Charles (Charlie) Henry Port

Interviewer: Warrick McCallum

Abstracter: Lynne Grove

First Interview: 5 September 2000

TRACK 1:

00:16 File identification. CHARLIE PORT, aged 95. Born in 1904. Lives in CHARLES STREET, INVERCARGILL. Came from ROUND HILL, LONGWOODS.

00:40 Father worked for MOSSes with DAVE TWEEDIE (then became the butcher) in the yard at THE LONGWOOD. Later bought a SAWMILL in the HOKONUIs.

01:10 Granduncle was FENCER working for HAMILTONs at OHAI, originally from AUSTRALIA. Died aged 82. Knew NED KELLY quite well. Story about two girls ‘who were running wild’ and tracker BARRY PORT. Recounts.

02:40 Five people same age as Charlie at LONGWOODS. Charlie is the last one alive. Funeral at WINTON. Line of graves ‘all cobbers’. Details.

03:40 Interviewer describes Charlie and his current home with an enamel COAL RANGE. Details.

04:15 HAIRDRESSER for 5 years. Built house at SUBSTATION ROAD in WINTON. Details.

05:45 Health problems. Scarred lung. Made ‘Grade 2’ in Army. Sent to defend BLUFF. Reported sighting Sea-plane. Details.

08:05 After War, returned to LONGWOOD to work at the Mill with Uncle TOM MORE. Three mills in the POURAKINO. Lots of timber. Advice to grandchildren about working hard. Details.

09:30 Worked at MORE’s mine at OHAI ?1930s. No road, only rail from WAIRIO. Details.

11:00 School with the GOODWILLIE girls. Cousin CHARLIE GOODWILLIE lived at TIHAKA went to ?ORAKI School. MĀORI settlement at COLAC BAY. Interviewer tells how butcher ERNIE DANIELS took the meat-cart out there.

12:15 Father bought 50 acres at LONGWOOD when he got married. Became CHARLIE’s home. Uncle gave Charlie a ‘purebred Jersey cow’ as a wedding gift. Details.

13:20 Schoolfriends ?DUDE BONNY, Māori FRIDAY PORTNICK, father of GEORGE PORTNICK. Now attends their funerals. Details.

14:30 Charlie has walked the PORTS RACE. Great-Grandfather from BURTON-on-TRENT, ENGLAND to AUSTRALIA with family. MRS WOODWARD at MORE’s MILL cook-shop was nanny to CHARLIE’s great-aunts.

16:00 Remembers getting big jar of ginger at Christmas time from CHINESE GOLDMINERS DICKIE and LY KY and 2 sisters. Got fruit from MRS GEORGE POI and MRS HARRY LOW in Riverton but ginger had to come from Auckland.

16:50 Remembers ROUND HILL HOTEL. Charlie ‘never boozed’. DICKIE took baskets of vegetables to pubs.

17:30 Fishing with JACK STIRLING and BOATBUILDER NICKY BEER. Saw fishing boat built in Riverton at NAPIER WHARF.

19:10 Gets fresh stuffed MUTTONBIRDS from MRS WEST. ?PAPA KURA got ‘half a sugar bag’ of pigeons. Details.

20:20 Knows JIMMY BULL from COLAC BAY. Went to school with VIC, EDITH and GEORGE STEVENS. Penfriend tracked GEORGE to the States. Details.

20:15 Wife MARY SIMPSON was nurse at the hospital. Friend DICK RICHIE used to drive the bus for H&H told story about ‘200 Chinamen gave two pounds each towards erection of Riverton Hospital…. Great-Grandfather employed them all’. Details.

22:30 Married in RIVERTON. Two daughters, one in AUSTRALIA, one in INVERCARGILL, and one son.

23:20 Never ‘boozed’. Did not like smoking. Ran mile and half-mile in ‘the sports’. Never had ‘days off’. Attended ‘Colac Dances’. Knew BURT TURNBULL from ‘PUKI (Orepuki) and BILL CAVANAGH from More’s Mill. Drove the locomotive now up in the bush (Black Maria, now in Riverton) with FRANK HAWKINSON and ROLY MORE, who later drove the school bus.

26:30 Wife’s parents lived at More’s Mill. Her father was a SAWYER at GRANITY. Big community and store. Kerosine lanterns.

27:20 First motorcar HUMBERETTE, then a Mark 1 ZEPHYR, later restored by ‘a cobber’.

28:10 Remember power being turned on from MONOWAI. Roads are better now too.

28:40 People cared about people.

28:50 Remembers DOCTOR TROTTER and his family. JEAN GORDON was Doctor GORDON’s eldest daughter, was ‘in the home when my mum was in the home’. When he had a car, visited Retirement Homes. Interviewer states how Riverton doctor took 2 or 3 hours to travel up to POURAKINO. Lots of travelling on horseback.

30:50 Father worked on PORT’S RACE and had ‘a house on the side of the road’ then shifted to the LONGWOOD and started a mill in the HOKONUIs with three others, near OTAPIRI. ‘Not retired long when he died’.

31:45 WINTON has ‘gone ahead. A nice wee pozzie’. Friend DAN CRAWFORD had a shop there. Trained for LIMEHILLS Sports together, and TUATAPERE with JIM and BILL ARCHER. Details.

33:50 Brother-in-law ARTHUR HODGES ‘cleaned up everything there was round about’(prizes) in the BUSHCRAFT, and ERNIE HOBB, GEOFF BLANKS from Tasmania, and lots of BOYLES. Visited by the Sister from the CATHOLIC CHURCH in WINTON.

35:10 During ‘the slump’ got job in Barber’s Shop. Just picked up the skills. After the War, JACK DUNCAN offered him a job. Interviewer tells how Jack is the ‘bookie’ and had been the Baker’s boy at OHAI. Details.

37:10 Interviewer tells how people were breaking in land at Orepuki for farming. Friends with BURT TURNBULL from OREPUKI. Details.

38:30 Worked with DOUG FALLOW second-in-command of building new bridges for Southland County. HARRY GIMLETT interviewed him then offered him a job in the ‘Greasing Bay’ looking after Mr Gimlett’s and the Engineer’s cars. Details.

40:20 Cut firewood from OTATARA, Black pine and Broadleaves for himself and the Gimletts.

41:05 Discuss how everyone travelled by train but railway lines were pulled up. Now everyone travels by car.

41:30 Lived in CHARLES STREET for 50 years. SLIP and ALF WATSON also lived there, and ALF HAINES. Interviewer tells how people bought meat every second day ‘banging on the doors at 7.30’ before they had refrigerators.

43:20 Grandfather worked in AUSTRALIA at a Brickworks, aged 11, with bare feet pushing mud into squares.

44:00 Interviewer thanks CHARLIE for the interview. CHARLIE has ‘no regrets’, never had a fight with anybody. Boxed at GEORGE SINGLETON’s gym – only learned enough to get ‘a good hiding’.

46:30 End of TRACK 1.