Orchards - New Zealand - Northland Region

Date: 14 April 1989 - 14 Apr 1989

From: NZOHA Country Library Service Oral History Project

By: Bilkey, Joy Margaret, 1925-2013

Reference: OHInt-0058/09

Description: Joy Margaret Bilkey gives details of her family background and how the families were settlers in Waipu. Talks about her paternal great grandfather's cabinet and furniture making career, which included making furniture for English royalty and about her father's work as a builder and her mother's as a music teacher. Describes her education and details the development of her reading habits and tastes and where she got books from. Talks about working for her future parents-in-law. Describes training as a primary school teacher at Auckland Teachers' Training College, teaching at Maungaturoto District High School Primary Department and then relief teaching both before and after her marriage to Arthur Edward Keith Bilkey in 1951. Details the development of their orchard from citrus to kiwifruit and gives some historical background to the development of the Kerikeri area, Kerikeri Primary School and the beginnings of the orchard industry in the area. Describes how the community changed with the influx of orchard people. Mentions the development of clubs and services and how cut off Kerikeri had been in the early days. Notes that there are very few Maori in Kerikeri. Details her involvement with the Kerikeri Public Library as a committee member from 1962-1980 and the early development of the library before the Public Library was established. Describes how the books were looked after by individuals, then by the Plunket Society and then in the school building, membership charge, source of books from Country Library Service and private donation, lending and overdue policy. Details the members of the committee, its work to establish the library, the volunteers and the paid staff, fundraising, getting the building built, changing use of the library and her own involvement while she had young children and was relieving teacher. Mentions Margaret O'Connor as the first library assistant and other people instrumental in establishing the library. Mentions Dennis (?) Malone, Isabella Godbert and Mrs Bonny Cron. Talks about the increasing popularity of non-fiction books, the importance of the Country Library Service, the visits of the book van, its drivers and their routines. Talks about Jim Sutherland and the death of the book van service. Describes the special collections at the library, the request and reserve system operating, the changing nature of the Kerikeri population and change in library membership. Discusses the use of voluntary staff noting that there has only been one paid librarian in the last few years and that Kerikeri Library is the largest in New Zealand to be staffed by voluntary workers. Describes the role of the Library in the community. Venue - Kerikeri Interviewer(s) - Judith Fyfe Venue - Mrs Bilkey's home at Kerikeri Accompanying material - Printed abstract contains a photocopy of a newspaper article on the Kerikeri Public Library. Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-002065, OHC-002066 Tape numbers - OHA CLS 2744, 2745, 2746, 2747 Quantity: 2 C60 cassette(s). 1 printed abstract(s). 2 Hours Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - abstracting complete AB 314. Printed abstract contains portrait photograph of Joy Bilkey dated 1986, photograph of Joy Bilkey inside the bookvan in the mid 1970s, a photograph of the Kerikeri Public Library, a photograph of Bilkeys' grandchildren reading in the book van ca 1984 and two photocopies of photographs of Kerikeri Search dates: 1925 - 1989

Date: 12 April 1989 - 12 Apr 1989

From: NZOHA Country Library Service Oral History Project

By: O'Connor, Margaret, 1926-2008

Reference: OHInt-0058/07

Description: Margaret O'Connor describes her family background and gives details of her parents' jobs as teachers, noting the effect of having her father as headmaster at her school. Talks about being in Napier during the 1931 earthquake and the family moving to Wellington for a period after the earthquake. Discusses her parents' involvement with the Church of England, their lack of interest in politics and how important reading was to the family. Details the books she read as a child, her membership of the Napier Library, reading the newspaper as a child and comments on how her reading patterns have changed. Details her schooling, her father's opposition to her becoming a nurse, her subsequent shorthand training and her eventual training as a nurse. Describes her time in the Women's Auxilliary during World War II. Talks about her nursing career, including her time at Lister Private Hospital in Gisborne, nursing in the Australian outback, becoming a Sister at Tauranga Hospital and notes the reasons she did not continue nursing. Describes meeting and marrying Basil (Snow) O'Connor, his background and decision to become an orchardist, their move to Kerikeri and the orchard they took over. Comments on the roads in the North. Gives first impressions of the Kerikeri area. Comments on the many clubs in the area and lists those she became involved with. Talks about the number of Europeans there, particularly Dalmatians and Dutch, and notes that there were not many Maori. Talks about land values and climate. Gives background details of the development of the Kerikeri Public Library and various buildings it was housed in, the people involved, the school room library, introducing the Dewey System and subscription, rental fee, fine and reservation systems. Discusses bequests, donations and Country Library Service book van selections. Mentions Bonny Cron, Isabella Godbert, Dulcie Hutton and Sandra Kemp. Talks about the voluntary nature of the library work and details the work done by the paid library assistant. Talks about the growth in library membership, increase in membership fee and opening hours and popularity of various types of books. Describes the book van visit routine. Mentions the van drivers including Jim Sutherland and describes the end of the book van service. Talks about budget considerations in decisions made about requests and the numbers of books borrowed. Describes young people's library use pattern. Talks about the committee raising money for the new building. Venue - Kerikeri Interviewer(s) - Judith Fyfe Venue - Mrs O'Connor's home at Kerikeri Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-002058, OHC-002059 Tape numbers - OHA CLS/ 2734, 2735, 2736 Quantity: 2 C60 cassette(s). 1 printed abstract(s). 1.30 Hours and minutes Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - abstracting complete AB 311. Printed abstract contains photograph of the Kerikeri library, a photograph of Margaret O'Connor with grandaughter Alice and husband Basil dated ca 1987 and a photograph of Margaret O'Connor and son David in Whangarei dated ca 1958. Search dates: 1926 - 1989

By: Cowdell, Joseph Tuffley, -1907

Reference: 1/2-056065-F

Description: Looking over an orchard, and towards Whangarei township. Taken by Cowdell. Inscriptions: Photographer's title on negative - bottom left - Whangarel[sic]; Photographer's title on negative - bottom right - Cowdell Photo Quantity: 1 b&w original negative(s).

Date: 1824 - 1827

By: Turner, Nathaniel (Rev), 1793-1864; Methodist Missionary Society

Reference: B-121-023

Description: A bush-clad hilly area with the Kaeo River winding through towards Whangaroa Harbour (out of sight to the right). In the middle ground is a low rise with the mission station on top, with five buildings and a flagpole carrying the Union Jack. The whole area is cleared and fenced with well-established gardens and fields, with crops and fruit trees. There are cows grazing in a field to the left and several whare and a food platform with a standing and a seated Maori on the far left. In the foreground, inside an enclosure with a low fence, are another standing and a seated Maori man, four more whare and two more food platforms. The view is probably taken from the lower slopes of Pohue, a terraced conical pa site near the mission station A letter accompanies the drawing, signed by Nathaniel Turner, describing the scene and the use made of the various buildings. Wesleydale station was founded in June 1823 by Rev'd Samuel Leigh and Rev'd William White. Nathaniel Turner and John Hobbs joined them several months later, when Leigh returned to New South Wales, because of his poor health. On January 15 1827, Maori attacked the station and burned it to the ground. The suggested dating of this work is because the station looks well-established. It is most likely to be shown in 1825 or 1826. Accompanying letter: To the Secretaries of the Wesleyan Missionary Society ... London: The long Building at the back is a Rush House, 45 feet by 12 - 27 of which is a Schoolroom, the remainder which is in two rooms is occupied by Luke. The House below is our Dwelling the main building of which is 26 by 13, with a Skilling or Leanto at the back 10 feet wide and another at the Southern end 8 feet. The Building to the right on the same level contains three apartments, two below and one above. The one above serves as a Store for Native Provisions etc etc. The one below it is principly occupied by the Native Girls. The Skilling or Leanto is the Carpenters Shop. The tall building above is the Barn and the small one to the right of it is the Cow House which is Rush and Logs. The one down the Bank below is the Boat House, built of Rush. The Garden and young Orchard are within the inner fence below the House. The Wheat Field is to the left and below that. That below and to the left where the Cattle are seen is a Flat of uncultivated ground coverd with small brush wood. The enclosures below are the Native Plantations or Kumera Grounds. The river runs in the front and to the right and left in a very Serpentine manner. The Foreground is part of a Native Village. The principle village where the Pa is, which could not be included is just to the left. The Hills immediately at the back are barren, but those in the distance are covered with fine Timber, Kaudi etc etc. The view of the Settlement does not nearly equal the view in richness of Scenery as from the Settlement. Nath.l Turner. "Luke" referred to in Turner's letter was Luke Ward, an English servant who assisted on the station, with his wife. Quantity: 1 drawing(s). Physical Description: Pencil on wove paper 242 x 381 mm (irreg.) Provenance: Collection of the Methodist Missionary Society.

Date: 8 February 1966

From: Whites Aviation Ltd: Photographs

Reference: WA-65625-F

Description: Aerial photograph of Kerikeri, Bay of Islands, New Zealand, photographed by Whites Aviation 8 February 1966. Quantity: 1 b&w original negative(s). Physical Description: Film negative, 13.9 x 11.7 cm

Date: 1888

From: [Walsh, Philip] 1843-1914 :[Middle East and New Zealand sketchbook] 1883-1892.

Reference: E-369-091/092

Description: A scene in an orchard, with beehives to the right, an open-sided storage shed beyond and a ladder propped against a tree trunk to the left. A tree on the left is a loquat according to a note by the artist. Inscriptions: On opposite page: title and date. Also colour notes on image and 'loquats' top left Quantity: 1 drawing(s) (double page). Physical Description: Pencil on paper 110 x 180 mm, in album