Family History 1.106

Gaze History: NSG Memoir

34a Grange Road, Mt Eden

Less than 2km from the Bellevue Road home of Noel’s mother, this house is opposite Ashton Road, and around one-third of the way down Grange Road from Mount Eden Road.  Grange Road is another of the main connections between Mt Eden and Dominion Roads.  So again Noel was back to living a few hundred metres from a tram stop. Three Kings trams along Mt Eden Road were very frequent; it was one of the busiest routes in the city. The trip took about 15 minutes to the bottom of Queen Street in light traffic. 

500m from the top of Grange Road was the Mt Eden shopping area, and another 500m to the east from there, the Auckland Teachers Training College.  Grange Road is about 2 km from Auckland Grammar School for Franklin and a little further from, say, Epsom Girls Grammar, or from St Cuthberts where Olwyn went. 

 

The house was a thirties building of two storeys and a basement on a very small section. The upstairs section under the roof consisted of two large bedrooms, one with ensuite and the other with a handbasin in a cupboard.  The porch under the front roof served as a third upstairs bedroom. 

Downstairs the entrance straight off the drive was in the middle of the eastern wall.  It opened into a short hallway, from which the staircase rose. Behind this hallway was the one downstairs bedroom.  In front of the hallway was a room used as a study, which had a glassed porch in front. 

The northwest room was the sitting-room or lounge.  Behind it was the dining-room and then the kitchen, and the bathroom fitted between the back bedroom and the kitchen.  There was a detached garage across the courtyard, and just room for a small garden and pocket-handkerchief sized lawn beside it.  In front of the house was a smallish lawn at basement level.  The basement contained plenty of room for garden and other workshop areas and was blessed with a toilet, which Noel instantly christened “The Gardener’s Rest”. 

Near the front eastern corner of the house by the strip of flower garden which ran up the steep drive to the street was a flagpole. The house had a stencilled iron sign bearing its name: Karingal.

Family History 2.03

Bigelow History:pre-1630

Wilfred the Hairy

 

 Wilfred is a hero to the people of Catalonia (the district around Barcelona), because he is credited with founding the Catalan culture and people, even though the name was not used until a couple of centuries after his time.

 

The son of Sunifred, he was responsible for consolidating the family's hold on power in the area which later developed into Catalonia, along with its neighbouring districts on the northern side of the Pyrenees mountains in what is now France.

 

His main task, as a vassal of the Frankish kings who succeeded Charlemagne as rulers of this part of the former Holy Roman Empire, was to defend the borders against any incursion by the Moorish rulers of the rest of Spain.

 

His reign started in 878. In that year he defeated the previous Count of Barcelona, who had rebelled against the King, and was invested with the county of Barcelona as a reward. This appointment was confirmed at an imperial council at Troyes, presided over by the Pope and the King. So he had powerful backers. But he made sure the power belonged to him, and, by the time he died, in 898, he had established himself sufficiently to name his son as his heir, a decision willingly approved by the King.

 

His programme involved moving people from the heavily populated lands in the mountains to the north, on to the deserted plains between the Pyrenees and Barcelona, because everyone had left in fear of marauding attacks from the Moors to the south. Wilfred clearly had the support to guarantee the safety of these people, and over the two decades the land was re-occupied and re-cultivated and re-incorporated into the county of Barcelona.

 

At the same time, he re-instated the Church hierarchy, with parishes, monasteries and bishoprics to serve the newly settled populations. And he did not discourage these churchmen from asserting independence from their church leaders over the mountains in Narbonne.

 

The Moors to the south did not take kindly to Wilfred's expansionist activities and eventually provoked a fight.  Wilfred was killed defending Barcelona in 898.

 

 

 

 

1970-1971

Belmont Terrace

For these two years, Judy and I shared a flat in Belmont Terrace, Milford, which runs downhill from Forrest Hill Road just past Westlake Boys High School on the opposite side of the street.

I continued to travel to Mt Roskill each day for work, while Judy finished her primary school at Takapuna, and then in 1971 started at the brand new Takapuna Normal intermediate School in Tarahoto Road.

 

On Saturdays in the winters I would pick up Terry and take both Judy and Terry to their sports: Judy was playing basketball (netball) at the courts at Northcote Road, while Terry played soccer at various grounds on the Shore. Reg Butcher, Audrey's father, was a soccer fan and supported Terry as well, from their flat next to the Takapuna Primary School. The captain of the team at that time was Chris Dixon, who later sailed to victory in international yacht races.

 

One of my extra activities over those years was marking School Certificate. This experience, though boring at times, was valuable in showing me how the standards for the exam were obtained, and enabled me to streamline my marking skills for school exams, both setting and marking, both at Mt Roskill and especially later at Bay of Islands.

 

Over these years I was running to catch up with my reading of more recent English novels, because of the years in India when I had been more interested in reading Indian writers like Rabindranath Tagore and Radhakrishnan. So I read the Alexandria Quartet by Laurence Durrell, several of Maurice Shadbolt's books, Errol Brathwaite's Wars trilogy, and most important of all, Patrick White's Riders in the Chariot. And each week I read the BBC Listener.

 

I also found a friend in a colleague, Glynis Sweeney. We made a couple for outings, like Mercury Theatre productions, and were interested in similar things, like films and books and education. Glynis was the first person I told when Margaret agreed to marry me in 1977.

 

1970 seemed to me to mark a watershed in the world's progress. It eventually came to mark the end of the period of the Sixties, which had started with the Beatles and Elvis Presley, and specifically for me with the Suez Crisis in 1956, and now finished in 1970 with the release of the film of Easy Rider, which seemed to symbolise a drop from the high points of the real sixties ideals. I still believe the Sixties were the most interesting and exciting period in my lifetime.

 

Towards the end of 1971 I was getting stressed with all the work and other activities I was involved in, had a bout of high blood-pressure and welcomed with open arms the possibility of a job at Bay of Islands College for 1972.

 

So over the Christmas holidays I found a flat in Kawakawa and headed north for a new adventure.

 

At the beginning of the school holidays I took the children on the train to Wellington and back for a couple of days' break, and travelling with them became a great source of enjoyment over the subsequent years.

 

 

Gallipoli

We went to a lecture yesterday by Glynn Harper, Professor of War History at Massey University, about the Gallipoli campaign, now nearly 100 years ago.

He talked about the muddle of the campaign, and certainly made it clear from the records that it was a disastrous muddle. He also debunked three of the myths about the Gallipoli episode, such as that the troops were landed in the wrong place. And finally he showed by quoting from hundreds of diaries written by the soldiers on the ground that they had undergone a major change in thinking, from anti-Australian and pro-British to anti-British and strongly pro-Australian, and that the New Zealanders had a special serenity and courage that marked them out.

It was a fascinating revision of some of the things we have all heard about the Anzacs on that first April 25.

Apparently there is a major project of study and publication which will see over a dozen books published next year to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I.

I don't know if this book is included, but one of our friends, Clare Hall, has just finished a book about the soldiers from the Vietnam War, from interviews she has carried out over the last couple of years. When you read it, you will find an interview with me included, to represent the attitudes of those who took part in the protests against that particular war.

Listening to Glynn Harper I am just as convinced as ever I was that war, any war, is a waste of effort, lives and money. At the end the parties still have to sit down and talk to sort out a workable arrangement over their differences. That is so much easier if there has not been the hate, grief and loss of a war in the meantime.

So, with some niggling minor reservations, I am still basically on the pacifist side.

My Taranaki Anniversary Day 10

Why worry?

 

Why would anyone worry about a war which ended 150 years ago?

 

Well, it is not as buried in antiquity as that question makes it sound.

 

Because the issues that were raised by the war, and the questions that the peace settlement left unanswered, are still very much alive.

 

If you ask a Waitara resident today what is the No 1 political question in that town, you will almost certainly get the answer:"The Pekapeka Block leases".

 

The Pekapeka Block is the area of land that originally was the subject of the sale proposal that was opposed by Te Wiremu Kingi and insisted on by the Governor, to the extent of starting the fighting in 1860.

 

After the war, as the town came to be settled, the land was largely divided into sections, which were leased to various people.

 

At a later stage the leases were sold or given to the Waitara Harbour Board by the Crown, and when that body was disestablished, the leases were acquired by the North Taranaki County, which was eventually amalgamated at the end of the last century with several other local bodies to form the New Plymouth District Council, which now administers them.

 

Some years ago the leadership of the Council gave an assurance to the leaseholders that they would be able to freehold their properties. They regard that as a binding promise.

 

But in the meantime the Crown has been negotiating with the local iwi, Te Atiawa, over its Treaty Settlement. Naturally, Te Atiawa want their land returned as the cornerstone of their settlement, or as much of it as still remains in public ownership.

 

And the jewel in their crown is the Pekapeka Block. So, the proposal is that the Government buy the land back from the Council, and make it part of the Treaty Settlement. But the leaseholders want the promise of freeholding to them to be honoured. And meantime no-one knows what will happen, so further improvements are stalled.

 

So it is very important to all four parties, including all the ratepayers of the New Plymouth District Council, who are also taxpayers, whatever is decided by their representatives.

 

Keep watching this space. "Those who don't learn from history will live to see it repeat itself."

(We could go on to much more about the significance of Taranaki Anniversary Day, but perhaps ten posts is enough for this year!)

Family History 1.105

Gaze History:NSG Memoir

76 Kolmar Road, Papatoetoe

Noel in 1965

 

This house had been the homestead of a small farming property on the edge of what was then the Papatoetoe Town District (population 2500). It was about a mile from the railway station, which provided one form of regular transport to the city, and not 500m from the Great South Road at Hunter’s Corner, where half-hourly buses also went to the city. The farmlet had been owned by a distant cousin of Mary’s, named Dreadon. 

When the Gaze family moved there in 1942, the farmlet had just been subdivided and some of the fences had to be moved to the new boundaries.  All around were empty sections right through to Shirley Road, which was then unsealed, and there were no proper footpaths, although there was a rough small-metal footpath running the other side of the street down to Great South Road and then along to the school at St George Street.

 

 

The grass grew high in the summer along the ditches on either side of the streets, and the Great South Road was simply two car widths of concrete roadway.  This was well before the first motorways were built in the late 50s. Housing was interspersed with vacant sections and small grazing areas.  All semi-suburban housing gave out 500m down East Tamaki and other roads to the east.  North of Shirley Road was farmland apart from the Grange Golf Course and the Waitemata Brewery, until you came to the Tamaki River and the beginnings of Otahuhu. 

Kolmar Road house around 2000,

the front porch was open when we lived there

In the other direction, there were several open farmland areas before you came to the denser housing of Papatoetoe proper about 200 metres before the intersection with St George Street opposite the picture theatre. 

The house itself had been built about the time of the First World War, and was spacious indeed after the Ruarangi Road house.  It had a hall as long as a cricket pitch down the centre, which terminated in the bathroom and a back porch.  To the left as you entered the front door, were two bedrooms, and then a passage leading to the side verandah and doorway.  Then another bedroom which opened off the side passage.  Behind that, and opening off the back porch, was another small room. 

To the right of the front door was another bedroom and behind that a large lounge ending in a bay window, and with a verandah opening along the eastern side of the front bedroom.  Behind the lounge was the living room, with a totally enclosed verandah off it.  This verandah had windows round two sides and served as a dining room.

 

Behind the living room was the kitchen which gave access through the back door to the back porch.  Across the yard from the back porch (which was glassed in) was another building, containing the washhouse and lavatory.  The lavatory even had a concrete waiting area under cover which was useful if it was raining and someone else was in residence.  The yard which separated the two buildings was concreted. 

To the west of the washhouse building and a little way away was the garage and a second smaller shed. The main garage was directly level with the front gate and was approached by a long drive.

The total section area was more than 3000m³; to the west of the drive was a row of native trees and a row of orange trees. Other trees and ornamental shrubs were scattered around the flat lawn areas. 

At the back of the section was a fenced-off area which became the chicken-run; it had been part of the house-paddock for the cow while the farmlet had been operating. 

In order to buy this new property, Noel had to raise a mortgage from the Auckland Savings Bank, and Mary’s great-uncle Albert Brown, who was a member of the Board of the Bank, came to inspect the property. 

 

Sketching week 13

This week I have done several detailed sketches using a fine mechanical pencil. Here are two pencil ones and one with added watercolour.

 

This is the view northeast from Fort Niger, looking over Strandon to Fitzroy Beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a view along Devon Street west from Currie Street corner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A cemetery scene in the old Te Henui cemetery, just around the corner from here. This was an exercise with other members of the U3A sketching group at our first sketching meeting.