Person Recorded: William Allan (Bill) Speight

Date: 12 January 2004

Interviewer and abstractor: Morag Forrester

Tape Counter: Sony TCM 939

Tape 1 Side A

004: Launches into talking about his grandparents.

022: Says maternal grandparents first lived in DUNEDIN then WAIMATE.

052: States family moved to REDCLIFF in 1919. His parents married in 1932.

060: Mentions his BROTHERS, one of whom, BOB, drowned in MILFORD SOUND in 1957 at Labour Weekend.

066: Recalls early childhood as being quite restrictive. Says he was determined not to follow this pattern when he was older. They were ‘kept behind the garden gate’. They were not encouraged as children to do anything on the FARM.

088: Talks about early schooling being at home. Too far to travel to the school at THE KEY so they had Correspondence schooling to start with.

106: Says he was nearly eight when he went to boarding school at WAIHI Primary School for Boys, in CANTERBURY. Describes it as a unique experience.

132: Has fond memories of primary school, although admits some days he missed his family.

140: Mentions going on to Christ College in CHRISTCHURCH. Says they biked to town. Also mentions getting caned for troublemaking.

160: Talks about going to OTAGO University where he studied Biology, Chemistry and Physics. He left after the third year as the course included more mathematics and calculus.

173: Says it was a good life at university. Second two years he boarded at Arana Hall.

183: In response to question he says that as he and his BROTHERS grew older they did more around the FARM, especially times when they came back from boarding school. Labour was short, then during WW11.

192: States that farming was much more ‘laid back’ then than now. Says there are more diseases to deal with now.

200: Mentions FESCUE briefly.

Tape stopped to get glass of water to clear throat.

204: Tape restarted. Back to FESCUE. Says it was a grass seed used on airfields so it was important during the war. Also used for golfcourses, lawns, anywhere that required heavy matted-root grass. REDCLIFF grew it right through to the 1970s by which time the country’s main export market, the US, had experimented on and upgraded the seed so that eventually they stopped importing it from NZ.

219: In response to question, says FESCUE searched a high price some years. One year in the 60s REDCLIFF got 6s 6d off the mill, whereas some years it would only have been 1s 6d. Says they might have got 20,000 pounds as a result of harvesting the crop from one 100acre paddock.

230: Mentions JIMMY LOW, who worked for a while on the STATION. He ploughed it and sowed it and wanted to get the returns of a third of the crop that year. “Set him up for life.”

240: Says it’s called CHEWINGS FESCUE after JOHN CHEWINGS of MOSSBURN who was the first to plant it.

244: States that at REDCLIFF they probably grew it over about one thousand acres of land, possibly more. Most of it went to the US.

253: Considered FESCUE as just an extra. The main farming business was SHEEP and CATTLE. Although he admits that the returns from the grass seed would have improved their lifestyle.

260: Explains the method of growing FESCUE over a matter of years. Sow it before CHRISTMAS. At 9kg/1hctr. It would be sown with turnips so that the sheep had access to the paddock during that first winter. The best seed would come off that first crop.

268: Second year was the big crop and you might get a third crop. Says some people would SKIM PLOUGH, meaning a 9 x 4 inch furrow which would reduce the number of plants.

277: Mentions it was cheap to grow especially as at first they didn’t use much fertiliser. In later years they used NITROGEN and got higher yields.

289: Explains a bit of background to REDCLIFF STATION. His grandfather (CHARLES SPEIGHT) bought it under the REDCLIFF Runs Association. Says his father ended up with about 19/40ths of the ESTATE when his grandfather died. But it was made up later. (This section is unclear, as he says).

300: States the REDCLIFF Runs Association was formed between CHARLIE DRAPER and (KEN) SEAR and his GRANDFATHER (CHARLES SPEIGHT). Says his grandfather had the largest shareholding. They bought a bit of extra land from MANAPOURI STATION.

313: Explains that REDCLIFF was once part of BLACKMOUNT STATION. Adds that all the boundaries between properties changed around ‘quite a bit’. And it’s still going on.

322: Mentions that his grandfather had bought out one of the partners and the estate eventually purchased the remaining shares to give full title to the SPEIGHTS.

325: More up to date, he explains how the estate was split between himself and his brothers. Says it was around 1963. That there was obviously room to divide it into three, CHEVIOT having the most pleasant outlook.

331: Explains that his brother JAMES used to suffer from ASTHMA as a child and would be sent to stay at CHEVIOT, it being more elevated. So it was a foregone conclusion he would take up that third. He’s still there. DAVID SPEIGHT got TOWER PEAK five years later (1968) when they dissolved partnership. BILL took over REDCLIFF STATION.

345: Mentions that it is a preferred option to divide an estate like that. Explains that although the men can work together; “It’s always the wives that cause the trouble. They don’t mean to, it just happens. You bring a whole new dimension to life when you bring in women with children.”

352: Admits that economically it is probably better because you can’t depend on anyone else to do things. It’s easier to keep tabs on your own output.

358: Discusses the hired workers on the STATION. His FATHER hired a manager for CHEVIOT, a couple of SHEPHERDS and a COWMAN GARDENER.

361: Talks about the COWMAN GARDENERS. How most of them were ‘old drunks’. Some of them were very intelligent men but they ‘got on the bottle’.

369: Explains they needed them to milk the cows (no milk delivery or mail services) and dig the garden and they would help out at harvests and other times.

373: In response to question, says their neighbours would help out at times, such as MUSTERING. The MACDONALD boys would come down from THE PLAINS, as far as he could remember during the 40s.

382: Says his father was turned down from joining up because he had four children and was a FARMER, deemed an important occupation. Recalls his mother telling them he would not be going.

387: Mentions NORMAN SPEIGHT being sent, however. He was a DOCTOR. Says he has a tape about his experiences in GREECE. Had been a POW in ITALY. On his return he was posted to THE PACIFIC.

402: Discusses post-war changes in the TE ANAU BASIN. First says that in the early 30s REDCLIFF had its own power plant, put in by someone called GATES.

Tape 1 Side A ends

Tape 1 Side B starts

000: Continues talking about MR GATES.

006: Describes the early telephone system (1940s) as a single wire that went from REDCLIFF to TE ANAU DOWNS (STATION) to MOSSBURN. Says it was reputed to be the longest single-line telephone (link) in NEW ZEALAND.

013: Says you could telephone as far as DUNROBIN free of charge.

018: States that originally REDCLIFF linked up with BLACKMOUNT STATION. That they had a switch on the wall that cut REDCLIFF off when BLACKMOUNT was using the phone. The same happened between REDCLIFF and CHEVIOT. You could end up having no phone if they forgot to switch you back into the system.

047: Mentions that each household had to look after their own phone line, and if they didn’t it could cause problems. It was a single NUMBER TEN wire.

053: When the BASIN was hooked into the NATIONAL POWER GRID, this created problems with noise disruption on the telephone line. So REDCLIFF put in a DOUBLE phone line. Used NUMBER TWELVE AND A HALF guage wire so it wouldn’t break with snow on it.

070: Discusses other people living in the BASIN. There weren’t many so everyone knew everyone else. Says his family saw neighbours the MACDONALDS at THE PLAINS “a lot”. And later HAROLD CHARTRES after he moved into MANAPOURI STATION post war. There were the RIORDANS.

082: Says when he was young they used to get many visitors at REDCLIFF as a lot of townspeople considered it exciting to head for the back country.

086: Mentions JOHN QUAIFE at MT ALBERT (his MOTHER’S nephew) across from MAKARORA commenting once that he had more visitors there than anywhere else he lived because it was exciting that you had to cross the river on a horse. So all the townies, “me included’ used to go and see JOHN QUAIFE.

119: After a very long-winded question(!) mentions new people who moved into the area post-war, such as JOE GALLAND at ELMWOOD STATION. Previously the LAIDLAWS had been there and were good friends of his FATHER’S.

124: Recalls DICK & JACK ROBINSON at WAITUNA. And SAM FRASER at THE GORGE. And the COCKBURNS at MARAROA STATION. But says his family didn’t see much of these people.

131: Mentions BURWOOD and TED STEWART (and his wife CATH) living there as a manager for the HAZLETTS. Says his father and STEWART got on very well. Also says that JACK HAZLETT was killed in the war so BILL HAZLETT took over BURWOOD then.

138: For social life, he recalls going down to the MOSSBURN pub when they were old enough.

142: Describes his PARENTS as being quite sociable.

149: Briefly talks about the BLACKMOUNT road being built in the mid-1960s.

152: First talks about getting MARRIED. In 1956 and living at REDCLIFF. Says that within nine years, by 1965, there was power, a through road, and a rural delivery service.

166: Refers to the REDCLIFF road, that the bridge was constructed around 1928. They put the bridge in at WHARE CREEK. Explains the reasons for bridging there. His father thought that because they were DUNEDIN based it was better to get access to the north rather than the south.

176: Says that before a rural delivery service, they received POST once a week from BLACKMOUNT, first by horseback.

184: Recalls their postal address was first OTAUTAU, then LUMSDEN, then MOSSBURN, then TE ANAU.

189: Mentions that there was nothing to come to in TE ANAU in those days, except going up the LAKE. Although there was a hotel. (Later he said all the groceries came from MOSSBURN although MRS BAKER had a store at her accommodation house. And then GEORGE RADFORD built a store on the lake front (near site of floatplane office).

192: Talks about the MARRIED COUPLE’S DINNERS held at the TE ANAU HOTEL in the late 1950s. “But they got too many people so that didn’t last long.”

199: Replying to question, says his WIFE HILDA CRAWFORD was just part of the group. She was related to his neighbours, the MACDONALDS.

210: Says they married in 1956. They have THREE CHILDREN. Two GIRLS and a BOY.

216: Affirms he brought his CHILDREN up differently from the way he had been reared. Describes how.

225: Mentions his father’s FIRST 4 x 4. An AUSTIN CHAMP which he had in 1954. (His first car was a Star)

230: Brief interruption so tape stopped.

231: Tape re-started while talking about his extended FAMILY including the mother of TONY LLOYD, who is BILL’S AUNT, now aged 93.

244: Says they saw a lot of the LLOYDS, not a lot of his UNCLE (COLIN SPEIGHT’S) family. Saw a fair bit of NORMAN SPEIGHT (the DOCTOR in DUNEDIN) who has two sons. And HUGH SPEIGHT (who was in the BREWERY) had a DAUGHTER, DEIRDRE, who they still see a lot of.

252: Talks about his earlier decision to do CHEMISTRY at university – the motivating force being that he had considered working at the SPEIGHT’S BREWERY. But he decided early on that it was probably not a good idea to work with his UNCLE HUGH.

261: Mentions he didn’t complete his degree course. 270: States that his CHILDREN did not go on to tertiary education. Says the elder DAUGHTER, PIP (PHILIPPA) wanted to stay on the FARM. BRIDGET went to LINCOLN COLLEGE to do HORTICULTURE but gave that up, although she later took a course at MASSEY UNIVERSITY on WOOL-CLASSING. (He later added that she became a very successful wool classer – grading at some of the high country STATIONS.

295: Back to talking about SHEEP FARMING, says that in 1950 the WOOL prices were high. That provided money that farmers hadn’t had. They bought tractors etc. So the physical part of HANDLING the stock was far less than it had been ten years before.

310: Slight tape disruption as he looks for papers/documents. Tape stopped and restarted.

317: Says when REDCLIFF was originally bought (1919) they had about 10,000 SHEEP on it. Then the rabbits came along. In 1951 they had the lowest numbers, about 6521 over an acreage of 35,000.

330: Mentions change in WOOL PRICES - that in1948 they got 2s/1lb for WOOL for the whole clip. In 1951 it was 10s/1lb. Says it was the KOREAN WAR that did that.

344: States that when he was on REDCLIFF he took the unprecedented decision to borrow money in order to implement developments.

350: Refers back to the rabbits, saying it was quite indescribable how much they affected the land. “You could have shot three in one go with a shotgun.”

358: Mentions BOB HEWITT from NORTH CANTERBURY, who along with some others, started poisoning using carrots in a bid to deal with the rabbit problem. Created a tremendous cleanout. Explains how it was done by hand. “There were just thousands of them (rabbits).”

372: Says aerial poisoning was introduced later, when the RABBIT BOARD was formed.

380: Recalls stocking BEEF CATTLE. Not many, perhaps 150/200. Finished up with HEREFORDS but had been a mixed lot.

389: Refers back to the SHEEP and says they tried various different breeds, even CORRIEDALES. Says the CHEVIOT breed had a big influence at REDCLIFF early on. But he got back to breeding CLEAR-FACED ROMNEYS.

400: Laughs about making a few mistakes over his FORTY YEARS tenure as FARMER at REDCLIFF. The biggest of these, he says, was taking the government’s offer to assist in LAND DEVELOPMENT. Says he ended up wasting money trying to develop swamp land, digging ditches etc.

Tape 1 Side B Ends

Tape 2 Side A Starts

001: Continues discussing the redevelopment of the property.

012: Refers to the LDEL, the LAND DEVELOPMENT & CO. His bank manager suggested that he take up the offer because the opportunities were immense with interest rates at 7%.

026: Says the LABOUR government which took over from the MULDOON era changed this and put the interest rates up, while farm prices were down.

036: Adds that family problems also meant they lost financially. That was when the idea of eventually selling germinated even though it was quite a long time after.

050: Says the SALE of the HILL COUNTRY took place in 1997. The new owners turned it over to FORESTRY mainly.

071: Considers that they spent too much money on development that didn’t actually work out.

073: Refers also to the fact they weren’t allowed to burn off overgrowth. In the early days they could but not now.

086: Says there’s a powerful lobby against burning, backed by government. He says he invited ENVIRONMENT SOUTHLAND (regional government) to come up and assess what he planned to do as regards burning off some areas of land. But they opposed him, so he decided then it was time to SELL UP.

100: Believes that because it hasn’t been burnt for so long they (the authorities) have created a serious fire risk due to the increased growth of shrub and bush.

105: States that in the past they had applied to burn off and were given approval, but the conditions had become so difficult to comply with. Needed firebreaks, backburn off the firebreak, twice maybe. Says all that was almost impossible.

122: Considers that while it took some getting used to, it was a good move to retire to the outskirts of TE ANAU town. He can still go back and help out at WHARE CREEK – (part of REDCLIFF they retained which is now farmed by his daughter, BRIDGET and partner SHANE GIBBONS).

137: In response to question, reiterates that the biggest change to farming in the area has been the increase in bugs and disease. Reckons they’re being imported by international flights.

154: Admits DEER farming introduced in the 1970s created more change. (Later added as an example there was heavier stock concentration. His son, ALFIE, had stocked about 100 HINDS at REDCLIFF.

166: Talks about TE ANAU town – there was no main street when he was younger.

176: Mentions DONNY BAKER whose mother had a boarding house where the shops are on the LAKEFRONT.

187: Says some of the development “browns me off a bit”. In particular the recent development along the LAKESIDE. “The part that I would have liked to have seen saved would be between the town and the lake, all the way up. That should have been kept in farming because the tourists just love going out of TE ANAU looking at all that. They should have built all that on the road in.” On the high ground that overlooks the town on the approach into LUXMORE DRIVE.

199: States his main community interests were SCHOOL COMMITTEES and RABBIT BOARDS.

224: Recalls when he was young, his MOTHER talking about FOOD STAMPS and suggesting giving some of theirs to a needy family in the town.

235: Says that some people were poor but there also seemed to be less consumerism.

250: Stresses the main benefit of living in a small community is that people are still prepared to look out for each other.

256: Refers to his FATHER’S boat, the RANGI. (The hull is now back in TE ANAU). It has just moved to WANAKA. Says he still enjoys going out on the LAKE.

277: Says he also now enjoys GARDENING.

282: Refers back to WHARE CREEK which they kept. Says he does a few small jobs.

301: In reply to question, says he couldn’t really give advice to new farmers to the district because the industry changes so rapidly.

316: On the issue of town development, he suggests there’s a major problem getting controlled development. Says they should be building the town up on the ridges instead of the flat.

324: Describes the advantages of living in the BASIN. They knew a lot of people, the family was part of the district.

347: In reply to question, says his childhood memories include travelling around New Zealand, visiting friends and relations.

363: In later years, one of his major recalls is launching their boat which he considers a major achievement for two “cockies”.

368: Interview closes.

Tape 2 Side A stopped.

END