HUGH ARMSTRONG ERSKINE

DATE: 30 OCTOBER 2008

INTERVIEWER: PAM SMITH

[NOTE: THIS IS A TRANSCRIPT NOT AN ABSTRACT WITH TIMINGS]

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR EARLY LIFE? TELL ME ABOUT YOUR GRANDFATHER. WHERE DID HE COME FROM?

In 1883 he settled in the TUATAPERE BUSH. He came from NORTHERN IRELAND. We were back there recently. We have relations there who are very good friends. They are not ERSKINE names now but ERSKINE DESCENDANTS.

WHAT PART OF NORTHERN IRELAND?

SOUTH of BELFAST, DOWNPATRICK. My GRANDFATHER came from DRENNAN ROAD and had a growing family and some had to move out. He came out and he was instrumental in getting his brothers to come too. There were four brothers that came. They didn't come at the same time in fact BOB ERSKINE at TE WAE WAE he only met his older brother in NEW ZEALAND for the first time. He was born after his older brother left for NEW ZEALAND. He brought out a young girl and he married her. We often puzzled about the young girl. She was only about fifteen years old but he must have known her quite well maybe a neighbour's daughter He married her at BALCLUTHA where he first stopped, and worked driving teams. So I suppose things were pretty tight over there at the time so the sons took off. I have a copy of the old will that my GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER made. We have got one or two mementos. The first time we were over there we visited the farm where he was brought up. CECIL and NORA (the relatives) we stayed with them for about a week a few months ago and they came out here. We had a celebration of the GRANDFATHER being here for a hundred years. All the other ERSKINES and their descendants all pooled in. We have a very strong knowledge now of what happened in the early days because the BOB ERSKINE ones, they came so many years later.

SO GRANDAD HUGH CAME AND BOB WENT TO TE WAE WAE, DID YOU SAY THERE WERE TWO OTHER BROTHERS. WHERE DID THEY GO?

TOM ERSKINE the next in age to my GRANDFATHER, he farmed at CLYDEVALE. He had three daughters and he decided that he wasn't going to stay faming. He went to DUNEDIN and became a TAXI OPERATOR. JACK ERSKINE he farmed at TE WAE WAE too. He had an accident with gelignite.

THE ERSKINES IN INVERCARGILL THE FOUR BOYS. ARE THEY RELATED TO YOU?

Yes. There is LAWRENCE he is CECIL'S son. Then there are ROBERT and RUSSELL and the others. They are CECIL'S family. RUSSELL is farming at OTAPIRI. CECIL is BOB'S son. STUART is on the farm where his father was at NEW RIVER FERRY. He is a good worker. We have had several meetings there.

WHY DID YOUR GRANDFATHER COME TO TUATAPERE?

He worked in the CLYDEVALE area. The HUMP STATION was advertised for lease and it wasn't a very high lease. He came and looked at it but he didn't take it over. He thought that some of the land when he crossed the WAIAU looked alright. There was nobody there. He thought he could farm there. I don't know whether he got some stock and put on it but that's what he did. He farmed along the foreshore. At that stage there was a lot of GOLD MINING here too. The MĀORI had burned a lot of scrubby stuff along the foreshore and it had come away in native grasses and rubbishy stuff. He initially grazed stock on that land.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT MĀORI FAMILIES WERE AROUND THEN?

This area was isolated from those further up. They could make contact. They came really from the OREPUKI side. He mucked around and he was able to procure a couple of sections that we've still got now three hundred and fifty acres.

EVEN GETTING ACROSS THE RIVER IN THOSE DAYS WAS HARD?

He got BILLY MEMPHIS from OREPUKI to take him across.

THE BRIDGE WENT ACROSS ABOUT 1915. YOU WOULD HAVE GONE TO THE PAPATOTARA SCHOOL?

I went to the PAPATOTARA SCHOOL. I turned fourteen just before I left school.

CAN YOU REMEMBER IN THOSE DAYS WHAT TUATAPERE WAS LIKE?

We had quite a wee bit to do with TUATAPERE because that was where the shopping was done. I played football with the TUATAPERE boys as well. We had a seven a side competition in the district. There were about half a dozen teams, PUKEMAORI and ORAWIA. In the last year at school we were the top team so they had the MILK SHIELD COMPETITION in OTAUTAU and it was a combined team with TUATAPERE. It was a fifteen a side team not a seven side. I played with some of the TUATAPERE lads. After the war I played with the TUATAPERE TEAM CLUB.

WHEN DO YOU THINK TUATAPERE WAS AT ITS BUSIEST?

My UNCLE he took the history of the sawmills. At one stage there were about thirty odd mills here. That would be prior to the war. A lot of men went from here into the army. They would be saw millers and originally they mightn't have come from here, maybe from INVERCARGILL.

WHEN YOU GOT MARRIED AND HAD YOUR FAMILY THAT WOULD BE IN THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES?

HUGH'S wife JOYCE said that she came out in 1947. "l tell everybody when I came out here on a FRIDAY night you had to fight your way down the street. The women didn't drive and the men would be waiting outside LANGMUIRS for their wives to get their weekly groceries. I came out here to work for DR ELDER"

LATE FORTIES AND FIFTIES WERE A BUSY TIME?

We were nine years married and had our daughter 1958 and TUATAPERE was a very busy place. There were quite a few pupils at the TUATAPERE SCHOOL. There was only one school originally and then they started the DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL and then they built a new PRIMARY SCHOOL. It has been sold and it is a tree place. The old school then became an area school.

DOCTOR ELDER?

He came in the 1930s and left fifty years later. If you went into a SPECIALIST and told them that DR ELDER said you had to go to HOSPITAL they would do it. He was well respected. He was a devil to keep you waiting for hours. I was there in the waiting room for a long time and he deliberately left me there to talk about SOUTH AFRICA because JOYCE and I had recently been there.

THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN BUTCHER'S SHOP AND ELECTRICIANS?

Most things you needed. There was the hotel, the billiard rooms. There was a milk bar and a shoe shop.

THERE WAS NEVER A JEWELLER'S SHOP?

No. BILL HENDERSON he sold radios and fixed radios and televisions. There was LANGMUIRS. It’s sold now. It is now a clothing and gift shop. There was of course the PICTURE THEATRE. We had two PICTURE THEATRES when I went to school and they both got burnt down. They were run by different people. The first one was burnt down was owned by JOE LAWSON. He used the hall and put pictures on there. The second place was JACK DAVIES further down the street. We had a POST OFFICE in those days, we don't have one now.

HOW MANY BANKS WERE HERE?

Just the one. THE NATIONAL BANK. The SOUTHLAND SAVINGS BANK they bought a section right down where ROBIN FAULKNER is and they were going to build a bank and they must have noticed the decline and didn't build. There were always several garages. THOMPSONs at the corner, STANTONS garage. There must have been four garages at different times. The LUBRITORIUM was built and added on to; then the garage down the half mile.

HOW MANY LODGES?

There were quite a few but none now. THE MASONIC, THE ORANGE LODGE, ODDFELLOWS, BUFFALO LODGE. There are none now.

WHAT ABOUT CHURCHES?

Two CHURCHES still going. There were: a METHODIST CHURCH, PRESBYTERIAN, CATHOLIC and ANGLICAN. There are breakaway groups from the PRESBYTERIAN about three groups. The ANGLICAN CHURCH has services every SUNDAY still.

WHAT VALUES HAS YOUR FATHER PASSED ON TO YOU THAT YOU THINK YOU HAVE PASSED ON?

I went straight on to the farm when I left school and I stayed there sixty years. JOYCE said, "He was a dedicated farmer and the farm was in immaculate condition and still is with MURRAY on the farm". HUGH said, I spent a lot of money on it as well. I suppose I could say I was successful.

WHAT DID YOU FARM?

Mainly sheep initially. My father he used to go to LORNEVILLE to the sales and buy cattle and some years he would buy a couple to three hundred cattle and the next year he would have none. I decided when I took over the farm that I would have cattle all the time as lambs do a lot better with cattle with them. So I started running about three hundred head of cattle in the SUMMER time and cut it back in the WINTER time and buy up again in the SPRING. It was quite successful and I used to have very good lambs. ROMNEY and SOUTHDOWN LAMBS. Later we changed to the black faced ones. We were producing fat stock and I used to draft my own lambs and I would go down to the FREEZING WORKS and watch them killed. When my son took over he knocked off drafting his own lambs.

WHAT ABOUT THE SALES?

There were sale yards here. I used to support it pretty well. They only sell calves in later years. I didn't buy too many calves. I bought bigger stock. A bigger turn over. I bought stock at LORNEVILLE and CASTLEROCK and places like that. One cattle sale a year here now. There are a few jokers breeding here locally.

HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE COMMUNITY?

We still have the A&P SHOW, we've still got the SPORTS. Not as big as they were. They have held up pretty well. I sort of feel now days we go to the SPORTS down here and we don't meet too many locals. They go away up to QUEENSTOWN or WANAKA when the SPORTS are on and the locals from INVERCARGILL or GORE or somewhere, they come here for the SPORTS. JOYCE would come to the SPORTS before she met me and she would come on the train. There was MCLEODS BAKERY and they would sell pies when they came off the train.

There were dances in every hall around. It has been ages since there was a dance here. We used to go to INVERCARGILL to the MASONIC. Old time dancing. Dancing and going to the pictures was the social thing you did. The first dances that I got involved in were the SOLDIERS going away to WAR or coming home. They had them to raise funds. I love the dancing but don't get much chance these days. We were on a cruise recently down the DANUBE and there were four women dancers and they picked me as a partner and after that the men called me twinkle toes. JOYCE said, "as far as I am concerned living in this area is wonderful. We have had a pretty rough two years. The local people are just amazing. People coming in and out the door all the time People support you well. We were away five weeks and we drove round the corner and I enjoyed the trip and I thought aren't I lucky that I'm not in those countries where people are tripping over each other. You can go to INVERCARGILL and people don't even know their neighbours like here. We care for each other". HUGH continued, I have been in the LIONS CLUB thirteen or fourteen years I was TREASURER. We support local initiatives like THE HUMP TRACK etc. JOYCE said, "l belong to WOMENS INSTITUTE and we applied to have the half yearly meeting out here and they came from WEST OTAGO and SOUTH OTAGO and we had it at the club for about fifty people. We had to get the speakers so we got GEORGE HARPUR THE COUNCILOR, he opened it, and we got JOHN MUNRO who spoke about the LOCATER BEACONS that I knew very little about. In the afternoon we had ALLIE KING to talk about the HUMP TRACK. Those people sitting in that meeting were quite astounded about what we did out here. In fact the PRESIDENT got up and said TUATAPERE was unique as we are getting on and doing things for ourselves". HUGH said, “We've got different people involved in different things. I have been in the rifle club for fifty years and I have just given up shooting in the last couple of years.”

YOU ARE ACTUALLY SAYING THAT THERE ARE MORE THAN JUST A LITTLE GROUP. THERE ARE DIFFERENT PEOPLE WITH DIFFERENT INTERESTS?

Yes. They keep the RUGBY going. The NETBALL TEAM plays at WINTON. I think it is because we live on this side of the LONGWOODS and because we have a hill to climb we just stay here. We've got these other smaller areas like BLACKMOUNT even from ORAWIA. The DAIRY FARMERS are here. On the NEWSLETTERS we get the meetings and they have young people with foreign names. Even they get involved in the LIONS. They are busy but they get involved.

WHAT MAJOR THINGS HAPPENED IN TUATAPERE AND HOW DID YOU GET THROUGH?

With the flood JOYCE was WELFARE OFFICER at the time and had the job at sorting out furniture etc. It was interesting. She said, "I learnt about human nature".

WHAT ABOUT HELP FROM OUTSIDE OF TUATAPERE?

JOYCE said, "We got money from the FLOOD RELIEF. The story got round to start with that they were only going to be paying out to people who were uninsured. I thought along with a lot of other people that was totally unfair. I was going into town along with some guys to a meeting at INVERCARGILL with EVE POOLE (the MAYOR). Not one of the guys backed me up. However they did pay out to all.

They did have INDEMNITY INSURANCE but that was not sufficient. A lot of people I lost a lot of electrical appliances". HUGH continued, at that time we had a JET BOAT. I drove the JET BOAT down the HALF MILE ROAD.

ARE THERE ANY NEGATIVES ABOUT TUATAPERE?

No not many.

WHAT ABOUT THE CHANGES? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT WHAT IT WAS LIKE IN THE SIXTIES TO WHAT IT IS NOW?

People are inclined to stay at home more. We have the TOWN AND COUNTRY CLUB. The baths are there. We go every morning in the SUMMER.

WHAT MADE IT SMALLER?

The mills closing. The farmers not employing labour. The DIARY FARMERS are employing labour and bringing kiddies into the schools.

DO YOU THINK THE GOVERNMENT OR LOCAL BODIES HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS DOING MORE FOR TUATAPERE?

Well HELEN CLARK opened the HUMP TRACK.

DOES THE COUNCIL DO WHAT IT SHOULD?

I don't think we should rely on the GOVERNMENT all the time. We stand on our own two feet. The sewerage is being put on and those without capital will struggle. It will go on to their rates and will have a drip feed system. It is inevitable. At the moment it does go into the creeks and we have WHITEBAITING, FISHING etc. Not that we have TOHEROA now. They reckoned that there were about a thousand cars on the beach in those days.

WHAT IS IT LIKE LIVING IN TUATAPERE WHEN YOU ARE OLDER?

We have a very good AMBULANCE supported by the LIONS CLUB. DR ELDER used to take patients to town in the early days. I was involved in the LIONS CLUB as TREASURER. People don't have to pay only if they want to.

ENOUGH VOLUNTEERS TO MAN IT?

The have a problem, have a struggle getting VOLUNTEERS, but they are doing better getting VOLUNTEERS. As far as I know I haven't heard lately. We are lucky with two very good DOCTORS.

THE OLD MATERNITY HOME IS A MEDICAL PRACTICE AND THE OTHER PART A DAY CENTRE FOR THE ELDERLY?

Some ELDERLY go to the DAY CENTRE. There are a few things happening. I someone had a sudden heart attack or a major car accident they have to get to INVERCARGILL and some occasions you have to go to DUNEDIN.

THERE IS THE HELICOPTER?

Oh yes. That is just recent. Men working in the bush for the sawmill getting logs they could be another twenty miles further on than TUATAPERE and so they would have seventy to eighty miles to get to assistance. They used to use local HELICOPTERS at some stage.

IS THERE MEALS ON WHEELS?

Yes.

DO YOU HAVE A DISTRICT NURSE?

Yes we have a DISTRICT NURSE. We have the girls at the DOCTORS. The MEDICAL SERVICE here is pretty good. We are pretty lucky.

YOU HAVE FOUR CHILDREN?

One lives on the other side of the river. The eldest girl runs the office for SCOTT CONTRACTING in TE ANAU. The oldest son is in AUSTRALIA, north of PERTH. He is a PRISON OFFICER. He went to SOUTH OF BROOME. We visited him there. PAMELA the second daughter lives in INVERCARGILL.

YOU HAVE SEEN A LOT OF THE WORLD. DOWN THE DANUBE AND NOW AUSTRALIA?

We have had three trips to GREAT BRITAIN and six to AUSTRALIA. JOYCE said, "not finished yet". HUGH said “we have done both sides of Australia and up the middle. We have been to some interesting places.”

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR TRAVELLING SINCE YOU HAVE BEEN RETIRED?

The first trip we went to NORTHERN IRELAND. We went on a farming trip when we were on the farm. Six from SOUTHLAND some from NORTHLAND. About forty of us.