Manawatū Conversations

Peter MacGillivray - Part 5 of 6 (parts 1 and 2 recorded 3 months earlier). - Massey University, name changes. The Old Hostel building. Changes as developed as a university. Extramural teaching, more mature students. Massey Printery. Meals in the Refectory, later a café also. Few cars on campus, students used bikes and motorbikes. Weekend dances in town. No on-campus bookshop. The swimming pool. Procesh. Tom Scott. Capping Review. Massey Ball. Ballets (students in tutus). Graduation.

Peter MacGillivray - Part 4 of 6 (parts 1 and 2 recorded 3 months earlier). Joined Massey Agricultural College staff in 1958. Limited teaching resources. Importance of valuation training. Prominent students and staff. The Perendale. John Hamilton Tetley paintings. Student trips. Changing academic standards in farm management. International exchange of staff. Farmers’ views of academics. Dairy Research Institute (DRI).

Peter MacGillivray Part 3 of 6 (parts 1 and 2 recorded 3 months earlier). Married and returned to New Zealand, Lincoln College teaching farm management. Taking students on farm tours round NZ. Job with South Taranaki Farm Improvement Club, then at Massey in 1958. Hostels senior warden, coal fired boiler. Exchange students from India. Extramural teaching. Female students.

Tom Romley Part 5 of 5. Buying Ashhurst Engineering. Colleen in the office, children in a caravan. Running the business. Early issues. Hardware shop also. Switch to metric measures from Imperial. Advantages of having a shop, packaging. Garden furniture. Sold business after 15 years due to health problems. Working for Hugh Akers for 17 more years, machinery maintenance, etc., then in the Akers family museum (private). Description of the museum. Problem with a farmer’s well.

Tom Romley Part 4 of 5. Working on the Upper Yarra Dam, living in a camp. Sleeping bags, dead snake inside. Shift work. 2 “lives” and you were out. How got to Australia. Workers from many countries. A stay in Melbourne, Chloe painting in Young and Jackson’s Hotel. Motorbike for touring. Back to NZ after 7 months for 21st birthday. Met Colleen, future wife so stayed in NZ. Engineering in Ashhurst. Working where had been an apprentice. Business growing, designing and erecting woolsheds, etc.. Working away from home on construction in early years of marriage. Old cottage. Earthquake standards. Workplace safety (1950s). Staircase in the Art Gallery, steel framed house. Bought the business in 1973.

Tom Romley Part 3 of 5. Apprenticeship as a fitter-welder in early 1950s. Making horse shoes. Wagon wheels, forge welding. Training at PN Tech. Driving test. 5 year apprenticeship. Building structures, woolsheds, etc.. Going to Australia, Melbourne working in the docks (unions, strike), then glass manufacturers, having a tradesman’s assistant (foreigners). Snowy River dam scheme working underground, living in a camp, shift work (dinner at 7am).

Tom Romley Part 2. Leisure activities. Soccer. Learning to swim in the river. Diving off the bridge. Dentists. Sunday School. Pocket money as a boarder. Cinema. Scouts. Military training at Waiouru, Valentine tanks. Cycling between PN and Ashhurst. Radio – why Colleen was called “Compost”. Few books. Weekly dances, letting a mouse loose. Flower shows. Range of stores in Ashhurst in 1940s and 50s. Brethren community. Many English assisted immigrants. Poms and English.

Tom Romley, Part 1. Born 1934. Only child. 1938 moved to Ashhurst. Other family in the area. Wood range in the kitchen, open fire in the lounge. Outdoor toilets. Started school in 1940. There by Shetland pony. Discipline in school, the strap. Palmerston North Boys High, 1 year by bus, then a boarder. Went for an apprenticeship as an engine smith at 15 so could leave school.

Don Esslemont, John Ward, Alison Mildon, Stuart Birks. In 6th week of Covid-19 lockdown, describing the experience. Don had falls and was taken by ambulance for treatment twice. Distancing and use of protective gear. Flu vaccinations. John occupied with his radio station and his music project. John’s cook. Alison’s experiences, life in the country, colourising old photographs. Long-playing records (LPs) versus digitized music.

Joe Hollander, Part 2 of 2. Palmerston North Defence Heritage Advisory Group activities. Anniversaries and commemorations. Military history presentations. Recordings of talks at https://www.nzsappers.org.nz. Charter partners. 5 year programme looking forward. Service graves. Awapuni Medical Memorial. Linton Camp established 1942. Memorial Park redevelopment. The Showgrounds and Cuba Street (Soldiers’ Club, etc..). Poppy Places Trust. Maori Battalion Hall. Cycleway/walkway to Linton Camp. Evening public lectures. Online resources. 14 books published for the WWI Centenary. Conferences. Engineer Museum at Linton Camp.