Leedom, Caroline (Carol) Interview

Today is the 15^th of May 2015. I’m interviewing an ex Havelock North resident, Mrs Caroline Leedom, nee Slade. She now lives in Blockhouse Bay, Auckland. Now we’ll start off … we were talking about your father’s arrival in New Zealand. Where did they come from overseas?

Actually he came from Manchester, lived in Stretford. He was a very good soccer player and the field that he played on was Old Trafford.

And did he come out on his own?

Yes, he came out on the ‘Rimutaka’ and arrived in Napier at Easter in 1904. He was an engineer, but there was a depression at the time and so he took on work with Mr Bernard Chambers at Te Mata. They were what they called the expert, looking after all the machinery like shearing equipment, traction engine etc. Mr Chambers had a Wolseley car and he had bought a tract of land up at Rukumoana, north of Te Pohue on the Taupo Road where he farmed sheep. Bought the land from the Government. He used to take my father up in the car. ‘Course it was a very hilly country and the soil was very sandy and the shears used to get blunt very quickly. In coming back down the hills and that, they were very steep – of course the roads were nothing like they are today. And they had a sprag on the car and it dropped down between the side of the car and the running board, and it was used like a pickaxe to slow the car down.

Oh yes – extra braking.

Yes. Yes, that’s right.

So obviously at some stage or other he married?

Yes, I’ll tell you about that in a moment.

Yes, OK. [Speaking together]

All right – there was a Mr Gibson on Te Mata Station looking after all the animals and one day when he was going around he found a bull stuck in the stream in the mud. He tried to get it out but was unsuccessful and he went to my Dad for help and also to Mr Chambers to tell him the situation. And Mr Chambers gave them a bottle of whiskey to give the bull, but when they went back for the bull, the bull was too far gone so the men drank the whiskey. He stayed with Mr Chambers for a number of years and in the meantime Mr Chambers bought some land in Western Australia and he asked some of the men to contribute funds to help him to grow wheat. But of course the wheat didn’t grow high enough to be harvested and so of course he gave that up. But the men were repaid, and later Rukumoana went back to the Government. It was very tough country and Mr Chambers couldn’t make it pay.

Then later, about 1912, Mrs J H Williams advertised for somebody to drive the car. Mr Williams had been kicked on the shin by a sheep about two years previously, blood poisoning set in and he died. Then another chap must have driven the car for a time, and when my father was interviewed by Mrs Williams and accepted for the job … and looking at the car he found what was either a scratch or a crack in the steering column. And he always used to get a penknife to try and find it out, but he couldn’t decide. And this time Mrs Williams’ relations from Te Aute had been staying with them and they wanted to go home.

And dad was married in July 1914, and I was born on the 6^th of October 1915. I was six weeks old and that was when Mrs Williams’ family were being taken back to Te Aute, and they took my mother and self for a drive with them. ‘Course the roads were very different in those days than they are now. And Mr Alan Williams’ property was next door to Te Aute College. And coming back to Havelock North, around the kennels was very windy and twisty and the car didn’t respond to take one of the bends and it went up the hill, and turned over across the road and went down into the dip. Mum and Dad were thrown out and they found me under the car still wrapped up in my shawl. Six weeks old.

So that’s that one. I should get something and have a read and see what else I’ve written – I’ve got another one. I took a copy because I’ve never done anything like this before.

Yes, certainly.

Yes. Another thing of Mr Chambers. He used to take Hazel and son Bernard – Hazel was later Mrs Foxley – and son Bernard to school in a pony cart. St George’s School, Duart Road, Havelock North. Actually Mr Chambers … he sold Te Mata and he had a house built a mile up the road on the slopes of Te Mata Peak – could see it from our dining room window. He wanted to grow tropical plants and shrubs, and he wanted the house to be built of reinforced concrete like his brothers’, but Mr Abbot the builder talked him into having it made of brick and of course it collapsed in the 1931 earthquake. But the garden with all the shrubs and that was absolutely beautiful.

‘Cause I remember Mrs Foxley. We were farm contractors – we used to mow hay for her around those bottom flats in front of the house. And the Sunderlands too – they had Undercliffe.

Undercliffe … and then South African people bought it, I can’t remember the name at the moment.

Yes well we used to do work for them as well – they’re all familiar names.

I can tell you more about them because …

Righto. [Speaking together]

… of Mrs Williams in a moment. I tell you what of Chambers – the roustabout was a Dave Forbes, related to the Forbes government – Coates government. Marjorie McLeod worked there for sixty years or more.

Yes – dad met my mother, Mary McTague, she was the housemaid there, and they were married in July 1914. I have a book on 120 years of her father arriving in New Zealand in 1864. I was at the reunion in 2000.

And you make mention of Muritai.

Yes, Muritai was the name of the homestead, and Muritai Crescent was named after it after she died. [Speaking together]

Is that right? So Muritai – was that a Chambers … that was a Williams property, Muritai, was it?

Oh no – I actually think that the house was moved up from the swamp in Hastings – J H Williams, Frimley … and it was on the swamp down there and it was moved up there. I used to play in the house with all the children that came over, relations from overseas.

So Muritai must have been in that piece of road? They called …

Yes … you know where Greenwoods were out there …

Yes.

… well, you just came along – going up the road and they were there – and you came along and there was a driveway went in and around up to Muritai and that was all kind of …there was all a big dip there.

Well Muritai eventually was bought by the …

Herricks – had it, that’s right. [Speaking together]

Herricks that’s right, yes.

I don’t know who had it after that. I think there were people by the name of Boyes there at one stage too.

It’s been sold now to Denis Hardy, the solicitor … bought it – he did some work on it. A lot of the land’s been sold off it.

Oh yes, because they used to run cows and had a cottage down below.

That’s right.

And they had the cows. Yes.

And then you moved down to Greenwoods – it was the McLeans, and then you came down to … married to a German before World War I.

Yes, that’s right. Well of course, I think the thing was when they married at that time – I don’t know if it’s still the same – they take on the nationality of the husband. And of course, so called friends in Sydney – they just didn’t want to know them and it was a kind of abandonment, and it made life very difficult. And she was the first German citizen to come back to New Zealand after the war and my father was in Wellington to meet her and bring her back to Havelock North.

Now, so at this stage you were still a little child … you haven’t got to school yet. Well, we’ll carry on through to the Second World War – they left Germany.

Yes, that was the Second … they used to come out and he was a very nice man and he and Dad got on very well together, and he told Dad in the 1930s that if Britain didn’t get – like – together with Germany there would be another war. Which happened you see. When … they got out of Germany and went to Zurich in Switzerland to live, and they left £60,000 in Germany but they never went back to claim it.

And he was a wool broker, so …

Yes – he could name his own price to come to New Zealand.

And your mother was in the Napier Hospital at the time that the plague broke out.

Yes, that’s right. And that was when Aunt Lucy died.

Yes, there were quite a few people died, weren’t there?

Yes. But she didn’t have the ‘flu – it was some kind of an accident she had. And ‘course they asked Mum at the hospital would she like to go home, and she wished to because she was worried about the family. But she was never able to look after any of them because she wasn’t well herself and … just trying to think now what happened there.

It mentions when you were three years old.

Oh, that’s right, of course they let Mum out of the hospital but nobody else was allowed out and I don’t know how long they had to stay there. And another thing I’ve got written down further on, is Mrs Donnelly – Johnny Donnelly – she had the plague and she was black from the waist down.

And it says you went missing.

Oh yes – I was taken in by an aunt and uncle in Havelock North to be looked after while Mum was in hospital. And she was black leading the stove this morning, and I went missing. And of course she was worried as to where I was. She went into the neighbours, she went into the shops – nobody had seen me – and in the end she went over to the Exchange Hotel, and they had me sitting on the counter with a big glass of raspberryade.

Well, that’s interesting because the Exchange … the old hotel’s gone now.

That’s right.

The Happy Tav has gone now too. The Happy Tav that was built there, the single storey building that was there – that’s gone. They’re building a three storeyed hotel and shops and it’s going to be called The Exchange.

Oh I say, well it was the Exchange Hotel.

It’s going to be huge.  

Yes …

Under parking for 100 cars underneath. 

This is wonderful to hear all this. I’d love to get back to have a look around Havelock, but I’m so slow – I need about a month to walk around it.

You mentioned raspberryade. When I was a small boy my father used to take me into town on a Friday or a Wednesday. When he took me in he would put me in the Grand Hotel bar with the old ladies that were there and give them some money and I would drink raspberry and lemonade. And this happened – it was a very happy arrangement for me – I enjoyed it.  

I can remember I had relations – they’d come up from Timaru, but uncle couldn’t take the heat, to work in the heat. Even my mother, she had trouble with the heat and they thought they might have to send her back to Timaru. But actually the relations went back to Timaru to live. And on that morning when they were catching the train, we all gathered together in the Grand Hotel.

Now – after you were found with a large glass of raspberryade – in 1920 when the Prince of Wales visited New Zealand, you said your father had to pick up officials at the railway station. 

That’s right.

You said you can still see the Prince standing there.

Yes, I can still see him exactly has he was. I can still see that and they wanted me to go and shake hands with him but I was too shy. But the reception was on the Hastings Racecourse, and they wouldn’t let the car through until they gave me a bag of sweets. But actually I was the only lady to travel in the royal procession.

Really, isn’t that amazing?

Yes, I was only four years old I think at the time.

Right. And then you carried on and went back to the Exchange Hotel. It was run by a Mrs McLean.

Yes, that’s right. She was a very, very good woman and when she thought the men had had enough to drink she would say “Now boys, it’s time for you to go home to your wives”. Not like a lot of them today – all they want’s the money. And later I met her son at a reunion, Alistair McLean, and he told me his mother was living in Napier.

And then Woodford House. Before Woodford House was built people sent their children to Pondicherry School.

Yes, in Hastings.

Oh I didn’t know that was there.

No, there’s a lot of people know nothing about that. And I don’t know whether that was Queenswood later or not … I can’t tell you that.

And you’ve made a note your father was the first to drive from the area to New Plymouth, also Stratford Mountain House …

That’s right.

… run by the Murphys.

Yes that’s right – Murphys – they were very good people – used to get hold of Dad by the arms and feel his muscles before they could say it was all right for him. He went up at six o’clock in the morning in his shirt sleeves – to the top.

Did he really? Yes, I’ve walked up to the top of – almost to the top of Mt Egmont with the kids. Mrs Jury had a fox terrier and used to put a note on its collar. The dog would go to the hotel and bring back Alistair. The dog brought back a bottle of beer in its mouth!

Yeah – that’s right.

Now … talking about the Hildreths.

‘Tuna Nui’ – that’s right.

Yes – well the Hildreths – I knew the Hildreths.

You knew the Hildreths did you?

And I know some of the younger Russells. In fact I was sitting having a beer with one of the Hildreths godsons the other night.

Oh I say, that’s interesting. We never heard much about Sir Andrew Russell until that programme was put on. And actually he was pretty tough on the men who worked on the property.

Yes I heard that, yes.

He was very tough. And Violet Russell – she did very good work over in Egypt during the war. But there was another one, Meg, and neighbours of mine – I mean we were good friends – they knew a girl who had just taken on a position there as kitchen maid. And the Russells had evidently been in Hastings or Napier and they came home and the girl was in the dining room looking around, and this Megan went in. She said “what are you doing in here?” She said “your place is in the kitchen”.

Now at some stage or other you went off to school, and you went to Havelock Primary School?

That’s right.

From day one.

Miss Brown was the main teacher in the primary area, and we had a Miss Lankowski , Olga Lankowski, and she had a sister Mary, and they were both teachers. But one day Olga called me into the schoolroom and she gave me a penny and she said go and buy some sweets. So I went down and I bought the sweets … go back to the door to give them back to her. She said “no they’re for you and you can share them with some of the other children.”

That’s wonderful.

They knew the Hamptons … Hamptons had the store there and we used to go picnicking down at the river with them, and the Lankowskis would be with us.

Well, see there’s a Lankowski still lives in Havelock.

Is there? I met …

He’s a solicitor.

I met Mary at the last school reunion – I would have liked to have met Olga but she wasn’t there, I don’t know what happened.

Now you mentioned the Donnellys.

Yes, they had the orchard.

Yes – there was Jack Donnelly – he was down Waimarama Road.

We called him Johnny. And then there was Neil in Havelock, and then there was a Lilly Donnelly, and she worked for the Lowry Norths.

And then of course there were the McRobbies.

Yes, that’s right. Well Dorothy was in Roach’s working when the earthquake struck, and the girl next to her was killed. And Dorothy was taken to Wellington – she had a big cut on her head and that, and the McRobbies were absolutely frantic – they couldn’t find her anywhere and nobody had told her she’d gone to Wellington. And later we were going to the South Island and I was up on the deck of the ship, and I met a lady and we got talking, and do you know – she’d looked after Dorothy in Wellington. You wouldn’t believe it.

Now Claytons too, I mentioned the Claytons to you.

Yes, that’s right, Ron and Molly.

Well I’m a good friend of young Kim, who is …

What happened to Kim?

He’s still – he’s a builder. He’s got a big orchard … further.

Yes well look, I met him at the school reunion … had he been in an accident or something?

No, no.

Well one of them has been in an accident or something and his face was all twisted.

No, that’s not Kim … unless it was one of his brothers.

Oh, well no, it’s one of the others. It might have been young Ian because he was a real devil.

And then – were the McLeods … Alf?

Oh yes, I always used to visit them when I was down in Hastings and that. We were great friends of all of them. The only ones I didn’t like in that family were Gladys and Lorna. There was something different about them – you couldn’t rely on them. But the others – oh, I used to write, Ella used to come up to see us and I used to see Iris when I was down there, sometimes Marjorie.

So then, were the Frogleys there then?

Frogleys were down there, yes. I can remember Jim going past on his tractor and that kind of thing. He married – what was her name?

Kath.

Kath Heywood.

See we all know the same people, don’t we?

We do, that’s right.

Isn’t it amazing though, that we didn’t know that you lived down there? ‘Cause your old home is still sitting there. 

Yes – well it’s still a landmark. I don’t know if I’ve told you this story … it changed hands – Mrs Dr Reeves’ sister and husband – they farmed up at – oh, what’s the place north of Gisborne there? Is it Tokoroa or something like that? You come down from Te Puke and one of those … Tolaga Bay. And Jim Lawson … her brother. Allan and I were sitting … I was playing the piano and somebody knocked on the door. It was at Easter time, and Jim Lawson came to the door and he asked me would I consider selling the place. And dad had said to me “you won’t be able to manage that place”, see. It was half an acre of garden, and four acres of land with it. And of course, Allan had twenty-six transfers around New Zealand, and he came back to the 1963 reunion and we met in the school grounds and everything just went from there. ‘Course he was in Wellington at that time, and my relations who I was to go to when Dad died, they were in Auckland. But you won’t believe this – dad died on the Wednesday; the weekend before, my cousins in Auckland had been transferred to Wellington, Allan got transferred to Auckland.

And I knew that Bill worked for Frost’s or somebody here in Auckland, and so I went in and – into Hol’ts and I think it was a chap by the name of Duff, I can’t remember. Well I went in there and asked them if they could give me the phone number of – like – the firm in Wellington. And of course they knew it, so they rang through, and Bill was in the office with the chap at the time, and they just said to him “don’t worry about anything, you just take off” he said “and we’ll expect you back next Monday.” And so that was what happened. Of course Mrs Leedom got in touch with me to say that Allan had been transferred to Auckland, so that’s what happened there.

And that was your relationship … you got married?  

Yeah – welI, I didn’t get married at the time. I tell you, this was funny, ’cause Allan was a good pianist too, and he played for a lot of youth clubs, and my piano was a very good piano. There were only eight of them in Hawke’s Bay. ‘Course he liked the piano, and we corresponded and that, and if he was up he came and saw me and that was right, and we’d take his mother and Miss Furniss, who she lived with – take them for a drive to Napier and have afternoon tea at home and one thing and the other.

And anyway, nothing was going on from there except that we were good friends. And I was in bed this night at 10 o’clock – the phone rings and I thought ‘what’s going on at this hour of the night’ – it was Allan ringing from Auckland asking me would I marry him.

 Well wasn’t that wonderful?  

Yes, I was so taken back. I thought for a moment ‘what am I going to do here?’ And then I said to him, “well look,” I said “neither of us want to make a mistake”. I said “I need a bit of time to think it over”. I said “never mind what happens” I said “I hope we’ll always be friends.” And so we left it at that. And then of course I decided that I would sell the house, and as I said the Averys bought it from Tolaga Bay. Then something happened and he lost his eyesight or he’d had an accident, and they sold it and … I can’t remember the name of the people, but she taught at Woodford House. I don’t know whether it was dancing or something?

Wasn’t Kathleen Osborne was it?

Osborne, yep.

Yes, well she’s a very close friend of my wife’s.

She was a very nice lady too.

Well she had the little faces painted on the window.

That’s right, yes, that’s right – I remember that. And then she had two children, a son and a daughter. And I hadn’t met her at the time, but we were driving past one day and the daughter was in the driveway, so we stopped. And I went in and had a talk to her – she took me into the house and one thing and another – oh, but so many alterations been done.

I know, I know.

You wouldn’t have believed the back was the same, you know. I was terribly disappointed with it at that time.

So you went through Havelock Primary School, and I suppose you did what they call ‘matriculated’. Did you go onto any other education, or what did you do when you left school?

I went to High School in Hastings in 1930, and 1931 was the time of the earthquake. Well, I’m lucky to be here. Dad had built a big tank stand – I used it as a big doll’s house with two rooms underneath, and there were two 600 gallon tanks on top of that. And I had been to Dr Wilson the day before the earthquake on the Monday, because the High School opened on the Tuesday. But he decided I wasn’t to go back to school for three weeks and he put me on a strict diet. If that earthquake hadn’t happened I might never have been ill the way I was.

But of course it was laundry day on Monday and my mother was out in the laundry doing the washing, and I was on a basket chair on the porch. We had a closed in porch that had a railing all around and a gate that was to have kept me in when I was tiny. And I was in the corner like that in the basket chair, and I thought how dark the sky was and the cows were running around the paddock kicking their heels in the air. And we’d had two owls sitting on a frame with – we used to put sacks down to keep the frost off a tree tomato – and they were there for a whole week and never moved. And the day of the earthquake we never saw them again. And anyway, the house must have started to shake, and I don’t know even now what possessed me. I jumped out of that chair onto the ground and it was going like this – and my mother came to the laundry door – I called out, and she thought I was having a bad turn – and just when it kind of stopped she came across and we held onto each other on the back lawn otherwise you would have just fallen on the ground. And the tanks came over where I had been sitting … well, right over where the chair was and everything and they broke planks in the porch floor, and water went into the back of the house.

Yes, yes, yes.

So, I never thought of it at that time, but later I thought ‘gosh, I’m probably very lucky.’

Yes, you could have been crushed. Well you’ve had a couple of … when the car rolled, that was one life … second life – yes, it’s amazing.

It is.

Yes, so you went onto High School and …

Yes. Evidently in 1930 – I left school the end of 1932. I was having times when I wasn’t particularly well. And so I left school at that time and I was at home, and this morning – oh, I was a junior sports champ at school, and I was in the top basketball teams.

Well, you just have known …

Lindsay and Jean Crombie, and all that?

Well, they were neighbours of ours. But … the girl I was thinking about, the girl Tong …  

Oh, she married Les McCarthy. I knew Rona – is she still alive?

She’s – yes, see she’s 99. I interviewed her – oh, about two or three months ago. She’s as bright as you are, her memory is as sharp as you, and you know she was a hurdler too. 

Oh yes, she was a champion.

She was the first one … because ladies weren’t allowed to hurdle originally … ’til it started in South Africa. See I know these because Rona told me this history. I didn’t know any of this stuff before. 

Oh, yes, I knew her and her father well. This is marvellous to hear, because I was only thinking of her the other day, I wonder if she’s still alive.

No, she’s there.  

Mr Giorgi – I knew the mayor. He put his arms round me when Dad was ill.

The community was a lot smaller … see there would have only been a thousand people in Havelock, so everyone knew everybody.  

That’s right, yes.

Anyway I mustn’t detract – it’s you that’s telling me the story. 

It’s so interesting – it’s so interesting to hear about Rona because I knew her well and actually she married Les, and of course Les McCarthy’s mother … his father died and he was my uncle Pat, but he was my other uncle’s brother. He was my Uncle Pat and she was Auntie Mary. And of course Selwyn was the other son.

Now you said you started school in 1921 … there was a big snowfall.

Oh yes.

Not just on the Peak but in the village.

That’s right.

And then ‘we were booked to go to the Dunedin Exhibition’.

There was a dreadful drought. Mr McRobbie was going to look after the cows for dad – milk them and one thing and another, but ‘course there was no water supply, you just had to rely on rainwater. So dad – oh, that’d be after going … this part – dad decided that he wouldn’t be able to go to the exhibition. He felt it wasn’t right to leave Mr McRobbie to look after the cows and have to you know, get the water for them.

Well Mr McRobbie was great at growing thistles. He was the best thistle grower in New Zealand.

He never cut them out, eh? Oh, I did – I used to go and cut the thistles out in our paddock. I used to get threepence for doing it.

And then, so you picked up and went to Dunedin to the ex… You eventually went and had a wonderful time at the exhibition.

Oh, it was a marvellous place, I’ll never forget it – I can still see a lot of it. And the Argyll Southern Highlanders were there you know.

Yes. And you say here that Dr Felkin cured you mother of her migraine headaches – that was a wonderful thing.

Oh I know, I can still see it was a kind of a greeny-grey medicine and you know, the bottles were like that and about as thick as your finger.

Now here’s some history. There was a bakery shop in the village owned by Mr and Mrs Fraser. That was Scotty Fraser wasn’t it?

Yep. If he didn’t want you to understand him he’d speak in Gaelic and you used to wish him to hell.

Yes. Marjorie was his daughter. [Speaking together] That’s right, yes, that’s right.

Oh that was later, they adopted Marjorie, that’s right.

And then of course there was … in the village there was Warrens’ Bakery.

Oh yes, that’s right … Warrens’ Bakery across from the school behind the church … that’s right, I’d forgotten that.

Robyn Warren, she’s married to one of the Warrens, she’s part of our Hawke’s Bay Knowledge Bank.

Oh yes, I knew there was Warrens, but do you know – you’ve put me in position now, because you see Eastaugh and Treneman’s were there, and one time they wanted to take dad on and it would have been Eastaugh, Treneman & Slade. They had George Eastaugh and – I don’t know what had happened but I think he had a hook on one of his arms. He lived down, I think Clive or somewhere down that area, and had a daughter Phyllida. But he was a drag on the firm because he looked after the books. And Mrs Williams said to dad “if you’re going to … if it’s going to improve anything for you, you take the job”, but if not she wanted him to stay on with her.

Well see it was interesting that Eastaugh Treneman, and then John Slade opened his electrical business in what was the Warrens Bakery. [Speaking together] Yes, yes, that’s where … that’s the building he was in.

Oh that was in Warrens Bakery was it? I didn’t know that – I know he was … Oh I say. Yes, that’s right.

The pies were beautiful … in their little paper bag.

Gosh, you’re taking me back a long way because I – I knew there was something there, Warrens, but I couldn’t remember it was the bakery, isn’t it funny? I was so used to going down to Frasers.

And you made mention here – ‘one day when Scotty Fraser was delivering bread at Dr Felkin’s, a person was working in the garden and Mr Fraser bent down and pulled his leg’?

Pulled her leg.

And it was the doctor’s wife.

I don’t know how he got out of that one. [Chuckle]

He was an identity Scotty Fraser.

Oh, I know. He lived down later by us, you see. Down on the River Road at the end – that’s it, yes.

[Speaking together] I know, that’s right, yes.

I remember Dad going down to see him about something and he had a goat – he had different animals there, and he’d just been fixing up a screen door and the goat jumped up on it and went through it.

And then you go on to mention ‘the doctor had a special … he had seances’?

Yes, that’s right. He had a special room built in his basement and they held seances.

And Mrs Marie Leedom …

Marie Leedom, Mrs Leedom … she was a music teacher. And she was the librarian in Havelock at that time.

And her son you later married. Used to deliver mail, and at Christmas time Dr Felkin and his wife invited him in and gave him a present …

From the tree.

And I see your father drove Sir Truby King around Hastings and Havelock North …

That’s right.

… to find a site suitable for a hospital.

Yes, goes back a long way.

‘The hills in Havelock were not suitable for older people’. Older people … look at you – you live on a hill here with twenty steps going up and down and you’re nearly 100 – and they say hills are not suitable.

[Laughter] I know a lot of them are a lot younger than me, and they can’t do it.

Yes. The site was chosen in Omahu Road for the Hastings Memorial Hospital. It’s been called again the Hastings Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital, too.

Has it? Oh, that’s great, because the last I’ve heard them talking about the Hawke’s Bay …

Hospital, yes.

Hospital, you know Hawke’s Bay … because they closed Napier Hospital. Well, Napier Hospital was a terrible place to get to. I got caught behind a bus going up that one that goes round like that, and the bus pulled up, and I had a whole line of traffic coming behind me and I never went up that way again. I went up the other way – and what did I get? A truck with a big load of timber going up. [Chuckle]

Now you speak something about the earthquake here … cracks in the road and … you went to Napier. [Speaking together]

Yes, that’s right. Yes, well see – you couldn’t go into Napier without a special sticker on your windows and Dad brought injured people out. And then Mr Anderson I think, was in the Town Board at that time …

In Havelock, yes that’s right.

… and he gave Dad a special sticker to take my mother and self in and have a look around Napier. I was so frightened when we were over at Westshore. Dad wanted to back to turn round, I wanted to get out of the car but he wouldn’t let me out. I was scared we’d go down one of the cracks.

Yes, now you’ve told me about the tanks where you were sitting. That tank stand. 1933 you were seriously ill and went to Hastings Memorial Hospital for four months.

Yes.

Doctors didn’t think you would live.

No, they didn’t. I remember dad knew Dr Wilson pretty well and went to his homestead on the Sunday. I was delirious.

You were in bed for nine months.

Yes. No – actually I’ll tell you a bit of a story now. Not long ago … I get a B12 injection every fortnight. And it’d be about a couple of months ago I went up for the B12 injection and the nurse had said the time before “next time you come up I think you’d better have a talk with the doctor”. So I went in and oh, thought nothing about it. Then she put me on the bed and examined me. She went out of the room and I was left lying there for quite awhile. I didn’t know what was going on – and then she came back and she said “I don’t want to send you to hospital, but I’ve been ringing up different …” – like, health places – “to see if they could do a special x-ray of you”. But she couldn’t find anybody who did this special x-ray so she said “I’m ordering the ambulance to send you to hospital”. I said “oh, don’t do that” I said “I want to go home and have something to eat.” You see it was lunchtime, getting on for 1 o’clock. And she said “all right”. She said “you can go home”. And I had my caregiver with me. “You can go home” and she said “I’ll give you half an hour.” So that was all right, Gaylene brought me home, and she went off. And luckily I had something prepared – like, you know, for a meal and I put it in the microwave and heated it up and I was taking the last mouthful when the phone rang. It was the doctor to say the ambulance was on its way. And I went out and was going to wash the dishes and they were knocking on the door. And so that was all right, they were very, very nice men, two of them. And they wouldn’t take me – they made me sit down and be quiet and talk for a while before they took me in the ambulance.

And they kept me there for several days – it was Waitangi weekend actually. And I went into – I was taken from the emergency part into a ward and they had me on a heart monitor and the doctor there was a very nice man, and he said to me “would you consider having an operation?” At my age … they don’t usually do it. I was a bit dumbfounded, and I looked at him … I said, “well what would you do?” He said “I’d have the operation”. I said “if you think that, well that’s good enough for me.” He said “but you will have to get in touch with your nephew to let him know.” And of course later when I told John he said “well” he said “I can’t make the decision”. I said “I’ve already made it”, I said “but I had to talk to you first”.

And anyway, that night somebody else come in who needed to be monitored on that heart equipment and I was taken down to the emergency part again, and they kept me there for another three days. They took me and did an x-ray of this part of my chest, I’ve got two stents in, and didn’t say much about that, but said they wanted to do another bigger one around here and down below, and it never got done. I was there for three days and one of the doctors came in – I know they were very busy at the time – they were probably run of their feet, but this doctor came in and he looked at me and poked me about and he said “you’ve got an aneurysm”. He said “if it bursts, you’re dead. Have you got all your affairs in order?” I was a bit dumbfounded, but I mean at my age I could take it.

But after he’d gone and I was lying there – and I thought ‘well if you spoke to somebody younger like that you could give them a heck of a shock’. So the chap who’d taken me down for the x-ray a day or two before, happened to walk past and I called him over. And I told him what the doctor had said. I said “I’m not worried for myself” I said “but I wonder about people who are younger. He said “I’m going to report him”. And so he reported him. And one of the sisters came in to see me – she said “that was pretty rough.”

So did you have it fixed?

An aneurysm? Well look – they never told me, I never got a report. They kinda gave me some report but nothing definite. And then of course I had to see the doctor. But it wasn’t bad – I only went up when I had my B12 injection. And I was three weeks and I heard nothing, nobody range me or anything. So the doctor happened to come into the room when I was having a B12 injection and I said “did you ever hear anything from Greenlane?” I had to go to Greenlane then … “from Greenlane, about the x-ray?” “Oh yes”. And she read it out to me. “Oh” she said “you haven’t got an aneurysm”. But they never told me what’s wrong with me.

That’s sad isn’t it, that they didn’t think of getting back to you.

No they didn’t get back to me and they’ve never told me what’s wrong. The doctor never told me what’s wrong.

Now you talk something here about the sheep and cattle being moved by a truck.

You see before that there was always drovers, and they used to bring them in from Waimarama and Maraetotora and Taurapa which was the Gordons out there. Actually Dad took Mrs Lindsay Gordon to her wedding. And he was in hospital with Dad. I think an aunt of mine worked for Mrs Gordon out there at one time. She always used to be dressed beautifully – had great hats – lovely hats. She was Mrs Charlie Gordon wasn’t she? And the other one … Lindsay Gordons were Farndon.

That’s right. Now you mention here that quite often a truck driver running late would come in to use the phone – ask the works to stay open for their delivery.

Yes, that was Tomoana and Whakatu at the time.

Yes, yes. Then there was a haunted house where Bill Nelson lived.

Yes, that’s right.

Now where was that house?

That was on Lawn Road, down Mangateretere. Oh gosh, there was a lot of things went on down there if you only knew them. I had a neighbour – she lived there with other youngsters – like, relations – with an aunt. And they were never allowed to sleep in a room on their own, they had to sleep in the aunt’s room. And they used to say “Knock Polly, knock” and never mind where they said it or where they turned their heads – she knocked all right. And they used to hear the rustle of her skirt going down the hall, and they’d hear pots and pans rattling on the stove. They put flour in front of the stove to find footmarks. And you remember Flanders who worked there? They even thought that Flanders was up to tricks and – I don’t know whether it was up in an attic they kind of got him, and looked at his shoes and all the rest of him to see, yeah, to see if – if he was playing tricks, but he wasn’t. And actually, oh I think I’ve told you – Mrs Nelson was terribly ill up in an upstairs bedroom, and they had a nurse looking after her. And down in their garden they had a ‘lovers tryst’ or something they called it – and she could see out the window and old Bill was carrying on with the nurse. And so she told him – she said “I’ll haunt you for the rest of your life”. And I’ll tell you – my God, she did – you’ve no idea.

Is that right?

Actually I believe when he died the hearse broke down, and when they were lowering him into the ground a strap broke. Well after that you see, he moved from there and he went to Waikoko. Don’t know whether he built Waikoko, I think he may have, I’m not sure, it might have been an older home there.

No, no, no that was the old home at Waikoko was already built there.

It was already built, yes, I can remember being there many the time at showtime.

You mention that the house was moved across the Tukituki River.

Yes, that’s right.

It was almost opposite where you lived. Was that the house in Raymond Road – the old homestead there?

You went along the Lawn Road, you know, Mangateretere School, and you came along there and you went along there going … as if you were going out to Haumoana and it was about – oh, might have been a few hundred yards.

But where it was moved to …

Across the river, and right opposite – I’ve forgotten the name of the road, goes … went right up past …

Tukituki Road goes round the river and …

And up over the red bridge.

Yes, Raymond Road and Parkhill Road.

No it wasn’t there, it was on the main road going through, yes. And I can remember as kids, you see, we used to swim in the river. We knew about the haunted house and we thought we’d like to go over and have a look through it. But it was always creaking and groaning and we were scared to go in.

But, no, I can’t remember the name of the people – I did know it, but I just can’t think. I think she was – there was a Long up at Nuhaka or somewhere, and I think she was one of the daughter … one of his daughters or something. I can’t remember the chap who [?] married, but they did the house up beautifully and they had a wonderful garden with peacocks and different birds. And then just a few years ago, sadly it was burnt to the ground.

And you make mention here that your father used to take Mrs Williams to visit the Nelsons at Waikoko.

Oh, there – that’s right. [Chuckle] He was down, looking under the car and Dad blew the horn. He never heard the car coming you see, and Dad blew the horn and he came up and knocked his head underneath, and he scuttled off into the house, and the next thing was afternoon tea came out on a silver service.

And now – you learnt your piano from …

Inez Clayton.

Is that right?

Yes … I went to her when I was eight years old and I went until I was about ten. And when I was at the Dunedin Exhibition I played a duet on the piano down there with a chap who was looking after pianos. No, Inez was a very nice … and then of course she went to the Melbourne Conservatorium. And of course if I’d stopped learning then I would have kind of lost a lot of it, and so Mum sent me to Mrs Blair.

And you come down, and you took exams at the time and passed?

Yes. Grade 7 with her. No, actually you see, she won a scholarship in England – she was living in England then. She won a scholarship to the Royal Academy and to the Royal College of Music. Well she was a very accomplished pianist. And – she was very very strict though. And she didn’t believe in giving you very – what you’d call tuneful pieces to play – she gave you pretty dry stuff. I often wonder when I look back how I stuck it. But it gave me the grounding. Then of course I was very ill … that’s when I took very ill.

Well it stood you in great stead didn’t it?

Oh it did, yes. Even Mr Spinney said that she’d given me a very good grounding.

And then you went on to – you went to Eversley Private Hospital.

Oh yes, I was very ill and Dr Wilson put me in Eversley … I was there for six weeks.

That was the time Anthony Eden went to Germany to see Hitler.

And I think it was Anthony Eden … I’m not quite sure about that but it was one of them, they were sent from England to Germany to see if they could come to some arrangement, but of course Hitler was determined he was going to war.

So you left Havelock how long ago?

Now … it’s 49 years this August.

You’ve only lived in Auckland for 50 years?

Yep. I was 52 when I left Havelock, well just on 52, I hadn’t had my 52^nd birthday.

And the Village those days – it didn’t have many shops did it?

No. I can tell you – I can remember we used to have our balls and there was a hall in the Anglican grounds? And we used to have our dances and one thing there.

St Luke’s Hall?

Yes, St Luke’s Church – I couldn’t remember the name. And then we used to go to the Forester’s Hall for our supper. That was in the Village not very far from where Frasers was I think. There was an alleyway we used to go down and look at the birds there. And anyway, this day something happened and the cockatoo tried to attack me. The other kids had gone out and I was the last, and this blessed thing flew between my legs and tried to get me. And after that you see – I think it was a Mr Watt there, and he saw what happened and after that we were never allowed to go in the yard again. And he used to sit with the cockatoo on his toe and tick it about like that, and it probably – it wasn’t very happy with it some day, and so it decided it was going to do something about it, and I was the one who was going to get it. [Chuckle]

And of course, Bob Given would have been there those days, the blacksmith?

Oh gosh yes – I can see him walking across in his boots and almost nothing on.

Big leather apron.

Yeah, that’s right.

I know – hairy chest and …

That’s right.

Sweat running down his back.

That’s right – no, I can remember him. And his name was Dillon was it?

No, Bob Given.

Given, Given, Given, that’s right. Given, that’s right, yes, I remember that. Used to stand there sometimes and look at him using the anvil.

I know and you could smell the … when they were burning the red hot shoes on the horses’ feet. You’d smell the … smell of the …

That’s right, yeah that’s right. And then there was Rickett’s Shoe Store? Yes – they were just further along from Given’s in a little red house. And – oh, I’ve forgotten now – she used to come out and she … no, she was quite a nice lady but she used to have some funny ways with her.

And we used to have Lewis the butcher … Mr Lewis the butcher on the corner of Joll Road.

Yes, that’s right I remember the butcher’s shop, but I don’t know …

Foster Brooks across the corner. [Speaking together]

And it was Jolls lived up just there, you know …

That’s right, yeah.

… Rita and all that lot.

The Roaches – they had a shop where the Far … Trading Company it was called later on, at Roach’s?

Oh yes, Roach’s in the middle.

That’s right.

That’s right, yes that’s right. I knew the Roaches very well, I think. Were they the ones that – who also had the shop in Hastings?

Yes, yes, that’s right. [Speaking together]

Yes, that’s Gordon Roach. Yes, – oh, Erica and – oh what was their other girl’s name? It’s funny, she was the dark one and Erica was the fair one. And the dark one married and lived in Napier. Just can’t think of her name – they were lovely girls. Erica married a Hardy. And then there was Trevor, the boy.

That’s right. Now because you lived at Waimarama Road, you had the – you biked to Havelock or did you walk to school?

Oh – actually dad had the car. At some stage when he wasn’t there I had to walk and then later I had a bike. I reckon I biked thousands of miles. [Chuckle]

Yes. And you know the social life in the Village for a young person those days – I suppose there was St Luke’s Hall where they had sometimes …

Yes, well I remember when I was five years old that I used to recite and there was a concert on and I remember … my mother was the old black sow, and she had a white spot right here on her nose. And of course all the crowd laughed and I stopped and laughed with them. And then the Standard 6 kids – when we used to go down there they used to chase me round and put me on the stage and make me recite it. I’ve got it written somewhere – I can’t remember the whole lot now, but … I can remember … I can still see that – all the people sitting down there, me on the stage – “oh my mother’s the old black sow, she’s got a white spot right here on her nose” … of course they laughed, and I stopped too.

During those days there weren’t many Maoris in the Village was there? We didn’t see a great number of Maoris before …

I can’t remember any Maoris being at the Havelock School, not at my time.

Well at my time there were only two, from Waimarama – one Brightwell and one Tuatahi.

At the high school we had two or three and one was called Annie Potaka, and I remember asking somebody about her oh, some years ago, and they said she’d died of TB.

Yes, so that’s …

No, that was Annie … somebody Hakaria. But Annie Potaka sat beside me and she was later the Mayoress of Rotorua.

Was she really?

Yes that’s right. Yes, she was a very nice girl.

Yes it’s just interesting isn’t it when you sort of go back over history … and we didn’t think about recording, it didn’t seem to be important.

No that’s right.

And then all of a sudden you realise …

It’s when you get older that things start to you know click in don’t they, and you think ‘gosh I should have taken notes of that long ago’.

I know, I know.

That’s right. ‘Cause I’ve never done this before. Somebody told me I should write a book but of course I never had the energy to do it and I was always busy with other things. I’ve been a gardener all my life, though I can’t do much now. I have it in the pots and one thing and the other. It’s on … what your call … clay soil.

[Interviewer comments ‘yes, yes’ etc]   Yes, so that’s very interesting. Well, that’s probably the story of your life isn’t it, and then …

Actually …

… so your Auckland life is important too, so … in Auckland for the second 50 years of your life.

Yes, half my life really.

That’s right. And so what did you … did you carry on teaching piano?

Oh no, actually I taught one of the Blossom Queens in Havelock – you know, there was Barbara Inglis and then there was Margaret Humphrey – they were next door neighbours, they were marvellous neighbours.

The Ingles are related to us.

Oh yes. Barbara – yes, that’s right.

So we know everybody.

You do, that’s right. [Chuckle] Margaret was a lovely girl and her trip – she won a trip to Toowoomba, and she met a university student there and eventually married him – and went over there and she had – was it two sons and a daughter, and they had a book shop. But when the invitations went out for the school reunion my name was on the list and she said to her husband I’ve got to go over there – I’ve got to go over and meet Carol, and we had a wonderful time together.

Mrs Humphreys – I sold her a retirement home in Napier Road. She used to live in Tauroa Road when they moved off the orchard. [Speaking together]

That’s right, I used to visit, yes.

And … her son Stuart.

Stuart, that’s right. Stuart’s marriage broke up and he’s living in England.

That’s right.

Stuart used to mow our lawns for us when Dad was very ill – I used to do it, but he used to do it.

Little dark curly headed boy.

He was a very nice chap.

Yes, he was. He suffered a bit of heart problems when he was orcharding in Hastings. But when he left the orchard I think he might have come right. That’s when he went to England.

I see, yes. Margaret said to me, she said “we always knew that marriage would never last”. I did meet her but I didn’t know her very well.

So when did your husband pass away then? 

Allan died in 2004 on the 16^th March …15^th March.

Right, yes – so it’s a while ago now. 

Yes. It’s eleven years. Oh no, I miss him very much.

So you were forty years married? 

Nearly thirty seven – thirty seven years of marriage.

And this is – you lived further up the hill here?  

Oh yes, that’s right. It’s got quite a nice shopping centre and cafes and all that there. And of course we’ve got Countdown, but of course it’s like everything else their prices go up all the time, you know.

Why is it called Blockhouse Bay?

I can’t actually tell you the history. It was the blockhouse, and that was … the Maoris had that up there to stop anybody coming up the harbour and getting in. That was the blockhouse. I’ve been up actually and stood where it was, but they’ve got houses there now.

So the blockhouse was like a fort?

Yes.

To guard the …

To guard the area.

That’s interesting.

Today is the 26^th of June 2015. I’m now recording an addendum to a previously recorded interview of Caroline Leedom of Auckland, formerly of Havelock North. Caroline, would you like to carry on and tell us your story?

A record of father’s arrival in New Zealand.

Thomas Slade arrived in Napier Easter 1904 on the ‘Rimutaka’. Later it became a refrigerator ship taking lamb and meat to England. Father was born in Manchester, England February 12^th 1892, lived in Stretford, was a very good soccer player and the ground he played on was Old Trafford. He was an engineer by trade, trained at Woods’ Engineering Manchester. As a side, his brother Robert Slade also trained there and at the time of the Second World War it was said if he left they might as well close down the premises.

There was a recessional depression at the time and father was employed by Mr Bernard Chambers, Te Mata Station, and looked after all the machinery, shearing equipment, tractors, engines etc. Mr Chambers bought a large tract of land from the Government at Rukumoana, north of Te Pohue on the Taupo Road, where he farmed sheep. He owned a Wolseley car and took father up there with him to look after the equipment. It was very sandy ground and shears became blunt very quickly. There were many steep hills, roads were very different at that time, and the car had a sprag which dropped between the side of the car and the running board, used like an ice axe to slow the car down.

Father also drove Mr Chambers’ daughter Hazel, later Mrs Foxley, and son Bernard, to school in a pony cart – St George’s School, Duart Road, Havelock North. He also had a very nice man, Mr Gibson, who looked after the animals on the Station. One morning checking round the farm, a valuable bull stuck in mud in a stream. He was unable to get it out so called on father for help. Also told Mr Chambers who gave him a bottle of whiskey for the bull. The bull was too far gone and the men drank the whiskey.

Later Mr Chambers sold Te Mata and built a mile up on hill, lower slopes Te Mata Peak. He wanted to grow tropical shrubs and flowers. Also his brothers had built their homes of reinforced concrete and he wanted his new home also built of reinforced concrete, but Abbott the builder talked him into building it of bricks, and of course it collapsed in the 1931 earthquake. The roustabout was a Dave Forbes, related to Forbes/Coate Government. Marjorie McLeod worked there for 60 or more years. Later the property at Rukumoana returned to the Government. It was tough country and Mr Chambers couldn’t make it pay.

The garden on the hill was beautiful. He also asked some of his men to help him to finance a property in Western Australia growing wheat but it wasn’t successful. Wheat did not grow tall enough to be harvested. The men were repaid their contribution.

In 1912 Mrs J H Williams advertised for somebody to drive her car. Mr Williams had been kicked on the shin around two years earlier and had died from blood poisoning. Father applied for the position and was accepted. He met my mother, Mary Ann McTague – she was the housemaid at Muritai, and they were married in July 1914. I have a book on 126 years of her father arriving in New Zealand 1864. I was at the reunion in 2000. My father was concerned about a scratch … or was it a crack … in the steering column. The chap previously employed – had he been in an accident?

I was born 6 October 1915. Members of Mrs Williams’ family were going back to Te Aute to Mr Alan Williams’ property which was next to Te Aute College. My mother and self were taken for the drive. Coming back at the kennels – the road was very different at that time – very windy and sharp bends and the car failed to respond, went up the hill, fell back across the road into a dip. My parents were thrown out and I was found under the car still wrapped in my shawl, six weeks old. The steering wheel must have been cracked. The car was a Buick.

Mrs Williams was a real lady, direct descendant of the Stuarts, Scotland, and not like some of the would-be’s. Her eldest daughter Maud married a German before the 1914-18 World War. He was a very nice man. They lived in Sydney and so-called friends avoided or abandoned them war time, so life was difficult. She had taken German citizenship at time of marriage – I think that was what happened in those days. She was the first German citizen to arrive in New Zealand after the war and father was in Wellington to meet her and bring her back to Havelock North. Later she went to live in Germany. And later during 1930, her husband Mr Birch, told my father if England couldn’t do some kind of deal with Germany we would be at war. They left Germany and went to Zurich, Switzerland to live, and left £60,000 behind but never went back to collect it.

Mr Birch was a wool broker and could name his own salary to come to New Zealand. They had four daughters and when they were young I used to play with them at Muritai and they used to take me out with them. The second daughter, Cecile Williams, married Mr Harold Williams – they lived in London. He was an architect … very clever man who was developing an 80 acre project in London when he died from a heart attack. They had one son, Derek, who used to visit us … also used to play with him when he was young. Mrs Williams represented New Zealand at the opening of New Zealand House in London. Her son Derek became a minister and was a chaplain with the Forces, and on D-Day he was killed within five minutes of landing; dreadfully sad. Mrs Williams corresponded with me right up until the time of her death, and used to visit when in New Zealand.

Mrs Norah Sunderland was the third daughter. She married Richard Sunderland and had two sons, Joe and Tom. She lived at Undercliffe on the Waimarama Road. She was involved with the Plunket Society and I was one of her earliest clients. When I used to be taken with the nieces and nephews out to Waipoapoa Station or to Te Apati, I would run around with the other children, calling him Uncle Dick. When Mr Sunderland died Mrs Sunderland sold the property to people from South Africa. She lived in Havelock and used to visit us quite often.

The fourth daughter was Marjorie Williams who married Lionel McKay and they lived at Motueka, Nelson, had four sons, Denis, Colin, Peter and Brian. The boys went to Hereworth Boy’s School, Havelock North and father used to take them and other boys to Puketitiri, to Ball’s Clearing where they had a day out. Greenwoods belonged to a Mr McLean before Greenwoods bought it. Nigel McLean, a son, was killed in the 1914-18 war. Denis McKay was in the Navy during Second World War.

In 1918, time first World War, my mother was in hospital. Her sister-in-law died and a doctor and sister asked if she would like to go home, and she decided that was what she would like to do. She was the last person let out of the hospital at that time – the plague. I don’t know how long the other patients had to stay. I was three years old and staying with an aunt and uncle in Havelock North. Auntie was black leading the stove this morning, and I went missing. She went to neighbours and the shops but they had not seen me, so she crossed over to the Exchange Hotel and found me sitting on the counter with a large glass of raspberryade. Mrs McLean owned the hotel and she was a good woman, and when the men went in for a drink she would tell them after a while that it was time to go home to their wives – not like a lot of the owners, all they wanted was the money. I met her son, Alistair, at a reunion and he told me his mother was living in Napier.

In 1920 when the Prince of Wales visited New Zealand father had to pick up officials at Hastings Railway Station. I can still see the Prince standing there. The officials wanted me to go and shake hands with him, but I was too shy. The reception was on the Hastings Railway course [Racecourse]. The men wouldn’t let the car through until they gave me a bag of sweets. Actually I was the only lady to travel in the Royal procession.

Before Woodford House was built the more affluent people sent their daughters to Pondicherry School in Hastings. I don’t know if it later became Queenswood. I don’t know where the sons went to school.

Father also was the first to drive from the area to New Plymouth; also Stratford Mountain House run by the Murphys. Mrs Williams used to visit Judge Kenny in New Plymouth, and father would take the car round to the Jury stables. Mr Jury had a fox terrier and used to put a note in its collar and it would go to the hotel and bring back a bottle of beer in its mouth.

Father climbed Mt Egmont twice. He took Boz Toswell up the second time. Dr Toswell wouldn’t let Boss go with anyone else and Boz couldn’t make it to the top for the last hundred yards. So father went on, and then came back and they went back to the Mountain House together.

Going back to the plague, father took Dr Felkin all around the area. People put a white towel or such out the window so people knew if anyone was sick. He took the doctor out to Hildreths next to Sir Andrew Russell’s ‘Tuna Nui’. Also there was a large settlement of Maori at Pakipaki. He would go in, open all the windows and treat those in need, and when he came out he said “as soon as we’re out of sight the windows will be closed”.

Dr Felkin cured my mother of migraine headaches. I can still see the medicine in the bottle. When she went to the doctor on one occasion she has told him the medicine didn’t taste the same, and he said “the blighter is watering it down”. He wrote out another prescription and said take this to Woodward’s the chemist in Hastings. I guess the one who watered it down lost a lot of customers. We had neighbours a distance down the road from us, Mr and Mrs Johnny Donnelly. Mrs Donnelly had had the plague and she was black from the waist down.

I started school in 1921. There was a large snowfall not only on the Peak but also in the Village. Snow was piled up against houses and the verges. Some Standard 6 pupils took me out and we snowballed each other – had a great time.

In 1925 there was a dreadful drought and relied on rainwater to fill the tanks. We were booked to visit the Dunedin Exhibition and a neighbour, Mr Alan McRobbie, said he would milk the cows and look after them, but because of the water shortage father decided it was too much to ask of Mr McRobbie. My mother and aunt and myself went to Timaru then together with an aunt, uncle and cousin continued to Dunedin. We had a wonderful time. It was an amazing display – something I will never forget and I believe it is the only exhibition to pay its way. I played a duet on a piano with a man in the area.

Father built a platform which he placed on the back of the car and placed two large carborundum drums on and tied them down, drove to the river and filled them with water which he poured into the trough for the cows, and watered the lemon trees, pungas and shrubs with the rest of the water. He did that every night.

Going back to Dr Felkin. There was a baker’s run by Mr and Mrs Fraser in the village. Mr Fraser used to deliver the bread in the area by horse and cart. This day he was delivering to Dr Felkin’s and there was a woman working in the garden. He bent down and pulled her leg. It was the doctor’s wife. He had been an Indian Army doctor. At Christmas time Alan Leedom, whom I later married, was delivering mail over school holidays. The doctor and his wife invited him in and gave him a present off the tree. Also in the basement of the doctor’s home was a special room which had been built and he held seances.

Mrs Marie Leedom, Alan and Jack’s mother, was a piano teacher and also the librarian, Havelock North.

About 1928 father drove Sir Truby King around the Hastings and Havelock North area looking for suitable place for a hospital. He ruled Havelock out, hills not suitable for elderly people. The Omahu Road site was chosen, and so the Hastings Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital was built. Father was at the opening.

Then in 1931 the dreadful earthquake, and father had a special sticker on the car window. No one could enter Napier without that sticker, and he brought injured people out. Relations who lived near the railway in Waipukurau said it was like scenes from France, war time – injured being taken to Wellington. Dorothy McRobbie, a school friend, was one who was taken to Wellington. Her parents were frantic, they had had no news of her. She worked in Roach’s and the girl next to her was killed.

A week later father was given permission to take mother and myself to Napier. We went round the Bluff Hill and to Westshore. The deep wide cracks in the road were frightening. A bridge which had only recently been built and opened was no longer required – the land rose 12 feet and the Napier Airport is now on the land. Then we went … driven up the Napier Hill, and by the Nurses’ Home which had collapsed, and uniforms and other possessions all hanging down in the ruins. My doctor, Harry Wilson, was in the operating theatre at the time. I don’t know what happened to the patient but a skylight came down over his head and he was cut about the head and face. I had been to see him the previous day in Hastings. The Hastings High School opened day of the quake. Doctor decided I shouldn’t go to school for three weeks and put me on a special diet. Morning of quake I was sitting in a basket chair on the back porch. My father had built a large tank stand on which two 600 gallon tanks stood, and I was sitting beside them and for some reason, I don’t know why, I leapt out of the chair and jumped to the ground which was rolling like waves from the sea. My mother came out of the laundry and we got together and held onto each other. If I had not jumped out of the chair I may not be here to tell the tale. The tanks came over where I had been sitting, smashed some of the planks in the porch floor and water went into the back of the house.

Then in 1933 I was taken seriously ill and in the Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital for four months. Doctors did not think I would live … in and out of the operating theatre twelve times and in bed for nine months. It took a long time to regain any energy. Before that I had been a junior sports champion and in the top basketball teams. I was in isolation for a few weeks.

Before sheep and cattle were transported by truck, drovers used to bring mobs of a thousand or more sheep and cattle from Waimarama, Ocean Beach, Taurapa (Gordons’) and Maraetotara to the works at Tomoana and Whakatu. I used to sit on the gate and watch them go by. Sometimes truck drivers running late would come in to use the phone, asking the works to stay open until they arrived.

Then there was the haunted house at Lawn [Road] in Mangateretere where Bill Nelson had lived before moving to Waikoko, the Showgrounds. Before he moved to Waikoko his wife was very ill in an upstairs bedroom. A nurse was hired to look after her and looking out of the window she could see her husband carrying on with the nurse, and she told him she would haunt him for the rest of his life. I know this is true as neighbours of ours lived there with an aunt and other young relations. They were not allowed to sleep anywhere else but in the bedroom with the aunt, and they would say “knock Polly, knock”, and it would happen and they would hear the rustle of her skirt as she walked down the hall and also the movement of the pots and pans on the stove. There is more I could tell you.

The house was moved across the Tukituki River almost opposite where we lived. Sometime with some other children we would cross the river and go to the house … wanted to go in but it was always creaking and funny noises so we were too frightened. People by the name of Scrimgeours lived there for a time, then it was empty for several years. People bought it, I can’t remember their names – they did the place up and worked on the garden and made a beautiful place, and had peacocks and other birds. Sadly a few years ago it was burnt to the ground.

My father used to take Mrs Williams to Waikoko, and this day dropped her off at the front door and then took the car round to the garage. Mr Nelson was bent down under the back of his car. Of course father didn’t know that, and he blew the horn. Mr Nelson came up with a jerk and hit his head. He scuttled off into the house. Next thing afternoon tea came out on a silver service.

I learned the piano from Inez Clayton for a short time before she went to Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. Many years later she took over at Woodford House after Erica Hobie retired. I was then taught by Mrs I H Blair, Te Mata Road. She was a very accomplished pianist, had been accepted at the Royal Academy and also the Royal College of Music in London – ARAM, ARCM. I was told if you couldn’t play after being accepted there – well what! I took exams at that time and passed Grade 7. That was when I took seriously ill a few weeks later.

About two years later I decided I wanted to continue lessons. Mrs Blair had retired. Later she went to live with her daughter, Mary, in Gisborne and she died aged 99 years. She also lost her son Tom in the Second World War. Edith married Hector Eddy, was happily married … they lived in Motueka, Nelson. I think Hector bought Keith Holyoake’s orchard. I took up lessons with Mr Cecil Spinney and we got along extremely well together and I passed my Grade 8 exam with him. His wife was Nola Luxford’s sister, and she used to look after the New Zealand men at the time of the war in New York. His daughter also won a scholarship to the Royal College in London.

Not long after that Mr Spinney was taken ill, and when he was able to start teaching again I was ill and in Eversley Private Hospital for six weeks. It was a long time before my energy returned, and also my mother was ill at that time. Actually, while I was in hospital, I think it was Anthony Eden … went to Germany to see if they could come to an agreement with Hitler, but we know the outcome – World War II.

Mr Spinney was the organist at the Anglican Church, Hastings and he produced ‘The Messiah’. It was said to be equal to anything produced overseas. And his father also was an examiner for Trinity College London.

I can remember going to Hastings when very young with my mother. We had to step over Maoris in the doorways of shops, also sitting along the gutters. Dr Tosswill lived in Hastings – his property next to Cornwall Park – he had a beautiful rose garden which he showed me round. Also he gave some of his section to Cornwall Park to experiment growing rice. He was taken ill and had to go to Wellington or the South Island for treatment, and he wouldn’t go with anyone else but my father. Dean Brocklehurst from Napier accompanied them.

Duart Old People’s Home used to belong to Mr Potham. He sold it and took over the Te Pohue Hotel. People name of Millers lived at Duart for a time and I used to go there to practise duets on the piano with one of their daughters.

At top of road – Busby Street … Eve’s Brickyard corner … people by the name of Fitzroys lived. The property was named ‘Ringstead’. They were connected to a Mr Fitzroy who I believe was a Prime Minister of New Zealand in the 1860s or thereabouts. Sometime later – I think they must have died – Mr and Mrs Percy Elworthy of Timaru must have purchased the property and their son was Lord Elworthy. I have a photo of his brother’s home station – it was burnt to the ground but another home was built.

My father bought land from Mr Chambers. He drew the plans for the house and my mother placed the peg in the ground the way she wanted it to face. Phillips & Wrights were the builders . My father designed the garden; also built the concrete fences and also a summer house. In the spring people used to drive out to look at the gardens, cherry trees in blossom, a bed with five hundred tulips and many other plants and shrubs in bloom. There was never any time of the year without some shrubs and flowers in bloom.

At time of the Blossom Festival, Nella Clark – I think they bought Thompson’s orchard – used to come in and I would give her bunches of flowers to put on Pernel’s floats. Also one of the shops had flowers from our garden in the window. We had two Blossom Queens from our road, about a mile apart. First was Barbara Ingles and the second was my next door neighbour, Margaret Humphrey – both were lovely girls. Margaret came over from Toowoomba, Australia, ‘specially to meet me at time of the 150^th anniversary of the Havelock North Primary School. The principal asked me to cut the cake – quite an honour. I was the oldest old pupil, 98 years. Also I drove the car to school from twelve years of age. My father used to put the bicycle on the back of the car. I still have a driving licence, 100 years old in October [2015].

Going back to Te Mata – my father took a six weeks holiday, went to Christchurch where he stayed with relations, Mr and Mrs Staples. Mr Staples was a member of the Riccarton Road Board and also the Tramways Board. Mrs Staples owned the Queens Hotel and looked after a lot of the men who were excavating the Lyttelton Railway Tunnel. The men thought very highly of her and they took her through the tunnel before it was officially opened. There had also been a Governor General’s residence in Christchurch, and it had been closed down. Mr and Mrs Staples lived there in Antigua Street.

Going back – my father went on to the Te Mata Cellars, oh one morning around 8am. The excise man arrived from Napier to open the still. It could not be opened until he arrived and the chap who lit it … don’t know what happened, but there was an explosion, and he was thrown back through the room and fortunately not badly hurt, but shaken up. The still produced 90 over proof. I remember the cellar when it had earth floors.

Mr Richmond purchased Te Mata before Mr and Mrs Couper moved in. He was Mrs Couper’s father. Also he was quite lucky moneywise. During the Second World War there was a place by the Hastings railway crossing, Heretaunga Street, where raffle tickets were sold. This day they called out “this is the last ticket”. Mr Richmond was walking past, bought the ticket and when drawn he’d won quite a sum of money.

Opposite our home was a one hundred acre paddock. Developers were interested in buying it, I guess to build houses. Tom Couper owned the land and leased it to people who owned vineyards for fifty six years – good on Tom.  [Chuckle]

My father took Coupie, Janet, to her wedding. I was also invite -. I used to play with Coupie and Tom when young. It was a lovely day – a large marquee on the lawn. People by the name of Holdsworth owned ‘Swarthmore’. They were Quakers, very nice people. A son in Gisborne had an operation and he was left paralysed. Dr Sutcliffe later bought the property, it was a health centre, or hospital, very different to the usual hospital. ‘Peloha’, the name of the property. Also there was a Mr Hyman, the spelling I’m not sure of, he lived opposite Miller Road orchard and he was a diamond merchant and frequently visited Wellington. Two of his daughters attended Havelock Primary School. Later Mr Meisener bought the property.

Before coming to New Zealand father worked on the first valve to be installed at Lake Thirlmere eighty miles north of Manchester, to take water to the city. I met a man about four years ago who told me the water still comes from that lake.

Also at time of the Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee, she visited Manchester. And father was delivering telegrams and standing beside a policeman who was waiting to clear the way for father. So he had a close up view of the Queen. And later she again visited Manchester for the opening of the Ship Canal, so father saw her again at that time.

Also around 1900 a women, don’t know the area where she came from, Lady Penrith, treated a young servant girl very badly and half-starved her. Must have been a Court case, and this went around the Music Halls of England and ‘I Wouldn’t Be a Lady if I Could’.

Referring to Havelock North, Warren’s Bakery was along the fence where the snow piled up. Later it became the building where my cousin owned a car repair shop – John Slade. He was Arthur Slade’s son. Arthur, Bob, Dorothy and Florence were the children of Uncle Randall’s first wife, Aunt Lucy – she died in 1918. Florence was three months old. Uncle Randall was father’s brother. Uncle married later and they had two daughters, Rona and Norma. Arthur was – sons, Donald, Bruce, Stuart and John. John later sold the business. Bob lived in Te Aute Road and had quite a number of children. Dorothy in later years lived at Waiapu House and Florence, whose second husband was Glyn Bale, died at her daughter’s home from an aneurysm.

Will I go on about my father’s relations at the moment? I don’t quite know how it ends here. There’s not a great deal to read anyway. But anyway it’s just a record of it.

Father’s parents, Richard William Slade lived in Hanslope, Buckinghamshire. They owned an old Georgian home and farm, ‘Green End’. A photo of the home had to go into the Heritage Collection. From the top of the church tower one could see into seven counties. Some of the Slades are buried in the church ground, others at Stoke Goldingham, Northampton, Greys Ellegy where Richard Gordon Slade, OBE funeral service was held. He was a Group Captain, Second World War. Also put Peter Twist through breaking the sound barrier at Farnsborough 1956, then he went up and they broke the sound barrier in each direction.

All the family except father were born at ‘Green End’ Farm. It was a toss of the coin – come to New Zealand, or Manchester. The home was demolished in 1948. Grandfather married Sarah Ann Coate from Somerset near Coxes Cove. They lived in Stretford, Manchester. Grandfather had a lot of bad luck at ‘Green End’. Poachers burnt down a large building one night, a big hayrick. He lost 2000 guineas that night, and later a railway cut through the property in two. He went to go – he used to go round the property at night at 9pm and fire shots to scare poachers away. Grandmother’s father or brother, Tom Coate, owned a well known firm in Geneva, Old England, and grandma and Aunt Dorothy used to go to Geneva for holidays. My aunts, Gertrude and Caroline owned a shop in Knutsford, Manchester. They sold hats, not sure about frocks, and Lady Egerton used to buy her hats from them and said they were better than ones she could buy in London.

Before father came to New Zealand he spent three months with his parents in West Kirby. I think it was after grandfather died aged 86 years in 1920, that Grandmother and Aunt Dorothy moved to Piercebridge, not far from Darlington, where Aunt Caroline and Malcolm White and family lived. Grandmother died in August 1927, 81 years of age.

Tom Coate travelled a lot. He was up in the Yukon, Alaska time of the gold rush; also down in the South Island of New Zealand at Gabriel’s Gulley. He gave grandmother a gold nugget from there and she gave it to my father when he left for New Zealand, and I still have it.

I had my last ride on a horse at 90 years old. Mr and Mrs Elder, Te Puna, corner of Tanner Street, continued in the dip and up onto Simla Avenue, Peak Road. Mr Elder had a room where he had a loom for weaving and he took me in to watch him on several occasions. He also had a daughter, Mrs Bockitt, whose husband, Mr Bockitt lost his life. He was a member of the Scott’s Antarctic Expedition. Mrs Bockitt lived closed to Mr and Mrs Elder … that’s right, I met them on several occasions. I stayed up at the Elders.

Now, this on father’s oldest brother, William – lived in London – lived at Forest Hill, Stansted Road. He worked for Morleys. They were very selective as to who they would employ and I know several people who tried to get a job there; they were turned down. Before the Second World War, William and wife, Blanche, moved to Worthing, Sussex, Bri Beakie, [?] Durrington Hill. During the war they were on the rooftops watching for the German planes. Their sons, Lesley and Gordon, attended Dulwich College London – had to sign on to fight if required – a very military college.

And then referring to Havelock North, the Cotteralls lived some distance up the Peak Road. Gerald was in my class, he had two brothers, Julian and David. He fought in Second World War. They were badly injured and died very painful deaths. Gerald later lived in Wellington and I met him on several occasions, a nice chap.

Bernard Judge was Mrs Leedom’s stepbrother. He was in the Second World War and when he came back he trained at Otago University and became a dentist. His practice was in Christchurch and I stayed with him and family on several occasions.

Marjorie Caton was my friend from school days and she died at Duart Hospital aged 96 years.

And before Nimons had buses they had horse drawn carriages to carry passengers to Hastings.

Well, that’s wonderful, now just – there’s a little note there about Pania of the Reef. Would you just like to just finish off with that?

Pania of the Reef Napier, was Ike Robbins’ granddaughter. He was the head of Kohupatiki Pa. My father knew him well, and used to wrestle with him when they were young. I also met him on several occasions and he used to tell me my father Thomas Slade was a bone of his body, and he would pat me on the shoulder. I took my father to see Ike a short time before father died. I took him to Kohupatiki Pa.

Well, that’s wonderful.

Will I put Caroline Leedom at the end?

Yes.

Caroline Leedom, nee Slade.

Thank you very much Caroline, that was absolutely marvellous.