Kenneth James Buckingham

Interviewer: Kathryn Summers

Abstractor: Olive McCall

First Interview: 29 June 2016

TRACK 1

00:00 Interview identification

00:38 KENNETH JAMES BUCKINGHAM. Born Sept 1942 INVERCARGILL

00:53 Interview agreement

01:21 Why ancestors came to New Zealand - family history book recording 300 year family history in ENGLAND - not authenticated but history goes back to 4TH CENTURY AD, BLACK FOREST, GERMANY – Germans acknowledged tribe called BUKENHEIMER who lived in the BLACK FOREST.

02:22 First recorded GUERILLA WARFARE – ROMANS –RIVER RHINE - GERMANY – FRANKFURT – BUKENHEIMERS would attack the ROMANS and then disburse back into the BLACK FOREST

03:21 Derivations of the name – BUKENHEIMER, BUKENHAM, BUCKINGHAM, possibly BUCHANAN??

03:37 Did BUKENHEIMERS settle in ENGLAND as slaves or freemen??

04:00 Grandfather kept diaries - 1860s came out to NZ – 1 of 2 single brothers

04:25 Had been PEASANT FARMERS in ENGLAND. Describes

05:29 6 months on SAIL BOAT – horrendous – had to take own food – scraping amongst the people – stealing of food - rats – deaths – terribly sea sick.

05:55 Originally farming in NORFOLK, ENGLAND on reclaimed land – tidal – drains. Describes.

06:22 Looked at land in CANTERBURY – a bit dry – one of the brothers came down to SOUTHLAND - DRUMMOND - Describes

06:47 Grandfather married – bought this run up head of WAIKAWA VALLEY – all scrub - PIONEERS of WAIKAWA VALLEY - Describes

07:18 Big FAMILIES – father’s family 5 brothers 5 sisters – 1 girl died at age 13 from RHEUMATIC FEVER??

07:41 Grandfather always very keen on EDUCATION including for his GIRLS, this was unusual for the time – became usual expectation in the family

08:12 Older brother Terry obtained permission from the GOVERNMENT to leave school at 14years – POST WAR, impossible to get LABOUR, Govt. was encouraging LAND DEVELOPMENT, he was needed on the land

08:32 After 2 years SECONDARY EDUCATION Ken was given choice to go back to school or not – Describes - Ken had driven a TRACTOR AND TRAILER from CURIO BAY to WAIKAWA VALLEY when still primary school age

09:24 Only thing liked about SCHOOL really was SPORT

09:40 Ken’s grandparents bought farm at WAIKAWA VALLEY so that they would be close enough to get to SCHOOL because they considered school important – land bought 1913 and family moved in a year later when had built a house

09:57 Father and his siblings walked to SCHOOL at NIAGARA 3¾ miles. He didn’t start SCHOOL till age 7 or 7½ years as it was such a long way to walk. They had Wednesdays off from school

10:22 Teacher accused an older brother of something he had not done at SCHOOL. Child took up his schoolbag and walked out – rest of the family walked out with him in support - Grandfather supported his son – pleaded with EDUCATION AUTHORITY to get the WAIKAWA VALLEY SCHOOL upgraded and the children attended there – teacher taught 3 days at FORTIFICATION, rode through the bush and taught 3 days at WAIKAWA VALLEY

11:41 Poor quality of TEACHERS – Describes

12:02 Father returned to NIAGARA SCHOOL to complete his PROFICIENCY exam at age 12 years – quite literate – knew lots of poetry by heart.

12:55 Ken’s own education was at NIAGARA SCHOOL – travelled by bus – first bus was a ‘FORD THORNTON’ with crash gear box – MANUKA rails at the back and the dust used to pour in – Describes

13:24 NIAGARA school had 2 SAWMILLS supplying pupils - 50/50 saw miller/farming families – sport teams were often saw millers vs farmers or else 2 best rugby players would pick a team each

13:46 Played SOCCER too, sometimes RUGBY with a soccer ball – fence along the road line was the edge of the sports paddock - knocked self out tackling a person and head hit corner of post - CRICKET hard ball in the eye knocked him out

14:22 Family very poor but didn’t know it, everybody was in the same situation.

14:29 Mother made CLOTHES, shorts were made out of sugar bags, lined with flour bags, braces over the top.

14:49 SELF SUFFICIENT on farm – COWS – plenty of food – own garden

TRACK 2

00:00 …. and ORCHARDS

00:22 PRIMARY SCHOOL enjoyed RUGBY, knees used to be bleeding Describes - teaching didn’t enjoy at all

00:51 PRIMARY SCHOOL 2 local girls who hadn’t been to TEACHERS COLLEGE, Describes

01:26 SCHOOL ROLL - 70/80 kids got up to 100 in the school, only 2 rooms

01:34 JUNIOR ROOM had tall jute petition 11-12 feet across, could hear everything going on in the primers, jammed in like sardines

01:54 SENIOR ROOM succession of RELIEVING TEACHERS Describes

02:18 SECONDARY SCHOOL hated school work was boring, loved the sport again – pupils were issued POCKET MONEY 2/- a week, Describes

3:10 BULLYING because working for the RECTOR was given name as a crawler, off to a very bad start - D2, CRAWLER, CATERPILLAR – long 13 week terms.

03:47 REGRET – didn’t go back to school - dead keen to leave at the time - only stating to come right by end Form 4 - confident people achieve a lot more

04:24 Age 21 TRAVELLED - working around the world - Describes

04:54 FARMING in those days - totally different - very physical - farms much smaller – father’s farm 260 acres - 100 acres drained by hand - dig ditches by hand - Describes

05:29 Rest of FARM so steep some of it has never had a tractor on it – father ploughed with 6 HORSE team with blocks and tackle - remember seeing plough roll

05:50 Was not a very good farm but they seemed to make the most of it

05:58 1950s WOOL BOOM came – we had cows on the farm

06:10 Every district had its local DAIRY FACTORY – one at end of WAIKAWA VALLEY where WAIKAWA VALLEY ROAD meets TOKANUI /NIAGARA ROAD - milk cows by hand in morning - Describes

06:57 Remember HORSES vividly, fascinating, one or 2 quiet ones we could sit on their backs

07:26 Father would blow stumps out with GELIGNITE, Describes

08:41 My job to ride PONY down to put sheep off the SWEDES each night in winter. HORSE would bolt home, Describes

09:11 Father was a TEAMSTER for 3 farms - of the 5 brothers 3 were farmers, 1 was an AUTO ELECTRICIAN, youngest got some education and joined FORESTRY – father knew heaps about horses but he didn’t share his knowledge with his sons

10:54 LIVING CONDITIONS – father seemed to be a bit of a trendsetter – first in WAIKAWA VALLEY to have a FLUSH TOILET – father had a PONTIAC CAR, old 2nd hand American car – only decent car in the valley – most kids in the valley their first ride in a car was in the PONTIAC, father would bring mothers and new babies home from maternity in Invercargill - early 50s no car - couldn’t buy a car then without OVERSEAS FUNDS – 3 years used 3 TON TRUCK – kids rode in the back - father take girls to basketball - ROYAL VISIT 1954, schools had day off to go to INVERCARGILL to see QUEEN AND DUKE - school bus broke down – father took the whole school on back of his truck to INVERCARGILL

12:53 Some of the MILL KIDS were quite poor - everybody had big families in those days – MANAGERS in bush and mills were good steady types, long-time residents - good citizens – one of our jobs was milking cows some of the milk we put in EDMONDS BAKING POWDER tins with wire handles and take it up to the mills - only half of them ever paid us - good solid types would.

13:59 SCHOOL REUNION mid 80s - photos could count 17 Jail Birds – parents would arrive – work for a while, run up bill at local store / garage and then disappear in the middle of the night to west coast - very itinerant - Farm kids fairly well off compared to them

14:37 DENTAL CLINIC - some of the MILL KIDS used to walk to NIAGARA

SCHOOL ….

TRACK 3

00:00 …. SHOP beside the main road, they used to go into the SHOP and buy few biscuits or lollies for lunch, those kids just got their teeth cleaned at the DENTAL CLINIC

00:17 we had to sit in this terrible place because it was the old TREADLE mill they used to tread with their feet, made the boring machine (DRILL) go round and it went very slowly, no painless, Describes - putting the AMALGAM in your teeth

00:51 Mill kids were a real mixed bag

01:10 DENTAL CLINIC built at TOKANUI, we would go in the H&H BUS and hop off at TOKANUI – H&H BUS went from WAIKAWA to INVERCARGILL every day and that is how the MILL PEOPLE got to town - MEDICALLY TOKANUI was, and still is, considered a SPECIAL AREA, due to the influence of SAWMILLS and people without cars

01:53 father said when he was young there was a TOKANUI sale every Monday – a DENTIST would come out on TRAIN sometimes and set up to pull TEETH out of kids that needed it – he was just a butcher really - wrenched them out with PLIERS, Describes

Second Interview: 11th September 2016

TRACK 4

00:25 EDUCATION OF GIRLS - unusual at the time – farm grandfather bought at WAIKAWA VALLEY was bought strategically so that kids could get an education, it was close enough to NIAGARA that they could to walk to school at NIAGARA – it was important – generational change - education was part of the game of survival in those days -most people were farmers or SAW MILLERS nobody aspired to EDUCATION much - Describes

02:32 SECONDARY EDUCATION was very difficult because most schools didn’t have BOARDING FACILITIES – I had to go to OAMARU to get somewhere to board – my parents had to make sacrifices to pay for that education – most people just didn’t – 1 or 2 went to SOUTHLAND TECHNICAL COLLEGE on the Train – meant they spent 1 or 2 hours before turned round and came back again – unless had relatives in the city where they could BOARD – EDUCATION very difficult for isolated areas

03:41 CHALLENGES – didn’t know anyone before I went there – didn’t expect to enjoy it / hated it except for the sport. Accepted that long stints away from home were a part of having a secondary education

04:37 TYPICAL PRIMARY SCHOOL DAY – rise between 6-6:30 – 5 cows to be milked – 7 in the family – rotated around 3 basic jobs - helping mother in the house with dishes and a few things – wood and hens fed hens, split the firewood and kindling for the next day – MILKING COWS - bring cows into the shed – Describes - CREAM went into a CREAM CAN and on H &H BUS into INVERCARGILL

06:28 Milk cows, had breakfast, on school bus about 8:30 - FORD THORNTON – acting the goat with other kids, no supervision

07:12 TEACHERS were mostly relievers - uncertificated TEACHERS, local girls – not much control of class – Describes – went down to the river to have our lunch – used to throw things into the river and watch all the WHITEBAIT disappearing – nobody seemed to catch them in those days

08:18 SPORT at lunch time - mixed sport, the two best rugby players would pick their teams often a girl would be 3rd or 4th picked cause very fast runner – TEACHERS went home for lunch so children left UNSUPERVISED

09:06 Home by 3:30pm - something quick to nibble at and then off to find where father was working

09:48 WEEKENDS/HOLIDAYS – work orientated - everyone seemed to work nearly all the time, Describes

10:08 Later on had SCHOOL BOY SPORTS and a bit of RUGBY we went to other places and played on a Saturday

10:30 SUNDAYS – cows and usual chores – go to MASS on a Sunday once a month – father not a CATHOLIC, Describes – we had CATECHISM we had to learn at home – RELIGION was not that important in our lives but was part of our lives

11:28 HIGH DAYS & HOLIDAYS - GRANDPARENTS on fathers side were both dead, on mothers side both alive we used to spend part of the school holidays at grandparents farm at HALDANE, loved it out there - GRANDMOTHER taught me to play CHESS which I have valued all my life – go on HORSE with GRANDFATHER and learn things from him. Main attraction was a MAN MADE LAKE with a track around the edge, they had a TRIKE, ride TRIKE around the LAKE, Describes – lake full of FRESH WATER CRAYFISH, Describes

13:39 Parents – social support? FATHER involved in several community activities – CHAIRMAN SCHOOL COMMITTEE, HALL COMMITTEE, HOME AND SCHOOL COMMITTEE, SPORTS COMMITTEE. Sports very important, every district had its ANNUAL SPORTS DAY

13:58 MOTHER no memory of any support – had learned to drive by time Ken left school – take the car and go to WOMEN’S DIVISION (FEDERATED FARMERS). – after those meetings very animated in the evenings – Describes

TRACK 5

00:00 ….. when just left school and involved in YOUNG FARMERS CLUB MOTHER very helpful with developing logical arguments for the DEBATE

00:32 Had the TELEPHONE for as long as I can remember – PARTY LINE – Morse code for the rings – everyone in the WAIKAWA VALLEY was on the same party line, Describes - MOTHER talked to her mother every day – talked FARMING at the dining table, was our whole life, Describes

02:00 RADIO – UNCLE CLARRY, DAD AND DAVE – presume parents listened to the radio at night but I don’t remember that

02:45 SERVICES IN THE AREA – from medical point of view very lucky in some ways - 3 SAWMILLS in the area NIAGARA, PROGRESS VALLEY, BLACKHORN – a lot of these workers were itinerant people without cars so couldn’t travel to the city – GOVERNMENT designated it a SPECIAL AREA so able to have a DOCTOR at TOKONUI even after sawmills closed designation as Special Area remained.

04:14 Housing – Everybody had a LONG DROP in the early days - FLUSH TOILET in the house as long as Ken could remember

04:54 MEAT SAFE - Farmers all killed our own meat, Describes – BEEF shared with neighbour – half each – lot of it was corned – same with PIGs – everybody had a pig or 2 those days, Describes

06:12 About midway through Primary school visiting cousins at QUARRY HILLS had just bought a REFRIGERATOR and we had homemade ICE CREAM – remember thinking how absolutely marvellous it would be to have a fridge, Describes

06:52 EGGS – Preserved eggs for baking –fresh eggs for us – we had DUCK EGGS too for baking

07:14 STORE at TOKANUI – delivered round Southern district twice a week Tuesdays and Fridays, Describes – BUTTER homemade

04:48 Communication – ROADS were reasonable – all GRAVEL – very dusty in summer – used to use PEA GRAVEL from FRASERS BEACH at FORTROSE – used to dig clay off the side of the banks to bind it together but in the summer was extremely dusty.

09:42 Neighbours named WOODs – travelling on 5 MILE STRAIGHT – neighbour driving them to town, Describes ROAD ACCIDENT all killed instantly – direct result of dust.

10:37 Sometimes think born a generation too late because really did love the HORSES – horses dominated all people’s lives in the country in those days – they were used for social occasions – used for work – as a COMMUNITY they helped - socialized only as far as you could ride a horse to – people learned MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS and entertained themselves, Describes

11:44 FARMING change – massive changes in farming - learned to live with it – got to be flexible, Describes. ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES nowadays – lot more scale, Describes

12:38 SAW MILLS were always built by a CREEK – creek was diverted to go through the sawmill – there would be a BOX DRAIN under each saw with water running through it which took all the sawdust out of the mill – ran straight into the nearest gully -PROGRESS VALLEY 40-60-80 feet deep of sawdust for miles – concerns with WATER nowadays - Freezing Works built by rivers – PAPER MILLs – all that INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION went straight into the rivers in those days - OCEAN BEACH at BLUFF went straight into the sea – none of that can happen nowadays of course - have been massive changes

13:55 PESTS – RABBIT plagues in NZ – introduced for food – was no native animals here so any animals introduced unless controlled just went rampant – Hundreds of people have lost their farms because of RABBITS - 1940s Government decided they would eradicate rabbits from NZ and RABBIT BOARDS were set up to do just that

Track 6

00:00 ,,,, brow of a hill where we faced QUARRY HILLS and just seeing the whole face move away with the little white tails bobbing as they all just ran away – POISON our own RABBITS - garden needed to be rabbit fenced off – too expensive to fence crops of BRASSICAS for winter stock feed, so RABBIT TRAPS all-round the outside which were checked night and morning – lot of PROFESSIONAL RABBIT HUNTERS – rabbits were an EXPORT COMMODITY - 2/- per pound for a pair - 2/6d for HARES

01:06 We had the RABBIT-RAIL by the road with a scrim over it to keep flies off – the truck would come around every day to take up the RABBITS – he would leave cash for the rabbits in a tin on a MANUKA STAKE beside the rail – had to devalue the RABBITS once the RABBIT BOARDS were introduced – a lot of the PROFESSIONAL RABBIT HUNTERS, Describes

01:55 Our area was a very difficult area, SAND HILLS on the coast right through to bush ground, lots of cover – the foreman we had got rid of all the RABBITS from TOKANUI at that stage and believed in the GOVERNMENT’S PHILOSOPHY which was to ERADICATE the last rabbit from NZ. Sadly it never was achieved because other foreman didn’t have the same motivation - Amalgamating the RABBIT BOARDS, came down to control rather than eradication, still to fighting them today – POISONS and better methods – will never completely kill them out – CALICIVIRUS – which has been imported, Describes

3:09 POSSUMS were introduced for their FUR, for an INCOME, now we spend $100 million/year trying to control them – they eat all the same food as most of our NATIVE BIRDS – STOATS, WEASELS, FERRETS, were all brought in to control RABBITS – STOATS climb trees and eat NATIVE BIRD’S EGGS and young, Describes

04:22 TYPES OF FARMING – this is a steep area – few paddocks of oats to cut into CHAFF to feed the HORSES, the farmers source of power – this area is basically PASTORAL FARMING - most of SOUTHERN DISTRICT was covered in heavy bush – not a desirable area to go to for farming – 20-30 years for logs and stumps to rot away – although not a desirable area was a good place for a man to start because it was a cheaper than other areas, Describes

05:30 The difference between SHEEP FARMING and DAIRYING was driven by the EXPORT MARKETS - earlier days was WOOL, ran WETHERS too as could cut the WOOL off them – later FROZEN MEAT EXPORTS, FAT LAMB TRADE developed. Easy to have a DAIRY FACTORY and turn it in to BUTTER or CHEESE, didn’t need to be refrigerated – EXPORTED mostly to BRITAIN – 1950’S KOREAN WAR –tremendous demand for CROSSBRED WOOL, cold and snowy, ARMY needed WOOL – WOOL BOOM Pound for Pound – most DAIRY FARMS were CONVERTED to SHEEP – last couple of decades DAIRYING has been worth a lot more than SHEEP so many farms have been CONVERTED back to DAIRY.

07:13 Early DAIRY FARMS had 20-30 cows – wasn’t sustainability issues with them - nowadays big DAIRY FARMS – lot of emphasis on SUSTAINABILITY with dairy farms, Describes

07:42 Area is steep – safe CLIMATE don’t have to IRRIGATE – sure it will always be PASTORAL FARMING of one sort or another.

08:00 FORESTRY – good area to grow grass is also good area to grow trees, Describes – most farmers grow trees on their steep areas – reduces DANGER of operating TRACTORS on steep country - mid 90s when farming very depressed big corporates bought very large areas of land down here and put in PINUS RADIATA – also JAPANESE planted EUCALYPTUS trees - CHIPPED for shiny paper – big impact on farming - communities less viable because lot less people and less labour needed – retrograde step but ECONOMICS dictate these things

09:46 BLOODY FRIDAY – didn’t take part on the day – 2 organisers one was my brother and the other was a cousin – UNIONS – for a decade or 2 the PROCESSING INDUSTRY was dominated by UNIONS and very strong Unions, Describes. The FREEZING WORKERS of course know that, so it is an ideal time for them to go out on strike for infinitesimal reasons which they seemed to do - OCEAN BEACH only company still owned by BRITAIN and they just said give them what they want - go on strike for very stupid little reasons – other company’s workers strike for parity with OCEAN BEACH – Got to stage farmers couldn’t farm properly, Describes – to make a protest about UNION ACTIVITY and what was happening in the works

12:42 Farmers took their skinny EWES into TOWN as a PROTEST - Said they wouldn’t let them out but they did, Describes BLOODY FRIDAY – very proud of family involvement – turning point in UNION behaviour – started a process where UNIONS had less power and we were able to get our stock killed when we wanted to

14:00 FARMING is our whole life, dominates our thinking and that of our neighbours, Describes - have FARM DISCUSSION GROUPS, talk with others, Describes

TRACK 7

00:00 …. dominants our whole life, just love it will keep doing it and while I have still got my health I will still want to be involved, it’s an interesting life, a passionate interest

00:31 Thanks

00:38 Finish