Manawatū Conversations

Colin Trotter, Brian Hunter and the Coach House Museum 3 of 3. Coach House Museum broadening its scope, included Vintage Machinery Club. Legal set-up requirements. Brian took over from Colin in 2005. Finding alternative premises. Offered large building in South Street. Incorporated archives also and opened May 2012. Importance of local skill base. Museum open every day. Formal functions at the museum as fund raiser. Also theatrette. Incorporating Maori perspective and more on role of women. Early European settlement in the area.

Colin Trotter and the Coach House Museum 2 of 3. Wagon treks for publicity, 1997-2004, up to 3 weeks, off-road. Working with horses, “pecking order”. Steep roads and no brakes. Maurice Watt wrote a book in the treks. Coach House Museum opened February 2002 in Bowen Street. Schools visiting. Need for new premises as collection grew, including farm machinery and genealogy club.

Colin Trotter and the Coach House Museum 1 of 3. Decision to set up the Coach House Museum. Based on Three Lakes, Wisconsin after teacher exchange in 1992. Comparison of the two places. Learning music and the Feilding Brass Band. Teenage drinking. Historic Society, 1994, Settlers Day 1995 (annually for 12 years). Horse drawn carriages (accumulated from 1964). Finding premises. Fund raising. Setting up (took several years). School involvement.

Brian Hunter, 3 of 3. Shepherding. Hill country, mustering. Monthly stock counts of cattle. Married and moved to the flat country as a shepherd. More opportunities on good country than in the hills. Awarded Paul Harris Fellow, Manawatu District Community Honours Award, and Rotary Centennial Award for Outstanding Community Service. Land Settlement Scheme. Tomorrow’s Schools. DCM, “Don’t come Monday”. Establishment and growth of the Coach House Museum in Feilding, now about 140 volunteers.

Brian Hunter, 2 of 3. Moving into a state house. Father getting rehabilitation of wounded soldiers, then office work. Brian and brother getting odd jobs while at school (9 years old). Changed from Lytton Street School to Manchester Street School. Feilding Ag.. 4th form, working on school farm. After school, father said get a trade before going farming. Apprenticed for fitting and turning (and machining and welding). Journeyman. “Foreigners” – jobs for others. Farming work once qualified. Work culture during apprenticeship – pranks, etc.. Health and safety. Dairy factory work with his journeyman.

Brian Hunter, 1 of 3. Born 1940, father away during the war. Early years in Rewa. Father severely wounded in Italy. Father’s war diary, parcels from home. Treatment after wounded, eventual return to New Zealand. Mothers’ ancestors German, coming to NZ in 1843, Nelson area. Education Board land. Father’s side Scottish, coal miners, came 1926. Father working on farms, but other work after the war due to wounds and losing a leg. 1948 moved to state house in Feilding.

John Ward. Part 2 of 2. Setting up John’s radio station. Permission to broadcast. 440 disk CD player. U3A music and video groups. Comedy, railways groups. Working on sound effects for theatre back in 1949. Recording of live shows for schools, the Operatic Society. Developments in classical music. Music from Eastern Europe After fall of Berlin Wall. Poor quality through the internet. Surround sound recording of a topdressing plane, cat and children’s reaction, 1978ish. Microphone setup for this. Early experience of stereo sound.

John Ward. John’s radio station. Large collection of music. Getting set up, 1998, and broadcast continuously since then. Early experience of recorded music (1940s). Funded by returning bottles. 78s, 45s, LPs at 33 RPM. CDs. Vinyl compared to 78s. Scratching rerecords. Valves versus transistors for music quality. Surround sound. Range of music in the collection. Nature of early recordings. Stereo. Poor quality of cassette recordings. 37 versions of Eroica.

Kathy Buurman. Born in Foxton, on dairy farm, 1950s, 212 cows. Transformed from gorse and lupin. Aorangi Marae, Feilding. Maori roots. Holidays with grandparents. Mother worked in administration at Massey University. Mother looked fair, but understood Maori. Mixed community at school, generally seen as the norm. Enjoyed school, more to play than to work. One teacher was very strict. Maori children picked out. School for her children was different – more choices, punishment different. Social events for the whole family. Musical family. Effects of mother working in 1950s. Working on the farm, ploughing at 11 or 12. Father injured in a car accident, never returned to the farm.

Keith Clark, Part 4. Work as advisor to country schools. Travelling round, also meeting parents. Grouping schools for teacher workshops, field days. New Maths, Social Studies. Practical workshops at Teachers College. School advisors. Job at Teachers College. Practical experience for trainee teachers. Exchange time in Australia. Sea Camps in Australia, Country camp in NZ. Teaching NZ history.