APPET I SER
World Record at Bonneville Salt Flats Burt Munro’s speed achievements at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah on his Indian Scout motorcycle have earned him a place in history. The Southland regional section pays tribute to a New Zealand champion. Courtesy: H. Cole
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E D I TORIAL
Dear Readers, If you have heard the occasional Woof when you ring the New Zealand Memories office, it belongs to Scout. Generally, the beautiful Lab is very quiet… unless you happen to phone when a courier arrives. What is it about dogs and couriers? The final issue for the year is jam-packed with a bounty of nostalgia for your enjoyment over the holiday break. Max Cryer takes pride of place in the leading article position. “Regional music flourished” writes Max with examples such as The Akaroa Waltz and Mardi Gras in Napier. With the obvious exception of the National Anthem, Max ponders the question as to why New Zealanders are reluctant to sing about their nation today. The fine contribution from Ian F. Grant, which transports the reader back to New Zealand’s nineteenth century goldfields, has a wonderful collection of illustrations from the Alexander Turnbull Library. Washday Blues is a reminder from Jeanette Grant of life before the fully automatic machine (think copper and ‘blue bags’), and car enthusiasts will appreciate the ‘tinkering’ in Crispin Caldicott’s story. As a new arrival to the country in 1964, Val Melhop couldn’t help noticing the butterflies placed on the exterior walls of houses, and the ball-balancing seals in gardens. This seemingly kiwi phenomenon is the topic of Val’s witty account. Transistor radios blared the popular tune Little Boxes around this period. David Hill’s story, Testing Times, sent me scrambling for my own School Certificate marks and I am pleased to say that ‘History’ was my crowning glory at age 16. Little did I know in those faraway days that the subject would eventually lead to a thoroughly rewarding career. Over the next month we will be posting out hundreds of copies of Issue 141, gift-wrapped, tied neatly with a ribbon and Christmas-stocking ready; I hope all of our readers enjoy this carefully chosen selection of material. As another year comes to a close, I send wishes for a very blessed Christmas and both health and happiness for 2020.
Wendy Rhodes, Editor
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C ON T EN TS
Editor Wendy Rhodes Graphic Design Icon Design Administration David Rhodes Distributed by Ovato Subscriptions & Enquiries Phone tollfree: 0800 696 366 Mail: Freepost 91641, PO Box 17288, Green Lane, Auckland 1546 email: admin@memories.co.nz www.memories.co.nz Annual Subscription $79 for six issues (Price includes postage within NZ) For overseas postage: Add $59.00 for Australia Add $89.00 for Rest of the World Contributors Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, NZ. Barrington, Ernie Belcher, Bryan Caldicott, Crispin Clapperton, John Clover, Ken Cole, Hector Cryer, Max Eastwoodhill Arboretum Exisle Publishing Grant, Ian. F. Grant, Jeanette Guise, Murray Heritage Collections, Auckland Libraries Hill, David Isted, Bruce Leonard, Joan Mangere Historical Society Melsop, Val Newsham, John Prebble, Bill Pump House Demolition Yard, Christchurch Rakiura Museum Royal Air Force Museum, England Southland Museum Stewart, Graham Tairawhiti Museum, Te Whare Taonga o te Tairawhiti Taylor, Annette Trask, Peter Val Melsop Westra, Ans Wyndham and Districts Historical Society 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 New Zealand in Song…
Written by Max Cryer.
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Beyond Tinkering
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Washday Blues…
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Drovers and their Dogs
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Crispin Caldicott records John Clapperton’s memories. The old wash house: an article and poem by Jeanette Grant. Ken Clover’s recollections of early twentieth century farming.
Social Butterflies
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Kiwiana: Val Melsop on 1950s house adornments.
From the Regions: Southland
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Testing Times
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Centrefold: Between the Flags
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Newspapers at the Diggings
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Safe Arrival of Plucky Aviator
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The Day I Met Jean Batten
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Our Local Hardware Stores
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The Class of 1953 - Absolutely (Pre) Fab
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The Postcard Era
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From the Regions: Gisborne / Eastland
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Mailbox
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The Battle of Manners Street, Wellington
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Index and Genealogy List
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Editor’s Choice : Mother’s Shoes
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School Certificate 1957: Did David Hill pass his exams? The Wainui Surf Lifesaving Club at Lyall Bay. Planting a paper: Ian F. Grant delves back to the 1860s. Mangere Aerodrome, 1936: Mangere Historical Society Collection. An unexpected encounter for John Newsham in 1974. Murray Guise remembers favourite retail premises. The classroom holds fond memories for Joan Leonard.
A gem from Ans Westra’s photographic collection. Issue 141 December /January 2020
Cover image: On the Rotorua to Taupo road: early motorists needed to be prepared for every emergency.
ISSN 1173-4159 December/ January 2020
Courtesy: Graham Stewart
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$14.50
The Great Stink: An Incentive for British Emigration?
Wellington’s Trolley Buses
Grandfather’s Flight with Charles Kingsford-Smith
The Personal Diary as History
Hopalong Cassidy: King of the Cowboys
Bridging the Ahaura River
Regions: Auckland and the West Coast
The Debutante Ball
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F E AT U RE
Max Cryer
Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, NZ. Ref: G-025675-1/1
New Zealand in Song…
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Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, NZ. Ref: G-025675-1/1
After 1840, when New Zealand took a major step towards becoming its own nation, New Zealanders began expressing their loyalty towards their new home, in songs, and continued to do so for nearly 100 years. What happened then?
T
he first known piece of music about New Zealand came off a printing press in 1841: The Taranaki Waltz. Composed in England, it was featured as part of promotion in Britain to attract settlers to emigrate to New Zealand. Potential settlers were being advised that if choosing between a chest of a drawers and a piano, to bring the piano, since “ordinary furniture can be made by any skilful carpenter”. Mrs Bishop Selwyn’s piano arrived in 1842, and the steady arrival of people to their new land was accompanied by an equally steady arrival of pianos. Soon there were lessons in harp, piano, and singing available, choral societies were formed, and in 1845 came New Zealand’s first concert by a military band (the 58th regiment). Initially, the early orchestras, choirs, operas and pianists had repertoires of material composed overseas. But in the new land, creative forces became activated, and within a short time there was an outpouring of published New Zealand poetry, instrument solos, and songs - especially songs extolling New Zealand as a nation. And often praising specific localities. Sitting somewhat apart from the European classics, most of the early New Zealand song compositions show the heartfelt pangs of isolated settlers desperately missing ‘Home’, yet equally determined to establish national pride in their new territory. Like converts to a new religion, they became passionate about the new and unusual – and wrote about it in the Victorian vocabulary they had brought with them. In that early century, various poetic-type names were used by New Zealanders to identify their own country. The Mãori version of the name ‘New Zealand’ used in the Treaty of Waitangi - ‘Nu Tirani’ - did not catch on, and has faded completely, but other names appeared quite often. Settlers here often wrote of their new homeland as: Isle of the Southern Seas; Fern-Land; Moaland; The Land ’neath The Southern Cross. And, a favourite, Maoriland, even became a fanciful name for the inhabitants: Maorilanders. A much later entry in the field was Aotearoa (in one translation – Land of the Long White Cloud) which emerged towards the end of the nineteenth century. None of these names was ever seen on any map. Some people considered that the name New Zealand could be replaced with Zealandia as the nation’s name, being a nod towards England’s Britannia. Although this didn’t happen, the original concept remains: the female figure on New Zealand’s official coat-of-arms, established in 1911, is a depiction of the fictional woman Zealandia. The piano was king and was considered an important household commodity. The term ‘hit song’ hadn’t been 5
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F E AT U RE
invented, but its equivalent, the ‘parlour ballad’, dominated every evening gathering, local concert, and choral performance. In 1861 one piano changed hands for fifty acres of land. In that same year, Dunedin resident Charles Begg set up his piano-orientated business, which included publishing. The Begg business became a national icon. Music Historian Clare Gleeson notes that during the 1860s Beggs published a great deal of music with a distinctly New Zealand focus. Mãoriland and Zealandia often featured: Mãoriland Fantasia; Zealandia Waltz; along with The Dunedin Polka; The Otago Polka; and Hinemoa Waltz. During 1896 an Australian judge who came to judge a New Zealand band contest marked his visit by composing The Moa March. There was no hesitation in creating New Zealand songs which extolled specific places within the nation: Waikato Waltz; Kawau March; Rimutuka Polka; Rangiriri Galop; Beautiful Waiheke Island; Waitemata Waltz. There was also a Waitemata Polka, composed by Baron de Thierry (a good musician), who failed to become Viceroy of New Zealand. Also kept on the piano in the parlour were: March of NZ National Song; The Akaroa Waltz and The Rimutuka Waltz. One of the great waltz successes was Silver Fern Waltz, so popular that Beggs re-published it fourteen times. W. R. Wills’ poem The Old Land and the New was published as a song in about 1885, demonstrating this accomplished poet’s loyalty to his new homeland while still retaining a fondness for the nation he’d left behind. The song became extremely popular and, rarely for the time, was published with a magnificent coloured cover. It was often performed by a touring opera singer known for his smart fashionable dressing and outgoing personality, George Snazelle - known as ‘Snazzy’. Regional music flourished: Come Down the Wanganui; The Rangiriri Galop; The Kawau March; The Maid of Mataroa. Fascination with all things Mãori drew an outpouring of songs like Dear Old Maori Moon; Beneath the Mãori Moon; Sleepy Maori Moon. And the parlour pianist could rattle off a spectacular solo called The Maori Haka Rondoletto. In all, well over one hundred songs or instrumental solos have been published about various New Zealand places, referring to them by name. It would be possible to regard this part of our history somewhat condescendingly. But historian and musician Edmund Bohan, in his biography of New Zealand’s 19th century Premier Edward Stafford, wrote that: “the quality of amateur performance was very high 6
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among early immigrants to New Zealand. Musical skills were respected, everybody sang and many played an instrument very well : farmers; Members of Parliament; aristocrats; labourers and their wives, everyone. Many of the 19th century parlour ballads can be made to sound comic over a century later – but concerts and parlours also featured pieces performed to a very high standard composed by: Handel, Sullivan, Elgar and Mozart, which didn’t sound comic at all – and still don’t”. In the early colonial times, New Zealand-composed music had to be printed in Australia, Germany or Britain (sometimes stamped with the benign legend Special Price For The Colonies). But in 1893 New Zealand publisher F. Wynne Jones devised a system of his own for mass printing sheet music. In fact so successfully that one of his pieces, Barn Dance, sold a total of fifty thousand copies. Music publishing outlets began to appear in many New Zealand towns. Strangely, approximately one hundred years after New Zealand’s first published music with a New Zealand place-name in its title, New Zealanders developed an inexplicable aversion to hearing futher place names mentioned in song. Amidst the wealth of music composed within contemporary New Zealand – rock recordings, orchestral suites, annual Music Awards, country festivals, and regular radio programmes of ‘New Zealand compositions’, one thing is mysteriously missing: among Englishspeaking New Zealanders, I do not know of one single song ever freely sung whose title names a New Zealand place. America, Ireland, Scotland, England, Vienna, Paris, or indeed anywhere at all in Europe and America, seem to have plenty of songs attributed to the locality. But in contemporary New Zealand, it would be rare to hear any group of New Zealanders spontaneously sing a song with a place-name title. Sing-a-longs at New Zealanders parties, reunions, New Year’s Eve gatherings and wedding celebrations bring us songs about San Francisco, Galveston, the white cliffs at Dover, belonging to Glasgow… even about the girl from Ipanema and the road to Gundagai. But not about the beauty of Lake Wakatipu or the splendour of the Southern Alps. The former favourites such as Beautiful Whitianga, Great Barrier Calls, Come to the Mardi Gras in Napier, The Rotorua Rhumba and (somewhat surprisingly) Trentham, have disappeared. Nowadays for a reason hard to explain, even hearing the names of such loyally nationalistic songs causes embarrassment, bordering on scorn.
“It was often performed by a touring opera singer known for his smart fashionable dressing and outgoing personality, George Snazelle - known as ‘Snazzy’.”
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F E AT U RE
Drovers and Their Dogs Ken Clover
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Heritage Collections Auckland Libraries. Ref: 1370-249-32
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Between the Flags Members of Gisborne’s Wainui Surf Lifesaving Club are photographed in 1957 at Lyall Bay, Wellington. Tairawhiti Museum Te Whare Taonga o te Tairawhiti. Ref: 751-33
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F E AT U RE
Newspapers at the Diggings Ian F. Grant
T
he nineteenth century gold rushes were as much a potential boon to prospective newspaper owners as they were to mining prospectors. With New Zealand’s sparse population, a gold rush often meant thousands of miners swarming into an area – a large instant market for news about mining, the world and the availability of the essentials of life. As Guy Scholefield wrote in Newspapers in New Zealand in 1958: “There is no surer impetus for the planting of newspapers than a gold rush.” In New Zealand the principal gold mining era began in Nelson’s Collingwood-Takaka area in 1859. However, it was over before an enterprising newspaperman could ‘plant’ a paper. Between 1861 and 1865 there was much more scope, for miners and newspaper proprietors, in Otago. Meanwhile, there were rich pickings in the West Coast’s Buller area in 1862, and in Marlborough’s Canvastown two years later. In 1867 the rush was to Charleston, south of Westport. In the North Island, gold was discovered in the Thames area in 1864, but it was not until 1867-68, when the chance of striking it rich down south was fading, that thousands of miners headed northwards.
Miners working on the Tunnel Claim at Charleston on the West Coast in the 1890s. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington NZ. Ref: PA1-q-269-04
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Westport Times newspaper office in Molesworth Street, Westport, in 1866.
Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington NZ. Ref : 1/2-003048-F
Early on, most gold was found in alluvial deposits, often river gravels. Later, when capital was needed and companies were formed to buy the necessary dredging and sluicing equipment, there were fewer jobs but a more settled future for some small townships. Later again, particularly in the Coromandel and on the West Coast, larger companies invested in underground mining, tunnelling into quartz veins with their significant gold caches. The newspapers on nineteenth century goldfields in New Zealand were a distinctive breed. For a start there were a remarkable number of them – a total of 87 between 1864 and 1898 – the four decades when gold mining was particularly important. There were 38 on the West Coast followed by 28 in the Coromandel area and 20 in Central Otago while a solitary newspaper was launched during Marlborough’s Wakamarina rush. The most frenetic newspapering activity was in the 1860s, with 38 goldfields newspapers established. In the 1870s there were 24 more, with a declining number in each of the next two decades. Even more extraordinary, 28 of the papers were dailies. The first, the West Coast Times, began in 1866 just five years after the country’s first daily, the Otago Daily Times, was launched in Dunedin, its beginnings triggered by the discovery of gold in Gabriel’s Gully. From 1861 to 1869, a total of 12 daily newspapers began in gold mining towns, nearly the same number (16) that were launched in Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin. During the four decades from 1860, 10 dailies were launched in Hokitika, five in Thames and four in Reefton. Given the added complexity and cost of producing a paper every day, rather than weekly or twice-weekly (the need for printing machinery with sufficient output, adequate type and supplies of ink and paper, necessary editorial and production staff) it was an impressive achievement to publish so many in generally primitive conditions. In total, Hokitika had 14 newspapers during the period; Te Aroha had eight, mainly in the 1880s; Ross, Thames and Coromandel all had six newspapers; five papers were established at Lawrence; Reefton and Westport had four apiece; and three papers began in Greymouth, Waihi, Clyde and Cromwell. 39
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E D I TOR’ S
CHOICE
Mother’s Shoes “Two small girls wearing their mothers’ shoes” is the title given to this adorable 1977 photograph by Ans Westra. The unidentified fenced pathway is on a Wellington slope; readers may recognise the locality. One girl strides ahead, clasping an oversize bag and (perhaps) shopping coupons, while her companion struggles with stylish ’70s shoes. Courtesy: Ans Westra
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