Our Children
Our children all did well at school, although Ian suffered from dyslexia and found reading very difficult. None went to University, whether any would have liked to they didn’t say. Fred and Melville both left school after two years at College, and Ron had to get special dispensation to leave the six days of February before his 15th birthday. Because Nellie and Esther wanted to go nursing and had to have School Certificate to quality they did go to College for three years. When Fred was at Primary School his teacher, Mr. Whiteman, was a keen Ham Radio enthusiast, and so much enthused Fred that he made his own crystal radio, and later both he and Eileen spoke to others who did likewise. Though today flying the Catalina takes most of Fred’s spare time, radio and telephones form the main part of the shop they own and operate in Pukekohe.
Melville went to work for his Grandad and later with Victor Ballard and his boys, learning different skills connected with farming and agriculture, until eventually he bought the home farm, built a rotary cow shed and later put a sharemilker on and went contracting himself, investing in bigger and better machinery (tractors, balers, maize cribs and a drain digger).
After their three years at College and then the necessary years as probationary nurses, both Nellie and Esther became qualified nurses and kept at that job in the Tauranga hospital until they left to be married.
Ron proved himself a great help to Mr. and Mrs. Candy on their farm, until he started an apprenticeship in mechanics and when that was completed went to work for Porters, who were using big machinery at a mine. Later, this was what he went to Canada to do; only there he was working in temperatures of -30c at times.
Graham went straight into farming when he left school and by 1980 he was able to buy his own farm at Tauhei and after two years there sold it and moved himself, his family, his cows and implements to the West Coast of the South Island. There he cleared the land of gorse and sphagnum moss until, tired of rain and wet paddocks, he sold and went to the drier side of the island, one hours drive from Christchurch where the Waimakariri River supplied water for irrigation. Without that, the land is too dry to feed stock, but with it farming is possible and a paying proposition.
When Norman first left school he worked in the pit helping a car racing team, which led to mechanics, then expertise in refrigeration, first in trucks then in boats. He then bought ‘Lady Vee’ and took parties fishing or visiting the various islands around Auckland and the Hauraki Gulf. He became very interested in yacht races, working on preparing the New Zealand boat for the race, and eventually going to America to see it win. For a while he skippered faster boats for other owners until in 2000 he went with the owner of ‘Risk and Reward’ to Florida to maintain and sell it, and when it sold, with the new owner to the Bahamas.
It was not until he was in College that Ian enjoyed and made a success of his lessons but the boys all did well at their wood and metalwork, and I still use things they made. Ian progressed to owning his own engineering business, but three operations on his back made it difficult to spend too long bending over. At that time Diana finished 5th Form, and Dad and I were ready to set off with our caravan for a trip to the South Island, and she declared she was not going back to school and was going flatting. “Not unless you have a job,” said Dad, and when we came back she had done just that, and found a flat as well. She was a technical services officer for Telecom and worked at that until after she married, and was expecting the birth of Daniel.
Experience is a great teacher, but necessary too is the ability to see and understand how a thing should work, the patience to try, try, and try again until the desired result is obtained. I am very proud of each of my children and their achievements, and who, along with their spouses, have contributed significantly to life and stability in this country of ours. Your Dad and Grandparents would be proud of you too.
When Freddy was nearly a year old (he had neither hair nor teeth at that time) he could crawl quickly and easily. We went to Reporoa for Dad to give Uncle Sam a hand with the farm work. On New Year’s morning when they threw water on the shed floor it turned to ice, and the day was very cold.
The weather at Reporoa was colder than the Waikato, but it was the unseasonable frosts that could, and did happen at any time, that made farming, and especially gardening, frustrating and often very discouraging. A cabin on the farm made for cosy accommodation for us while there, and later when Aunt Isa retired she made it her home. A hot pool in the reserve opposite their house made for enjoyable recreation, as did a walk to Broadlands next door, where the little stream was full of gold fish, many quite large and very gold.
When Fred was four years old and Melville two, we took them to Petone to visit Uncle Charlie and Aunt Maggie. They had a two-storey house and the stairs proved very fascinating to the children. The front ones went down to the shop and the street, but it was the back ones that ended in the cellar and back garden that interested them most.
When Fred turned 15 he left school and home to work on a farm in Minden. From our window we looked across to the Minden lights and I would wonder what he was doing and offer a prayer for his guidance and protection. Norman was then a year old, and Ian was born the year Nellie went off to start her nursing. Esther was very good with the babies, but when Diana arrived she was off to start her nursing too, though she had to spend six months at Te Puke as a nurse aid until she was old enough to do her training.
When Melville left school he went to live and work for his Grandad. The first project they worked on was putting a cattle stop at the front. He helped build yards, races and a vat stand, so was back on the farm where he started life and perhaps was the son his Grandfather didn’t have. No longer could children take part in haymaking, and the contractors supplied their own lunch and ate it when they could so that was a job the farm wife didn’t have to do. At the time of his marriage to Ruth, he was share milking for his Grandfather and a new house was built for them. He bought the farm in 1973 and built a rotary cowshed, and in 1984 built a new house for themselves and employed a sharemilker. At that time he also planted maize and harvested it into cribs. After that he did contracting work for Gavins, planting and harvesting maize and hay baling. Like his Grandfather before him, he took a large part in the planning and building of the new church in Gordonton, and then also in the new hall. He is still Treasurer for both. He relief drives the forage harvester for Gavins, last season keeping one harvester going 24 hours daily. Now he and son Richard are building a silage trailer for Gavins at his workshop. Also, like his Grandfather, he is on the drainage board, but he bought a plane so he could more easily and quickly inspect them and know what needed doing. Another enterprise he is very interested in is the Field Days at Mystery Creek. He has been part of that since its inception, and what a huge and popular event it has become. Now he has extended his activities to another farm to use as runoff and to grow supplementary feed for his cows.
After several years working on farms around Tauranga, Fred took up herd testing in the Te Awamutu and Te Aroha districts. He drove around in a horse and gig, delivering the testing bottles to farms and then returning them to the factory. I guess he helped with the weighing of the milk and taking the samples as this added to the work and time the milking took. In 1961 Fred married Eileen and they continued there until after their daughter Barbara, was born. On his 21st birthday they left for Rawene where another farm job awaited him, but after another year they returned to the Waikato and a job at Otorohonga. After six years there he accepted a job working in a factory manufacturing hydraulic fittings, and before long was managing it. In the meantime they had built a house in Pukekohe and after 18 years also built a workshop on their section and began servicing radios and became very interested in the Ham radio and its activities. In fact, Eileen was so interested and so active in speaking to other like-minded folk all over the world that eventually she went to South Africa, travelling in that country and staying with folk she had talked to but never met, and seeing many of the animals there. Folk began to take advantage of the fact that they worked from home and so were available at all times, until it got too much and in 1992 they took a shop in Pukekohe and worked shop hours.
Fourteen months after Diana was married the first of the grandchildren, Fred and Eileen’s Wendy, also married. Three years later it was Barbara’s turn, but she had been in Australia and there met Richard, so when they married she went to Australia to live. Sandra married David in 1994 but it was not until 2001 that Annette met Paul. This time it was he who left Australia to live in the neighbouring country and their wedding was celebrated in the most spectacular surroundings, at Wright’s Water Gardens near Pukekohe.
When Nellie was six years old and in Primer 3 at school the teacher thought she was too small for her age and suggested she go to Health Camp. She was only 6lb 2 ozs at birth, and walking at 10 months and always on the go, so it was no wonder she was small. I had had to tie her into bed so she stayed still long enough to have her sleep in the daytime. She went to camp at Pakuranga and enjoyed it, however she did not grow (nor did I expect her to) any more than she did at home. She was 8 years old, and in Standard 3 when we went to Ohauiti and was later one of the foundation girls at Tauranga Intermediate and then at the Girls’ College where she gained her School Certificate.
After six months working in the library, she was old enough to begin her nurse training, and after qualifying embarked on life in double-harness with Doug Allen. The hospital’s reaction at that time was to put those who married onto night shift. They shifted into their own house (built by Dad and Bill Stewart) in 1966, and at the beginning of 1968 Doug went to Indonesia to repair instruments in the hospital there and returned just before the birth of their son, John. After two more sons (the youngest three years old) they went to Papua New Guinea, to Kikori where travel to shops for supplies was 5 km by boat - no roads in that area, but when they went to Moresby it was by small plane. While at Kikori Doug ran a vocational training centre, teaching carpentry, outboard motor mechanics, (the native way of dealing with motors that stopped was to tip them into the water) fishing, freezing and filleting fish, while Nellie taught the girls net making and mending, cooking and sewing. After two years there, they moved to Moresby where Doug ran a garage/service station and training for a development group, but there were none to train. Nellie did the books and also supervised the children’s lessons.
In 1986 they again left to do Mission work – this time in Liberia where Doug fixed things at the radio station (ELWA) or wherever needed, and instructed three local young men in mechanics. After the coup in 1989 those three went back and ran a workshop. Phillip went to the local school, where at that time there were children from 17 different nationalities attending. Steven, at that time was in Form 6, and did his lessons by correspondence from New Zealand.
Trouble erupted there early in 1989 and they were ordered to return to New Zealand. At that time John was at University, and Graham working on a farm, and they returned to find him preparing to be married. They had sold their home before leaving for Liberia so settled in with me while looking for a place for themselves, and eventually bought one at Windermere and Doug got a job driving a school bus, and on 4 May Graham and Wendy were married. Their joy was great when a little granddaughter was born, but sadly after a few short months the smiling little girl was killed in a car accident. Greater sadness for them all when Wendy proved unfaithful and a divorce was granted. Some time after that, more sadness for the family when Graham rode his motorbike to a picnic, and over the rim of Mount Tarawera and into the crater. He was rescued by helicopter and taken to the Otara Spinal Unit but was not given any hope of walking again. Then followed many months of pain, treatments and uncertainties, and eventually to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Rotorua. Doug and Nellie sold their home and bought one in Rotorua to be there for him when he became an outpatient there. When his condition stabilised he went to Bible College and there he met Lee, and in August 1995 they were married. By that time John and his Wendy were married too, and Steven and Nicola followed in January 1996.
After a time, Doug and Nellie moved again, this time to Palmerston North, and later again bought a transportable home and put it in the camping ground at Rama Rama. Doug worked in a testing station and Nellie for the Diabetes clinic until they had both had enough of Auckland and decided to work with VSA.
At the beginning of 2003 they left again to work with the native people, this time in Bougainville. They worked for VSA, Doug repairing machinery that had been lying idle for 10 or more years, until he got the reputation of the white man who could fix anything. Nellie helped in the library at the school. I’ve no doubt that when the Americans were running the mine, taking out copper and silver, they had all modern machinery, but they don’t seem to have done much for the people of the country – electricity is only available sometimes and water as often as not, and roads in a shocking state to our eyes. On the way through Moresby they met a local man who told them of a big hospital now at Kikori, overseen by a New Zealander, and they also met a man who remembered Rewa.
They shop in Buka where Rewa had been a missionary nurse 50 years before. There are 16 rivers between Buka and Arawa where they live – those same rivers that Rewa had to carry her bike through when visiting the villages. When Rewa went back for a second time she took a horse with her and so was able to negotiate the rivers easier. Now some have bridges, but Nellie and Doug most often have to wade through, or on stepping-stones. There is a vehicle (of sorts), which means four hours of uncomfortable travel when they have to go. Sometimes they are able to go by helicopter – much preferred. Lately they have been thrilled to find a chrysalis that hatched into a Bougainville blue butterfly – a large and very beautiful butterfly that had been reported as extinct. Another interesting chrysalis was a swallow-tailed butterfly, larger than a monarch, and also very beautiful. Geckos like them for breakfast.
Lynette did start University but left to marry Peter in October 1970. Peter had a very nasty accident at work, when the blade of a bulldozer he was making crushed his foot. After some time in hospital he had to go regularly for treatment, and as Lynette had not learnt to drive he drove himself without using the clutch as his leg was in plaster from top to bottom. After about six month he went back to work, doing all the overtime available to get enough money to pay for the bone grafts he needed, and then more time off work.
After that, for about 10 years, Peter spent his time and energy repairing and repowering trucks and heavy machinery. Waste oil was sold for 1c a litre. With the abolishment of this payment they had to pay regularly to dispose of 3000 litres of oil. As a result of that and the wanton disposal of waste oil, both within industry and by the public, they decided to find a way to produce a usable product from it. Initially, the intention was to use their own supply for their own use, but as people saw the development happening in their workshop, interest and then demand arose for a cheap industrial and horticultural fuel. This demand was made more urgent by the imminent power crisis and price hikes, especially to small businesses that used large amounts of electricity for heating. To finance the research and development of a high energy value and legally complying product, it was necessary to continue to operate the truck and heavy machinery business, which meant long hours and a seven day a week commitment - with often frustrating trials and retesting of different methods, chemicals and processes to remove water, the sludge and all solid particles from the waste oil. With so many variables in the types and composition of the waste oil to be recycled, if they were to take it from other sources, a process that could handle all these differences was essential. It took great perseverance and determination to continue on until a combination of both chemical and mechanical processing that would suit most variations with minimal adjustment was proven.
In the meantime, their three sons were growing up. Rodney, after several years farming, elected to work with his parents and became a very useful helper and was able to drive the trucks collecting oil from all over the North Island.
Shane went to Australia where he did his apprenticeship in mechanics, and when Daryl had finished his electrical one he followed his brother. Lynette and Peter bought a house, and when we were off to Canada in 1982 they were all ready for it to be lifted so they could put a flat under it.
Since 1993, the waste oil collected by WPC has been processed by a combination of processes, both chemical and mechanical. They are constantly aiming for higher quality, and in 1999 the standard of reprocessed products was such that they confidently began to run all their vehicles on their own products. The plant, including their own power supply, had been operating on their products since 1995. This included six boiler/burner systems as well as the power generator, which supplied power to more than 40 pumps, the decanter and the separator. They use their own products in the same confidence that they supply others, with the knowledge of how the system works and the safeguards in place to supply a reliable product. In simplistic terms, all product is drained of free water (waste oil typically contains at least 10% free water) and systematically screened down to 0.5mm particle size. Until recently it was then heated and chemically treated to release the encapsulated water, after which it is ‘thrashed’ mechanically at 5000 times the force of gravity through the decanter and separator to remove, through a three stage system, all contaminants having a specific gravity higher than the oil and water, leaving the oil to come off in the third stage. They are now able to claim the reprocessed oil they produce is of a high calorific value – higher than diesel – and fine quality to a 5-micron filtration. An average car filter is rated at 10 microns; a grain of salt is measured at 100 microns.
Currently their processed oil is used for industrial and horticultural heating at the rate of three million litres per year, but the ultimate aim as a bigger supply is available, is the recycling of waste oil into electricity for the use of the community. To take a load of potentially environmentally damaging waste oil, reprocess it, and then return it to the energy market in the form of electricity is surely the epitome of achievement for anyone.
Looking at the lifestyles of my children today, I realise how different and how much faster their lives are than in my own days. I guess the better roads and ability to travel more, and faster have much to do with it. As examples, only Sue, although a town girl, helped Graham in the shed from the time of their marriage, and also through the time of their children growing up in Harihari, West Coast, and in the building of the sheds in Oxford. Judy, too, helped with the calves when they had a small section at Puketaha, and now works with Ron, keeping the books in his manufacturing business in Canada. Even Fred, nearing retiring age, has Eileen’s help in the shop, where they sell and service cell phones and radiotelephones. Lynette helped Peter in much of their experimenting and since they set up the WPC business has been a very busy partner in the work. Diana, though not often working with Ross, and was able to spend her time caring for, and bringing up their children, has, since they were tiny, been very busy helping in lots of activities, and frequently cooks tea three separate times, for various people. Now Diane, Annette and Kirsten are working and caring for a baby as well. These little ones spend their days in child-care. One wonders what the ultimate effect on their lives will be. Certainly they learn more, and different things earlier in life, and I guess, learn to adjust to other folk besides their mothers.
I have been very privileged in my lifetime to have travelled the whole length and breadth of this lovely land of ours. From Spirits Bay in the north to the Bluff and Stewart Island. Mountains- I only ever climbed Mt Te Aroha and Mauou (Mt Maunganui), but I did swim in the sea in many bays, on both the East and West coasts, the rivers, the sounds and numerous lakes. The three mountains in the middle of the North Island, Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngaruhoe we saw many times. Sometimes we went past on the desert road and couldn’t see a sign of them, but the night of our wedding when we went past in the train they looked just a perfect picture. Mt. Cook we saw at a distance, very majestic, and the Southern Alps (which we went over via the Lewis Pass) were visible from Graham’s home and even in the summer were capped in snow, but the Remarkables, when we travelled past them were bare and rocky and really remarkable to view. The beautiful autumn colours as well as the many lovely spring flowers in our own part of the country, from the giant trees of the Kauri forest to the dainty ferns found at the feet of the bush trees. The day spent at Manapouri was very enlightening while the journey over Wilmott Pass with its many different coloured lichens was different again.
When visiting Grahams on the coast I was surprised to see the spring flowering native orchid growing on the macrocarpa trees and brought home a clump for myself. Thus I became very interested in growing orchids and joined the Orchid Society. First I grew Cymbidiums, but it wasn’t long before the bigger and more beautiful ones were to be had, but as time went on more and more from overseas came on the market and when they found the best way to propagate them they became cheaper too. Nowadays the orchid shows show how diverse their form and colour they are and how beautiful. Some need to be grown in a glass house, some with heat, but many are very hardy and grow and flower in spite of more neglect than care.
Growing plants has always given me joy- though now I find weeding difficult (and they often smother smaller plants) I’m still tempted when I see an unusual or really lovely one, to buy it, and find or make room for it. Unfortunately, these days the variety and numbers of bugs seem to have increased alarmingly- for two years the white fly have decimated my tomato before it has had time to produce any fruit, but I did find that a small dog’s flea collar round the trunk of my apple tree deterred the codlin moth whether it killed it or not, I do not know- I certainly hope so.
Now, with the addition of Edith’s raised garden, my interests in growing my own vegetables may be revived, unfortunately she didn’t have it long enough to prove its worth, and the place in my garden doesn’t get much sun so I can only hope that things will grow. Faith, hope and love- the bible tells us the greatest of these is love- so it is, but hope has a different role, and comes a close second. At times hope can be the only thing that keeps us going. When the way ahead seems hard, or even impossible it is hope that gives us the necessary impetus to go on and try, try and try again until the goal is reached. Ours was a happy home where every member of the family was important. There were no really high or lows to upset the even tenure of our lives. Hum drum? Perhaps- but I never heard a child complain, “I’ve nothing to do” or “I’m bored.” Such ideas didn’t exist.
When the children were small Christmas day was spent and enjoyed with the grandparents. After they bought and built Waiwauki, that was the favourite place for family celebrations until it was sold and now we gather at Esther and Joe’s or Ian and Diane’s for special birthdays and New Years days.
By this time many of the grandchildren were married and had children of their own. On my eightieth birthday it was a real joy to have all my children gather at Esther and Joes on a lovely day, but this it not always possible now the families are so scattered. Ian’s place, too, is now a lovely meeting place and can accommodate all who come, either inside or out under the shade of his lovely tree.