I see we have been pulled up by the United Nations, again, on our record of looking after children in this country.
And we are all aware, I am sure, of families struggling to find the money to take the kids to the doctor. The problems in the housing market are most acute for families with young children. So it's not just the poorest families that struggle.
I have been saying to anyone who will listen for some years now that Governments do not have to listen to families' problems seriously, when households with no children have the same voting power as families with half-a-dozen children. It is no wonder successive governments sit on their hands, or move slowly at best, compared with what they do for hip replacements, say.
My first suggestion to improve the situation is for everyone to be given a vote - from birth that is. Then families with children would have more clout in the electoral system than households with none. People don't take my suggestion seriously but I think it's time we did.
I have another suggestion which I think is important too. The tax system should be turned back to what it used to be: based on household income, rather than individual income. It should be too obvious that a household with, say, four working adults is far better off than one with one working adult and two children, and the second adult trying desperately to get bits of part-time work to fit in with caring for the children.
Return to the family benefit, universal, would also help to redress the inequity.
There's my sermon for today!
Saturday, 7 December 2013
Friday, 6 December 2013
Crusader Camps
One of the activities which occupied some of my time during my secondary school years was the Crusader movement, which was an evangelical Christian organisation run in conjunction with Scripture Union, parallel to IVF at University.
Ponui Island is the outermost of the group of islands that includes Rangitoto, Motutapu, Motuihe, Waiheke, and several smaller islands, which together shelter the entrance to the Waitemata Harbour. It was then almost completely devoted to farming sheep, had no roads, and no transport connections to the mainland, no phones and no electricity supply. The campsite was on the shore of the Home Bay of the southern half of the island, owned by the Chamberlin family, who were enthusiastic supporters of the camp programme.
Nestled under a large pohutukawa was the permanent cookhouse, where outdoor equipment was stored when not in use during the year, and which prepared the food during camp times. Just after Christmas an advance party would travel to Ponui on a chartered launch taking the tents and other hired equipment with them, including a large marquee for meals and meetings.
Three or four days later one of the "blue boats", usually the "Olive Rose" would bring the contingent of boys out for the first camp. Ten days later the first group would be swapped for a new batch, complete with new leaders, and at the end of the second ten days everything would be packed up and either stored in the cookhouse or taken back to Auckland for another year.
Much of the camp programme was devoted to good, healthy, energetic outdoor activities, but morning and evening sessions were religious in nature, similar to evangelistic meetings at our church at home at Papatoetoe, intended to encourage boys to make a commitment to Christian life and belief and it was pretty positive overall.
The daytime activities included what we called "wide games", where we could roam over large areas of the farm, competing to capture the opposite team's flag, or racing to the trip station at the centre of the island. The terrain was undulating, with pasture and scrub alternating, wild donkeys (see above) and sheep tracks criss-crossing everywhere. There was swimming and canoeing, and daily chores like peeling potatoes, or tidying the tent.
There were some memorable leaders: Ivan Moses, who was later Principal of what became AUT, was one. My tent leader the first year was Dr Vine Martin the camp's medical officer, who had just returned from war service, including several years in Prisoner-of-War camps. Each night after "lights out" he told us exciting stories from his experience, then very recent, of living in a POW camp, one of which was in an old castle in Germany.
I learned to cope with homesickness, and gradually to take various minor leadership roles, partly through my involvement with Crusaders and the camps, and I was guided by some very admirable men who volunteered to help run the camps.
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Ponui DonkeysA Rare Breed of New Zealand Origin
Ponui donkeys are New Zealand's only feral donkey breed. The feral herd is established on Ponui Island in the Hauraki Gulf, east of Auckland. They are descendants of three animals imported from Australia in the 1880s by the Chamberlin family, who obtained title to the island in 1854.
Ponui donkeys are mostly light grey in colour, with a darker dorsal stripe, and stand about ten hands (one metre) high.In recent years a number have been brought to the mainland and rare breeds enthusiasts are currently trying to build up a viable, genetically pure population of these sturdily built and docile donkeys.
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» Feral Breeds statement
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We had a Bible Study each week at school during a lunchbreak, but the most memorable part of the whole programme was a fortnight's camp each January at Ponui Island in the Hauraki Gulf. I started attending in 1946 and went every year until 1951, after which I had a break for a year or two.
Ponui Island is the outermost of the group of islands that includes Rangitoto, Motutapu, Motuihe, Waiheke, and several smaller islands, which together shelter the entrance to the Waitemata Harbour. It was then almost completely devoted to farming sheep, had no roads, and no transport connections to the mainland, no phones and no electricity supply. The campsite was on the shore of the Home Bay of the southern half of the island, owned by the Chamberlin family, who were enthusiastic supporters of the camp programme.
Nestled under a large pohutukawa was the permanent cookhouse, where outdoor equipment was stored when not in use during the year, and which prepared the food during camp times. Just after Christmas an advance party would travel to Ponui on a chartered launch taking the tents and other hired equipment with them, including a large marquee for meals and meetings.
Three or four days later one of the "blue boats", usually the "Olive Rose" would bring the contingent of boys out for the first camp. Ten days later the first group would be swapped for a new batch, complete with new leaders, and at the end of the second ten days everything would be packed up and either stored in the cookhouse or taken back to Auckland for another year.
Much of the camp programme was devoted to good, healthy, energetic outdoor activities, but morning and evening sessions were religious in nature, similar to evangelistic meetings at our church at home at Papatoetoe, intended to encourage boys to make a commitment to Christian life and belief and it was pretty positive overall.
The daytime activities included what we called "wide games", where we could roam over large areas of the farm, competing to capture the opposite team's flag, or racing to the trip station at the centre of the island. The terrain was undulating, with pasture and scrub alternating, wild donkeys (see above) and sheep tracks criss-crossing everywhere. There was swimming and canoeing, and daily chores like peeling potatoes, or tidying the tent.
There were some memorable leaders: Ivan Moses, who was later Principal of what became AUT, was one. My tent leader the first year was Dr Vine Martin the camp's medical officer, who had just returned from war service, including several years in Prisoner-of-War camps. Each night after "lights out" he told us exciting stories from his experience, then very recent, of living in a POW camp, one of which was in an old castle in Germany.I learned to cope with homesickness, and gradually to take various minor leadership roles, partly through my involvement with Crusaders and the camps, and I was guided by some very admirable men who volunteered to help run the camps.
Thursday, 5 December 2013
Family History 1.708
9th December 1859
Fine, warm and very calm. Sighted Cape di Verde Isles. Tweet: deck cleaned and scraped by the sailors. 2 dolphins follow the ship all the morning. Doctor shot twice but missed them. 2nd mate threw at them with a barbed instrument about 2 yards long with 5 prongs about 4 in. long but did not catch either, it appeared to me that it struck 1 of them. They were about 2 ft long. Seem to keep very near the surface and I understand their principal food is the flying fish, which they catch by jumping out of the sea after.
No ships today. Beautiful sight, in the midst of an apparent circle of a very calm sea as far as the eye can reach,sailing very slow towards the south .... 6 o'clock the sun setting on our right between some dark, but very grand clouds, a beautiful blue sky over us and on our left the moon rising in silvery grandeur.
10th
Latitude
14 North
Very fine and a nice breeze. One
of the sailors caught a fish about a half a yard
long. Splendid colour, called Beseta. Large quantities of flying fish
seen today.
11th Latitude 12 North
Very fine and hot, a strong wind causing the vessel to
toss about a great deal. Several seasick,
myself and wife included, our children not so. Church prayers on the poop, the Captain
absent on account of a cold. Dissenters service on the Poop in the evening, on acct of its being too hot in our cabin.
A steamer passed us apparently
homeward bound but not near enough to speak to.
Wednesday, 4 December 2013
Holiday Jobs
My first school holiday job was with the book
shop in the centre of Papatoetoe, run by a family named Timewell. I don’t
remember much about the actual job, but I do remember that my pay for that one
week was 27/6, ie 27 shillings and six pence, or one pound seven shillings and
sixpence. This translates to $2.75 now, and was a reasonable week’s pay before
the second world war; in fact it was more than my father sometimes earned in a week
during the depression.
Wages had remained
very similar for a couple of centuries; Goldsmith’s line “passing rich at forty
pounds a year” was about what my father earned as a young law clerk in the
1920s. Someday I will ask an expert economist why everything has suddenly
inflated over the last century to such an amazing degree. Perhaps it is global
warming!
Another school holidays at Christmastime, I
worked for a couple of weeks at my great-uncle Jack’s bookshop at the bottom of
Shortland Street in the city. Uncle Jack, Grandpa Bigelow’s younger brother,
had established a well-known bookshop (J H Bigelow and Sons), popular for its
specialisation in subjects like water sports (especially sailing and rowing in
those days; the Bigelow brothers were leading members of the West End Rowing
Club of Ponsonby).
It had very cramped
premises, including an underground work room, where school holiday staff spent
their time unwrapping newly-delivered packages of books from overseas and
getting them ready to put on the shelves, writing the price in pencil neatly in
Uncle Jack’s special code.
There was a spiral
staircase leading up to the ground floor of the shop, and another leading to an
upstairs set of shelving. There was very little room for either staff or
customers to move around.
I enjoyed the
excitement of working with books, and the quaint geography of this shop. My
second cousins, Roy and Selwyn, who worked with Uncle Jack, were quiet, gentle
men. It was a brief introduction to a successful family business.
Tuesday, 3 December 2013
Family History 1.707
6th December 1859
Very fine and very warm. Looked at the
plum pudding (Emma's present) found it getting mouldy, so cut it and found it first rate quality
notwithstanding. Little
Alice much better, but no appetite. No ships today. Latitude 22N.
7th
Very fine and very warm. Windsail down
exit hatchway. Several flying fish seen today, very similar to swallows diving in and out of the sea. Lime juice served out but not at all good,
great grumbling.
Alice still better. A sailor having made a color'd drawing of
the ship in full sail, well done, a gent in the second
cabin undertakes to canvas names to Raffle the same at 6d per member. Obtained about 40. He is a poor fellow working his
passage to the Colony and is spoken well of.
Daylight till nearly 6 o'clock, vast contrast I expect with London. So hot, glad to have cabin open as much as possible and as little clothes on. Rather startled those on the poop this evening a young man dropped a concertina off the mizzen top. Cost 34 shillings. Captain feared some might fall overboard who would be always climbing, they have no right up there at all he said. A beautiful moonlight night.
8th
Very fine and warm, our children had a sea bath in the
Washing Tray this morning, several young
men up early to be pumped on at the head of the ship, rather dangerous for those who can't hold tight,
having to sit outside on one side of the
bowsprit. I see no fun in it myself.
Latitude 17-2
Longitude 26-13. 2 ships in sight, 1 a frigate but both a long distance. A concert out on the poop from 7 to 9
this evening.
Monday, 2 December 2013
Auckland Grammar School: Third Year
1948 was a memorable year, not for what I learned, but for the weeks I had to study at home by correspondence.
This was a result of the nationwide poliomyelitis epidemic, which caused the closing of all schools from the beginning of February until after Easter, and then again for a couple of weeks in the second term.
So for that period we all had to do our schoolwork at home, and send it in to the school for marking and comments.
We had to stay away from large gatherings as well, like cinemas and concerts.
Nowadays there is a vaccine for polio, which prevents such outbreaks, so that most people don't know what the disease is like.
When classes did eventually resume, I met my Fifth Form teachers. Henry Ingram continued to teach us Latin, but otherwise we had different masters: Henry Cooper for French, "Pongo" La Roche for Elec and mag, and "Mousy" Bishop for English. Most noticeable was "the Colonel", Joe Russell, another who was remembered by my father from his schooldays.
Joe Russell had a unique teaching style: He dictated a list of topics at the beginning of the year, which we were expected to write summaries of from the textbook. Two or three times a term he would appear to check our work, the rest of the time he was absent, busy, no doubt, with his duties as Deputy Headmaster.
We "covered" the School Certificate syllabus in this way.
I do not remember even that much about the English classes. Mousy Bishop's classroom was one my Dad had worked in as a boy, and he had several stories about how his class had played tricks on the teacher there. The one thing I do remember is that Mousy would read a verse or two of a poem and expect us to guess the poet's name. Occasionally it turned out to be himself. I'm afraid very few of us knew enough to tell the difference!
My experience in Elec and Mag was marred by one event: one day Pongo was trying to show us an experiment with static electricity, but it didn't work. When it failed to work for about the third time, I could not suppress a titter, so I was hauled out and caned on the spot.
I remember Henry Cooper as a pretty competent teacher for those days: he certainly added useful skills to our knowledge of French, on top of the good work done by George Marshall the year before.
In November, we were given a week to revise and then we had to sit our five three-hour School Cert exams. My marks ranged from excellent for Latin to very mediocre in French, but considering how unreliable marking was in those days, I don't think we should take them too seriously at either end of the scale!
During the year a new teacher arrived back from the war: Owen Lewis. He was given responsibility for the School Magazine, and set about establishing a School Magazine Committee. The Magazine for 1948 includes my name as a member. This was later to develop into a very good learning experience, which helped me many times in my adult life, although my memory of 1948 is hazy.
Getting my driving licence at School Cert time was much more important than anything else as a sign of maturity! We had to answer five questions from the Road Code, drive round the block and start the car on a hill. I don't remember having to reverse park. And in those days there was no "Learner" or "Restricted"; we went straight to a full licence at 15.
This was a result of the nationwide poliomyelitis epidemic, which caused the closing of all schools from the beginning of February until after Easter, and then again for a couple of weeks in the second term.
So for that period we all had to do our schoolwork at home, and send it in to the school for marking and comments.
We had to stay away from large gatherings as well, like cinemas and concerts.
Nowadays there is a vaccine for polio, which prevents such outbreaks, so that most people don't know what the disease is like.
When classes did eventually resume, I met my Fifth Form teachers. Henry Ingram continued to teach us Latin, but otherwise we had different masters: Henry Cooper for French, "Pongo" La Roche for Elec and mag, and "Mousy" Bishop for English. Most noticeable was "the Colonel", Joe Russell, another who was remembered by my father from his schooldays.
Joe Russell had a unique teaching style: He dictated a list of topics at the beginning of the year, which we were expected to write summaries of from the textbook. Two or three times a term he would appear to check our work, the rest of the time he was absent, busy, no doubt, with his duties as Deputy Headmaster.
We "covered" the School Certificate syllabus in this way.
I do not remember even that much about the English classes. Mousy Bishop's classroom was one my Dad had worked in as a boy, and he had several stories about how his class had played tricks on the teacher there. The one thing I do remember is that Mousy would read a verse or two of a poem and expect us to guess the poet's name. Occasionally it turned out to be himself. I'm afraid very few of us knew enough to tell the difference!
My experience in Elec and Mag was marred by one event: one day Pongo was trying to show us an experiment with static electricity, but it didn't work. When it failed to work for about the third time, I could not suppress a titter, so I was hauled out and caned on the spot.
I remember Henry Cooper as a pretty competent teacher for those days: he certainly added useful skills to our knowledge of French, on top of the good work done by George Marshall the year before.
In November, we were given a week to revise and then we had to sit our five three-hour School Cert exams. My marks ranged from excellent for Latin to very mediocre in French, but considering how unreliable marking was in those days, I don't think we should take them too seriously at either end of the scale!
During the year a new teacher arrived back from the war: Owen Lewis. He was given responsibility for the School Magazine, and set about establishing a School Magazine Committee. The Magazine for 1948 includes my name as a member. This was later to develop into a very good learning experience, which helped me many times in my adult life, although my memory of 1948 is hazy.
Getting my driving licence at School Cert time was much more important than anything else as a sign of maturity! We had to answer five questions from the Road Code, drive round the block and start the car on a hill. I don't remember having to reverse park. And in those days there was no "Learner" or "Restricted"; we went straight to a full licence at 15.
Sunday, 1 December 2013
Family History 1.706
Fine and warm, a nice breeze, little Alice very unwell, doctor gave medicine, which made her sick, contrary to his expectations. Seems worse towards evening, lays almost exhausted.
We had 2 loaves of bread today made by Mrs Wilkes, but were spoiled in baking. I cleaned Knives, Forks, Spoons, boots, etc. A concert on the Poop this evening.
Lost a piece of pork and beef overboard and was consoled by a fellow passenger telling me he lost 2 pieces of beef in the same way yesterday. 2 ships in sight, but a long distance off.
Latitude 24N, 19 and a half west long.
4th Sunday
Very fine and warm. Little Alice very poorly still, but not sick.
Attended Church prayers on the Poop read by Mr Arthur (of our cabin). Captain and mates present, sang afterwards Guide me O thou great, to which I started the tune "Rousseau".
 |
| Pages from Charles's original diary |
A Dissenter Service in our Cabin in the evening where Mr Arthur gave an address from 14 John 1+2 verses. Well attended by all class passengers also the sailors.
5th
The ship seen yesterday a long distance astern of us. Very fine and very warm, a nice breeze, average 8 knots, sailing SW latitude 23N. Scraped out my cabin, a warm job. Little Alice still unwell, no appetite, feverish. An awning put over the poop.
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