Manawatū Conversations

Hugh Akers, Part 2 of 2. Great-grandfather on foundation committee of A&P Show in 1886. The Royal Show. Judging sheep. Types of wool in demand. Relationship between feed and wool quality. Return to wool carpet. Reliance on wool in the past, but not now, price too low. Focus on meat. More frequent lambing. Effect of policy changes in 1980s. Corporatisation of farming. Hidden subsidies. Future outlook for farming. Wide range of skills required. Young people entering farming.

Hugh Akers, Part 1 of 2

Richard Mildon, Part 4 of 4. Moving up to a .22 rifle. Shooting in the cadets at school. Cadets week. Cadet activities. NZ national service. In Freyberg High School shooting team. Using .303 rifles. Firing a Bren gun. Types of vegetables, meals. Hogget. Cooking meat. Types of vegetables grown at home. First pork. Chicken. Radio and television. Radio important, various programmes, Life with Dexter. American and English programmes.

Richard Mildon, Part 3 of 4. As child on a sheep farm, participating in docking. Enjoying open spaces, dipping sheep with a plunge dip. Using guns (air rifle, .22). Duck shooting, filling a lagoon to attract the ducks. Learning to shoot. Shooting first rabbit. Cubs and Boy Scouts. Pat Snoxell and Scout Gang Shows. Scout camps. Long trousers for Venture Scouts and school. Narrower trousers and ties. Desert boots. Vegetables, homegrown and bought. South African oranges.

Richard Mildon, Part 2 of 4. Book, 100 years of Kairanga School, for 1989. Interest in old things, stamp and coin collecting, vintage cars. School history information, activities. Pre-European history of the Manawatu. Evidence and the received wisdom differ. The Manawatu Block. Scandinavian migrants. Foxton, railway development from Wellington. The Square. Origin of Feilding. Use of agricultural land, lifestyle blocks. Perception of changes over past 75 years. Landscape and windfarms.

Richard Mildon, Part 1 of 4. Great-grandfather and family (6 children) came to a farm at Kairanga in 1894. 3rd owner, but still much work needed. Had been a teacher in the UK. Good farming land, but many stumps and swampy. Cold, damp homestead. Grandfather became a good farmer. Homestead improved and owned by family until sold a year ago. Changed character of Kairanga. Growing up on a sheep farm. Pet lambs. Growing vegetables. Holidays. A Dutch migrant. Saw Queen twice in 1953. May holidays away. Few ideas of future working life, knew little about farming. Read a lot. Meccano, toy trains. Teaching engineering.

Robin Coleman and Jackie Sayers, part 4 of 4.

Worked as a social worker from 1980. Early days of

university-qualified social workers. 4 year degree with placements.

Maori studies. Maori Club at Massey University. New Zealand history,

differing perspectives. Nature of social work. Youth institutions.

Working with communities. Publication, Highbury Whanau: The Early

Years, and the Highbury Whanau Centre. 1985 to hospital as student

unit supervisor for student placements in community health. Funding

cut after 4 years. Retirement age raised to 65. Into private practice,

worked until 79.

Robin Coleman and Jackie Sayers, part 4 of 4.

Worked as a social worker from 1980. Early days of

university-qualified social workers. 4 year degree with placements.

Maori studies. Maori Club at Massey University. New Zealand history,

differing perspectives. Nature of social work. Youth institutions.

Working with communities. Publication, Highbury Whanau: The Early

Years, and the Highbury Whanau Centre. 1985 to hospital as student

unit supervisor for student placements in community health. Funding

cut after 4 years. Retirement age raised to 65. Into private practice,

worked until 79. [Volunteering with English language partners.]

Robin Coleman and Jackie Sayers, part 3 of 4.

NZ growing seasons compared to Cornwall. Gardening in NZ. Jackie’s first home in NZ, a batch in Muriwai, lifestyle, 6 o’clock swill. NZ pubs in the 1960s, not like in UK. A NZ dance. Robin’s NZ social life, seeing children in bare feet. Jackie’s children changed school often until settled in Feilding in 1973. Robin came in 1963, more linked to Palmerston North. Jackie’s husband became a school teacher and she went to university as a mature internal student. Learning to study. 7 years as an undergraduate (2 degrees, history and then social work).

Robin Coleman and Jackie Sayers, part 2 of 4.

Jackie’s wartime and post-war living next to military college. Dances, jive, old-time dancing. Robin was a tomboy, living in Cornwall, working in a hotel, children eating in rooms. Robin working in experimental horticulture. Married and worked as farm workers, then came as a family to NZ, Glen Orua. Husband found it difficult, went back to UK, then returned to NZ and settled better.