Community Contributed
Rotary Club of Levin - Oral History Project 1963
Kete Horowhenua2020-03-23T16:49:33+00:00In 1963 the Rotary Club of Levin undertook a project recording oral histories of 4 early Levin residents.
More recently (in 2007) Doug Bolitho has listened to the cassette tape and typed it up for us to read.
Each oral history can be seen by clicking on the links below:
| Link | Brief resumé | |
| Mrs Maxwell (Cyril) Bartholomew | An account of the early Bartholomew sawmilling days | |
| Mr Richard Allan Prouse | An account of the early Prouse sawmilling days - ballot for land - previous milling & shifting the mill to Levin - railway - characteristics of the trees - railway - shift to Shannon - Gorrie's mill at Ohau - tramways - employment conditions - bush & mill fires - train to Wellington for wages - Mrs Prouse as nurse & midwife. | |
| Mr George France | Founding of firm of Harvey & France - home & farm, Kawiu Rd. - mosquitoes - description of early buildings in the main Oxford St block. | |
| Mr Hector McDonald (3rd) | Resume of family history. - Interesting account of his father's Accommodation Hotel for travellers coaching along the beach before the advent of the railway. - Good description of the early landscape before clearing of the land. - Recounts the sale of Levin sections by Maori, surveying by the government into individual title, the conversion of the bush into a dairying and horticultural area. - Family relationships with Maoris - Early schooling |