H0269 PETER WALLACE DRUMMOND

Interviewer: Jenny Campbell

Abstractor: April Milligan

Date of Interview: 5th May 2016

Track 1

00:00 Interview Identification

00:00 PETER WALLACE DRUMMOND. Born in 1945

01:46 Family details: Born INVERCARGILL. Brother IVAN 10 years older. Sister died as a baby. Mother ELSIE DRUMMOND. Father HARRISON DRUMMOND. Grandparents to FIVE RIVERS - 5 generations 100 years on property from CANTERBURY

02.39 Great Grandmother HELEN HARRISON. Born on ship ‘BLUNDELL’ off the coast of AFRICA. Grandfather, ‘WILD BEAR’ ship from SCOTLAND. Passage bought by friends - MR MACGREGOR, MOUNT LINTON STATION and MR SLOSH, NORTH CANTERBURY. Condition was to leave the ship at the first port in NEW ZEALAND

03.23 Describes arrival in BLUF, NZ. He walked to DUNEDIN. He worked as a Carpenter and Cabinet maker. Gold rush at OTEPOTI/HERBERT. Built schools churches. Contracting paid friends back 20 years later. 3rd largest grain grower in CANTERBURY, MCGRIGGS, MULHOLLANDS and the DRUMMONDS

04.03 Explains Entrepreneurial bent. Owned LYNDHURST LAURUS BARHILL. Bought here on speculation. MORTGAGE ADJUSTMENT ACT meant 43 people put into property in CANTERBURY lost it overnight.

04.32 WATER RACES ENGINEERING BUSINESS. ANDREW MACFARLANE bought machinery from PARIS and LONDON. Built machinery and the 1st water race in CANTERBURY. Bought equipment to NEW ZEALAND before turn of Century. TILLER STEEL BEAN 6 MODEL T FORDS. Mentions Travel including visiting relations in SCOTLAND.

05.36 Recalls shift of Sons to FIVE RIVERS. Brothers ALEC and PETER DRUMMOND in Partnership. ALEC had separate land. Grandfather also had 6,000 acres DIPTON/TURAMUNGA. Shifted machinery from CANTERBURY. Hired train to FIVE RIVERS. Brought 1st tractors to the area. JELBART-built BALLARAT in AUSTRALIA. MR JIMMY ANDREWS, RUSSELL ANDREWS father tells incident with tractor backfiring and horses bolting on arrival of train.

07.18 Grandfather came to Five Rivers 1916. Grandfather died 1950’s. Father born 1906. 2nd eldest son out of 4 brothers. Most relations in CANTERBURY. Grandmother was a LILLIAN LOWE. Family around HINDS, ASHBURTON.

08.11 Describes there’s always been a mechanical thing in the family. In SCOTLAND Great grandfather and brothers worked on FORTH bridge. Lot of family were shipbuilders, engineers. Always had their own equipment and fixed own gear. LANCE BULLDOZERS TRACTORS.

08.52 Described housing and inhabitants. Childhood lived in cottage until 5yrs. It was built from bricks left over from the HOMESTEAD. Grandparents shifted to LUMSDEN. Builders did work to HOMESTEAD. LAKE BOYS were in it while RABBITING. Rode races around inside on pushbikes. Beds were in the billiard room. Lots of contractors came to work for Grandfather. DUNCAN STIRLING babysat me. Good social life at PARAWA HOTEL joined by the ones from NOKOMAI.

10.40 Mentions worker COLIN DUNLOP went off to KOREA. Still have his kit bag and his clothes kept for when he came back from the war.

Explains hard getting staff. Father assisted immigrants. One ANDREW TAYLOR from SCOTLAND was very educated well read. Learnt a lot from him.

11.24 Describes working in the bush. MIDDLETONS, from LORA GORGE lived in the cottage ,were working in the bush cutting down trees with CROSS CUT SAWS. SHIRLEY MIDDLETON had young children in the cottage went up to camp in the bush with children. RON MIDDLETON buying GMC TRUCK doing turnip stakes split posts and stakes. TOM FRISBY go to LANDS and SURVEY and local ‘cocky’s‘(farmer) FOREST SERVICE exited him from bush. OTAPIRI TRANSPORT 1st LEYLAND COMMIT TRUCK. Retrieved posts left in bush. My brother pulled them with LANCE BULLDOG TRACTOR.

Recalls making money as a lad. No one was doing stakes and there was a demand. My brother and father cut lengths and I split them. They pointed them on the saw bench as I was too young.-sold for 6 pound 10 a 100. A lot of money in those times.

13.33 TEMPLETON’S RIVERTON one of few doing stakes. Banked quite a bit of money. At Boarding School for 12 years. WAITAKI BOARDING SCHOOL. Mother sold stakes and added to bank.

14.03 Remembers school journeys. Earlier could ride a bike to school but often picked up because it was a struggle to go back up to home. Used to hard WINTERS and terrible frosts. Dad always made sure I got to school ’cause he wanted his paper”

TRACK 2

00.24 Describes RABBITING -with my dogs -8/9/10 years old. Set traps. 11/1yrs trusted had a 22. AUSTRALIAN poisons came in and cleaned the rabbits up. “One black rabbit I spent a fortnight digging out.’ Determined. Father skinned the rabbits. “He could do 8 a minute in the blink of an eye.” He had been a solo butcher. Probably bounty off them not worth much. Farmers employed rabbiters before RABBIT BOARDS established late 1950s. Used to go night shooting and driving with them. Used to go fishing. you made your own entertainment.

02.28 Mentions Family activities. Brother Ivan, 10 years older out on the farm. MUM not in good health with a lung collapsed. Helped with housework. MUM grew 500 GLADIOLIS. Dried the bulbs on old wire mattresses. Showed blooms at conventions Was a judge in NAPIER.

03.58 Describes use and selling of TURNIP STAKES. Before electric fences you put out temporary netting, used to attach coils of prefabricated netting. To crowbar a hole we drive a turnip stake in with a maul. Hard work. To strain the netting up we used the back axel of the tractor. Had wire hooked around the 3 point linkage arms and put the tractor on. Later years used an old MODEL A to pull the netting up reasonably tight. Hope not to pull the stake out and stapled it on. Big areas dividing into smaller paddocks. Give sheep a break for 3 or 4 days a week or whatever. Couldn’t shift them like you could today. Later years, just before electric fences came in we used the INDUSTRIAL 4WD LOADER. You filled the bucket up with stakes, pushed them in the ground. ‘It was brilliant. Line ‘em up, put so many in, so easy, stony ground. before had to use a crowbar to make a hole.”

05.41 Mentions stakes sold mostly to MR GILLESPIE, MANAGER LANDS and SURVEY up at TE ANAU. Tough nut. Picked out all the big stakes, heart ones. They last. Knew what he wanted. He had an old BEDFORD TRUCK. He picked them out and I had to load them all. He forgot the invoice, so wrote one out on the spot. Reunion, when he retired, I wasn’t there. Later reported he was had on about a pint sized boy, getting the better of him, making sure I was paid for the stakes. He thought it was comical (Mr Gillespie). Entrepreneurial skills showing.

07.01 Details of FIVE RIVERS SCHOOL. 25 of us, wouldn’t have existed except for the MCGETTIGANS FAMILY 7 children and the RAILWAY employees. 3 houses 36 families in the district. Quite a lot of people worked on farms. Enjoyable times. One teacher for a start, then a second teacher after a while, One, came back from the War. He’d been shell shocked. Guy strapped me once. Reckon totally unfair. Claimed I’d kissed his daughter. To get even put a bird in his desk. Parents called in because the bird shat all over his books. I think that’s why I got sent to WAITAKI .

08.32 Ivan went to TECH in INVERCARGILL then came back to the farm. Parents were reasonably elderly when I was born. I came back to the farm too ‘cause you were needed.

09.02 Recalls 1956 DRAUGHT of the CROMEL RIVER. “Never got to main road mile above the road”. No water in the whole of FIVE RIVERS, serious draught. IVAN away doing MILITARY TRAINING at BURNHAM. Mostly did Fire Fighting with a HEATHCOT BALMORAL. Wasn’t helicopters in those days, scary times. Worked early morning ‘till late afternoon till late like. LUMSDEN TRANSPORT carting hay. Highlight pint sized kid behind the wheel of the LEYLAND COMMET TRUCK. OLD SWANNIE warned, ‘Don’t you get out of low gear and drive it”. Everyone had to help. All done sensibly. Never had an accident. not like now. You’re not allowed to do anything. Only way you learn.

10.42 Recalls Selling stakes and deerstalking after home from Boarding School. Lot of land development was going on. Rebuilding CRAWLERS, lot of time driving machinery. In spare time, with money made from TURNIP STAKES, soon as old enough bought myself a 7mil MAUSER RIFLE and a 3030 WINCHESTER. Went DEERSTALKING. Brother and I went every evening up the CROMEL VALLEY shooting deer. Took them to the MOSSBURN meat chiller and sold for cash. Banked a lot of money. Built a truck with a CHRYSLER body. Father bet I wouldn’t finish. Converted a VOLKSWAGON into a low deck for deerstalking. Friend, got me to cut down a DAIMLER car RACETRONIC from LINTLEY, into a farm truck. Few jobs like that.

12.17 Recalls importing tractors. Enjoyed advertisement in a BRITISH MAGAZINE for 4WD tractors made in HUNGARY. Wrote to Company who wrote back offering NZ DISTRIBUTORSHIP. They didn’t know I was 19. Went with my brother on weekend to BRIAN TALBOYS (MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE) at WINTON and DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER. He said” you’ve got to do something with this”. Introduction of TRADE between HUNGARY and NZ. There had been none since 1953. Had to get IMPORT LICENCE. Really difficult. Had Political support. Politicians were Statesmen in those days PETER GORDON “if you give it a go we’ll get behind you” make a decision. Imported them. HUNGARY a Communist Country. VIETNAM WAR broke out couldn’t have struck it worse. 6 machines in NZ. Worth more as Collector’s Items.

13.24 Explains Genealogy. Thought ancestors were Scottish but turns out they came originally from HUNGARY. Name DRUMMOND goes right back to the HUNGARIAN ROYAL FAMILY. ANNABELL went to SCOTLAND and married ROBERT THE BRUCE’s son. The complete Royal Lineage. Didn’t know till I went to SCOTLAND and my old Uncle told me.

13.56 Farmed away. Doing a lot of development. They (Govt) were wanting farmers to develop bringing in tussock country, virgin country. Basically kept 1600 acres as a bush block and logged timber for ourselves. TURNIP STAKES came out of the native bush. Some called it BEECH NATIVE BIRCH not ENGLISH BEECH. Developed fencing and building bridges. Built our own bridges and cattle yards and our first cattle bail.

TRACK 3

00.03 GOODALLS at MOSSBURN had a Cattle bale they didn’t like the handle. DONNY GOODALL said, “it was dangerous “.We (WALLACE and Brother) designed our own handle for it. Didn’t realise how good it was. LANDS and SURVEY Livestock Inspector asked if we had a patent on it. Went to CHRISTCHURCH PATENT ATTORNEY. So set up a Business Manufacturing them. Running the farm by day and making cattle bales by night. We had a workshop.

00.50 1971 both our parents died Just before ESTER and I were getting married. We were going to build a new house for them and move into the Homestead. Estate Duties changed everything. My Father left everything to my Mother –a difficult time.

01.20 WALLACE describes Cranked up working in the bush. Sending timber to TIMARU to make Medical sticks. Did all right. Had the cattle bales. Did well out of that and the farm as well burning the candle at both ends .IVAN and I were in Partnership. Had been in Partnership with my Father. It got dissolved so we went our own ways. He died not long after. He had a coronary at 65. Mother was in hospital but she perked up but it was too much. He died on a Thursday buried on the Saturday. She died next Thursday buried the next Saturday. Tough at the time but character building.

02.43 Wedding in OAMARU delayed for a wee while. Shifted into Homestead. The house had already been built. IVAN was going to live with my Parents but he ended up living with us. IVAN went on a trip to EUROPE. Made a few cattle bales before he went but sold the lot in the first week. I was running the farm on my own with the Boy. Pulling every stop out and managed to get other Farmers to come and work at night and weld up parts for me. Times when I sent a truck load away with NORTHERN SOUTHLAND (Transport). I’d buy steel by the tonne, 204 Pound a tonne.

04.01 Homestead was built in 1857 by WILLIAM HOAG. He took up the Run, quite an early. Run came from RIVERTON built the first house bit it’s not there now. A single storey brick, used later as a coal and wood shed, was starting to fall down put together with plaster. Didn’t keep it as it was right at the backdoor of the Homestead. Notable was a WOMENS DIVISION Halloween Party. MRS BILL HEENAN, MRS ANDREWS other Ladies of the District Mother got a big trumpet thing, got old copper full of water, had turnips made into skulls. Scary. Mother said look out for the ghosts. Nightmares after.

05.29 Recalls earlier times. They used to have maids. AMENITIES -no bathrooms, washroom outside. An upstairs passage converted to a shower in later times. Toilet outside. Long drop with a wee seat for child next to adult seat. Father used to sit reading his paper. We altered house to put flush toilet inside in passage downstairs. Water was pumped by a Ram from the creek into a tank. If it overflowed we turned the tap off. Winter got frozen pipes. Dad nailed a board 27ft up on the tank he couldn’t reach with a ladder nailed rungs on. bias a big man he climbed up with a LANCE BULLDOG blowtorch. Risk of burning it all down.

07.06 Describes Homestead. When ESTER and I came we got a bridge builder and built a double garage and outside washhouse. Mother had had a HOOVERMATIC in the kitchen. Facilities weren’t there. Put outside shower and toilet and another shower so we could come off a tractor and have the facilities right there. House had a lot done in 1927 and then 1950’s started doing it up, sometimes stripping 8 layers of paper filled things in and started again. Tried to keep as much as possible original. Cousins at old homestead BRONCHORREA found lovely doors had been panelled off. Fashion. Worked away at it. Bought scaffolding, new barge boards, new plumbing, new sewerage pipes. Dug right around and put storm water and a new well water supply.

09.27 Walls are triple brick with top story double brick. CRAIG and HANNAH (son and daughter-in-law) are now living in the house. I have a free hand to keep working on it with a wood working shop at FIVE RIVERS. Doing in Retirement what I didn’t have time to do before. Can’t get builders now. Things come in kitset form not builders. Assemblers have taken beams upstairs, output 6 by 2’s in and new ceilings to get rid of borer. 16 rooms in total, including bathrooms, 9 bedrooms, schoolroom, big billiard room, 2 bathrooms, sitting room, big passage ways. House here (Lumsden) we bought the old POLICE STATION with wide passage ways- modern houses now narrow passage ways.

11.17 Lived there 68 years. 1st 5 years in the cottage then Homestead. Started with all sheep and very few cattle. Parents started in 1950’s with 180 Half Bred Sheep, MODEL A TRUCK, MODEL A CAR, LANCE BULLDOG TRACTOR, all sheep, not many cattle in FIVE RIVERS, 4,200 acres included the bush, 1,600 acres of bush. Father acquired from Estate paid pennies.

12.24 Bush block was unusual. FOREST SERVICE noted it had been Surveyed off to give Five Rivers Estate a private Bush block. Everything around is Forestry .FOREST SERVICE had to access through our place as surveyed road never opened.

1300 Original surveyed road came from IRON BRIDGE at WALLACETOWN up through TARINGATURA, West side of ORETI RIVER from back of WINTON to elbow at CASTLEROCK from Selling Centre (Sale-yards). Paper road through ORETI RIVER, through EARTHING or CROMEL RIVER, joined up at LOWTHER, onto LOWTHER ROAD, to DRUMMOND WORKSHOP, straight up to HOMESTEAD, then into Bush. Land put aside for Education Schools been sawmills in its heyday. 130 people at FIVE RIVERS. RAILWAY came 1879 took a track out from the Railway.

14.14 FOREST SERVICE area all Native bush. DEER CULLERS came and stayed in Cottage. As a kid WALLACE remembers,” Deer came and ate our swede crops out.’ A major problem. Dad’s MERCEDES car with MAUSER (gun) came home from cards and would shoot deer on the side of the road. FOREST SERVICE were trying to look after the Native Bush.

TRACK 4

00.15 Mentions FIVE RIVERS Social Life was good. When young, no TV. 1st TV when JOHN HAMILTON’S invited us to see box with pictures. Before that dances in ALEC DRUMMOND’S hall at BRONCHORRHEA to raise money for FIVE RIVERS HALL. GAVIN CUNNINGHAM donated land. My GRANDFATHER, GEORGE HAMILTON and ALEC DRUMMOMND main contributors of money. HAROLD DORE from LUMSDEN built the Hall. Mother was in hospital. Recalls staying at MacDONALD’S. Went to the opening of the Hall - a big thing. Used to hold evenings cards, fundraising dances more before my time.

02.25 HEALTH at Boarding School used to do marathons. Had trouble keeping up. Didn’t pass Army Medical. Sent to GREEN LANE, (Hospital) AUCKLAND. Flown up from INVERCARGILL. Thought to be split artery from heart. Found had Rheumatic Fever as a child which went undetected. No operation. I had torn muscles to my heart Had been on 14lb Sledgehammer driving the master pins out of the BULLDOZER tracks.

03.12 HARVESTING -recalled Father had INTERNATIONAL HEADER. It came second-hand to SOUTHLAND. Debated, BILL ALLISONS, HEDDON BUSH who had first Header. WALTON GILLIES from OAMARU had ESCALATERS around old 10 RB’S. He said my GRANDFATHER’S was the first one solved the argument. It came 2nd hand with the land from OAMARU-to FIVE RIVERS Was a hard thing to operate. Job as a kid threading the needles. It had its own seats separated. They could take different samples off. Every so often they tripped the bags, 3-4 in the back of the Shute, put them on the ground. Harvest in the district- JOE ROUSE bought a SELF PROPELLED ELLIS CHALMERS HEADER the most modern machine for a long time. DAVID WAITE bought a CLASSON HEADER made in BELGIUM 1960’s ‘the bees knees’ brilliant machine. He could do in an hour what used to take a day. DAVID grew a lot of crop and we used to help him take GMC TRUCK DEUTSCHER TRAILOR- he’d have his own gear then he’d come and help us. District helped one another.

05.07 CROPS mainly wheat. Lot of people grew grain because of the downturn in sheep. Then there’d be a flood of grain. Didn’t need oats with tractors. Horses dying out. I have a photo of me on a big horse at 5 years. Horse lived 39 years, reckoned MR EARL. Lived its days out. Had been a Station horse. Don’t remember using horses in my time .GRANDPARENTS had had tractors since 1919. When land bought they had Managers NIXON for 3 years, then they came down with the equipment in 1919. Motivated other people to get tractors. More mechanised than some areas. The straw was burnt.

07.09 Winter feed swedes. Father and ALEC DRUMMOND were the first farmers to grow LUCERNE. Big areas inoculated and had to get it in the ground within a certain time. Couldn’t get it in so got BILL HEWITT and ERIC TEMPLETON in 2 CESSNA PLANES, working in the dark. Watched from the cattle yards with lights on and flew the seed on, rain came and had a brilliant strike.

07.59 Engineering Business with IVAN was set up in FIVE RIVERS after he went off the farm. I leased his land for a while he carried on building cattle bales and repairing machinery.

08.24 Farming with ESTER -changed sheep from ROMNEYS to COOP-WORTHS and took lambing % from 90% to162%. Rams came from JOHN MacDONALD, who I went to school with. He was my Best Man. Different ways of doing things. Bought ROUND BALERS. IVAN and I had made 14,000 bales of LUCERNE with a 77 NEW HOLLAND BALLER. Manual work, 1 person on tractor, 1 person on back. ESTER would drive the GMC in the winter to feed out stock. Had to cart everything in then back out again. Bought 1st Round Baler in the District CLASS BALLER. Did a lot of Contracting for people locally. Other people started buying them Labour wasn’t around farms then.

10.20 Recalls employing quite a few young men. Chap from LINCOLN COLLEGE still in contact with RAY HOLLIDAY. He went on to manage a big place at IRISHMAN’S CREEK. SIMON MARSHALL through CUNNINGHAM WAITE Family from LAKE ROTOITI ST ANNAS. Still have contact. Good Guys worked for me had a lot of fun too. Bounced ideas off and worked together.

11.48 Discusses Family details of children who all went to FIVE RIVERS SCHOOL GREGORY, BECK and CRAIG.

TRACK 5

00.04 Mentions the farms future. CRAIG leases the home farm off us, where we get our income. He will end up with it. Made a lot of improvements and added value I enjoy going back helping them CRAIG’S married to HANNAH have BRIAR expecting another soon

00.41 Spent a year up there rebuilding Station Woolshed. Sawed trees down between us. Timber milled. Work away at it. Remembers shed history. During the 1956 draught, shearers wanted to work all day but so hot in the Woolshed with corrugated iron roof. IVAN got the garden sprinkler, a VILLIERS Motor gear pump, took the garden hose to a creek. A frame on the roof worked perfect. Dropped temperature so shearers could carry on. BEVAN SCOTT and HENDERSON IASAC stood under the down pipe having a shower stark naked.

02.32 Shed built in 1860 by ELLIS BROTHERS. Originally 24 BLADE STAND. Brought the sheep from MERRIVALE OTAUTAU one year to shear them. STOKE BOAD BOARD Places Records there. 225,000 sheep shorn. In 1880 at its peak ELLIS BROTHERS also owned FIVE RIVERS as one of 10 Stations they owned. Also SOUTHLAND MANAPOURI to MT NICHOLAS. Don’t know where they bought sheep from to set the Record. BUILT a Shed at MERRIVALE the following year of the same design.

03.12 Describes construction of the shearing shed. Sheds been Pit Sawn up at PIT SAW CREEK in the Bush. In the middle they used whole BIRCH TREES across with the bark on. Brilliant shed but was badly damaged in the wind. LAPPING BROTHERS from MOSSBURN KEVIN and OLE helped with repairs as the building was twisted. They made square steel frames at IVAN’s Workshop. NEIL BARNES drove in railway irons at the back of the shed. Wire ropes pulled up the shed. Used straight steel beams in timber sawn out of the bush. LAPPENS put timber up as a mezzanine floor. Continued to use for shearing with roof slid off over the catching pens. Used long chains to wind it back up. Tied it down with covers on in a temporary state for shearing.

05.05 WALLACE recalls Over the years build up under the sheep grate about a metre deep. “Nightmare trying to dig it out.” Decided to gut it out the back wall. Got in with the tractor and took entire grating out with a 4WD LOADER. Had concrete sills inside it. Built boxing from bottom up levels right. CRAIG used a 20 TONNE DIGGER to bring the CONCRETE TRUCK right inside the shed to pour concrete. Craig and MIKE (IRISH boy) gave us a hand. Did the rest myself. Made grating - 1,700 pieces at farm house workshop. Put in new bearers. Piles came back good. Now back wall can be taken out to bring a BOBCAT in to clean it out. Want to keep it the same as not many around. KEVIN SMITH shearer OTAUTAU reckoned it’s the best shed ever to shear in because it’s so high inside they don’t sweat. Now only 3 stand but should be 5. All shearing parts have been replaced.

07.30 24 Blade shearers would have been silent no radios. No wool pressed in that shed. All went in wicker baskets. DAD told me to the Wool Scour down SELBIE ROAD. Got shifted before my time. They took the wicker baskets and scoured them by the River then off to LONDON. Scoured shed only noise dogs barking.

08.01 Wallace describes Retirement in Lumsden. Talked to Freedom Campers every morning when he walked the dog.

09.00 Days spent on woodwork making wood box for the Hotel out of SEQUIA. Make blanket boxes. Enjoy making things out of recycled timber to give back to people.

09.52 Volunteer work LIONS.

10.52 Mentions health scares.

End of interview