Manawatū Conversations

An oral history interview looking at the past and present of Palmerston North and the Manawatū, produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.

Not a dietician. Not university, unlike classmates in late 1950s. At DSIR Nuclear Science Institute carbon-14 dating, ending as head of the lab aged 23. Many women in DSIR. Living in hostels. 1964 resigned and moved over several years for husband’s work. Social life – groups to join, free weekends. Kitchen jobs. Inland Revenue, sorting Interest Tickets, then the Audit Section, team leader in the Investigations Section. Gender not an issue. Workplace changes – smoking, coffee, language. Retired at 67. Seasons in an apple pack house. Workbridge.

Lin Pratt, Part 2 of 2. Wireman’s course. Horse for trotting. Cars overheating. Why choose trotting? Lin’s horses. Rationed petrol. Competitive trotting. Pacing vs trotting. Not so popular now. Involvement in athletics. Squash. Ashhurst community, squash courts first opened on Lin’s 50th birthday. The voluntary sector. Scouts.

Lin Pratt, Part 1 of 2. Born 1934. First memories, about 3. Father was a share milker. Bare feet, warming in cow droppings. At school in WWII, end of the war. Electric milking parlours, 80-100 cows. Milking out for the best milk. Not swimming. Maori-built island. Playing on sand hills. Father ill, so left school at 14. Sleepwalking uncle. Experience of school. Had wanted to be a schoolteacher. Compulsory Military Training (CMT), driving heavy vehicles, low pay. Later, 3 weeks a year service.

Married for 53 years so far. How they met, married after 7 months. 9 years age difference. Renting, 2 children born, then bought house on leasehold land, then to Lincoln Terrace. Social life before marriage – dances, American influence. Movies. Radio programmes. Television. Wife doing voluntary work. Grandchildren now active in many more sports. Handball at boarding school. Walking in a group from 1991. Power walking. Competitive walking. Race walking, Nordic walking.

Frank Goldingham, Part 3 of 4. Books on the Royal tours of NZ, book of photos on a tour in the 1960s? (1970??). Queen Mother’s tour. Memories of events on the tours. Rapid production and distribution of the publications. Printing, hand-folding and stapling. Lord of the Rings, an extra and a body-double for Saruman. Detail on the costumes. Filming, the catering. Saruman’s nails. The role of a film double. Masters Games.

Frank Goldingham, Part 2 of 4. At the Convent school in 1940s. An incident with broken glasses. Send for private tuition. Moved to Wanganui, Marist Brothers. Service cars. Impressions of WWII, recalls end of the war. Ration coupons, petrol rationing. “Drowning” incident. Strick discipline in school. 1945 to convent school in Levin, then boarding at Sacred Heart College in Auckland. Trams in Auckland. Early jobs and starting as a printer. Activities while at school - building a radio.

Frank Goldingham, Part 1 of 4. Interested in printing and publishing from childhood, and started printing in 1950s. Feilding Herald, Photorama. Joe Sing. Hand-fed printing. Buying a printing press. Being a compositor. Moving into computers in 1981. Early small computers (Sinclair, Commodore, Atari, etc.). Grew to have several shops around New Zealand. Limited software, importing games. Spreadsheets, etc.. IBM. Franchise holders. Limited competition at first. Smith City cutting margins.

John Hornblow Part 2 of 2. Travel and pilgrimages, St Paul in Greece and Turkey trip shortly. War and earthquake risks. Meaning of pilgrimage. Organisation of trips. Book on pilgrimage sites in New Zealand. Local sites. Environmental pilgrimages. An exercise with grandchildren. Lessons from places visited. Places visited in Greece. A future trip including Ireland. Pilgrimage as an alternative type of tour. Preparing a book on pilgrimages.

John Hornblow Part 1 of 2. Taking funerals for 25-30 years. Planning ahead. Burial or cremation. Funerals during Covid. Cultural differences. Lessons from Maori. Children attending. Grief and dying. Sudden deaths. Training for celebrants. Interesting incidents. Payment. Preparation for funerals vs weddings.