AUDIO
Interview with Paddy Ryan
- Date
- 16 Nov 1984
- By
- Ryan, Frederick George, 1905-1996
- Reference
- OHInt-0070/14
- Description
Paddy Ryan recalls his family background, childhood, including clothing worn, delivering telegrams during World War I, death of his father during influenza epidemic of 1918, use of inhaling stations, early work at Hawera Post Office, sitting proficiency exam, recollections of Hawera, staff at post office, uniform, wages, Maori employees, tuberculosis and Post Office Welfare Funds in 1920s and 1930s, the hierarchy within Post Office, the postmasters A W P Hewitt and Sylvanius Gabriel Daniel, the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Association and the formation of the Post and Telegraph Officers' Guild, transport for the message boys, team spirit, discipline, social life, status of Post Office workers, punishments, daily routine 1918-1924, effect of 1922 salary cut, work as an exchange clerk at Hawera Post Office.
Describes arriving in Wellington to work at Head Office in accounts, layout of building, boarding houses, costs, transport costs, names of some of the personnel, marriage to Edna Murray, difficulties with mortgage payments during Depression, filing for bankruptcy and losing house, secondment to Treasury in 1932 and to Unemployment Board in 1934, return to Hawera, compares the Hawera Post Office in 1930s with 1920s and today, the other responsibilities of the Post Office, election roll procedures in 1935, service during World War II, becoming a postmaster in 1946, life as postmaster at Te Araroa, East Cape in 1948, local Maori, transactions, going to Greytown, Wairarapa as postmaster in 1952, the changes in etiquette in the Post Office by the 1950s.
Talks about work as Postmaster, Manners Street Post Office, Wellington, 1954, housing problems for postmasters, refers to Charles McFarlane, move to Henderson, Auckland in 1956 and 1957 and the wineries of Corbans and Babich. Describes Kaitaia Post Office in 1957, working at Rotorua in 1958, retirement, being elected to the Rotorua Borough Council.
Accompanying material - copy of photograph of Te Araroa Post Office and the two 'Alfs', 1930; copy of an electioneering poster - 'Vote Ryan for Mayor', unsourced; copy of newspaper article 'The Spanish 'flu pandemic' from Auckland star, 24 September 1984, B5.
Venue - Rotorua
Interviewer(s) - Judith Fyfe
Venue - Paddy Ryan's home at Barron Crescent in Rotorua
Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-000733 - OHC-000735
Quantity: 3 C60 cassette(s). 1 printed abstract(s). 3 Hours Duration.
Finding Aids: Abstract Available - abstracting complete AB 125.
Search dates: 1905 - 1984
- Additional description
Alternative form available: Listening copies OHLC-006372 - OHLC-006374; OHLC-006644 - OHLC-006646
- Use/Reproduction
- Public use requires the written permission of interviewee and donor Copyright: Held by the donor
- Access restrictions
- Restricted - Content cannot be accessed without permission - Access requires written permission of the donor
- Part of
- New Zealand Post Office Oral History Project
- Format
- 3 C60 cassette(s), 1 printed abstract(s), 3 Hours Duration, Oral histories, Equipment used: Marantz Superscope Cassette Recorder ; Shure SM58 microphones
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Copyright
All Rights ReservedInterview with Paddy Ryan, printed abstract
Date: 16 Nov 1984
From: New Zealand Post Office Oral History Project
Reference: OHA-0125
Description: Quantity: 1 printed abstract(s).
Interview with Paddy Ryan, tape one
Date: 16 Nov 1984
From: New Zealand Post Office Oral History Project
Reference: OHC-000733
Description: Interviewer(s) - Judith Fyfe Arrangement: Tape sequence - 1 of 3 Quantity: 1 C60 cassette(s).
Interview with Paddy Ryan, tape two
Date: 16 Nov 1984
From: New Zealand Post Office Oral History Project
Reference: OHC-000734
Description: Interviewer(s) - Judith Fyfe Arrangement: Tape sequence - 2 of 3 Quantity: 1 C60 cassette(s).
Interview with Paddy Ryan, tape three
Date: 16 Nov 1984
From: New Zealand Post Office Oral History Project
Reference: OHC-000735
Description: Interviewer(s) - Judith Fyfe Arrangement: Tape sequence - 3 of 3 Quantity: 1 C60 cassette(s).