Interviewee: John Robert (Jack) Murrell

Interview date: 26 OCTOBER 2004

Interviewer and abstractor: Morag Forrester

A fourth interview took place at the same venue

116: Responding to off-tape question about where his parents lived after they married, says his FATHER built a two-room log hut with vertical half trees which were split length-wise and nailed round the frame while the space between the logs was corked with sphagnum moss. The roof, he says, was made of shingles split from trees in the bush. Explains how this was done.

137: Says the beech weathered to a soft, grey thatch of wood fibre on the outside. Recalls sitting at the kitchen table doing his schoolwork and seeing tiny sparkles of sunlight escaping through little spaces in the roof.

146: Replies that the cabin is situated halfway between the GUEST HOUSE and PEARL HARBOUR on the river side corner between VIEW ST and WAIAU ST. The roof, he says, has been covered with corrugated aluminium.

167: Describes how the bedroom part of the hut was built in the same format as the temporary houses that were put up during the government’s MILFORD ROAD construction project of the 1930s and 40s. He explains there was a wooden floor and timber walls to waist height and above that was canvas material like a tent stretched to the roof.

179: Says when he and his siblings were very young, they slept in the same room as their PARENTS.

186: Recalls that when he was about ten years old, the government’s CHILD BENEFIT SCHEME had begun and that the money was allowed to be used as building capital so the half-tented room was renovated and a third room was added to the hut.

191: Replies that they had baths in a big galvanised oval bath in front of the fire in the living room. The toilet was a trench outside, behind a screen made of cut manuka. Says it was quite hygienic because any waste was covered with earth each time.

203: Fresh water, he says, was supplied from a rainwater tank on the roof. In addition, he says, his FATHER carried drinking water in a four-gallon kerosene tin from the big house and they would tip that into the kettle.

213: Hot water, he continues, was boiled in pots on the coal range. Comments that the fire was permanently kept alight so it was raked first thing in the morning. Says it’s quite a skill keeping a coal range going.

231: Responding to question, says again that he never learned about problem resolution by discussion until reading about it some years later. In his early childhood, he says, the tail-end of the DEPRESSION was still affecting NZ followed by the war years. So, people didn’t go on vacation. Person recorded: Jack Murrell

240: As a result, he says, the family’s income was very low and again mentions that his FATHER shot one DEER a week so they had meat, while fish were caught in the river and lake.

246: On the nightly fishing expedition, he says, his FATHER would often be accompanied by visiting guests such as lawyers and doctors as part of their holiday adventure.

255: States that his MOTHER, (ALICE COURTENAY MARTIN), was the daughter of an IRISH actress living in LONDON. Adds that one of his GREAT GRANDMOTHERS was from DUBLIN and that other ancestors were a family of ANGLICAN vicars from COUNTY CLARE (EIRE).

269: Mentions that his AUNTY CHICK (BINA MARTIN) researched her family history and found they were relatives of the same EVEREST after whom MT EVEREST was named.

287: While he agrees that present day images of two adults and three or four children living in a two-room log hut would suggest cramped and possibly unhealthy living conditions, he does not consider that his younger brother’s illness was caused by their lifestyle.

293: Replies that BURTON’S illness manifested as severe diarrhoea requiring lengthy hospitalisation as various tests were carried out.

301: Early education, he says, was via the national CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL. Remembers learning to read and write.

314: Describes those early CORRESPONDENCE courses as “absolutely marvellous” and gives an example of learning tools used for reading. Adds that as soon as basic reading and writing were mastered, “you were left on your own”.

323: Explains that he was sent a fortnight’s work at a time and on completion it was returned in foolscap-sized brown envelopes to WELLINGTON. Says it was probably the largest school in NZ with up to 2,000 pupils.

332: Says the assessment of their work was sent back to them some weeks later. Remembers that along with the fortnightly return of the envelopes, the pupil had to include a letter to an appointed teacher and they corresponded throughout the school year.

345: Replies that the lessons took up five hours a day and even WOODWORK lessons were done by CORRESPONDENCE as were the skills learned at the SCOUTS and CUBS.

366: On the issue of being able to cheat, he says they were brought up in a world in which cheating was not contemplated. “If you didn’t get it right, you really didn’t care very much, or…I would’ve just taken more care to remember it properly.”

371: Comments that his siblings have stated in the past, to some disbelief from their audience, that as children they did exactly what they were told. Explains that this was because they were allowed to go wherever they pleased as long as they knew they could get back again safely. Gives an example.

386: Talks about discovering a clearing known as the FOXGLOVE PATCH and also finding some of their FATHER’S blazes (marks cut on trees). Also talks about lagoons covered in peat.

413: Replies that while he spent a lot of time with his brother and sisters, there were other children around during the summer season.

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003: Continuing with the subject of their education, says they were taught the three ‘R’s as well as geography, history, general knowledge and local history. On this, he says their FATHER knew a lot about the MAORI history of the area.

013: Recalls writing a short essay on the subject, which he thinks was published in the CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL magazine.

026: Referring back to his FATHER going SHOOTING once a week to bring back DEER for the table. If his FATHER failed to return with a kill, he says, there was never any discussion about whether he would go out again the following day – there was no alternative but that he had to go.

046: Laughs at the memory of an occasion when their MOTHER was away for a few days and their FATHER was at a loss as to what they should eat for the evening meal with the upshot that JACK was told to make porridge. “So we had porridge for tea which we thoroughly enjoyed (laughs) and DAD never lived it down.”

052: On their nutrition, says their MOTHER ensured they got as wide a range of vitamins and minerals as possible with what was available.

077: For entertainment in the evenings, says their MOTHER had an old songbook and having learned the songs when she was young, taught them to the CHILDREN, without the aid of musical instruments. Adds that they also had a few old records on a wind-up gramophone that had been a wedding gift. Makes a reference to “Invitation To The Dance”.

105: On others who lived in the village when they were growing up, recalls his UNCLE living about three miles downriver (at DUNCRAIGEN) and there were neighbours two miles along the road at FREESTONE but his FATHER was not on speaking terms with them (the MILNES who, as previously mentioned, had bought out (YOUNG) BOB MURRELL through the NATIONAL MORTGAGE CO).

111: Qualifies this with a reminder about his GRANDFATHER not wishing to sell the FREESTONE property but being forced into it by NATIONAL MORTGAGE.

120: Mentions what he considers an important historical matter – that after WWI, the MURRELLS had undertaken a large amount of RABBITING which had kept the STATION profitable.

133: Says YOUNG BOB sold the STATION with 5000 SHEEP on it and had left a ring of large paddocks around the FREESTONE HILL. States that when MILNE sold it to the government (in the 1950s) he was only running about 1000 SHEEP.

143: Replies that this was partly because of RABBITS, but also due to bad management such as not cultivating winter crops.

158: Back to who their neighbours were, says (in the late 1940s) GEORGE LINDSAY was appointed LAUNCHMASTER by (UNCLE) LES and built a log cabin on a section not far from the GUEST HOUSE.

167: Mentions (ROY) MCDONALD who, he says, was descended from DONALD SUTHERLAND’S (the first person to set up a permanent home at MILFORD SOUND) wife and had spent the war years (WWII) hiding in the bush in a hut at ANITA BAY along with his wife (BELLE). Explains that MCDONALD had been poison-gassed during WWI and didn’t want to be called up again. Adds that he wasn’t served a ‘call-up’ notice by the authorities because they couldn’t find him.

181: Asked about conscientious objectors during the war, replies that NZ had its share and refers to an area known as SHIRKERS BUSH at the head of NORTH LAKE MAVORA where many objectors hid. Some of them, he adds, spent their time in gaol as has been well-documented.

188: Comments that by the time the war was over and MCDONALD came out of hiding, he could not be charged for having committed an offence because legally he had not done anything wrong, apart from vanish from the records for a few years.

202: Goes on to say that MCDONALD also built a house by the river next to GEORGE LINDSAY’S once WWII was over.

218: Talking about the isolation of growing up without neighbours and peers, he agrees shyness was a problem. “I can remember being enormously shy at high school.” Mentions that he also suffers if his blood sugar levels get too low, a problem he was not aware of until much later. He also remembered that whenever he did not have “morning tea”, he spent the next two hours before lunchtime in a state of “dire exhaustion”.

243: Believes that it was this dietary problem that was the root cause of his shyness.

255: On the other hand, he says, as children and later they were well able to talk to all the guests that stayed at the GRAND VIEW. So, he adds, he’s been welcoming overseas visitors since 1939.

260: Recalls that it was during the 1939 winter that his MOTHER was away giving birth to the older of his two SISTERS. Remembers there being three feet of snow and his FATHER digging trenches through it.

274: Discussion of worst snowfalls leads him back to his GRANDFATHER’S time and the snow of 1878 when, he says, several major events occurred. One of them was that the lake flooded and left a driftwood line around the forest, still visible during his FATHER’S lifetime.

284: Mentions that at BURWOOD STATION in the 1870s, they ran between 60 and 80 thousand SHEEP but that year, after mustering the animals, they were left with only 20,000, the rest having died in the snow.

300: Referring back to his education, says he recalls visiting the MCNAB SCHOOL outside GORE while his family had been staying with the MCGIBBONS there. So he knew what a classroom looked like.

324: Replies he used a slate as an educational aid during his CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOLING. And when he began using pen and paper, both sides of the papers were used, as part of the “war effort”.

334: Recalls that during woodwork classes he made a bookcase from RIMU, which he still uses, and that he made a tray upon which he traced and painted two pigeons.

338: Answers that his SISTERS probably did cookery instead of woodwork classes, although they’d have been allowed to do the latter if they’d wished.

344: His MOTHER, he continues, taught them domestic chores so they could sew, knit and darn, light a fire and cook.

350: Recalls that both PARENTS went away one day, leaving them to fend for themselves. The biggest danger, he adds, was fire. But, he continues, they were completely confident of being able to cope. While he can’t remember exactly what age he was, he admits that by today’s standards his PARENTS would probably have been charged with neglect. 357: Says that as CHILDREN, they considered it all a great adventure.

362: In this same vein, recalls shooting his first DEER the day before he turned 12. Recalls the incident vividly and admits he didn’t make a very good job of it. Describes this.

384: Referring again to his education, says his MOTHER wanted him to go away to SCHOOL as he grew up. The boarding fees were five pounds a week which was beyond the family purse strings. So, he adds, the government allowance paid half and the rest was made up from a special fund set up by a MOSSBURN resident.

393: Explains that the man was named FREDERICK DYER. Relates a tale in which the visiting GP asked DYER why he didn’t get a broken tap fixed (he kept a billy under it to catch the water droplets) and the reply was that it wasn’t worthwhile. It was the same man, he says, that left enough money in a TRUST to send children of people from the district to HIGH SCHOOL.

396: “I got 2 pounds 10s a week from the DYER TRUST.”

401: Replies that he attended SOUTHLAND BOYS HIGH SCHOOL in INVERCARGILL from the age of 13. Says the son of the house at which he boarded was of the same age and went to the same school.

409: Recalls the school roll totalled about 470 boys and that they had 10 o’clock assembly each morning. Also remembers that the teachers wore black academic gowns. Describes the morning assembly.

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002: Describes attending HIGH SCHOOL as a major change. Says that at home, the river was the main road in much the same way that NORTH ROAD, INVERCARGILL became the river when he was attending school and living in WAIKIWI.

039: Talks at some length about his childhood exploits around the WAIAU RIVER including seeing a cluster of spring-flowering orchids growing on a beech tree. Recalls he developed an allergic reaction to these flowers.

082: Admits there were some regulations to be followed at HIGH SCHOOL such as keeping their socks pulled up to the knee at all times, wearing the uniform. The school colours, he says, were red, white and blue.

109: States that as part of the curriculum, each boy had to take MATHEMATICS, ENGLISH and SCIENCE as elementary subjects.

130: Recalls the sports activities included RUGBY FOOTBALL. Adds that as WWII was not long over, they were also given MILITARY TRAINING. Says it was normally taken at the start of the school year and that the instruction included naming parts of a rifle, marching etc.

152: Says the standard of teaching was excellent. Recalls being put into a lower stream of ability than he should have been. Remembers in this D-class that he achieved 92% in an algebra test when the class average was 35%.

173: Mentions that his PARENTS were unable to attend any end-of-year prize-giving ceremonies at the school. In his final year, he was awarded HEAD PREFECT prize and CUM LAUDE (cumulative achievement) as REGIMENTAL SERGEANT MAJOR in charge of the entire school.

183: States that although he began with a low placing among the 90 students in his year, he completed his secondary schooling having achieved third place in school certificate exams and the 150th placing of all NEW ZEALAND entrants in the national scholarship exams.

190: Of the friends he made, says there were a few and in hindsight thinks he befriended people who were disadvantaged in some way. Talks of one who was very small in stature and that one day he was at school, the next he had vanished not to be seen again.

202: Recalls one or two pupils did the same and it wasn’t until many years later that he discovered they had been struck down by “infantile paralysis” or the poliomyelitis virus which was incurable then.

211: Says it wasn’t till the 1950s that a universal vaccine was found to prevent the disease. Adds that NZ bought a cheaper version of the vaccine which in a few cases resulted in some serious disabilities.

222: Referring to the family he stayed with in WAIKIWI, says the surname was ACTON and that a previous boarder had been TERRY GILLIGAN (whose family owned GILLIGAN TRANSPORT of MOSSBURN).

226: Says his guardian, MR ACTON, was quite strict. His occupation, he says, was training returned servicemen in building and construction work. One of the trainees, he says, was RON MCGIBBON of the family the MURRELLS knew in GORE. Person recorded: Jack Murrell

231: Recalls MRS ACTON was “a tall ITALIANATE woman” who was also quite strict. Relates a story about one day making a joke about MAORI people – something, he adds that would never have been allowed to do at home – and MR ACTON turned on him with a severe admonishment and banned him from ever saying something similar in their house again.

247: Comments that he knew the boy’s GRANDFATHER ran SHEEP on RUAPUKE (an island in FOUVEAUX STRAIT) and as it transpired MRS ACTON was a MAORI, not ITALIAN. Adds that in those days, if people had MAORI ancestry it was never mentioned.

257: Considers that having lived with this family for three years, he could claim to be an ADOPTED MAORI. Adds that he has a second claim on MAORI culture in that legally if you did not dispossess someone else of land and your family had lived in an area for at least three generations, you could claim TANGATA WHENUA (belonging to the land). “I am positively and absolutely TANGATA WHENUA here.”

266: Expands on his story about working as a SHEDHAND in a SHEARING SHED on a SHEEP STATION on the east coast of the NORTH ISLAND. Says he lived among the other workers, most of them MAORI, but was invited to talk to the property owner who informed him that “one does not work for MAORI up here” and that he was dismissing the SHEARING CONTRACTOR that day so it would not be necessary for JACK to have to resign or to mention their discussion.

293: Back to MANAPOURI, says that during the summer vacations from school, he mainly worked at the GRAND VIEW. Adds there was one year that he got a job on a FARM in the ORETI area, the same locality that his GRANDFATHER’S BROTHER (ALEC) had done his apprenticeship as a BLACKSMITH.

321: Working at the GRAND VIEW, he says, meant helping in the kitchen, gardening, being general “skivvy”. Referring to the FARM at ORETI, recalls the FARMER had been badly affected by the GREAT DEPRESSION. Says he earned seven shillings and sixpence a week, seven days a week from 5.30am till 10.30pm.

328: Says during the SHEARING season, he had to pick up the WOOL, throw the FLEECE out on the sorting bench. During morning tea time, he was expected to sort the DAGS (lumps of matted wool and dung hanging from the hind-quarters of a SHEEP). But as soon as the boss went away, the SHEARER told him to knock-off for a few minutes. He gave up the job.

347: Recalls cousins in LUMSDEN later arranged for him to work with a SHEARING GANG and they did a spell at BURWOOD STATION. Recalls there were about eight SHEARERS, plus rouseabouts and that there was even a whole family involved with the mother doing the cooking, helped by her parents while the husband and boys pressed the wool into bales. Person recorded: Jack Murrell

351: Says BURWOOD had a COOKHOUSE and a BUNKHOUSE and “you kept your hours each day with a bit of candle (wax) written on the window”. Says they worked in two-hour stretches with breaks for morning tea and lunch. Sometimes, he says, they would work for two hours before breakfast.

356: Morning teas, he says, were splendid. “All the buttered scones and jam you could eat, huge mugs of tea.” Adds that the ROUSABOUTS were taught how to SHEAR during the work-breaks.

360: Says his job at BURWOOD was SKIRTING and ROLLING and that there was a WOOL-CLASSER who would sort the FLEECES into separate loads depending on quality or from which part of the animal they had been shorn.

369: Recalls his earnings went from the 7shillings and 6pence a week at ORETI to 10shillings an hour. Explains that the award wages were linked to the WOOL PRICE.

384: Describes BURWOOD as also having been the second largest CATTLE STATION in the SOUTH ISLAND at that time. Remembers one of his cousins, who also worked there, was thrilled to taking part in a CATTLE MUSTER on the STATION at the age of eighteen, an event carried out over several days on horseback. He also remembered “the magnificent sight of 2,500 CATTLE arriving at CENTRE HILL.”

390: Says the leaseholder also owned the adjacent CENTRE HILL STATION. And he recalls harvesting the CHEWINGS FESCUE (This is a form of grass used for hard-wearing purposes such as airfields or cricket pitches. It was named after GEORGE CHEWINGS of MOSSBURN who was the first to sow this type of grass in NEW ZEALAND. During its heyday, most of the harvest was exported to the UNITED STATES).

397: Explains that the long grass was cut and bound into sheaves, then ‘stooked’ to allow it to dry before it was threshed. Says he never had to do this back-breaking work as he was hired to drive a tractor. He later added that there was one morning when the seed was too ripe so he started the tractor work about 4am to get it all cut before it was “shook” (shaken out).

400: Says that STATION had two FESCUE BINDERS and mentions that another year he worked on the FESCUE harvest for MANAPOURI STATION, where there were three binders.

403: Mentions that at this latter property, the HANGAR was in the middle of the airfield with five runways radiating from it “so that he (the leaseholder) wouldn’t have to taxi, he just came in and landed into the wind. But he (HAROLD CHARTRES) was a very good pilot and he would quite commonly land the plane on the lawn. And the lawn was just a tiny bit short and he always trimmed the hedge a wee bit when he took off (laughs).”

414: Thinks that there would probably have been up to 20 workers to ‘stook’ the FESCUE at MANAPOURI STATION where once again the workers lived in the SHEARERS QUARTERS and there was a COOKHOUSE.

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001: Continues off-tape discussion about the effects AUSTRALIAN bushfires have on the NEW ZEALAND environment. Says that as a schoolboy, his BROTHER would sometimes gather the red dust that landed on lupins and other vegetation in the forest.

024: Responding to question, says that during the harvests at BURWOOD, BILL HAZLETT (SNR) would work alongside his employees.

027: Mentions that HAZLETT was a DOG TRIALLIST and that he had a bach (cottage) in the MAVORA LAKES area.

031: Goes on to say that a few years later, he continued working at BURWOOD beyond the season as part of the RABBIT BOARD’S systematic poisoning programme. Explains the BOARD would arrange with property owners to shift mobs of SHEEP out of a selected area so that an airdrop of several tonnes of poisoned carrots (using sodium monofluoracetate) could be carried out.

044: Says while he and the RABBIT BOARD team were living at the bach, BILL HAZLETT one day turned up during a working day and asked his opinion about a copse of trees standing in a paddock, one of which was a RED BEECH.

074: Relates a couple of other stories about his limited contact with the HAZLETTS including one about the wedding of one of the HAZLETT daughters and that the newlyweds’ car was hidden under JACK’S house to prevent it being sprayed with wedding graffiti and confetti.

132: Brought back to discussing his education, replies that he specialised in CHEMISTRY and PHYSICS, BOTANY and ZOOLOGY.

140: Says the SCHOOL CERTIFICATE examination was taken at the age of fifteen and could be taken again by those who failed the first attempt. The following year, eligible pupils sat the UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE exam. The year after that was the BURSARY exam (a type of grant funding for each student to attend university).

157: Expresses annoyance at the outcome of the BURSARY for him because the award of 40 pounds he received was not sufficient, even added to whatever he saved from his summer holiday jobs.

170: States that at the end of his first year at UNIVERSITY, he failed two of his course units and in hindsight he thinks he was quite unwell by then “which was very hard for me to live with because I’d lived…eh…with so much success at HIGH SCHOOL”.

183: Affirms he spent two years at UNIVERSITY (OF OTAGO). States that the authorities conceded that 40 pounds was not enough as a BURSARY and the following year increased the sum to 90 pounds.

188: Recalls one of the difficulties was that lack of finance prevented him taking a vacation, he had to go straight from UNIVERSITY to a job during the holidays.

192: Replies that the course he took was MEDICAL INTERMEDIATE STUDIES which meant he was registered in the FACULTY of MEDICINE. Explains that the same course was taken by those who went on to DENTISTRY and related subjects.

202: States it was his choice to attend OTAGO UNIVERSITY rather than any other in NEW ZEALAND. Mentions his BROTHER (BURTON) followed him to OTAGO to study BOTANY but then moved on to VICTORIA UNIVERSITY, WELLINGTON and later did a PhD in GEOLOGY at ADELAIDE UNIVERSITY, AUSTRALIA. Says his BROTHER also put himself through a LAB TECHNICIAN’S course.

220: Continues that BURTON specialised in recent GEOLOGY and would examine the AUSTRALIAN dust. Adds that his BROTHER had an “enormously good mind in lateral thinking” and that his thesis was based on a different geological history for AUSTRALIA than the generally accepted one.

239: Says BURTON was invited back to ADELAIDE to give lectures to GEOLOGISTS about his concept. Adds that CRA (a large mining company) gave him a job straight away and some years later, he’d “distinguished himself” by working out the presence and distribution of the KIMBERLEY diamonds in WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

250: Explains how BURTON presented his theory.

260: Interview closes

A fifth recording took place on 2/NOVEMBER/2004 again at JACK’S home in MANAPOURI. On arrival, JACK mentioned that he had had a health scare and was clearly still recovering from this.

264: Continuing discussion of his UNIVERSITY studies, says he attended OTAGO for two years and that in the second year he had to repeat some of his first year course. Comments that attending both HIGH SCHOOL and UNIVERSITY taught him some invaluable lessons about how to live in the real world.

277: Views his earlier years growing up in MANAPOURI as teaching him to play host and befriend various groups of people on a more transient basis, one that he says was liable to generate the “DON JUAN syndrome” of forming close relationships with people over a short period of time and then never seeing them again.

283: Considers that a similar scenario was experienced by his BROTHER during his early years in hospital in that he would make friends with one nurse who would be quickly gone and replaced by another. Adds that this had a bad effect which lasted for the remainder of BURTON’S life.

295: At OTAGO, he says, he rowed for the UNIVERSITY B TEAM and replies that the academic lectures were “variously interesting” – most of them in large lecture theatres of about 300 students at a time.

307: States that he left because of lack of finance and had always intended to return. But considers that not having done so was the right outcome.

325: Reflects that one of the problems he encountered with his studies was that they were at lower academic level than UNIVERSITY entrance scholarship. For example, he later added that one of his classmates was given a private test and as a result skipped to the next level.

337: Recalls the workload went from five hours a day at school to eight hours a day of lectures. Adds that he missed the position of responsibility he’d held as HEAD PREFECT at school. Mentioned later that during the previous year he’d been DPUTY HEAD PREFECT.

358: Some microphone rumble as it became temporarily dislodged.

360: Recalls DUNEDIN being a place that was “smoggy and misty and grey and leafless”.

374: Talks about one of his holiday jobs which was at the CEMENT FACTORY to the south of the city. Comments that his BROTHER had also worked for the same FACTORY at a later date.

392: Says BURTON was later offered a job as a LAB ASSISTANT.

413: Talks about his board conditions.

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002: Continues off-tape comment that he boarded at a MOTOR CAMP.

014: Agrees there were some students who spent all their time partying rather than studying.

032: Relates a tale about two male students who, because of their diet of only fish and chips, ended up suffering from scurvy – a disease caused by a deficiency of vitamin C.

047: Goes on to say that he later moved into a flat (apartment) in MORAY PLACE with his girlfriend, something, he says, that was totally unacceptable at that time to the extent that a student could be dismissed from UNIVERSITY.

083: Says they drifted apart and he later moved into a FLAT owned by an INDIAN student where he stayed for some time along with a group of INDIAN tenants, some from GUJARAT, others from FIJI.

109: Replies that he passed PHYSICS but failed the other exams including CHEMISTRY which he says surprised him. Adds that he later discovered certain extenuating circumstances that may have led to this result, including a family dispute with the then PROFESSOR of CHEMISTRY.

133: Speculates on this further using the example of another student.

144: In the summer between the two study years, he says he worked for CONSTRUCTION firm that operated CATERPILLAR D-8s and other large vehicles.

160: Says he earned 5 shillings/hour and the work was twelve hours a day, six days a week.

170: The job, he says, involved digging ditches at the side of a main road into the city. Then he worked on a sub-contract at the ROXBURGH DAM building a housing site.

183: Describes drilling with a jackhammer and helping set the explosives and fuse and standing back and watching the blast. Laughs that by today’s standards, the methods were “enormously cavalier” with no hard hats or protective gear.

193: Says he and the other workers lived temporarily at nearby COAL CREEK in “huts on wheels”.

201: Recalls moving on to another contract for the same company to OAMARU extracting LIME from the TOTARA HILL. Explains how the top of the hill was reduced by up to 30 feet.

216: Before discussing his permanent return to MANAPOURI, he goes into quite lengthy detail about some of the varied jobs he undertook in the four years after leaving UNIVERSITY. Says he went through 25 jobs, only one of which he was sacked from, over a union-led dispute. He later commented that each of those jobs provided invaluable education for life in MANAPOURI, where at that time one had to be able to turn one’s hand to anything and everything.

233: Referring back to the CONSTRUCTION job, says the next contract was in CENTRAL OTAGO, towards NASEBY, on the PIG ROUTE where they rebuilt seven miles of new road.

252: Recalls his job was to drive the TAMPER TRACTOR tied to which was a huge roller with “sheep feet” to flatten and compact the soil.

269: Admits to having made a few costly mistakes while driving for the company. Gives some detail.

278: Also relates a story about having to cook for himself and the other men because the camp cook was too drunk and was instantly dismissed. Describes cooking up eggs and that he was later admonished by head office for having exceeded costs set aside for feeding the workers.

299: Talks about another incident when the workmen accidentally cut all the phone lines during a blasting exercise and that he (the participant) had had to climb up the telegraph pole and join them back together. Recalls not knowing which line went where. He later added that he could feel the electrical pulses from cross or desperate telephone users trying to make a connection.

311: Remembers sustaining a severe back injury (a slipped disc) when he was a student which has affected him ever since. Says he was sent home to MANAPOURI for bedrest which helped the healing process.

332: Replies he was in his late teens when the accident occurred.

339: Recalls hitch-hiking to HASTINGS after leaving UNIVERSITY permanently. Tells the story again about being picked up by a MAORI SHEARER from whom he found work in SHEARING SHEDS.

349: Mentions that he’d lived at the home of this SHEARER between contracts and did contract work on several other farms.

353: The next job was with the TOMOANA FREEZING WORKS, which prepares pig food as well as the usual slaughterhouse work.

364: Says he continued visiting the MAORI family he’d stayed with in the HASTINGS area. Sometimes, he says, they would go swimming in a river named TU TAI KURI (dog excrement) which, he continues, is the colour of the river.

370: Makes the comparison with the rivers around MANAPOURI where the water is clear to at least 20 feet below, on one occasion even 40 feet. Remarks that since the (MANAPOURI HYDRO) power scheme was established, the visibility of depth was less clear.

390: Describes the back country around HASTINGS as “rolling country and it’s enormously, deeply dissected” by steep-sided gullies formed from volcanic ash.

395: Mentions working on a FARM further south carrying out giant disking work also with a CATERPILLAR MACHINE. Describes operating it.

Tape 7 Side B stops

[The abstract of the interview continues in Part 4]