the 1951 lockout was still raw. The dispute arose between New Zealand’s Waterside Workers’ Union and its Port Employers’ Association over wage negotiations. The wharfies, although prepared to work a 40-hour week, put a ban on overtime. When they turned up for work on February 15, 1951, they found themselves locked out. Those who refused to work overtime were sacked. As time went on, many other unions – including the seamen’s, miners’, freezing workers’, and transport and railway workers’ – went on strike in support. On February 27, 1951, Prime Minister Sid Holland’s conservative National government declared a State of Emergency and introduced draconian regulations. They imposed a complete ban on any publications about the dispute, and police powers were increased – it became illegal for wharfies to meet together in public, even two or three of them. Worst of all, it was illegal to help the men or their families by supplying them with money, food or necessities. The NZ Waterside Workers’ Union was deregistered and the Government seized all funds the various branches possessed, but rumour has it the Lyttelton branch transferred their assets to a different account and were able to keep them. There was a police baton charge in Tāmaki Makarau Auckland and skirmishes in Pōneke Wellington but no open violence in Ōhinehou Lyttelton, however with such a small population centred on the port, the community was deeply affected. The harsh Government regulations were often ingeniously circumvented. A newsletter was secretly produced on a Gestetner machine in the New Zealand Seamen’s Union office on Norwich Quay and a man known as ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ speedily distributed such publications nationwide, thanks to the coastal shipping network at the time. One ex-wharfie was stopped and searched in the street – he was just carrying a roll of sandpaper, which the policeman had mistaken for an illegal publication. Unable to meet in any of the hotels as usual, the wharfies’ only safe haven was The Loons, the Waterside Workers Social Club. The Loons was gifted to the Lyttelton Working Men’s Club by the Waterside Workers’ Union in 1951. Many well-wishers from around the country were willing to supply the affected families with food and other necessities – in the strictest secrecy of course. The food had to be picked up from depots at various houses around the port. Te Ūaka Lyttelton Museum’s founder Baden Norris remembered the mortification he felt whenever he saw his mother hiding her shopping bag under her coat, like a criminal, to go and collect their family’s food. Two young mothers, living next door to each other, had a problem – how to boil their babies’ nappies in their coppers when the firewood, supplied illegally, proved too green to burn without any dry kindling? The women came to an agreement – they would share the wooden fence dividing their properties to get their fires started. Over the 151 days of the lockout, the washing got done and the fence gradually disappeared. Some housewives went out to work for the first time. The local Lichfield Shirt Factory gave employment to many women and girls whose families badly needed the income. As colder weather set in, shortages, especially of coal, started to hit the population hard. Members of the unions, which had supported the watersiders by going on strike, started going back to work one by one. On July 15, 1951, the dispute ended. The Government had set up separate watersiders’ unions in each of New Zealand’s 26 ports, but those who joined were considered to be ‘scabs’ by the original wharfies, many of whom were blacklisted. It was difficult for those blacklisted to find other work. Some lost their houses and many were in debt for years after. On prominent display, just inside the entrance to the old Lyttelton Museum on Gladstone Quay, were multiple colourful certificates, reading: ‘NZ Waterside Workers’ Union Waterfront Lockout ‘51 Stood Loyal Right Through One Hundred and Fifty-one Days—February 15 to July 15 1951’ The name of each recipient is handwritten, and this was all these poor fellows gained from the whole sorry episode. Just remember, if you’re in port, never call the 1951 dispute a ‘strike’ – it was a lockout, right? Fall in love with your favourite furniture all over again! • Recover your chairs and couches and save money! • Excellent range of fabrics • Quality workmanship guaranteed • Free quotes available • Over 30 years experience Somerfield Upholstery welcome you to email a photo for a quote online: somerfielduph@gmail.com before after Somerfield Upholstery Ltd FURNITURE RECOVERY SPECIALIST 6/47 Sonter Road, Wigram | Ph 021 251 6200 | 349 0456 Amazin’ summer Deals!! 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Bay Harbour: February 21, 2024

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