Mangarākau

Date: 28-30 Oct 1985 - 28 Oct 1985 - 30 Oct 1985

From: Nelson and Golden Bay Oral History Project

By: Nicholls, John Bramley, 1902-1989

Reference: OHInt-0053/18

Description: Jack Nicholls was born in Levin on 21 January 1902. Describes how he came with his parents and sister Magnolia to Patauru from Levin with other flax workers for Prouse and Saunders Flax anad Timber Mill in 1906. Talks about Mangarakau Store and Post Office and the Mangarakau School which he left to work in the flax fields. Gives detail of this work. Describes later farming land at Punipawa and being the weekly postman who collected mail from McNabbs coach at the Wairoa River, Westhaven and brought it to Mangarakau. Talks about the Westhaven Inlet and coastal shipping including the wreck of the `Wairoa'. Recalls bush felling and timber being milled and shipped off. Describes local charachers including the Crookes family. Briefly discusses Jenny Crookes who, as `Jean Devanny', wrote the controversial novel `The butcher's shop'. Venue - Collingwood : 1985 Other - Interview not properly completed as a result of interviewee's health Interviewer(s) - Rosie Little Venue - Joan Whiting Memorial Hospital, Collingwood Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-003029; OHC-003030; OHC-003031 Quantity: 3 C60 cassette(s). 1 printed abstract(s). Finding Aids: Abstract Available - abstracting complete AB 583.

Date: 23 - 27 Sep 1985 - 23 Sep 1985 - 27 Sep 1985

From: Nelson and Golden Bay Oral History Project

By: King, Pamela Maureen Livinia, 1933 -

Reference: OHInt-0053/12

Description: Pamela King was born in Gloucestershire on 22 May 1933. Describes her early childhood in Britain, death of her father and remarriage of her mother to a soldier in the New Zealand Forestry Division in Britain. Recalls their emigration to New Zealand, settling in Maungarakau and her social acceptance as a `Pom' at school. Describes in detail the school and the Maungarakau community, social events, domestic details, food supplies and preservation and language differences. Talks about the Maungarakau timber mill where her stepfather worked, loading timber onto coastal ships on the Maungarakau River and bushmen. Recalls dances, her own employment and attitude to women in paid work during the 1940s and 1950s, tobacco picking, her move to Collingwood after her marriage and changes in Collingwood over the years. Venue - Collingwood : 1985 Interviewer(s) - Rosie Little Venue - Tasman Street, Collingwood Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-002972; OHC-002973; OHC-002974; OHC-002975 Quantity: 4 C60 cassette(s). 1 printed abstract(s). 4 Hours Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - abstracting complete AB 576.

Date: 7-9 Apr 1987 - 07 Apr 1987 - 09 Apr 1987

From: Nelson and Golden Bay Oral History Project

By: Livingston, Norman Pearse, 1897-1990; Livingston, Susan, 1902-1976

Reference: OHInt-0053/14

Description: Norman Livingston was born in Nelson in 1898. Describes his family background, his education and career in engineering. Talks about working for exams at the Bowers Engineering School in Wellington and his jobs with New Zealand Railways and Union Steam Ship Company (USSCo). Recalls in detail his work at the Onekaka Iron Works, working in Australia during the Depression, at the Collingwood dairy factory and the cement plant at Tarakohe. Talks about hobbies including deerstalking and writing. Susan Livingston was born in Westport in 1902. Describes in detail the Gooding and Marshall families, life at Parkeston, local inhabitants, Westhaven in the 1900s, Paturau Valley and her father's work as a coal miner for the Prouse and Saunders flax mill. Recalls the native forest and birds, gathering wild food about 1910 and Joe Malone and a Maori midden. Describes transport by horse in Golden Bay in the 1900s and the social life around Collingwood at the time. Describes boarding houses and hotels which her parents kept over many years including Goodings Boarding House at Parkeston, the Wakatu Hotel and Rising Sun Hotel at Nelson and the Golden Eagle Hotel at Greymouth. Describes the Collingwood-Mangarakau coach and the Taitapu goldfields. Gives a very detailed description of Mangarakau School and its pupils in the 1900s. Talks about dances, the code of behaviour, drinking and smoking, her parents' trust and men's attitudes towards women. Describes her nursing training at St. Helen's in Christchurch, midwifery, training in Wellington and nursing at Kaponga in Taranaki and in Nelson. Recalls meeting her husband. Briefly describes her admiration of Rewi Alley and her political views. Venue - Nelson : 1987 Interviewer(s) - Rosie Little Venue - National Panasonic RQ4955 cassette recorder Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-002991; OHC-002992; OHC-002993; OHC-002994; OHC-002995; OHC-002996; OHC-002997; OHC-002998 Quantity: 8 C60 cassette(s). 1 printed abstract(s). 8 Hours Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - abstracting complete AB 578.