Albert Ivan (Snow) WILLIAMS

Interview Date: 14 November 2008

Interviewer: Morag Forrester

Tape I Side A

012: Born in 1928.

020: Replies that his first initials A.I are for ALBERT IVAN (WILLIAMS) and that he was born in OAMARU and grew up in OTEKAIEKE (NORTH OTAGO). His preferred name of SNOW was coined because of his having very blonde hair as a youngster.

028: His FATHER, he says, was JAMES CLEMENS WILLIAMS who was FARMER of a 400-acre property at OTEKAIEKE: "two hundred acres for the rabbits and two hundred acres for us".

034: Recalls that on one occasion after a rabbit-poisoning blitz on the FARM they'd rounded up a total of 2,600 dead rabbits.

039: During the war years (1939-1945) while on school holidays, he says he earned 5s/6d for a pair of gutted rabbits. "That was good money in wartime."

052: States his MOTHER was ADA BRASSELL born in TIMARU. He also mentions that his FATHER was born in ST. JUST, ENGLAND and at the age of three immigrated to NEW ZEALAND with his parents and family.

072: Names his BROTHERS as CLEM, JACK and RAY and affirms that he is the youngest of the four.

079: Schooling, he says, was at OTEKAIEKE PRIMARY SCHOOL which attained its peak pupil number of about thirty during his years of attendance. Taught to STANDARD FOUR level, he adds that he completed his education without going on to HIGH SCHOOL.

092: He was fourteen, he says, when he left school and worked at home on the FARM, particularly the poultry they reared. "Had to feed the chooks and wash the eggs... we used to send about 30 dozen eggs a week away." He adds that the produce was sent to OAMARU and then on to WELLINGTON for people in the city during the war.

105: His FATHER, he replies, stocked the FARM with SHEEP (and rabbits) and in 1948, he adds, his eldest BROTHER, who was a returned serviceman, took over the property.

115: That same year, he says, he got a job at the POTTERY WORKS in TIMARU where he worked for about nine months. He then returned to OTEKAIEKE to work for a local FARM contractor and the following year took up full-time employment with the same contractor — PLOUGHING in the winter and harvesting in the summer.

129: In 1951, he says, he bought his own small rural property at OTEKAIEKE but not long afterwards started work with the LIMEWORKS CONTRACTOR, HAY'S (of OAMARU) which eventually led him to TE ANAU.

137: His OTEKAIEKE property ran to about fourteen acres (mostly orchards), he says, with a house. The total cost was about £1200. He sold it in 1956.

153: It was 1954, he affirms, that he first arrived in TE ANAU as an employee contracted to extract from the deposit found on ELMWOOD STATION (near THE KEY). He explains that the topsoil was removed and the under layer was dug out, put through a crusher. The LIME, he continues, was put through a BULK-SPREADER and scattered over the paddocks.

164: "You…hoped you didn't get stuck...if you could go...spread a load and come back without getting stuck...you'd had a good trip."

170: Replies that some of his fellow workers on that contract included TOM and PETER MCKINNEL — two brothers from MATAURA who had worked for ALEC HAY in the eastern SOUTHLAND town.

176: While working at ELMWOOD, he says, he was paid about £10/week.

178: LIME was used as a fertiliser, he explains, on land which was being developed under the government's major FARM DEVELOPMENT PROJECT in the TE ANAU BASIN. It began on the former LYNWOOD STATION (which the government purchased in 1954).

182: However, the contract work with HAY' S was seasonal, so during the off-season he took jobs such as working with a SHEARING gang around OMARAMA.

194: Tape stopped and re-started then allowed to run on to 210

210: In 1956, he says, he left the LIMEWORKS and worked for a short time with SOUTHLAND FARM IMPROVEMENTS. This was followed by a stint as PORTER for the THC (TOURIST HOTEL CORPORATION - the government-run TE ANAU HOTEL) before moving on again to work on another CONTRACTOR job which involved the development of the MCKINNON LOOP subdivision.

224: Replies that when he first arrived in TE ANAU in 1954, there was very little surrounding the property in which he has lived for the past fifty years.

235: Mentions his quarter-acre section (or one chain by three chains) cost £202. Says he put down a deposit of £54 and paid off the remaining loan within ten years.

247: The house, he replies, cost £1283 and was constructed by ALF EXCELL, a TE ANAU based BUILDER, taking just over four months to complete. He affirms that it was designed with ready-made electric light and wall fittings in preparation for the advent of electric power being supplied to TE ANAU.

230: It was 1958, he says, when TE ANAU first received a central power supply. "Before that everybody had candles and TILLEY lights and all sorts of funny ways of lighting up."

274: His own method was to connect his car battery to a generator which supplied enough electricity for lighting in the house. Meals, he adds, were provided by his employer, SOUTHLAND FARM IMPROVEMENTS.

282: Mentions another TRACTOR DRIVER who worked for that company was PETER BROTHERSTON while BLUEY MILES was the BULLDOZER DRIVER.

287: In 1962, he began work with the MINISTRY of (PUBLIC) WORKS as a GRADER DRIVER, mainly employed on SH94 TE ANAU to MILFORD section. He and JOCK ALLEN were the two DRIVERS based in TE ANAU while a third was based at KNOBS FLAT.

294: Replies that at that time there were about three families living at KNOBS FLAT along with two or three single men employed by the MOW. One of the latter he names as TERRY O'LAUGHLIN and another had the surname of ROEBUCK.

305: Thinks the pay for a GRADER DRIVER then was $26/fortnight.

317: States that the work day finished at 4.30pm so in the evenings he sometimes worked as a GUIDE in the TE ANAU GLOW-WORM CAVES.

322: SHINGLE for the GRADING work, he says, came from riverbeds such as the UPUKERORA or the EGLINTON.

332: He was less involved in the TAR-SEALING of the MILFORD ROAD.. .that, he says, was JOCK ALLEN'S territory.

336: The first GRADER he worked with, he says, was an AUSTIN AVELING which had four-wheel drive capabilities. "You could go along sideways, like that, if you wanted to."

342: The equipment improved so that the last GRADER he worked with was more powerful. Five years before he retired in 1988 he drove a "SHINGLE truck".

350: Some of the people he worked with over the years also included GUS MCGREGOR and MAC MCGREGOR (unrelated) as well as POP ANDREW, an Mow supervisor who died in an avalanche on the MILFORD ROAD in 1983.

373: Unlike present day, he says that before the onset of winter there was a cut-off date when the MILFORD ROAD would be closed to all traffic for several months. Only local freight operator, TERRY GILLIGAN, would be granted access to supply goods to MILFORD SOUND'S few permanent residents.

377: Mentions that some people "sneaked through" despite the gates being locked. But such antics ceased, he says, following POP ANDREW'S death.

381: The road closure meant that tourists who wanted access to the SOUND had to fly in and out.

391: Referring back to the TE ANAU of 1954, he says, there were about 100 permanent residents in the town. He recalls how there used to be a dip in the road (at the town centre section of the MILFORD ROAD between the FOUR SQUARE and the MOKONUI STREET corner) which would become seriously flooded after heavy rain rendering it impassable to traffic.

401: A house stood on the site of the LUXMORE HOTEL, he says, and was lived in by a MR COOK, manager of the nearby gas station.

404: Referring to what was the BOARDING HOUSE owned by MRS SYLVIA BAKER on the lakefront side of the garage, he says he once stayed there as a paying guest. "It was just standard down-to-earth accommodation."

408 Mentions that MRS BAKER looked after the accommodation side of the business while GEORGE GREER focused on the catering side of things. "All the single lads fed there."

Tape I Side A stops

Tape I Side B starts

010: Replies that amphibian aircraft stationed at the beachfront on LAKE TE ANAU near the TE ANAU HOTEL were mainly for passengers visiting MILFORD SOUND while freight was flown in and out by DOMINIE aircraft. There was a small airstrip which grew into an airport on LUXMORE DRIVE, behind the present-day MEDICAL CENTRE.

017: says HAROLD CHARTRES (of MANAPOURI STATION) first formed the airstrip out of the manuka scrub some years before the participant moved to TE ANAU.

030: Referring back to his work on the MILFORD ROAD, he says that during the winter there were some days while on snow-clearing duties that he would not meet any other traffic from when he started till the end of the working day. This, presumably, was due to the fact the road was closed, but in later years people often drove into MILFORD early in the morning and returned after five in the evening.

060: Although there were no traffic-related fatalities in the years that the road was unsealed, he recalls witnessing one accident in which a speeding car overturned and landed on its side.

098: It wasn't only the MILFORD ROAD on which he did snow-clearing duties as GRADER DRIVER: he recalls one day starting out at THE KEY, travelling past BURWOOD and on to near LUMSDEN before turning off at the JOLLYS' PASS and on up SH6 just past KINGSTON and then back round. "Ninety-eight miles for the day, I reckon.'

118: Of the CONTRACTORS involved in roadworks in the area, he recalls that in the 1960s and 70s there was CLIVE DENIZE of DENIZE CONTRACTING, CHARLIE EMERSON and TOM BENGE.

134: In the early 1980s, he says NORTH OTAGO ROADWORKS were working around LAKE GUNN.

139: Affirms that he retired in 1988 and since then has been "taking it easy".

141: Aviation is one of his interests and he mentions having a licence to operate a GLIDER.

156: One of his instructors, he says, was MERV DENNISON, as were TREVOR

MCGOWAN and JIM DOUGHERTY. A health condition by which he suffers a slight tremor prevented his pursuing any attempt at trying for a licence to operate larger aircraft. "But I'd love to be able to fly."

164: Other interests include photography and lawn bowls.

176: Interview ends

Tape I Side B stops