The school built by the Labour Department, was known as the State Farm School.

Children from the newly settled Horowhenua Village Settlement, south of the now Hokio Beach Road, attended this school.

The teacher was Mr Plunket Cole.

The settlement parents, after a few years, agitated to have the school shifted, nearer to their area.

As much of the bush had been cleared off the State Farm, many of the labourers had moved on, so the number of pupils from the farm decreased and the pupils from the settlement increased.

Against the wishes of the staff of the farm, the Education Department bought the school and shifted it to where Harvey’s Joinery and number 25 Hokio Beach Road are now, with Plunket Cole still as teacher, along with a pupil teacher.

With the village settlement and the Weraroa township providing more pupils the roll increased.

The Weraroa Town Hall (where the Cosmopolitan Club’s Ward Street entrance is now) was used for classes.

The school was known variously, as the Farm, the Village, Weraroa and the Horowhenua School.

The latter name came from the Horowhenua Village Settlement and the fact that the present Hokio Beach Road was then Horowhenua Beach Road.

Mr Charles Welby attended the school in both locations. He related this story to me: Cyril Bartholomew punished by the teacher for some misdemeanour. When Plunket Cole brought the strap down with great force, Cyril withdrew his hand and the teacher fell flat on his face. Cyril then suffered more strapping than for the original offence.

In 1903 the present Levin School was opened amalgamating the two schools. The 120 pupils from the school marched to meet the 201 pupils from the Queen Street school and all marched into the new school.

Miss Sage, an assistant teacher, transferred with the pupils, but Mr Plunket Cole did not and he faded out of local history.

The Horowhenua School was shifted to the new school (as shown in photo on left) and sited as the base of the future north block, on the south west corner in 1904.

It was used later as the cookery room, at least in my memory from 1916 on. It is now the library.

Charles Welby witnessed the shift. An attempt by a bullock team failed, but one of Swainson and Bevans traction engines completed the shift. The photo shows the school in Oxford Street, by the rough board fence of the Weraroa Recreation Ground.

The playshed from the old school was shifted to the Levin school in 1907.

In 1916 my father bought the poultry farm, on the old school site, on a 22 year renewable lease.

One of the fowl houses had obviously been the lavatory, as the high up timber latticework indicated.

THE NEWS, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 1990.

The forest has an appeal to the eye with the brown carpet of fallen needles relieved by undergrowth species, many of them native. The original bush would have been cleared about 1900 - 1905.

Before the pine forest was planted the land was grazing country with grass mostly on the ridge and partly down the gullies. A large part of the bottom of the gullies had reverted to fern and other unwanted growth.

The trees have killed much of this and allowed more desirable native plant species to rejuvenate such as tawa, five finger, pittosporum, matipo and ground ferns.

In one area there are native meat eating snails.

Mile Posts

Leaving Denton Road the road winds around curves, gradually rising. The mile posts were to me the endangered native bird pictures, set on posts, at intervals of several hundred metres.

They were good excuses to stop and have a few minutes rest. Tree ferns have proliferated in their thousands from the few windburnt ones originally in the gullies. Now glades of them growing luxuriantly run down from the road.

The top of the ridge, near Arapaepae Road No 1 at 1268 feet (387m), was attained after a trip which was about as slow as when, 53 years ago with a friend, 50kg of No 6 fencing wire was taken up onto the Arapaepae Ridge. But more of this later. Gibson Road went on the north. A rotted log was lying by the side of the road. This could have been a rata which once rose above the surrounding bush, gracing its sombre surroundings with a blaze of colour, like a jewel in a crown. That and a very large stump with another tall stump, are the last remnants of the virgin bush that once clothed the foothills.

Two native pigeons were seen, evidently finding food in the pine forest.

About a mile along Gibson Road the forest finished and the open grass country emerged. The view was vast but the Levin area was indistinct, with a hazy atmosphere and a low sun.

On the east side, the pine forest stretched down with its neighbour, being second growth bush, to the north toward the Upper Gladstone Road.

Looking across the Makahika Stream Valley, the next range rose up with Square Knob, and Tawiri-kopukohu shrouded in mist.

Arapaepae No 2, at 1441 feet (440m), loomed up in the distance - tempting - but time and legs were against climbing it.

The return trip, mostly downhill, was done in faster time, but more jolting on the legs.

The transition from grass and fern to Kohitere Forest, in 23 years, has been remarkable and is a credit to Kohitere and to the boys who have done the hard work.

The Arapaepae Ridge is clothed with forest again.

Arapaepae Rata Firewood

Up to perhaps the 1940s, large dead skeletal rata trees stood starkly on the skyline of the Arapaepae Ridge and could be seen from Levin.

While up there in 1933, Mr Alan Black and I saw a good sized fallen rata and decided to cut it up for firewood for our families. Rata was one of the best burning firewood.

The tree, four feet (1.2m) across, was sawn into four feet (1.2m) cord lengths and split into about eight inch (20cm) thicknesses. There were about four cords cut. A stacked cord is eight feet by four feet by four feet.

The access to the top of the ridge was from the end of McDonald Road, through Mr Read’s property. There was an aerial cableway, with two cables, which in use, the full cradle of wood ran down, pulling the empty cradle up. The cables ran up nearly to the top of the ridge. The anchor of one of the cables had pulled out. Mr Read advised us to get a chain tackle from the Dairy Factory so he could re-anchor the cable.

When we got there he decided against the repair as, in use, any of the other three anchors could pull out.

He advised us to buy a full cwt (about 50kg) and to get the firewood down with it.A half-draught horse was hired from Mr Jack Morgan on the corner of Hokio Beach Road and Bruce Road at 5/- (50c) a day.I took the horse up to McDonald Road and up an easy ridge to the top.The horse was rather reluctant to climb as it was not used to hill work.

A wooden shute existed which the wood slid down to the cableway. A sledge was there and was used to shift the wood ¼ mile (400m) to the shute. After an hour’s sledging, rain developed, and as the sledge was sliding onto the horses legs, it had to be abandoned and the horse taken back.

The next time we went up the weather was fine, the sledging was done, and the wood put down the shute.

The cwt (50kg) of wire was carried around our necks up a short steep ridge. One of us could only carry it about 25 yards (23m) at a time and then handed it to the other. The wire was fastened to the top of a post and then unrolled down a gully. There was about five or six hundred yards in the roll (460 or 550m). The wire was fastened to a post where it ended. At the top, a log was stapled to the wire and let go. The run was very steep with only a black dot visible as the log slid down, taking 10 seconds at an average speed of 80 miles (130km) an hour. A knot was in the wire near the end, which pulled out the staples. The logs flew in all directions up to 50 yards (46m) away. Some bounced over a 20 feet (6m) high ridge and some dug in like fence posts.

A second slow run was necessary to get the wood to where the old 1920ish Gray truck could carry it home. A log hit a fence demolishing it, so that it had to be repaired. The wire was left hanging for the farmer - or to rust. It took a summer to get the wood. Rata was worth about four pound ($8) a cord then. If labour costs had been counted it would have cost ten times that.

With the cost of the wire and horse hire the wood was not that cheap. Contractors had found that out in the past when getting firewood out from difficult situations.

THE NEWS, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 1986.

Te Aro House of Wellington rented part of it for a store for Walter Mace Clark to sell wholesale drapery in 1892. He bought the building in 1894 going into business as a draper, being the beginning of what was to become Levin’s largest store in the 1920s embracing what is now Clarks Menswear, Zillah Modes and Rushton’s Kitset Centre.

Some very small shops were built north of Queen St on the east side of Oxford St up to where the California Restaurant is now as early photos show probably early in the 1890s. Walter and John Ryder started Levin Butchery in 1894 on the north east corner where Petticoat Lane is now. Further on Immortal Smith and his Silver Grid Restaurant and James Middlemiss had his saddlers’ business.

The building on the corner, now Petticoat Lane could be partly of the original Butchery building. This corner building has had its ups and downs. As photos show it was originally of one storey, then of two stories and now is of one storey. The other small shops had vanished before my memory of about 1918. The corner building which part of could be the oldest commercial building in Levin. It had a cycle business of Jack Phillips by about 1897 with a succession of proprietors including Clarkson Stan Brewster and Joplen Stallard and Carmichael into the 1920s. It was known as the Byko Corner and named as such on the building. Motorcycles had been part of the trade. Going on photos many cycle and motorbike races started and finished on this corner.

Photo at left shows The Avenue in 1906.

Over the road from Queen St north there was a Temperance Hotel (private) in the line of buildings. These were probably built by 1893. The Temperance Hotel would have been where Snippers Hairdressers are now. All these buildings in my memory of before 1920 had vanished except the cottage store which was removed in 1924. The original Road Board Office survived until 1926 and the first Fire station was of 1902 to 1921. The first and 2nd Post Office stores on the north side of Queen St from Oxford St were also not in my memory.

Mrs Emma Burt (nee Smithson), her mother had been one of the earliest midwives) related that in the early 1890s Mrs Ostler gave parties for children at the Roslyn Rd sawmill she used to ride on the sawmill trucks on the tramway to the mill as she was afraid of the wild horses.

The wild horses were owned or at least let loose by the Maoris to graze on the Weraroa Clearing. Some good stallions (probably old) had been released. The progeny were selected for training for the Maori race meetings west of the lake. When Levin started they became a nuisance so were captured or destroyed.

Emma Burt also related that a Maori was determined to get a dray to Poroutawhao so he pulled it himself over planks on the mud of the road moving them to front of the wheel alternately.

Mrs Ostler obtained the lease of the Gravel Reserve, Oxford, Bath St and original Chamberlain St for grazing. A gravel Reserve was available.

For any local authority to take gravel from irrespective in whose area it was in. A lawyer found out that a lessee could quarry a gravel reserve which Mrs Ostler did selling the gravel to the owners the County Council and probably the Road Board. No date is known but it was probably in the mid 1890s into the 1900s. It has been said that it was originally one pit.

A road (now Regent Lane) was formed making it twin pits as they were in my memory. The pit fronting Oxford St was about 15 yards (12m) from the footpath with the south end being about 6 ½ feet (2m) from where Brenmuhl’s Jewellers are now. In my memory the pit vanished under what is now the Curtain Boutique and Suit Yourself Boutique. A plumber told it ran on to as far as Big Tex. The rear of these buildings are over the pit on high foundations.

Bob and Jim Bradley came to Levin in 1894 to establish a horse education stable. Mrs Ostler leased them a section where Levin Music and Toyland are now on which they had their stable built. A County Council official came from Otaki and wanted to know why a building had been erected on their land without permission. However the county was powerless as Mrs Ostler could sublet her lease. The county then agreed to countenance the sub leases. From then on shops were built north of the present Paul’s Cake and Coffee House Ltd and Lily and Brizzle Ltd until by about 1900 according to photos most of the sections had shops on them. To the south the sections were empty until 1924 except for the corner section. This uncovered section of the pit remained an eyesore in the middle of the town for many years.

Bradley Bros. increased their business, establishing a livery stable (horse and vehicle parking) and by 1897 a coach service. When the fire brigade in 1902 wanted a section for a fire station, Mrs Ostler offered to lease a section for one-third of its value if two other businessmen paid the other two-thirds. The offer was declined. The county had allocated a section in Oxford St. Up to 1910 the borough council was still talking about Mrs Ostler’s leases. After walking off a South Island station penniless, she became a wealthy woman with other land dealing.

In 1897 Marco Fosella, Levin and Weraroa, advertised where the Power Board Bright Spot shop is now, Levin Boot and Shoe Co. and Pinks (Fred) boot shop (now north end of Deka) were also advertising then.

North of the gravel reserve was the Levin Hotel land. It has been recorded by Mr Herbert Gapper that on the site of Howard’s Hardware was a store run by Mr Smith. South of it were two shops built by Mr Garland, then owner of the hotel, known as Garland’s Building. Ernest Levy advertised his pharmacy in the building in 1897. The Manawatu Herald (Foxton) reported in 1898 that a disastrous fire occurred south of the Levin Hotel.

THE NEWS, WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 1989

Fungus on logs was collected and sold to Chinese buyers. Mr W. Reading started making butter by machinery on his farm on Arapaepae Rd, opposite the present Masonic Village. He sent it to Wellington and even exported it overseas. Cowbells were essential on the cows as often they were invisible in the part fallen bush.

Some cows grew very cunning when they heard the milkers coming and would stand still so the bells would not ring. As the farms and farmlets were cleared more grass was available, so there was enough milk produced for a dairy factory to be viable.

The Levin Cooperative Dairy Factory was built in Queen St East in 1899. The second and third factory still exist.

Levin began to prosper from farming activities no longer existing only on the sawmills, road making, clearing of the bush and debris covered land, though there was much bush to clear on the outlying areas.

The original Levin Hotel was built in 1889-1890 on the site where it is now, by Messrs Fred and Charles Roe.

Photo on left shows Oxford Street Levin, taken from north of the Oxford Street / Queen Street intersection looking south c . 1890. The road is unsealed and narrows at what is now the Oxford Street / Bath Street intersection. A small cottage is on this site. In the distance in Weraroa is a large two storied building, possibly the “Weraroa Hotel”. The Levin Hotel is the large building on the southern corner of Oxford Street and Queen Street West.

A one-roomed school was opened on 24 February 1890 with a roll of three about where the Regent Cinema is now with Mr R.G. Pope as sole teacher.

The roll had reached 40 when he resigned on 30 September 1889. Two untrained teachers filled the gap until 28 March 1892, when Mr James McIntyre arrived starting his legendary reign of 30 years. The roll then was 60. Another room was added to the school in 1892 and a third room added in 1897 with a roll of 160.

Much of Levin was very flat with pools of water in the bush, ideal for breeding mosquitoes. These were very bad and at times the school had to be smoked before lessons could start. At Levin School Jubilee in 1940 Mr Pope was asked how he liked Levin. He replied ‘which Levin, yours or mine’? Bush, logs, stumps, bushfires and mosquitoes. The destruction and burning the bush cured the mosquito problem.

Helen Wilson wrote than in 1889 a short length of Queen St had been cleared either side of Oxford St of small trees and undergrowth leaving the tall millable trees for the sawmiller. She wrote that it was the most beautiful sight she had seen in life of 80 years (book written in her 80th year).

The tall trees towered over small dainty ferns and she called it her cathedral. Mr Howard Jones wrote in Bush to Borough 1956 that in 1890 a store had been built for Mr Rod McDonald (combined house and store). This was sold to Mr B.R. Gardener in 1892. He built a shop on the frontage a few years later where Chainey Bros are now.

The Manawatu Cooperative Store, Mr Jones wrote that there was another store in 1890 on the corner of Devon and Oxford Sts, where Hudson & Burnham’s used car court is now.

He wrote there were only two houses in Levin in 1890, one a 2 storied house on the corner of Weraroa Road and Bath Street owned by Mr F.J Stuckey who owned all the land from Bath St to Mako Mako Road on the east side of Weraroa Rd. A descendant told me that when the house was built the stairs were forgotten, so a ladder had to be used to go to bed. The house was burnt down within a few years so that inconvenience vanished.

The other house was owned by Mr Tantrum on Mt Lofty, the elevation above York St near Oxford St. This is not quite correct as the schoolhouse was built in 1890 in Bath St on the School Reserve now part of the ex headmasters house next to the Levin School dental clinic. The house which Mr Peter Bartholomew built near his sawmill still exists in Roslyn Road, built in 1889. All other dwellings were very primitive being built of timber offcuts, bush materials, or native style and tents.

The administration of Levin was by the Horowhenua County. Road Boards existed throughout New Zealand from early days. When the county system was organised the road boards were supposed to vanish but instead they proliferated.

The Whirokino Road Board apparently existed before Levin started. Apparently it was to serve the area north of Levin as Mr John Davies who owned a vast area of land at Kereru (Koputaroa) was a leading light in it. When Levin was formed it came partly under its control. Both authorities rated the settlers who objected to double rating with very little improvement being done to the roads. The road board had a building in Levin early but its site is very confusing. Pupils were crammed (85 of them) into the board office in 1892 while another room was added to the school. This was said to be in Oxford St north. The room was only 20 by 30 feet (6 to 9m). Yet a fairly large road board building was in existence by about 1893 sited where Gees Gift Shop and Levin Video are now. The county had control of the main road with the road board controlling the side roads. This did not lead to harmonious relations between the two authorities.

Water supplies largely were from wells which were often not too far from cess pools and with a large area of Levin having water bearing gravel underground this was dangerous. Muddy roads and footpaths were a great problem in wet weather. Up to 1898 residents were complaining of the thick mud in Oxford St and rain water flowing around the shops.

THE NEWS, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 1989.

Photo at left shows Hector McDonald who came to New Zealand with a whaling ship in 1832. He was met by Te Rauparaha and his Ngati Toa armed warriers on the beach at Otaki. He then moved to Hokio and later to Moutere Road.

Such a scheme was the 1889 Levin Village Settlement the Centennial of Levin. The Government bought 4,000 acres (1600 ha) of land from the Muaupoko Tribe through their trustee Major Kemp, Meiha Kepa Rangihinui, at one pound ten shillings ($3) an acre (.3ha).

The block was Horowhenua Block No. 2, Horowhenua Block No 1 was the area of land needed for the construction of the Wellington Manawatu Railway Company’s line from Wellington to Longburn. This land was granted by the Muaupoko tribe, stretching from Ohau to Poroutawhao.

The charter of the railway company provided that all land purchased from the natives by the Government either side of the railway was to be granted to the company for the next five years.

The company claimed that the Government delayed the purchase of the Levin Block over the five year period so, as not to have to grant it to the company, who litigated in court and at the bar of Parliament unsuccessfully.

The Levin Block was bounded by Kawiu Road West and East (MacArthur), Mako Mako Rd, West and East (Liverpool St) and close to Lake Horowhenua to the top of the Arapaepae foothills.

Major Kemp stipulated that one tenth served for members of the Muaupoko Tribe, that a ‘garden’ of 4 acres (1 ½ha) be reserved in the centre of the town, to have a square like Palmerston North and that the name of the town be Taitoko.

The only reference I have seen of Taitoko is that in Old Manawatu, Buick referred to Kemp as Taitoko Rangihinui at a meeting between the Maori Land purchase agents and the natives in the Rangitikei area. Major Kemp fought with the irregular Maori forces on the British during the Hau Hau Maori War.

He was awarded the New Zealand Cross (the VC could only be awarded to regular forces) and the Queen’s Sword of Honour. However in the final purchases Kemp’s stipulations were ignored and the new town was named Levin because of the existing Levin Railway Station, named for a director of the railway company (should be pronounced Leveen as in scene).

It was the coming of the railway in 1886 that made Levin possible as there was no harbour, navigable river or any other route to the area, except the coastal route along the beach. There were almost impassable swamps between the beach and the to be Levin area.

The area was heavily bushed, so no large landowner wanted it. Bartholomew’s Sawmill was shifted from Feilding in 1888 being sited just north of the present Roslyn Road crossing and on the east of Roslyn Road. The Levin Railway Station, just a small shed, was almost opposite the sawmill and on the west side of the railway.

There is still evidence of the road linking the station to The Avenue. A hump with gravel shows through the grass at the apex of a paddock leading down to Roslyn Road crossing.

Mr Fred Roe, manager of the mill said there were no people living in the area. A few Maoris were living over the lake and some at Poroutawhao, when the mill came. The McDonalds were leasing a large area between Lake Horowhenua and the coast from the Maoris and other large sheep farmers were north and south on the coastal strip.

The Levin block was surveyed in 1888 by Messrs Ashcroft and Humphrey into township sections 5 acre (2ha), 10 acre (4ha), 20 acre (8ha) farmlets, farms of 75 to 120 acres (30 to 48 ha) and 247 acres (99ha) hill farms.

Education reserves were set aside being the present central car park of 5 ½ acres (2 ha), a block of 23 acres (9h) on Tiro Tiro Road (the present showground site) and 129 acres (9ha) on the north west corner of Queen St and Arapaepae Road.

Other reserves were the Cemetery Reserve of 5 acres (2 ½ ha), and two gravel reserves, one now being the Weraroa Recreation Ground of 4 acres (.8ha) and one fronting Oxford St from Bath Street to the north end of present Deka shop back to the present bus lane of 4 ¼ acres (.9ha) still owned by the borough. Two recreation areas were set aside, the Levin Park Domain of 11 acres (4.3ha) and another, the present Levin Domain of 21 acres (8.3ha) on the south side of Queen St. West from Te Kowhai to near the lake.

A water reserve of 16 ½ acres (6.5ha) on Queen St East, now part of Waiopehu Scenic Reserve was established. Other sections were reserved for municipal for undefined purposes.

The altitude of the block is 100 feet at the town centre to 110 feet at the Koputaroa Stream up Queen St East, with higher areas north of Queen St being up to 200 feet (66m). There no streams except the Koputaroa which only flows across the east of the blocks and only one known spring. Water was found at 20 to 40 feet (6m to 12m ) in wells of which the railway had one.

The block was heavily bushed with matai trees predominating, totara, hinau, rimu and the usual dense undergrowth except for some clearings. The largest was the Weraroa Clearing (the big burn), stretching from Stanley St, on the west side of Oxford St over to Tiro Tiro Road, angling over the railway at Bath St and down the Hokio Beach Road to about the CD Farm Road.

There were others of a few acres, being Te Kama on the present MacArthur St between Queenwood and Bartholomew Roads, one at the entrance to the present Waiopehu Scenic Reserve, Maunu-Wahine, the place of women, said to have been cleared by the fugitive Muaupokos from Te Rauparaha’s wrath at Tiro Tiro at the intersection of the now Duke Street and Tiro Tiro Rd.

The land on the block was offered for selection on March 19th 1889. Terms were for cash payment of township and suburban sections 3 to 6 pounds an acre, on deferred payment 2 pounds 10 shillings to 3 pounds 15 shillings an acre and on leasehold 30c to 60c an acre per year.

The terms for rural sections were 2 pounds to 3 pounds ($4 to $6) an acre cash, 2 pounds 10 shillings to 3 pounds fifteen shillings ($5 to $7.50) and on leasehold (20c to 60c) an acre per year.

Mr Fred Roe mentioned in his notes that in 1888 it was venturesome for anyone to go as far as where the dairy factory is now. Written many years ago the Weraroa Clearing would have had some growth on it such as manuka and fern etc.

To the intending settlers the area must have been a desolate area. The view from the train would have been of bush crowding up to the narrow aisle of the railway. The only routes were the railway, the sawmill tramway lines and tracks cut through the bush by the surveyors.

Only Horowhenua Road (Queen St), Koputaroa Rd, (Denton-Gladstone Roads), Arapaepae Rd, Bartholomew Rd, Tiro Tiro Rd, Kawiu Rd, Mako Mako Rd, were marked on the survey plan. Other streets were said to have been marked by white rags hung in the trees probably marking the survey pegs.

The intending settlers put in applications for sections paying a fee of one pound ten shillings ($3) which also paid the registration of their section, if successful. Most sections had to be balloted for as there were more applicants than sections such was the hunger for land, even for an acre.

THE NEWS, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 1989

No further activity is known until November 1923 when the band gave its second public display for Gala Week and more displays given through the week.

By 1924 the band committee had been organised with Mayor Thomas Hobson as president, town clerk H.L.Jenkins as treasurer, as he was until 1961.

Two other Borough Councillors were on the committee, Crs Frank Parker and Clarry Keedwell.

Mr George Lester was conductor with Mr C. Hinkley deputy conductor, Mr D.Weaver Band Sergeant, Mr S. Harvey Band Corporal and Mr G. Hesp Band Lance-Corporal. The honorarium for the conductor was increased to £25. Quotes for new uniforms were to be procured.

In January 1925 the band was playing regularly in the gardens every Sunday night. In October £111 had been raised toward the cost of £600 for new instruments.

£140 had been spent on new instruments in the past two years. In January 1926, a full set of Besson’s silver plated Class A instruments had arrived from Charles Begg and Co. Wellington with £45 allowed on the old instruments and discount, the cost was £521. The band was now properly equipped and the instruments all had compensating pistons. One bandsman said “now you get the note you play”.

The list of instruments each bandsman played was Soprano cornet, B flat solo G. Fox, ditto G.Lester, B flat first cornet C.Hinkley, B flat 2nd cornet T. Locke (junior). B flat 2nd cornet L. Leger (junior), Flugal horn L. Wishart (junior), second tenor horn J. Roberts (junior) ditto J. Dunlop (junior), first tenor horn C.Sklenars, solo tenor horn W.H. Roberts, second baritone G. Jackson, first baritone H.L. Waters and G. Hesp, euphonium K. Burt, second trombone D. Weaver, first trombone R. Pollock, Brass trombone E. Knight, ditto G. Truman, B B Bass R.Barr, side drum L. Williamson, bass drum J. Hesp.

There was a £313 shortfall to pay for the instruments. The Borough Council said it was not in their power to guarantee a bank loan. Six local residents went guarantors. The B.B. bass cost £73-12-6 and the cornets £20.

In February 1926 tenders were called for building a band room by the Borough Council and it was built on the S.E. corner of the then Chamberlain and Bath St (the west end of the library). The cost was largely funded by the sale of the old borough office in Oxford Street North (Young’s Gift Store is now on the site). In 1928 the band was affiliated to the NZ Brass Bands Association for a cost of £2.12.0d.

Mr Jack Hayfield was appointed deputy bandmaster in 1928. Mr J.R.Hesp had been drum major since 1927. Mr Lester resigned in 1929 after seven years as conductor. Mr Jack Hayfield was appointed conductor but Mr Lester was back as conductor in 1930. The band became known as the Levin Silver Band in 1931.

In April 1932 the band room was used for an unusual purpose. Meat was distributed there to the unemployed. Mutton was supplied by the Palmerston North Hospital Board supplemented by beef obtained under Mr Harry Channing’s (Borough Overseer) scheme. The unemployed paid 6d a week. Cattle were bought, slaughtered free by the abattoir contractor and stored free by Carter Bros. butchers. The meat was laid out on tables and covered with large cloths. The men indicated which piece they wanted by touching the cloth covered piece and that was their’s whether it was sirloin or shinbone.

The Regent Theatre put on a benefit of half pictures half items in November 1932, in aid of uniform fund and competition costs. Items were played by the band under the baton of Mr C. Pike, Palmerston North Garrison Band.

Photo at left shows the band in 1934.

As the Levin Municipal Silver Band, the band competed at Masterton on November 20 1932. Bands from Wellington, Manawatu and Hawkes Bay competed. C.Grade only had two entries. Levin was first with a quickstep ‘Starlit Doll’ and test selection first with ‘Knight Errant’. Levin won £5 and a £5 shield. Woodville was second in C. Grade.

Councillor Keedwell said at the borough council meeting success spoke volumes for practice put in at Bath St. Residents could vouch for that. He lived practically opposite the Band Room. There were houses from the Salvation Army Thrift Shop then. Conductor Mr C. Pike had been of great assistance while the band was practising for the contest. The band room was enlarged in 1932.

A Citizens Committee was formed in 1935 to assist the band and its finances. In 1934 the band was playing regularly in the gardens. Various functions were attended always, such as race meetings and A and P shows etc. It was noted in 1937 that membership had fallen badly and apparently was barely functioning. There must have been no band available to play for the Coronation Parade for ceremony of celebrating the Coronation of King George 6th in May 1937 as two pipers were called on to head the parade. Quests for experienced players were not successful. The band had some good young players, but not enough players who could play solo. After several meetings to encourage more membership being unsuccessful, the band committee decided in February 1938 that the band go into recess.

In January 1940, the NZ Air Force Band asked the Borough Council for the loan of the instruments and the loan was granted. The band music was given to the band of 2nd Echelon of the NZ Army serving overseas. The stands were sold to the NZ Patriotic Board.

EARLY CUTTINGS HELPFUL

The late Mr H.L. (Len) Jenkins, a former town clerk of Levin, had a very early association with the Levin band and it is said he was its treasurer over a period of 42½ years.

He was a very methodical collector of press cuttings which were painstakingly pasted into scrapbooks. These have been invaluable in researching material from the early days of the band, Mr Corrie Swanwick has found.

The band itself has some minute books but very little seems to be in existence today of such historical material on which to trace the band’s long history.

Several very interesting photographs and documents have been coming to light both from the band room and private persons and these have made up an interesting display which Mr Swanwick arranged in the Levin Public Library where they have created considerable public interest.

There is a pictorial record of the late Mr Jenkins handing over a drum-major’s mace he presented to the band. Also one of Mr Ritchie Hayfield chatting with a former Governor General at the opening of Woodlands Home, Waikanae.

With a 75 year milestone about to be celebrated by Levin Municipal Band, an historic parchment has come to light confirming the formal creation of a brass band in the town as early as 1900 – 88 years ago.

The Levin Municipal Band’s celebration is taking place over the weekend of July 15, 16 and 17 and the date of what was the beginning of the present band has been settled as being 1913.

But evidence revealed in research by Levin historian, Mr. F.C. (Corrie) Swanwick indicates efforts to get a brass band activated in 1911 and he also notes a play-out in public in 1912.

He discovered references in early records to that band of 1900, confirmed by the parchment containing the rules of what was styled the Levin Brass Band. It appeared not to have survived as Mr Swanwick points out.

It is also likely that it was not officially registered at the time.

While it was realised that other musical combinations were in existence in the early years of settlement, the Levin Municipal Band as it is known today, has survived the longest, although there have been periods of temporary recess brought about by World War 11 and other factors.

The firm evidence of even earlier brass band links with the present band has greatly excited today’s generation of players as it was suspected that such documentary evidence had been lost over the years.

These documents and early photographs will be viewed with considerable interest when present and former players and supporters gather to mark the current celebrations.

The historic occasion might well have gone unacknowledged but for the astuteness of Levin historian, Mr Swanwick, who came across evidence during other research which pointed to its significance to the present day band.

An enthusiastic and hard working jubilee committee of Levin Municipal Band has planned a weekend of activity which will revive many memories and friendships and also bring to public attention the contribution made by past and present members of the band to the town and district.

The Chronicle is pleased to place on record, it is believed for the first time, the saga of Levin Municipal Band.

Gratefully acknowledged is the painstaking and time consuming research by Levin historian Corrie Swanwick.

Also acknowledged are early photographs preserved for posterity by a number of interested persons, and made available by the band.

Interviews have also been conducted on behalf of The Chronicle by Mr Bob Malcolmson, which are based on the personal memories of the older bandsmen.

Mr Swanwick’s research also embraces other brass bands or combinations which have, over the years contributed to brass bands in Levin.

Photo at left shows Memorial Service for King Edward VII in 1910, with Levin School pupils taking part. Among them is Lena Pickering (nee Carlson), who will be attending the Levin School Centenary.

During the 1914-1918 war the first known activity was the raising of 79 pounds -0-2 ½ ($158.02) for the Belgium Relief Fund.

In April 1915 the School Committee decided that the money be sent to the Wellington Patriotic Committee.

The headmaster Mr McIntyre said he did not want any advertisement for the pupils. They should hide their light under a bushel.

In July the pupils’ contributed 40 pounds ($80) for the Belgium Relief Fund. The pupils brought one egg each from home, totalling 500 eggs and these were sold with the proceeds going to the Belgium Fund.

The school promised to raise 14 pounds ($28) towards Xmas puddings for overseas soldiers and 17 pounds 10/- ($35) was raised in 1917. The pupils collected cakes, produce, fruit and lollies from home and other sources. One hundred and sixty sacks and cases of these goods were taken to Wellington and sold in a Levin stall with the proceeds going to Patriotic Funds, raising 70 pounds ($140).

Nurse Lewis of Otaki campaigned in 1917 to raise money to buy an ambulance for the Maori Contingent in France, costing 500 pounds ($1000).

Goods collected by the pupils were sold at a stall in the Town Hall in March 1917 realising £30 ($60).

The Otaki and Levin schools were asked to contribute £100 for upkeep of the ambulance which they did.

Much other fundraising was done by the citizens of Levin and Otaki. Nurse Lewis asked the pupils of both schools for pennies to buy two New Zealand flags for the ambulance and NZ forces at the front, which they did.

One hundred and fifty pounds was raised altogether for the ambulance appeal.

The flag bought from funds raised in Levin was consecrated on 27/3/1917 by Reverend Stephenson, Abbey and Bawdon Harris. The flags were to be returned to the schools after the war.

The Otaki flag was returned but the Levin flag was not. It was used at Le Quesnoy in Belgium being the only one available when in 1917 the New Zealand Rifle Brigade “Ford Liverpool’s Own” stormed and took Le Quesnoy. The flag remained there.

Later a beautiful Belgium flag was sent back and placed in a church in Masterton and later sent to St Pauls Cathedral, Wellington.

In March 1917 a doll was donated by Rita Farland for auctioning for patriotic funds. It was bought and donated back many times realising £11 ($22), finally being donated back to its little donor who donated it to the girls 4th class at the school. The school would have contributed to patriotic causes during World War II, but records are not readily available.

In 1945 an appeal for clothing for the needy people of Britain and Europe, ravished by war, was launched by the Lady Galway Patriotic Guild, St John and the Red Cross on behalf of Corso and Unra.

In July 1945 the pupils of the school contributed 2000 garments, many of them near new. Clothes rationing was still in place, so there must have been sacrifices made. The Levin Dry Cleaners cleaned the garments at no cost.

Three teachers from the school served overseas in World War I, Jack Mills (shown in photo below left), Bert Foss (shown in photo below right) and Mr Gray.

Jack Mills was killed at Kepa Tepe on Gallipoli on 27/4/1917. A letter was written to his parents by Bert Foss. The attack was on Walkers Ridge. Bert Foss and Jack Sheppard, of Levin, buried him under fire.

The school closed on July 18 out of respect, when the news of the death was received.

Bert Foss was killed in France in 1916. The school closed on October 1.

School pupils were in the procession from Weraroa to the Town Hall for the first observance of Anzac Day on 25/4/1916.

They also participated in processions for carnivals for fundraising for Patriotic purposes.

On July 10 1915 an army officer demanded the keys of the school from the headmaster Mr McIntyre so as to billet troops in the school. Trentham Camp had been evacuated as there had been an epidemic of illness with some deaths. The halls of Levin had been used but the officer wanted the troops in one building.

The Weraroa Town Hall was being used for 25 sick soldiers. On 15/7/1915 the school was evacuated by the troops. Next day the Health Department disinfected the school and the floors were scrubbed over two days.

THE NEWS, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1990

According to Charles Welby, he went with the cadet corps in the early 1900s to the Auckland Exhibition, where they paraded and participated in the obstacle course.

In 1905 the cadets went to the Kitchener Camp at Petone, for a day and a night, to be inspected by Lord Kitchener, Field Marshal of the British Army, with other units of the School Cadet Corps.

When the parade was formed, heavy rain fell. Lord Kitchener arrived in a cab and did his inspection from it. The cadets got soaking wet and with no change of clothes, bunked down on hay and a blanket, under the grandstand.

One boy as a result of the soaking and the wet clothes while sleeping, contracted an illness and died later.

Charles Welby, also with the cadets, went to the funeral of Premier Richard Seddon in 1906.

The school log notes that in 1909 at a cadet shooting practice, Nelson Williamson was in charge of the ammunition. He and William Walker took some home and that night fired some cartridges in the town.

The ammunition was for heavy calibre rifles, Martini Henry .450 inches.

The culprits were traced and given six cuts by the Headmaster Mr McIntyre and debarred from using rifles at the range in the future.

Mr McIntyre was critical of the officers Captain Burns and Lieutenant Woods (teachers) of the method of keeping check of the ammunition.

Another two cadets Enoch Coppin and Joe Scott, obtained some ammunition. Enoch received six cuts but Joe had left school and escaped punishment.

Some Tale

A story I heard on Friday at the School Centennial function: Charley On Tie (his parents had a greengrocer’s shop at the south end of the present Post Office and an uncle of the Leong family) when climbing through fence by the hedge of the horse paddock, would have his pigtails tied on the fence wire and did he get wild.

THE NEWS, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1990

Opiki, Makerua, Moutoa and Wirokino had large areas which originally were swamps. The Wirokino Cut, about two kilometres downstream from the Wirokino bridges, was put in, diverting the river from the long loop past Foxton in 1944, enabling floodwater to run out to the sea much quicker. The Manawatu Catchment superseded the River Board in 1945.

A natural floodway of low ground exists on the north side of the river from the Foxton Shannon Road about four kilometres from Foxton to about 11/2 kilometres below the Wirokino Bridge. The Trestle Bridge is over the floodway.

A system of spillways with nine gates was built at the head of the floodway to divert the floodwater from the river, by the Manawatu Catchment Board. This was designed by Mr P G Evans being finished in 1961. The nine gates can be operated by power or manually any, or all at the one time.

The floodway is not activated until the river flow is over 50,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second). This amount is needed to flush out silt from the river otherwise the river would silt up needing ever higher stopbanks.

The area of the floodway is 640 hectares. The river from the spillway to the end of the floodway is 10.5 kilometres and the river with its many curves, is 28 kilometres. The floodway enables the water to reach the Cut much faster, saving flooding of land in the Opiki, Makerua, Moutoa and Wirokino areas. The gates of the spillway were first opened in 1963 and have been operated 13 times to cope with serious floods.

The spillway land is owned by the Catchment Board being leased to farmers for grazing. Ample warning can be given to shift stock to high ground.

With thanks to Mr Colin Cochrane, Foxton, and Mr Jeff Law for help in research.

THE NEWS, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1987

Dr McKinley bought Dr Millers’ practice in 1955 but did not use the house as a surgery.

It was lived in by non-medical people for several years.

Then Dr McHaffie set up a practice in the house for some years before leaving Levin.

Dr E. Petersen bought Dr Hunter’s practice and house, when he retired in the early 1950s.

Dr Petersen, with Dr Neale and Dr McKinley in 1955, formed a partnership practising from the house, on the south west corner of Queen Street and Winchester Street. One house off.

Dr Alan Caselberg was locum tenens for six months, for Dr Neale, then joining the partnership in 1957.

In the next year the clinic was named the Tararua Medical Centre.

Dr Edward (Ted) Gillies came to Levin in 1947. He first lived and practised from 44 Durham Street before moving to a new house and surgery at 126 Bath Street and practising from there until 1975 when he had a surgery built on the corner of Bath and Winchester Streets.

The original house, built for Mr Frank Parker in 1910 was moved to the rear of the section, now fronting Winchester Street.

Dr John Miller in 1975 and Dr Warwick Davenport in 1977, joined in with Dr Gillies in partnership.

Dr Gillies retired in 1979. Dr Davenport had left when Dr Timothy Crow joined the clinic in 1986, staying until 1989. Dr Depak Grover then joined the clinic and he along with Dr Miller is the present doctors.

At the Tararua Medical Centre Dr Russell Comber joined in 1960 until 1968, with Dr Bernie Casey joining in 1965 until 1969.

Dr Mairi Sewell came to the centre in 1966 and still there.

Dr Pope was locum’s tenens for Dr Caselberg for six months in 1967.

Dr Hugh Thompson joined the centre from 1967 until 1975, with Dr Arthur Singh joining in 1968 until 1971, with Dr Allan Hull joining in 1970 and Dr Douglas Bolitho joining the centre in 1971.

Dr Ted Walford was at the centre from 1972 to 1976 as was Dr Mole.

Dr Michael Ames joined the centre in 1975 as did Dr Lindsay Quennell; the latter staying until 1986.

The Tararua Medical Centre building had large extensions built on at the rear in 1978 providing modern surgery rooms and facilities.

The original building was, and is, used for visiting specialist, x-ray facilities and other medical uses.

Dr Samuel James Thompson died in 1973 suddenly, at lunch time, after delivering a baby earlier in the day.

Dr Bernard Rosa and Dr Dalwalumulli Ramya Siri practised for a year in 1975, in Dr Thompson’s surgery, moving in 1976 to surgeries in the previous building, where Kent and Little’s building is now on the Queen Street - Chamberlain Street corner.

Dr Ramya Siri moved his surgery to a house, 50 Queen Street in 1986 and is still practising, while Dr Rosa moved to 47 Bristol Street in 1986. He retired in 1989 with Dr Allen Gray buying the practice and practising from 47 Bristol Street.

The first x-rays were done by dentists for doctors in Levin in the 1950s. Dr Urquhart of Palmerston North established a private unit at the Tararua Medical Centre in 1959 where it existed until Horowhenua Hospital x-ray department began.

Dr Brian Gelling joined the centre about 1980.

Dr Gillian Brown was an assistant during 1986 - 86, being not a partner. Dr Andy Van de Vyver came to the centre as a locum’s tenens in 1986, becoming a partner in 1988 and Dr Meaburn Standiland came to the centre as a locum’s tenens in 1986, becoming a partner in 1988, with Dr Graeme Irving joining in 1987.

The above three doctors and Drs Ames, Bolitho, Gelling, Sewell and Hull are the present doctors practising at the clinic.

Dr Caselberg left the centre in 1988 to take up a new position in the Wellington Hospital, giving back-up to house surgeons in the accident and emergency department.

Handwritten addition:

Dr L G Hunter was born Sydney on 14/7/1981 [1891?] and qualified as a medical doctor and surgeon. He served as the medical corps. officer in the Australian Inf. Force in W.W.I. during 1915-1918. He was wounded in September 1917. He came to Levin … Dr … and Dr Eliz. Bryson’s practice and house in Durham Street in 1924. It was the first house on the south side where, until recent, was a corner store (?) down from Brian Moore Garage. Later he moved to the house on the s.w. corner of Weir and Queen Streets which later became H.?.M.B.

Photo shows Selwyn Simcox’s Cricket Eleven – December 1927 – January 1928. Dr Lancelot John (Lance) Hunter OBE MC, seated second from left in middle row.

THE NEWS, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1990

To the local Maoris suffering from newly introduced European diseases, minor to Europeans with inherited immunity, but were devastating to the Maoris.

She would have been the only primitive source of medicines available, but probably with few cures. These diseases decimated the tribes.

In 1891 Mrs Christina (Tina) Prouse came to Levin with her sawmilling family. Sawmilling was a hazardous industry with the dangers of tree felling.

She dealt with minor injuries to those of a more serious character. She would do what she could with the latter, until one of the few trains a day arrived to take the patient to Wellington or Palmerston North Hospitals.

Tina Prouse acted as matron at the Weraroa Town Hall for sick troops in 1917 when Trentham Camp was evacuated, owing to an epidemic of sickness and some of the units were billeted in the Levin School and halls of the town.

During the influenza epidemic in 1918, she was second-in-charge of the temporary hospital at the Levin School.

The first doctor in Levin was Dr Lewers living in the house now No. 29 Seddon Street. He was there by 1895 or 1896 when Charles Welby at about the age of three or four had a finger chopped off with a hatchet by a playmate. He was taken to Dr Lewers for medical attention.

That Dr Lewers was in Levin was confirmed by a list of professional and business men during the first 20 years of Levin’s existence, remembered by a resident and published in the Chronicle Supplement of 1956, stating he lived in Seddon Street.

The Levin School Log recorded that he visited the school in 1896. It is not known when he left Levin.

The Manawatu Herald (Foxton) reported on 8/12/1897 that Dr Lamb was leaving Levin and Dr Bronte was taking his place.

It is not recorded when Dr Bronte left Levin but he must have gone when Dr Mackenzie came to Levin in 1898.

It has been said and printed that he was the first doctor in Levin, but that is not so.

He built a large two storeyed house in Oxford Street (where Wrightcars is) with the section running right through to Bristol Street.

This was known, at least later as Wisteria Lodge. He sold the house and practice in 1911 to Dr Davies. He served in World War I, 1914 - 1918 at some period. On his return he only stayed in Levin for a short period.

Dr Kennedy was in Levin by 1910 but possibly earlier practising from a house, either the first or second house from Oxford Street, on the south side of Durham Street.

Here two houses were on the site, where the former transport yard was in Durham Street, behind Brian Moore Ltd garage.

Dr Kennedy in 1912 asked permission of the Borough Council to erect a horse hitching rail, outside his residence on the roadside.

He went to England for six months, leaving Dr Young as his locums tenens, returning in 1914.

Dr Bryson was practicing in Levin in 1910 operating from Dr Kennedy’s house.

He bought the house and practice in 1914.

Dr Bryson had married for a second time to a Dr Elizabeth Macdonald and at some stage she practised in Levin.

Photo at left shows Dr Robert and Dr Elizabeth Bryson with their son Bill and daughter Mary both of whom also qualified as doctors.

They [Robert and Elizabeth] both left Levin, in 1924 when Dr Hunter bought the house and practice.

He later bought the house in Queen Street, which is the front part of the Tararua Medical Centre and practised from it.

Dr John Gow came to Levin in 1920 living and practising in Durham Street, until his new large two-storeyed house was built at No 4 Kent Street, later to become the Thompson Memorial Cultural Centre.

He suffered from ill-health and had several locums tenens, Dr S. J. Thompson being his last.

Dr Maisie Gow did not practise in Levin, her family being young.

In 1926 Dr Thompson bought the house and practice. The surgery was on the lower floor, on the east side. Patients entered into the waiting room from a door at the south east corner and then into the surgery, then out the door opening into the front porch of the house. This area is now the caretaker’s flat.

When the Air Force Station was established in Kimberley Road in 1939, Dr Thompson became Medical Officer with the rank of Squadron Leader, still serving his private practice.

Dr Thompson served in 1914 -1918 World War I, having his university studies interrupted after three years, serving in the Third Field Ambulance.

Both he and Dr Hunter wanted to serve as medical officers during World War 2. Dr Hunter claimed as senior doctor that he should go overseas and did for most of the war.

Dr Edward (Ted) Miller started practicing in Levin in the mid 1930s. He also served in the war for a period overseas as a medical officer.

When Dr Miller returned, probably in 1945, he resumed his practice. His last if not the only house which he practised from was on the north west corner of Queen Street and Salisbury Street.

THE NEWS, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 1990.

On the 1895 photo (featured in part one) a building is shown where the Post Office is now.

... need to insert that photo here ...

The other three corners of Oxford St - Queen St had been built on. Hamilton and Co. advertised in 1898 as a store and draper on No.1 corner! When the 1903 Post Office was planned the corner section known as Hamilton’s Corner was bought, so the shop must have vanished by then.

The photo also showed an odd small building further south. Up to 1900 or later there were no buildings in Queen St east, except a shop being part of the n.e. corner of the original Levin Butchery building where Immortal Phipps had his Silver Grid Restaurant in a second location.

Phipps claimed to be immortal. He left Levin later so it is not known whether he defeated nature or not. His two premises in Levin are shown in old photos.

In Queen St west the only shop buildings were on the north side down to where Typewriter Services are now. There was the corner store of Mary Ann Bowen with the Post Office entrance from Queen St, with Emma Bowen as post mistress and Lou Bowen’s jewellery, etc, business (the start of a chain of such businesses) through to a lock-up shop until 1963, in the south corner of the late K. Shaw Ltd, building, now occupied by Leader and Watt.

The last building down Queen St was first Post Office and store where Hugh Hall opened his barber’s saloon and sports equipment business in 1898, being the first link in the chain of barbers for the next 90 years.

On the south side there was only the side frontage of the Levin Hotel, its stables and the town hall built by Mr Frank Garland, at the time owner of the hotel property, in 1898 after the fire destroyed the first public hall.

In Bath St east or west there were no commercial buildings up to 1906 when the Salvation Army hall was built. There were no commercial buildings south of about six sections north of Bath St. in Oxford St, up to around 1904.

Houses were built well before 1900 and onwards, clustered up close to Oxford St in Bath St west up to the present Cobb and Co. tavern on both sides. In Bath St east houses were built in the same area from the ladies bowling green to Winchester St. Queen St west had several houses early from the late Contact House to the Salisbury St corner on the north side, until ousted in recent years by business premises.

The corner section once had a Salvation Army hall about 1900 on it but gone before about 1918 with no building later.

The Maori Land Court had hearings in this hall. Further west there were no houses as apparently the block between Salisbury St and Weraroa had been bought by stock firms early, for future saleyards. On the south side the side frontage of the Levin Hotel, to Chamberlain St, the school reserve to Salisbury St and the Levin Park Domain prevented any housing on the south side to Weraroa Rd. Houses were built early in Oxford St nth on both sides from where the Levin Club is now, counting it. And in Kent St early housing existed as far as Winchester St.

Salisbury St north of Queen St from one section off the corner and the east side and from the future saleyard site on the west side, and the side streets connecting to Oxford St and Bristol St were also early housing areas.

In all areas empty sections persisted for many years. Outside these housing areas were the small rural sections of from 5 to 20 acres (2Ha to 8Ha) which would have only the owner’s house on them.

After 1900 some of these rural sections were subdivided in house sections especially those nearest town. Some took up to the 1950s to be subdivided. Housing on central areas was often on large sections subdivided many years later.

Livery Stables

These were for ’parking’ horses and horse vehicles. They were essential for good living (for the affluent, others walked or biked), while the people went about their business in town.

If wanted, horses would be fed and watered, even groomed, in stalls. Bradley Bros. (where Levin Music and Toyland are now) seem to have been the first stables about 1897 though Jack Smiths’ stables about where the ANZ Bank is now could have been as early.

Jack Smith shifted his stables after 1903 to where the Memorial Hall is now. Bob Bradley said in a published story that up to 200 horses would be accommodated in busy times.

The stables would not have accommodated all these, so many were probably kept in the back section and the period would probably have been nearer the 1920s, when Levin district’s population had grown.

I can remember before 1918 looking in the wide door of Bradleys, seeing a hostler (an employee who cared for the horses) Albert Wells, who had a wooden artificial peg leg and being puzzled by it.

About 1920 he ran his own stable in Queen St where Mitre 10 is now. There were hitching rails, one with a step for riders, not very agile, to mount their horses from, around the town. There were also the timber protections of the young plane trees and later the trees after the protections had been removed, to tie the horses to.

Horses harnessed to vehicles generally would stand without being hitched to anything. There was a horse water trough by the Post Office in Queen St from 1915. Horses were still the main means of providing transport into the 1920s and to a certain extent into the early 1930s, although motor vehicles were becoming popular then.

The Oxford St Plane Trees

Queen Victoria attained the record reign of any British sovereign in 1897. It was also her diamond (60 years) anniversary but the emphasis in celebrations was on the record reign.

Celebrations were held commemorating it worldwide in the far-flung British Empire. In Levin a Record Reign Committee was formed, with Dave Smart as chairman, to promote the planting of plane trees in Oxford St, to mark the occasion for all time. This was done from Bath St northwards to Devon St, in 1897 and at Weraroa, from near Mako Mako Rd east (now Liverpool St) to the station.

Timber protections were built around the trees being there for many years until the trees were large enough to be safe from horses and horse traffic.

Some trees had either died after planting or soon after as before 1920 there were gaps in the rows. Over the years there have been several attempts in council to remove the trees, on one pretext or another all ending in failure.

One attempt in 1958 ended in the council deciding to replant the gaps in central Oxford St, 12 in all.

In about the 1950s the trees were decorated with coloured lights for the Christmas period. Long wooden tripods were mounted in and above the trees with 1500 electric lights. From the station to Exeter St the sight was beautiful at night.

In the 1970s deterioration of wiring and high cost of renewal caused a much more feeble decoration. The Weraroa trees were removed about the 1970s on the feeble excuse that kerb and channelling could not be done with the trees there; on a footpath that was far too wide for the station pedestrian traffic at the time.

In the 1970s the footpath from Durham St south was narrowed to almost single file so Oxford St could be widened. This footpath has to take heavier traffic than the above one.

In 1988 five trees were removed because of disease, and replacements planted.

THE NEWS, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1989.

It is said he came by coach up the beach so it must have been before 1886 as the coaches ceased then when the railway was operated.

When Prouse Bros came to Levin to establish their sawmill in 1891 James was the bush foreman for some years, living in one of the mill houses at first.

He married Mary Swanson (the spelling had been slightly altered from its original Swedish spelling) in the early 1890s.

James bought 50 acres of land fronting Queen St on the south side from Mrs. R. Prouse in about 1892. He probably kept his bush job until 1902 when he commenced supplying the dairy factory, as clearing the land of bush would have been many years of work in his spare time. A house was built on the farm, utilitarian at first, but later extended to make a fine family home.

Six children were born to the couple, Dorothy, Constance, Bernard, John, Mabel and Emma.

The house was added to in the 1920s and a fine garden layout established, the daughters giving significant help in this.

James made all his furniture by hand and also made elaborate fretwork some of which still exists.

Bernard (Bunny) joined the Levin Cooperative Dairy Co staff as a boy in 1917, working up to factory manager in 1945 and retiring in 1963.

During his term as manager many awards were won for the butter produced, carrying on the reputation of the former manager, James Smellie.

John worked for Abraham and Williams first and then became the secretary of the Dairy Co in 1921 (being thought by many as being too young for the job) until his death on 1961.

Constance worked on the farm for some years and then worked for James Rimmer in his grocery shop (now GEM) from 1927 to 1947, the last few years for Mr. Trim who had bought the business.

James and Mary died in 1942 and 1943.

Godfrey Bowen had bought most of the land leaving one acre around the house.

SCHOOLS
Waiopehu College and Levin East School are sited on the back part of the original farm. This area had been the farm’s hay paddock. Parsons Avenue is named after the family.

The house and the one acre was sold to Mr. Shailor in 1956. In 1960 Kenneth Shaw bought and occupied the house for several years. It is now fronted by numbers 624 to 632 Queen St.

Appreciation of the help of Miss Constance Parsons in the research for this article is given by Mr. Swanwick.

Photo at left shows The Weraroa Post Office - built in 1910.

The Levin Motor Bodies building was built by Ridley and Martin during the 1950s. Later it was taken over by a company of local garage owners and operated as Levin Motor Bodies 1973 Ltd. It was managed by one of the later shareholders Jack Bolderson. The company is now owned and operated by the Everton family.

On the corner of Oxford and Stuckey Street, Charlie Dempsey built the Dempsey Joinery around 1932-1934, W. (Bill) Rolston was employed as manager in 1952. He remained as manager after Dempseys Joinery Company Ltd bought out the business in 1954, and himself bought out the business about 1956.

It shifted to Hokio Beach Road in 1971-1972 and the section sold to Jack Bolderson and Roger Parker. They demolished the buildings in 1972. Felvins now lease the site for outside display.

CAMBRIDGE STREET

The history of Cambridge Street extension is mostly a modern one. The Levin Saleyards were shifted to their present location, south of Tararua Road rail crossing, in 1929-1930 from Queen Street West.

Colyer Watson’s south store was built in 1945, an Odlin’s Sawmill. Later Mr Booth tried to grow mushrooms in the boiler house. They grew, but only the flies grew fat on them. Mooney’s hide curing business was in the building for many years until the Colyer Watson takeover about 1978.

A.W.Mullan, heavy sewing contractor, either built extensions or took over existing buildings in Cambridge Street in 1959. In 1963 the firm extended onto Kelly Engineering’s site and later took over Messrs. Ashdown and Gruers Amac Joinery property. The last extensions were carried out in 1976.

The business was bought by Chase Holdings in 1980, with the Mullan links retained through the present manager, Mr P.G.Mullan.

Northern neighbours, Colyer Watson opened the main plant for their hide curing business in 1972.

Continuing north, Lance Osborne’s Levin Carrying Company existed from 1965 to 1968, when General Foods took over the building.

He later revived the company, building new premises nearby in 1973, on the site of the previous Vacuum Oil Depot. The depot existed from about 1926 until 1957. In 1955, MacFarlane’s Transport took over the depot as agents for the company.

The Shell depot, now Lane’s car park, opened in 1926. In 1954 Cappers took over the depot, also as agents for the owners. It closed in 1964.

Petrol for both depots came by rail and was unloaded at their sidings. Then a railway tanker held 6000 gallons, compared to a modern road tanker’s 5800 gallons.

Farm Products Co-operative (Tararua) began its business in Cambridge Street in 1960, initially for the wholesale distribution of dairy products and poultry mashes. A flour mill was established in 1964; continuing for only a few years. The co-operative has since expanded into other food products.

From Tararua Road to Bush Street the land originally belonged to Fred Roe. It was sold as required for industrial purposes by Fred, and later his daughter Pat.

North to Liverpool Street the land belonged to the Prouse family. It too was sold off for industry as the demand arose.

Lanes Hosiery commenced their Cambridge Street business in 1952, continuing to extend until about 1976. They diversified into fabric weaving over the years selling the hosiery operation to Bond’s in 1976.

In 1980 Bonds moved their business to Porirua, with Talus Brushware, then leasing the premises.

Lane’s Fabrics 1975 Ltd continue (written 1980) to own all the buildings, and has specialised in the knitting and weaving of fabric.

From here until the Horowhenua Electric Power Board sub-station and depot there is little of historic interest. This was the site of Prouse’s Sawmill from either 1891 or 1892 to 1907.

The original part of the sub-station would have been built before 1924, when power was laid on from Mangahao. Extensions, including the pole factory, have been added over the years.

Another historic location is the gas works site on Cambridge Street, between Cambridge Park and Power Street. The plant was built by 1909, when coal gas was reticulated around the borough. Forty gas lamps lit up Levin, replacing the six acetylene lamps which previously lighted the streets.

The gas works were closed down when natural gas became available.

The plant was later demolished. Since 1970 the rear of the site, and adjoining land fronting Power Street, has been used as a borough works depot since 1970, or thereabouts.

Since 1980 all this land has been available for industrial use.

The name, meaning the Hill of Welcome, is derived from a location (a small hill now covered in scrubby bush) just north of the farm gates, adjacent to the main highway. This was a favourite feasting and meeting place of the pre-European Maori. The site is now covered in blackened burnt soil.

William Henry Simcox (known as Will) arrived from England in 1862. He worked as a cadet learning sheep farming on Ashton St Hill’s property near the Tuki Tuki River in Hawkes Bay in 1863. After a few years around the Auckland area he married Francis Mary Colenso in 1870 and they went back to England for four years.

Returning to NZ in 1874 the couple lived in the Auckland area again until 1878, when they came to Otaki, living there until 1883 when Will bought 100 acres of land south of the Otaki River and west of the present railway.

Here a two-storied 13 roomed house was built. By this time nine children had been born to the couple, Martin, Percy, Selwyn, Edith, Millicent, Christine, Elaine, Constance and Heath.

For some time Will had been interested in a block of Maori land leased by a former cadet mate, John Hadfield. The Waitohu Stream was the southern boundary running from there to where the Manakau North Road intersection is taking in most of the land west of the railway to the sea. With more land acquired east of the railway later, there was 4203 acres in total. This was known as the Forest Lakes run.

In 1878 he bought a half share in the lease. Later in 1878, John Hadfield sold his half share to F.W. Rutherford.

The run was farmed by the partners with sheep and cattle until 1888 when Will bought Rutherford’s share.

Local Affairs

In 1897 he built a large house at Forest Lakes. During this time in the Otaki area Will was very involved in local affairs. He was chairman of the Otaki Highways Board, 1878-1883 and a member of the Otaki Roads Board when it was formed after 1883. He was also chairman of the Te Horo Roads Board.

When the new Horowhenua County Council was formed in1885 he was a member of that and chairman from 1887 to 1901. Will had been a JP since 1869 and conducted court hearings in Otaki with another JP for many years. He was also Coroner of Otaki from 1887-1908.

Will was chairman of committees endeavouring to obtain a state school and hospital in Otaki, success being achieved in 1884 and 1897 for both.

He was conductor of the early Otaki Philharmonic Society and the earlier Glee Club. He was the convenor and captain of the first cricket club and first president of the Otaki Golf Club.

Mrs Simcox acted as amateur doctor, not as a nurse, at times when there was no doctor in the area. She was very conversant with the Maori language and customs and a great help to the Maoris with their troubles.

In 1919 Will transferred his interest in the property to his three sons, Martin, Percy and Selwyn, in separate titles. By then much of the land leased had been bought. Later most of the leases were disposed of and most of the land sold to other owners.

Very little land is now owned by descendants. Will died in 1923 at the age of 82 and his wife in 1928 at the age of 84.

As said before, Percy Simcox built the first part of the house at Te Puke Naumai about 1900. In 1931 Mr and Mrs Dorset bought the property of 105 acres and farmed it with the help of their son Bert. Later he took the farm over and still runs it.

Bert married Mary MacDonald. Her mother was a descendant of the early pioneering MacDonald family.

The two sections of the house are entirely interior lined with stained matched lining. There are some unusual small metal ventilators with closable louvres. Much of the house is unaltered except for windows and the back porch. The roof of iron is original. The buildings are sited on a levelled hill and a magnificent view is seen from the site. There are some large trees, especially some maples which must have been planted by 1900.

Most of the furniture and other antique items inherited from both sets of parents tone in well with the interior décor of the house.

Bert Dorset has been interested in dog trials having been placed five times on the North Island trials and three times in the NZ trials. He is the present holder of the Southern Hawkes Bay Wairarapa Centre Championship Shield.

Mary Dorset excelled at basketball at school and later in club play being a representative in the Manawhenua team. She was active in administration and refereeing later.

Thanks to Mary, Bert and Janice Dorset for their help. Appreciation to Miss Barbara Swabey, daughter of Edith Simcox for help in research. Will Simcox’s son, Francis Selwyn, was the author of Otaki, The Town and District, published in 1952.

Number 20 Stuckey Street was built for Mr F.G.Stuckey circa 1895-1900. The house in its original form was not remarkable but its history is interesting.

Mr. Stuckey probably came to Levin with the first settlers in 1889. He was married with at least two children.

In 1890 he built a two storied house in Bath St west, on the south side towards the end of the street. This house and another owned by Mr Tantrum on Mount Lofty (near the corner of Kawiu Rd and Oxford St) were said to be the only houses in Levin in 1890. The rest of the dwellings were only whares, except for a combined house and store owned by Rod McDonald sited about where Chainey’s is now, and a store on the corner of Oxford St and Devon St, where Hudson and Burnham’s used car court is now.

Mr Stuckey’s Bath St house was “later burnt down” whenever that was and it is to be assumed that the Stuckey St house was built after the fire.

Mr and Mrs Stuckey owned apparently all the land from Bath St to the then Gravel Reserve (Weraroa Recreation Ground) and along Weraroa Rd to at least Saxton St. Mrs Stuckey’s maiden name was Saxton.

Mr. Stuckey owned the first stock saleyards in Levin in 1892 somewhere along the Oxford St frontage. The sales were conducted by a Mr Abraham who was probably of the later Abraham and Williams who conducted sales at the Queen St saleyards. They were in business from 1906 in Queen St until later when Wright Stephensons, now Wrightson NMA, bought the business.

It has been said the land for the Grand Hotel (now Cobb and Co) was bought from the Stuckey estate.

Mr Stuckey took a leading part in establishing the one-roomed school in 1890 in Queen St opposite where the fire station is now and he was the first chairman of the school committee. He and his son carted the materials for the school free by bullock wagon.

When the first teacher Mr R.G.Pope left after nine months, son F.G.Stuckey carried on for seven months, then the Rev H.E.Tuckey (neither were qualified) taught for some time until the immortal James MacIntyre arrived in 1892.

Mr Stuckey died in 1902 just before the present Levin school was built, something that he fought hard for.

The house in Stuckey St was probably the only house on the block for some time as the area was known as the Stuckey farm.

Originally the house faced east and probably Oxford St was the frontage. Later the drive and path angled across what are now built-on sections on both sides. The house is still on a half acre section. It is not known whether Mr Stuckey built the house before his death or whether Mrs Stuckey built it.

Mrs Stuckey lived in the house until circa 1920, then a daughter and her husband, Mr R.D.Wallace an accountant.

Then Mr Percy von Hartitzsh lived in the house, probably when he came to Levin and built the Eclipse Garage in 1924.

Mr and Mrs Mason bought the house in 1939 and lived there until 1958. Mr Mason was an agent for Levin & Co.

Mr and Mrs King bought the house in 1958 living there and later Mrs King alone until this year 1982 when Mr and Mrs Penketh of Foxton bought it.

One feature of the house is one fireplace. This is of steel having ornamental tiles at an angle down the side of the grate. The house has had additions on both sides and at the front.

It is to be demolished as Mr Penketh is building flats on the section. These flats will have some of the spaciousness of the land that still surrounds the house. Only six flats are to be built on the half acre section. The minimum area is 250 square metres for a flat but these new flats will have 330 square metres of land each.

The Kirk family seem to have been the first owners. They lived there until about 1918 when they moved with their teenage family, Beth and Eric, to the house in Salisbury St, which was later incorporated into Reevedon Home. Little is known about this family.

The Kebbell history goes back to 1841. The New Zealand Company “bought” 25,000 acres of land on the lower Manawatu River from the Ngati Raukawa tribe. Later Commissioner Spain disallowed this sale except for 900 acres this being about Haumaroa Reach. The company intended that a settlement formed there was to be the centre of the Manawatu at Te Paiaka, about the end of the now Paiaka Road, Koputaroa. This settlement had some traders and others residing there.

J. and T. Kebbell came out from England and took up the land which they had bought from the NZ Company which was some of the 900 acres that was given title by the Government.

FIRST STEAM ENGINE

They had brought the first steam engine to come to New Zealand. With this they established a sawmill at Haumaroa Reach on the north side of the Manawatu River opposite the Te Paiaka settlement.

Later they built a flour mill as wheat was grown extensively in the area.

In 1846 Chief Rangihaeta, who had holed up at Purutaua Pa at Poroutawhao which he had built defensively after his retreat from the Hutt Valley war, defying the Government to arrest him, ran the Kebbells off their property.

They must have gone back as they were there when an earthquake damaged the settlement and the mills in 1855. The settlement was moved to Awahou now Foxton.

The Kebbells moved to Wellington opening a sawmill there. A son of one of the brothers came to Ohau in the late 1850s leasing land there.

JOHN KEBBELL

John Kebbell took up a farm of about 4000 acres on the north side of the Ohau River extending from the coast to the first right-hand bend of the present Muhunoa East Road (opposite the corner of D. Campbell’s farm) including all of the Ohau terrace, where there was heavy bush with good timber.

Mr. Kebbell intended to have that milled, but a neighbour was burning off and the fire spread to Mr. Kebbell’s property, destroying the timber. Later this part was sold and he continued to farm the more westerly portion. He donated the land in Ohau on which was built St. John’s Anglican Church.

Mr and Mrs Kebbell also gave other gifts to the church, including a beautiful stained glass window to the memory of two daughters, who were drowned, and their son who was killed in World War 1.

The farm property was originally leased from the former Maori owners, but was freeholded as opportunity offered.

The farm was originally called Ohau. When the coaches from Wellington (Paekakariki) to Foxton, river mouths had to have men in charge to watch the fords and lead the coach horses across the safest part. During this period Mr Kebbell was in charge of the Ohau mails, which he distributed.

With the completion of the Manawatu Railway line in 1886, the coaches no longer brought mail up the coast, and the men who had kept the fords open were paid off. The village centre was transferred to its present position, near the railway station called Ohau.

To avoid confusion, Mr Kebbell changed the name of the farm to Te Rauawa, ‘The sideboard of a canoe’, because a board forming the sideboard of a canoe had been used as part of the door frame of the first cottage built by Mr Kebbell on the property. The later residence had about 15 rooms.

Mrs Kebbell had to travel along the coast to Wellington for the birth of her children. At the time of Mrs. Marjorie Kirkcaldie’s birth the older children were left in the care of someone at their home. It was at this time that two of the little girls were drowned in the river.

When Horowhenua County broke away from Manawatu County in 1885, there were only 117 ratepayers. The first chairman held office for only a few months, and then Mr Kebbell became chairman and held office for a number of years. The county office was originally at Otaki, but with the establishment of Levin (around 1897) the office was built in Levin.

Later the Borough Council shared the building (opposite the Chronicle).

The family retired to Levin in 1918.

Their home was Number 74 Winchester Street, Levin, for many years known as Naumai, an impressive half-timbered house with steep gabled roof covered with diamond shaped tiles. There are four bedrooms, a study-dining room, living room, kitchen, pantry and bathroom. A passage about ten feet wide runs from front to back. Ceilings are high, and all joinery is of a high standard. Four rooms had fireplaces and there was a coal range in the kitchen.

The sunporch on the western side may have been an early addition. About 1928 an extension was made to two small bedrooms at the south-east corner. A fairly recent extension was made to bring out the north side of the kitchen. A large garage on the property, of matching design, seems to have been originally intended for the days of horse drawn vehicles, having a mezzanine area for storage.

EARLY COTTAGE

A cottage behind the house was probably one of the very early buildings of Levin, and it is suggested that the builder (or builders) lived there while building the large house. It contains three interconnecting rooms, and a toilet. This building became the laundry, workshop and tool room, these rooms used by Mr Kebbell who was a woodwork hobbyist.

The section was very large, with some fine trees. An extensive and colourful garden, well maintained, was for many years one of Levin’s show places. Up to about 1930 there was a large orchard on the southern part of the section, but this area was sold and a residence built on it.

The back garden was well stocked with small fruits and many vegetables. There was also a fowl run and ample room for grazing a horse. The rear of the section was cut off for subdivision with access from Parker Avenue when that street was opened up. A narrow strip along the north side of the section was added to the grounds of the Maternity Hospital.

A curved driveway lined with laburnums and bronze-leaved plum trees with a carpet of daffodils swept from Winchester Street at the north west corner and around the north side of the house. The rest of the frontage had a 20 foot macrocarpa hedge giving shelter to a grass tennis court.

John Kebbell and his wife Mary Grace and their eldest daughter Gertrude came to Naumai and were probably the ones who gave the property that name. They came from Te Rauawa, Muhunoa West Road, Ohau. Their only son was killed in World War 1, which was probably the deciding factor in selling the farm at Ohau and retiring to Levin. The youngest daughter Alison left school soon after and came to join them at Naumai. The second daughter, Marjorie, married to Norman Kirkcaldie lived at Kowhai beside Horowhenua Lake about this time.

Mr Kebbell was a good many years older than his wife. They both lived to around ninety years of age. The two daughters who had been at home both married after Mr Kebbell’s death, and at the conclusion of World War 11 Mrs Kirkcaldie came to Naumai to look after her mother.

After Mrs Kebbell’s death, Mrs Kirkcaldie continued to live there till 1971 when she went to live in Cambridge Street north, and Naumai was sold to R. McKenzie. He made the kitchen alterations previously mentioned and put the drive leading in from the south west corner of the section. Flats were built across the frontage of the property.

A house of similar architecture in Bath Street was latterly the home of the John Ryder family until sold to the Church of the Latter Day Saints. It was used for their meetings for a while, until demolished to make way for their present church.

HOSPITALITY

The name Naumai (welcome) is an appropriate one. The grounds of Naumai were often used for garden parties, for various worthy causes especially for functions of the Levin Anglican Church with which the Kebbells were closely identified. The fruits of the orchard were generously given away or made into jam and marmalade in large quantities for bazaars. The house and grounds were shared with a great many people who enjoyed its hospitality.

Early this year 1982, Rosemary and Murray Low bought the property. They intend to restore to their original state the rooms that have been modernised.

Some of the ceilings have been slightly lowered and covered with pinex panels. These will be reverted to the original ceilings. The main fireplace will also be restored back to its original condition.

The most distinctive feature left is a combined fireplace surround and wardrobe with bronze plaques set in the wardrobe front.

One feature I have not seen before is that in one of the rooms with original wall lining where the wallpaper has peeled back is that instead of rough lining timber, planed boards were used.

The section is still of 1¾ acres with a section width frontage with splayed corners in the title which at present are in the fence lines of the adjoining flats. This will enable Mr and Mrs Low to restore the original fence and gates which they are desirous of doing. If anyone has this type of gate for disposal please ring Mr Low phone 89-325.

History of Home Brings Response from Grandson in USA

The house featured in the article was Number 20 Stuckey Street built for Mr F.J. Stuckey and his grandson, Mr Arthur Wynford Saxton Stuckey, had written from Newberg, Oregon, to Mr Swanwick complimenting him on the accuracy and detail of his story.

Mr Stuckey wrote that as he was working on a Stuckey family history the article was of special interest to him.

In comparing his memories and data with information collected by Mr Swanwick, he has some interesting details to add.

Let me introduce myself. I am Arthur Wynford Saxton Stuckey, age 64½, eldest son of Arthur Walker Stuckey and Eleanor Florence (Saxton) Stuckey of Feilding and a grandson of Frederick John (or Jonathan) Stuckey who is the subject of your most interesting article.

I began my education at Manakau School, leaving there in November 24 or so, 1924, the date of my mother’s death. My father walked off the farm there the next day and we moved to the Morrinsville area of Thames Valley.

In the present instance, I’d like to compare my memories and data with several of the items in your narrative. Mr sources are my father’s reminiscences and those of my Aunt Dorothy Ellen (Stuckey) Higgin, family record documents, and the Jubilee issue of the City of Levin, annotated by my father and Aunt Dorothy.

F.J.Stuckey did come to Levin in 1889, with a family of no less than four sons and three daughters, all born in the West of England and Wales.

Frederick George Albert (Uncle Bert) was 19, Walter and Edith (later Mrs. R. Douglas Wallace) twins of about 15, Robert Cecil about 12, my father Arthur about seven or eight, Dorothy four or five, and Mildred about three.

F.J. apparently selected Levin because the Government land lotteries were in progress at the time, and it seems several of the family won tracts of land then. I hope to research this in detail through the archives of the Lands and Survey Department.

F.J. evidently bought additional land to join up or fill the gaps between the lottery tracts, although this is somewhat of a guess on my part.

F.J.S. was by all accounts possessed of a terrible temper, as well as a high degree of stubbornness and irascibility. I do not know if this was only within the family or directed at the surrounding population and environment in general. It is gradually becoming one of the more fascinating aspects of my historical enquiries, as this personal characteristic of his was the basic factor in the inter-relationship dynamics of his life.

Reportedly he could not get along with his relatives in England, he fought at first meeting with his first cousin James Stuckey of Opaki Plains north of Masterton, and was a tyrant of sorts to all his offspring. He drove off each of his sons in turn as they reached age 18 and were of age to enlist in the Army, which took three of them to South Africa and the Boer War. Uncle Bob never returned, lived out his life there. Wal came back about 1926-7, worked for NZR at Raetihi. His son Frank Vincent S. runs a service station there. Dad came back in 1917 and married my mother.

The first house was indeed two storeys. Between him and the builder, there was no stairway allowed for, and for the rest of his life he and grandmother ascended and descended by means of a ladder. My guess is that he built it himself but there is no record. He died as you say in 1902, 57 years old.

Uncle Bert did not enlist, as he earlier was staked in the knee while driving oxen, went to hospital in Wellington for treatment, and found it more to his liking to become a teacher, later Inspector for the North Island.

He was later instrumental in providing personal and psychological support for Dorothy to leave home, join him, and also become a teacher, living in Cargill Road, Karori, for the greater part of her life. It is from Dorothy that I receive much of this family lore.

Anyway, I believe he died in the Bath Street house. I think Dad said it burnt down about 1906. He told me he sent his mother the money to build the house on Stuckey Street which I remember quite well as the residence of Aunt Edie and Uncle Doug Wallace. I understood Wallace was a solicitor, rather than an accountant, but hearsay, basically. His daughter Greba never married, was a legal secretary in Levin all her life. I must have been in the house several times in the early twenties, again probably twice in the 30’s, and here you hand me a puzzle. I visited the Wallaces for the last time about November 1946, with my Canadian wife and daughter. (Both acquired during my service with RNZAF in WW2).

As far as I can recall, they were living in the same house they had always lived in, in 1946. They raised a family of four there. Two years ago, in March 1980, I visited Stuckey Street with my son Andrew, and we took photos of the Stuckey Street sign etc; but I was unable to identify the Wallace place anywhere nearby.

Later that same day Andrew and I visited Manakau. But according to your account, the Wallaces did not live there after 1939. It is entirely possible that in 1946 they were in another house, but I simply don’t know now. My wife has no significant recollections of the house, even after studying the photo accompanying your article. Incidentally, according to Dorothy, my grandmother Ellen (Saxton) Stuckey died in 1915, not long after a visit to her three sons in South Africa.

I very much appreciate the item that F.J.S. owned the stock saleyards in Levin. It would be interesting to get more details on this, but I assume your research has turned up all there is. I never heard that from the family.

In the annals of the Horowhenua Rugby Football Club, of which I believe he was a founding member, there is a photograph and an account of his having actually taught at the little one-room school for a few weeks or months, it seems with less than ideal results. I no longer have the copy of the Club’s (Jubilee?) issue, but the piece is fairly well written and leaves one with distinct impressions of a stormy interlude. You state that the son (Uncle Bert) taught there also which is news to me.

I hope the above information is useful in its way, but it adds little to the considerable amount of accurate data you have presented. I am enclosing a copy of a letter from Levin School, to my cousin Seymour Stuckey (also a teacher, dated 1979) which may be of interest. If you should be interested further, I could forward you a print of F.J.S. and all his family, a studio portrait taken in Burnham-on-Sea, date unknown, but very probably shortly before departure from England.

From your text, it is clear that you have access to the Golden Jubilee booklet for Levin.

There is another little publication, less covers and title unfortunately, but page one is a Roll of Honour, followed by eight photos of fallen soldiers, obviously WW1, the Levin War Memorial, a photo on page six of Mrs Banks (to whom I am distantly connected on my mother’s side), and a “Programme” follows which seems to be the raison d’etre for the publication, the presentation of a gold key to Premier W.F. Massey.

Follows a segment on the growth of Levin, then a further “Programme” for a tree-planting, then the only clue to the publication date, a photo of Miss Joan Bevan, Queen of the (Weraroa?) Mardi Gras 1922. The point is that numerous early pioneers are then described in the remaining pages. F.J.S. among others, with their photos. I have the original of the F.J.S. photo.

There is material in this little booklet on my grandfather which I have not seen elsewhere.

The reference to the stony nature of the land echoes one of the in-family anecdotes regarding F.J.S. Seems the heavy bush acreages which required clearing and stumping did not appeal to him, and he preferred river-bed or river-bottom land which apparently was not heavily wooded. Somehow, by swapping, direct purchase, or whatever, he got his river-bed land, but it turned out to be full of gravel and boulders, making the use of bullocks unavoidable. Somehow in keeping with other stories about him, of which not too many survive.

I would compliment you and Mrs Francis Duguid on the accuracy and detail of your work.

UNUSUAL COINS FOUND

The News: 14 July 1982

Demolition of the house featured in last week’s History at Home series, Number 20 Stuckey Street, Levin, has brought some unexpected finds for the owner, Mr Syd Penketh.

Behind the skirting boards in one room were an 1883 Indian coin and three Argentine coins dated 1883, 1879 and 1890. And under the floor boards in another room was an HMS New Zealand medal. Issued in 1913 to commemorate the visit of New Zealand’s gift battleship, it is in mint condition.

While the house was not of architectural importance, its history was an interesting one, and this further glimpse of the nature of travels of its occupants adds a note of mystery to its closing chapter.

Mr Penketh, a Foxton builder, bought the property earlier this year with the intention of building flats on the site. As work on these has progressed, demolition of the house has begun, and at present only one room remains.

Although not a coin collector, Mr Penketh was delighted with his finds and hopes to be able to identify their background.

[Handwritten note from Mr F.C. Swanwick: I now consider that it is wrong Bert Stuckey taught at the school although the 1965 School Jubilee book states Levin School logbook states that Mr. Stuckey did.]

The New Zealand history of the Kilsby family goes back to 1856 when George and Emma Kilsby left England in the Oliver Lang arriving in Wellington the same year with one child, George, aged one year.

For about 12 years George worked at his trade of blacksmith around the Wellington area. About 1876 he bought land in the Ohariu Valley for farming purposes. By then eight more children had been born to the couple.

George and his oldest son, also George, built the Holy Trinity Church (Anglican) in Ohariu in 1870 with pitsawn timber and hand made nails which still can be seen in the flooring.

Later the Kilsby’s operated a sawmill driven by water power. With eight sons there would have been plenty of manpower.

BASSETT FAMILY
On the same trip on the Oliver Lang which brought the Kilsby family out were the Bassett family, Harriet and Thomas with three children. Their cabin was only one and a quarter by under two metres. The youngest child, Mary, only six months old travelled in a box.

The family increased to ten children and they lived around the Wellington area.

Thomas, an engineer, working at his trade and as a sawyer.

In 1866 they settled in the Ohariu Valley. Thomas was a postmaster (in his own house) for 33 years, being succeeded by his son for six years and then a grandson for six years.

George Kilsby Junior married Mary Bassett. They had eight children including Will the builder of the Levin house.

In 1896 the family moved to Koputaroa and had land stretching from Koputaroa Rd, at least in later years, to west of the now Highway One, north of the Waitarere turnoff.

Will Kilsby apparently did not live in the Queen St house for many years.

Mr Percy von Hartitzsh bought the house but no date is known. He built the Eclipse Garage in 1924 and sold it in 1935 so it was probably in the later years of that era as he lived in Stuckey St first.

Jack and Betty Clark bought the house next, but no date is known but it was probably about 1935. At some period about then he bought the shop where Carpet Call is now and the two shops down Queen St and Chainey Bros shop from Mr Mortenson. These four shops are still owned by a member of Jack’s family.

About 1965 or 66 Electoral Holdings bought the house with the local branch of the National Party having its headquarters in part of the building.

RESTAURANT
In 1967 Norman Lowe operated a restaurant in most of the house. At other times rooms were available for caterers at functions.

In 1977 Mr Ross MacDonald bought the house and operated his 553 Health Centre. He sold it to Mr S.H. Philip and Mr R.D. Stewart in 1979.

Mr Philip operates his solicitor’s business in one part of the house with Mr Stewart and Mr M.Pegden operating their dental business in the remainder of the house.

Originally the land where the Mower Centre is now was part of the property. The roof is probably not the original of the houses from the C.D.Farm as it is tiled and is of the bungalow type which became popular in the early 1920s.

The weather boarding is of the old rusticating type but narrower than the pre 1920s type. The two old houses could have dated from the 1890s. There is a flared base of the then new modern weather boarding up to window level.

PILLARS
A feature of the house is the eight concrete pillars supporting porches etc. These are like a three tiered wedding cake. In the front hall and one front room are ornate ceiling mouldings which are probably not made and fitted today. All the bay windows have been removed.

The dental surgery has been well modified with lower ceilings but the remainder of the house is as original. Though parts of the house date from the 1890s it is still a fine attractive house.

New Zealand motorists suffered under the strictest petrol rationing scheme in the world during World War 11, stricter even than the United Kingdom. Rationing, introduced within a few months of war breaking out in September 1939, continued until 1950 (according to Graham Hawkes in On The Road). Initially, cars got a ration depending on the size of the motor (motorcycles got a minimum), but, just after the Japanese entered the war in December, 1941, all sales of petrol to private motorists were banned for a time. In addition to the 2/9d (27 cents) a gallon motorists paid for petrol, 4d (about 3 cents) a gallon was a war effort tax and 1/2d (say ½ a cent) was imposed to pay for bomb-proof shelters for petrol storage. These taxes remained in force until long after the war ended.

Now, Francis Corrison Swanwick, Levin’s historian, has these recollections for Autoline…….

During World War 11, petrol and tyres were both rationed. Petrol coupons were issued to private motorists; 14hp and under cars were allowed eight gallons, over 14hp, 12 gallons and motorcycles got four gallons a month.

But petrol could not always be obtained even by coupons if you were a long way from where they were issued, preventing long distance travel. Trips to the Waitangi celebrations and to the Eucharist Congress were exempt, however.

In June 1940, butchers agreed to zone their deliveries and later milkmen did the same. Soon these rezoning schemes were embodied in the regulations.

In March, 1942, the coupon values were halved restricting the distance motorists could travel.

In July, 1945, with the war in Europe over and that against Japan almost ended, the coupon values were doubled back to four, eight and 12 gallons a month.

But due to the war losses, shipping was in short supply and petrol remained hard to get the world over.

Licences were issued for essential purposes, but the ordinary person had little chance of being allowed extra petrol beyond their normal coupon issue.

Some people apparently got extra petrol on licences and then traded away their unwanted coupons.

Tractors, used twice a day to take milk to the gate, would be granted an extra petrol licence. In other areas of use this happened too.

I was granted a licence for two gallons a month to take my sister to the doctor for injections once a week, but I had to transfer ownership of the car to her.

Tyres were rationed, too, and one had to have a good reason to get a licence to buy one. For the ordinary motorist, there was no chance. Though I personally did not hear of black markets, probably a bit of influence helped some people. Tyres, including retreads, were rationed until well after the war ended.

In 1942 Radiator wrote in The Chronicle: “Any motorist who has reasonably good tyres need not worry about being able to buy new ones.” He claimed a new tyre should last 36 years (!) on the half value of petrol coupons which was the ration at the time.

The front part of the shop occupied by K. Shaw Ltd for 64 years, was built in 1912 for Haswell Bros, opening on 13/12/1912.

The business was a grocery and general store. They had previously been where Howards Hardware were until recently, at the front where the plant arcade was.

A story published previously was incorrect as to the origin of the shop. The building was 60’ (about 15m) with a frontage of 40’ (7.5m).

It was of two storeys with a brick front, costing somewhat over ₤1000 ($2000).

A small lock up shop was in the front south corner being occupied by Mr H. Glackin, jeweller.

In 1915 Mr Harry Hughes operated a bakery in the small shop. In 1920 Mr McLean took it over and stayed until 1924 when Harry Hughes returned as proprietor.

In 1916 Mr Thomas Broome, who operated a general store in Weraroa, where Jan Romans recently was, bought Haswell Bros business operating it until 1921 when Mr James (Jimmy) Rimmer bought the business.

At some time before 1921 [corrected to: 1917], Mr Frank Gooding had acquired the ownership of the building which was on the original gravel reserve which stretches from the north end of the Mark II variety store to Bath Street, now owned by the Levin Borough.

The population of Levin in 1921 was 1979.

Mr Ken Shaw leased the shop in 1924. He had been in business in a hardware shop since 1921 having bought Mr A. Sim’s novelty hardware. This shop was sited where the south end of the post office is now.

Upstairs, Miss Grace Gardner had a photographic studio from about 1915.

Mr Archie Billens had the same business in the 1920’s probably following her, until 1952 when it was thought Mr Don Nairn operated the business.

The Taieri dining rooms opened upstairs in 1915 operated by Misses Jessie and Helen McKegg. They came from the Taieri area in Otago. Jessie held a marine oil engineer certificate being the first lady in the southern hemisphere to do so. She assisted her brothers run a launch service on the Taieri River, but she never learnt to drive a car.

1950 saw the birth of three businesses that still exist today. Mrs V.M. Harris operated the British Book Club in the main part of the floor from 1953 to 1956. Wanting to travel to Dunedin she had to go to Wellington to book travel arrangements so she vowed to start a travel agency.

She had a travel desk in the book club, later forming the Levin Travel Centre Ltd, now the Levin United Travel in the Mall.

Mrs Hopkins had a womenswear shop on the floor about the same period. This was the beginning of the business Dianne Louise, which operated under several proprietors in the old municipal building moving when the building was partly demolished, to near the post office, as Zillah Modes.

Mr W. L. (Wally) Clark took over the photographic studio going into electronic sound and using the studio as a sound recording studio from the late 1950s where he recorded several bands and artists around the Horowhenua and Wellington area. Though not his first business site, it was a stepping stone to the Sound Centre.

Mr Ken Shaw bought the building in 1959. The back part of the shop was built in 1963 filling in the open space to the back shed which was improved.

When this shed was built is unknown but probably was partly built over the years. The stairway was shifted from beside the corner shop to the south side in 1963. For many years the frontage had an island window which was removed in 1963. The family business was conducted by Messrs Alec and Ian Shaw from 1960 to 1985. From then Mr Alasdair Shaw [corrected to: Alec son] conducted the business.

Upstairs one of the first coffee bars in Levin, often open until the late hour of 1-2am, was operated by Mrs Di Mattina as the Green Door from about 1958 or 1959.

The Levin Taxation Service now uses part of the floor. The remainder is the Levin Jaycee Lounge.

K. Shaw Ltd. closed the shop recently. [Hand written at bottom of article: Leader & Watt bought building for whiteware etc. 1990.]

After waiting 40 minutes for the bus 41 history enthusiasts set off on a trip that gave them a different look at the busy city.

“It puts a whole new perspective on the place,” remarked one person.

First stop was Massey University. Tour guide, Mr Jim Lundy from the Manawatu branch of the Historical Places Trust took the party to Wharerata, a huge homestead now used as the Massey Staff Club.

The house was built in 1900, by well-known local architect, H.B. Natusch, for the Russell family. In 1930 Christchurch architect, Heathcotte Helmore, added another room on the right-hand side of the house for Mrs Ethel Russell to store her art and bric-a-brac collection.

Mrs Russell was a snobbish and a difficult woman, who ruled the household, which included a staff of four maids, gardener and chauffeur, with an iron hand, said Mr Lundy. She had a speaking tube especially installed in her car, so she could sit in the partitioned back seat and still give orders to her chauffeur.

Restored

The house has been restored in keeping with its original design and features a TV room, bar, billiard room, dining room and spectacular woodwork.

One comment over-heard was “How would you like to clean that?”

Wharerata was one of five houses owned by very wealthy people in the Massey area. Known as “The Set” these families were:

¨ The Russells at Wharerata

¨ The Bachelors at Willowbank

¨ The Monroes at Craig Lockhart (now Moginnie House, a university hostel)

¨ The Keelers at Atawhai (now also a hostel, Fergusson Hall)

¨ The Abrahams at Tiratea, which is also part of the university.

The house is divided in half – the vice-chancellor of the university lives in one part and records are housed in the other.

Next stop after Wharerata was Fergusson Hall, originally home of the Keeler family, descendents of the well-known jam-making Keelers.

The house was built in 1908 and was the scene of many “posh” events, said Mr Lundy. Today it is used for student accommodation and its impressive stairwell echoes with the sound of rock music, but in earlier days it was the scene of dignified balls and dances. In 1926 a wedding was held there and attended by 400 to 500 guests.

Shelter

A hundred metres from the entrance to Fergusson Hall is an air raid shelter burrowed into a bush clad hill. It is 25 metres square, made of steel and concrete and was built by Mr Brian Keeler, “just in case”.

Mr Keeler took the war very seriously, said Mr Lundy, and thought the shelter might be used as a command post. It was never needed.

Today there are several chairs stacked in one corner, some candles on the floor and students’ murals on the wall.

The group then moved on to visit the Hoffman brick kiln in Featherston St which is the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere. The kiln is 110 feet long, 40 feet wide and 10 feet high. It has 14 chambers, and while it was in use there were 5000 bricks in each chamber, in various stages of firing. About 440,000 bricks were produced a year.

The kiln was built in the 1800s and was last fired in 1959. It closed down after the popularity of using bricks for building decreased. The Napier earthquake of 1931 destroyed all confidence in the brick industry, said Mr Lundy.

The kiln was fired continuously and producing the bricks was back-breaking work.

“The men who worked here worked very hard indeed,” Mr Lundy said.

Today the kiln is on property used by landscape contractors, David and Allan Muir, and the Levin group were the first busload to have been taken by Mr Lundy to visit the kiln.

Museum

Finally, it was on to the Manawatu Museum, which was specially opened for the party. Time was spend browsing over the exhibits which include a 16 metre canoe found at Tangimoana beach and a sleeping house made out of manuka, raupo, rushes and flax fibre twine.

A special display titled from Bush To Butter showed the development of the region through exhibits such as axes and saws used to break in the land to utensils for butter making.

Another feature was the skeleton of a moa, reconstructed from bones found in an Otaki swamp in 1983.

The front two rooms were used as the store and the two rear rooms used as a dwelling.

It was in this building that the first European child was born in Levin in 1891, the late Hector McDonald.

This store would have catered for the simple needs of the early Levin settlers. The stock would have consisted of a wide variation from pins to gumboots and from food to reaphooks.

First Mayor

In 1892 the store was sold to Basil R. Gardener, later in 1906 to become Levin’s first mayor. A short time after, a Mr Watkins operated a store where Hudson and Burnham’s car court is now on the corner of Devon St.

Some time in the early 1890s Mr Gardener built a new store south of the cottage and named it “The Manawatu Co-operative Store”.

Through the 1890’s several very small shops, the Temperance Hotel and the Road Board office were built up to the present Rod Weir building.

Some buildings were on the north side of Queen St up to the railway. There were no buildings south of Queen St except for the Levin Hotel, built in 1890, and a billiard saloon in 1892 where W.M. Clark started his drapery shop in 1894.

South of the hotel was the gravel reserve. There were some shops on the east side, north of Queen Street, up to and including the present Chronicle office. Bush still covered most of the land where the present Golden Mile is now.

Muddy Conditions

At this period there was only a short length of crossroads, with not even gravel until the late 1890s, with extremely muddy conditions.

Basil Gardener sold his business to George Milnes some time in the late 1890s. All the buildings on the west side except for the cottage and the Road Board office were gone before my memory of about 1920.

Celebrated Victory

In 1906 Basil Gardener celebrated his victory in the triangular contest for mayor in the cottage with his friends, including the chairman of the Horowhenua County Council.

Later the cottage was used as a storeroom and later still was vacant for many years.

Candle in a skull

A story I have been told is that some of the young men from the outback would come into town and tether their horses to horseshoes driven into stumps about where the Power Board building is now. They would congregate in front of the cottage.

Someone put a lighted candle in a skull one night. There was no more congregating at that spot.

In 1924 Mr Mortenson bought the area which was known as the Bell Block and demolished the cottage so he could build the present building where Carpet Court is now on Queen Street corner. Later more shops were built from the corner both ways.

The timber of the cottage had been milled from the best of the trees of Levin, probably matai which abounded and it was used to build a cottage at Hokio Beach. It may exist still. Who knows?

Jack Blenkhorn told me that his father bought a cottage at Hokio Beach about 1920 which had been built from the pitsawn timber of the coaching accommodation house stables probably before 1900. A Mr Hitchings was the builder and owner.

It was one of the few ways to travel in the area last century, and from Foxton to the nation’s capital it was a long day’s ride, in summer very pleasant, but in winter a journey of infinite difficulties and delays.

Leaving Foxton at six in the morning, the coach would reach Hokio Beach by 8am, where the horse team of six horses were changed at the accommodation hotel run by Hector McDonald Snr. (it is his son Hector’s Bar is named after at the Cobb and Co in Levin).

Photo at left: Passengers prepare to board one of the huge old coaches which lumbered up and down the beaches before the turn of the century. They could carry up to 24 people.

Such places as these cropped up every ten miles of so along the coast where horses needed to be changed and most were licensed.

McDonald’s place at Hokio was no different, although it was the largest along the route.

Made of timber pit-sawn at the Horowhenua Lake, his hotel had 15 rooms. It was situated on a wide flat, now disappeared as the erosion of Hokio Stream has slowly eaten it away.

Twice a day the coaches would stop at Hector McDonald’s house, but only for two minutes at a time, just long enough to couple up a new set of horses and be on its way.

It was only when the beach was soft from a particularly high tide that the coach would wait any longer.

At Ohau, the coach would not even stop, but as it headed through the guard would throw out a mailbag to a boy from Kebbell’s Run, before crossing the then shallow river mouth at Waikawa, and passing through Otaki without stopping.

Before southbound coaches reached the Otaki River, the route cut inland to avoid boulders at the river mouth. The track followed an old road made by the Maoris in the 1850s, when they first obtained bullock drays.

Popular opinion has it that the townsfolk of Otaki gathered twice daily to make bets on whether the coach would pass through Otaki on time, or be late or early.

Horses changed again at Waikanae, but this time the team was changed for the slow but steady draught horses for the hard climb to the top of Paekakariki Hill.

It was a long climb up a twisting track, which often revealed breathtaking views of the coast line below.

It was a long and sweaty climb for the passengers, who followed the coach on foot to relieve the horses, and it was a dreadful trip during the winter when the lumbering coach had to be dragged foot by foot up the hill through heavy clay.

The run into Wellington was an easy one after a change of horses at Horokiwi Valley and then again at Porirua.

The service was at first tri-weekly, but shortly after became daily, with arrival at Foxton from Wellington depending entirely on the state of the roads and rivers between the two centres.

Later, the service ran from Paremata, passengers being carried to and from this point by train.

Cobb & Co were responsible for introducing the standard, heavy American design to New Zealand, big lumbering vehicles which could take up to 24 passengers on its swinging leather springs.

By Cobb & Co coach was the only alternative to horse back until 1886 when a railway line to Palmerston North was completed. Pleasant in summer, winter brought the dangers of swollen rivers. A spare coach was always kept at Otaki, because with the river being swift and affected by tide, it never had a dead period when it could be forded in the winter.

The horses were swum across the river while the passengers crossed by canoe to the waiting carriage at the other side. However, sometimes the river became so rough the horses could not cross, and the coach could be held up for a day until it subsided.

At the Ohau River it was customary to wait until the tide was in during the flood time, as this was when the coach could be taken across during a dead period.

On the far side the passengers would have to clamber back into their soaking seats for the completion of the journey, stopping long enough at Hector McDonald’s house for a drink of hot rum and water to cheer them up somewhat.

Until the early 1870s when the Ohau River broke straight out to sea, it ran south into the Waikawa, and was easily fordable.

However a drift in its course soon moved it to its own outlet and a ford was established three-quarters of a mile inland where a hotel was built, being run by a Mr Spackman at the time.

Due to the deepness of the Ohau, the licensee of the Ohau Hotel was paid 50 pounds a year to maintain a ferry for the carriage of mail and passengers across the river.

Built on the south side of the river, the hotel proprietor fixed a bell on the north side to be rung by anyone wanting to cross from that side.

Such were the rough and at times difficult conditions in which people travelled last century, conditions in which Charles Cole, the founder of the Cobb and Company business in New Zealand built up one of the country’s services, stretching from Auckland to Dunedin.

Early days of coaching

There may still be a few former travellers who can remember journeys made long ago in the fabled coaches of Cobb & Co which once swayed and jolted alarmingly over the rough roads of New Zealand.

Cobb & Co coaches had already been running for seven years in Australia when Charles Cole came from Victoria in 1861 with 50 horses and established in New Zealand a coaching business, for which he adopted the famous name.

Though not the first coaches in the country, they soon became through their efficient service, the most successful.

Cole guessed, much to the derision of locals, that he could run a coach from Dunedin to Gabriel’s Gully in nine hours more or less.

Cole set out from Dunedin on October 11 at 5.30am in 1861, driving the coach himself, made the camp as planned the same evening, and returned two days later.

Cobb & Co was in business and by 1867 there was a daily service from Auckland to Hamilton and in 1869 from Napier to Taupo.

His first coaches were the ‘Concord’ coach, with a roof and black duck curtains, the body rocking with a backwards – forwards motion, resting on straps of thick leather, rather than rigid metal springs.

Sundays Popular

There was little doubt that with the arrival of Cobb and Co, coach travel was catching on, and proved suspiciously popular on a Sunday.

Licensing laws of that period up until 1904, permitted the sale of intoxicating liquor to ‘bona fide travellers’ on a Sunday.

These were defined as persons who applied for refreshments at a hotel three miles from the place where they had lodged the night before.

Naturally the outlying hotels did a roaring trade on the Sabbath, and it was recorded that “any Newtonian who took who took his exercise in the direction of Kaiwharawhara or Ngauranga and their licensed houses could slake his thirst within the law.”

A poster advertising Cobb & Co’s coach run up the coast from Paremata to Foxton. Note the reference to the evening train from Foxton to Palmerston North and points north. The rail lines were torn up after World War 11 when all services ceased.

Photo caption:

A Cobb & Co coach crossing a shallow ford. Note the ladies travelling on top with their umbrellas up to shade them from the sun and dust.

In 1898 he was travelling from Wellington with the intention of buying land in the Manawatu area. He noticed the prolific growth of the cocksfoot grass at the Levin Railway Station, so he decided to buy land in the Levin area.

Selling cocksfoot seed was one the earliest forms of income for the pioneers. There was not much demand for dairy produce. Cocksfoot seed could be sown between the stumps and logs and give a double bonus of grass for grazing and grass seed for sale.

I can remember people, especially pensioners, in their spare time cutting cocksfoot seed and threshing the seed by hand for probably six pennies (5 cents) per pound.

At first Henry and Louise France and family lived in a house in Kawiu Road. A Mr John Howell had carried the timber from Bartholomew’s sawmill near the now Roslyn Road.

When he reached the hollow in Kawiu Road he thought it was far enough to carry timber on his shoulder so he decided to build the house there.

Sign of affluence

Henry France acquired a small farm in the King’s Drive area and built his own house there. This originally had a tower at one corner with a dome on top. Domes and pepper pots were popular in about the 1900 era, obviously a sign of affluence of the owner. The dome of 20A was removed at least 15 years ago.

At some early stage probably before about 1915 Henry subdivided the land in the area. He named the road King’s Drive as he said the area was fit for a king to live in.

Henry and his wife Louise sold the property in 1920 to Joe Lemmon and went to live in Plimmerton.

Their son George was three years old when the family came to Levin and grew up in the home. The present owner Mr Gosden remembers George telling him that when young he used to catch eels and trout in the large water race that ran along King’s Drive.

George France was apprenticed to George Douglas, a leading builder of the 1900s and onwards period, as a carpenter.

A story my cousin Harold Reading told me was that as lads he and George were once near the alleyway between what is now Howard’s Hardware shop and the old Levin Hotel. They saw curtains burning in the window of the dining room obviously lit by a candle on the windowsill. They agreed to let the fire get to a decent size before calling the Fire Brigade. However, one of the lads “chickened out” at it would be called now, and ran along to the Fire Station and rang the fire bell. The fire did not become serious. This would have been pre-World War I.

George served in the army during WWI. He was in the occupying NZ Forces which took Samoa from the German administration. He served in Gallipoli and later in France where he received a blighty and was invalided to England.

After returning home he was attracted to Miss Beryl Kate Remington who assisted her father in his chemist shop. George was rather shy and so to see her he used to go into the shop and buy a cake of soap and so amassed a large amount of soap.

Beryl apparently thought a large amount of soap and a loving husband would be nice so the couple were married about 1920.

George built his own house on the corner of King’s Drive and Tiro Tiro Road and the family lived in it all their lives. George became a builder on his own account later.

About the early 1930s he went into partnership with Mr Joe Harvey who had his joinery factory about where the eastern entrance to The Mall is now. The firm was the foremost builders of Levin until about 1955.

They built many of the large buildings of Levin and district including the Horowhenua Power Board, the NIMU and the dairy factory buildings. They built the first state houses in Princess St, probably about 1937 or 1938 and more state houses in the Bristol St – Essex St area in 1938-39.

Ardent Cricketer

George France was an ardent cricketer all his life playing for the Weraroa Club most of the time. He was a good average batsman and had played as a representative of the Horowhenua team. He was very prominent in administration in later life and as a colleague told me recently, did a tremendous amount of good for cricket. The cricket pavilion at the Weraroa Recreation Ground, The George France Memorial Pavilion is named in his memory.

Cello Player

Beryl France was an accomplished cello player. She played in the orchestra of the De Luxe (now Regent) in the silent picture era and in a theatre orchestra in Palmerston North.

The orchestra then in Levin consisted of six players, at least on Saturdays or other special nights. George France died in 1977, his wife Beryl having pre-deceased him.

After Joe Lemmon sold the house at 20A King’s Drive, a family named O’Sullivan occupied it, then a Williams family and a Gedge family.

Mr Gilbert Glover and family occupied the house until 1967 when Mr S.G. Gosden and Mrs E.R. Gosden bought it and are now living in it with their family.

The house is well back from the road and, though not fronted by flats, they front what was a section at the side of the house.

(Thanks to Mr Gosden, Miss Eileen Ryder and Mrs Gwitha de Castro for help in inquiries into research).

The section on which the Levin Hotel was built in 1890 extended from Oxford St to what is now Chamberlain St and from Queen St to the north side of Woolworths Variety Store.

Many people will remember the site as that of Fred Pink’s footwear shop.

Town Hall burnt down

It is said a small town hall, just south of the Levin Hotel, obviously where Shrub Arcade is now, was burnt down in 1898.

Frank Garland built the town hall in Queen St (where the doctors’ surgery and the taxi stand is now) in 1896.

This became the old town hall when the deluxe Hall (now the Borough Engineers Department) was built in the Municipal Buildings. This old town hall was not demolished until 1942. The timber etc was used to build Mr Bill Hannan’s house off Hokio Beach Road on the hill opposite the lake on Sands Road.

This house has been extensively altered of recent years.

Frank Garland probably built Garland’s Buildings as it was known then about 1888-90 while he was still owner of the land.

A Mr Buckeridge was the next owner of the hotel before Mr Hannah bought it in 1900.

Chemist first tenant

Mr Earnest Levy, a chemist, seems to have been the first tenant in the north shop, as he advertised in 1898. The earliest known tenant of the south shop, by at least 1919, was Mr Jhing Lee with a green grocer's shop.

Mr Sidney Hall, a dentist, was in the upstairs floor by at least 1910 as my cousin Joseph Scott was learning to be a dentist in 1910.

In an idle moment Joe fired a small cannon on the lean-to roof at the rear. While retrieving the recoiled cannon he put a foot through the skylight, breaking the glass.

From below Jhing said “That you Scott?” Joe said “not me Jhing, not me.” Jhing was said to be a very fine Chinese gentleman.

The section Garland’s Building was on must have been subdivided off as Frank Garland owned it until about 1952.

Mr F.C. Remington bought the pharmacy business in 1907 operating it until 1912 when he built his own premises further south.

This pharmacy business carried on through Mr Bill Donnelly to the present Berry’s Pharmacy.

Mr Hugh Hall started a barber's business in 1910 in the shop. He had been previously in Queen Street.

Barber posts

The verandah posts outside a barber shop used to be striped red, white and blue diagonally. The verandah posts on the front lawn of Reevedon Home came from Hugh Hall’s original shop in Queen St.

Hugh Hall died in 1915.

From then on Mr Bill Crystal operated the business until 1923 when Mr William (Skipper) Wilkinson bought him out.

Mr Jim Webb was one of his barbers.

About 1931 Mr Alan Keys bought the building.

Shaving

In 1926 Mr Cliff Wilkinson joined his father in the business to learn the trade. Shaving men was then a large part of business. This was done with a blade razor and a very skilful job.

Prior to 1936, the usual working week was of 48 hours with five-and-a-half days. Most workers had the half-day holiday on Saturday afternoon but shop staff had theirs on Wednesday afternoon.

Late night was on Saturday night and many of the shops kept open much later than 9pm.

Cliff Wilkinson said it was hard to be working on Saturday afternoon listening to the cheering football crowd.

Barbers kept open until about 12 midnight on the late night. Customers came in for a haircut up till then.

Mr Wilkinson’s son, Brett, came into the business in 1935.

A women’s hairdressing department had been started about 1934.

A trained hairdresser at first was employed until Brett had learned the art. Brett took over this department in 1937 and it was closed down in 1945 when Brett started his own business elsewhere in Levin.

There was a passage way on the north side from the front shop to the backrooms as it was not done for women to go through the men’s salon.

It is said that two local professional men never paid in the normal way for their haircuts. A hand of show poker was played for double or quits.

In 1948 Cliff took over the business but Skipper kept his hand in casually for some years.

Unusual landlord

Mr Moir bought the building in 1952. Cliff said he was a most unusual landlord as he would not raise the rent with inflation, though inflation was very slow at that time. Cliff voluntarily increased the rent three times during the period that Mr Moir owned the building.

In 1956 Mr John Campion bought the building.

Ray and Gay Harrison bought the business in 1970. Kevin Gay is a full time barber with them ably assisted part time by Cliff Wilkinson keeping in touch with his old customers. Jack Rankin also assists part time bringing some of his former customers from his previous shop in Weraroa.

During the period of barbering at least in my memory in the 1920s the price of haircuts has risen from 10c to $3.

The south shop, as said before, was Jhing Lee’s. Nothing is known earlier than 1910 but he probably been there some years before.

Mr Reg Wilkinson followed Jhing in 1934 with a cycle shop.

Mr Tom Wrigley followed on in the late 1930s adding radio sales to his wares. Later there was Wilson’s Frock Shop. Mr Malvyn de La Wright moved his National Suit Store in 1940 when the Post Office bought the building his business was in. He occupied the premises until 1952, then Mr Dave Crosier’s footwear shop.

Mr Oscar Edwards later bought the business. Though the name was remained the same Mr William Lock and Mr John Swafford have been successive proprietors. Mrs Joyce Hamilton is the present manageress.

Upstairs

The first known tenant in the upstairs floor, as said before, was Sid Halls. He later moved across the street.

Sometime during Mr Key’s ownership from about 1931 on, Mr J.J. Cogland a tailor and Miss Tresider, a seamstress, occupied the floor. During 1935-1945 it was used as a dwelling and probably had been in the past at times.

Mr John Moir used the floor in his accountancy business after he bought the building in 1952. He was later joined by Mr John Campion. Before that a Chinese Club was in the top floor.

The front ornate parapet was removed in 1964 and the building extended, having the rear part made into two storeys. Mr Campion retired in 1976.

Then Mr Little joined Mr Mason in the accountancy business. The firm vacated the premises in 1980.

Since then it has been largely empty except for temporary use by the Post Office and Radio 2XL. The building is now owned by a Campion family company, Camden House Co.

Thanks to Messrs John Campion, Cliff and Brett Wilkinson for help in research.

Over the years he landscaped the area into a garden. Even by today’s standards, there would be few gardens of this size or with such varied arrangements in Levin.

First a large shed consisting of garages with areas for tools etc. was built in timber.

Mr Lesley Melville who had been employed at the Manakau farm, worked full time for some years developing the garden, living in quarters at the end of the shed.

From what I remember of Les, he would have worked even longer than the 48 hour week, then the current working week. Somebody did a terrific amount of work and that would have been Les. He built the stone settees and the dry stone walls (dry means no concrete used to hold the wall together).

Developing the garden must have taken many years. It was maintained by Thomas until 1932 when he sold the property to Mr Port. The slump of the early 1920s especially in the price of flax, influenced Thomas not to build a house in Mabel St.

I remember the trees and shrubs being planted, but only from seeing the property from the road. Now these have grown large, making it a large private nook.

Aviary

Mr Port, a retired businessman from elsewhere had the house built in 1932. He and his family occupied it from about ten years. He built a large aviary which is now gone. There were peacocks which roamed the garden at times. Quail and other birds were in the aviary. A concrete bird bath dated 1934 now marks the site.

During the last war the shortage of bird food enforced its closure and it is not known where the birds went to.

About 1942 a Mr Wright bought the property followed by Mr Murphy of Murphy and Body’s Foundry.

Later Mr Dick Mortiboy bought the property. He was an employee of the Power Board. Dick was first an inspector, then chief inspector and finally the consumer engineer.

Mr and Mrs C.P. Chainey bought the property in 1972. Paul Chainey said the garden was neglected when he bought it. It has been a tremendous effort by all the family to improve it.

Stone walls

The entrance is of stone walls recessed at an angle into the gateway. This entrance is shrouded above with large trees. Further along the drive is another set of stone walls and pillars.

Large trees and shrubs flank the drive which curves round in front of the house to an open vista. To the north of the drive as the house is approached is a sealed tennis court now in disuse.

At the west end is a building in stone, which was perhaps a summer house or a tennis pavilion but is now a boat house.

At the front of the house the view to the east is of an expanse of lawn flanked by large trees and shrubs.

Two high Norfolk Island pines tower over two monkey puzzle pines. One Norfolk Island pine is very unusual. It has three distinct trunks, but this does not detract from its symmetry. It is thought that wind damage when young caused the trunk to branch.

During the war I was in Norfolk Islands for six months. Of the thousands of Norfolk Island pines I saw there were none branched in the trunks.

Flowering cherry, maple, karaka, totara and other native species are some of the other varieties of trees growing around the lawn. Shrubs are also interspersed in front of the trees. This garden is a haven for birds including a morepork.

Feature pond

The main feature of the lawn is a large pond. This would be over 100ft long by about 8ft wide at its narrowest width. The shape is something like an inverted comma with wider bulges, one at the top towards the right. In the bulge at the tail is a 6ft island with plants growing on it.

Water lilies are growing in the water and two bridges span it. Mr Chainey said he dug out 18 inches of accumulated sludge from it, so the pond is now its original depth of 3ft.

To the south of the house is an immense liquidambar tree which must be an attractive sight with its coloured autumn foliage. Over 40 feet high and the same across, it must be the largest liquidamber in Levin.

Stone settees

Beneath the tree are two stone settees 6 feet long. There are six of these scattered around the garden. More of Les Melville’s work probably.

Further round is the aviary site marked by the birdbath. There is an apple storage shed and a woodshed built in patterned concrete blocks. A dry stone wall follows round to the rear shed.

Separating the back of the house from the yard and shed is a long curved brick fence with raised turrets at intervals. Back to the south of the shed is a short brick fence of the same type.

These walls were built entirely by Mrs Miriam Chainey, an art teacher at Horowhenua College.

Orchard

Through an aperture in a line of trees to the north one comes to a large area devoted to an orchard and vegetable garden, both on a large scale. There is a kiwifruit bush about 10 feet high and the same across, supported by an invisible frame. The bush is covered in flower buds but being a male they will flower is vain in unrequited love.

There had been a stump which Mr Chainey thinks could have been a female plant once. He has planted a young female kiwifruit plant so in time the male plant’s lonely lovelorn life will end.

This garden area is extremely well sheltered with some large oak trees to the

North which … [section missing].

Nature’s handiwork

There are many long dry stone walls; here and there are some with creepers growing on them, perhaps some planted, but others by nature’s handiwork.

All the stones used in the stone work are said to have been harvested on the section. As this is on the original stony Weraroa clearing (the long burn long ago) this is understandable.

Bungalow

The single storied house was built in 1932. The exterior cladding is of conker board covered with roughcast plaster. (This is not stucco), with a corrugated iron in a complex bungalow roof with shingle facings at the front of the gable.

The word bungalow comes from India meaning that the eaves were very wide to keep the heat off the walls.

The NZ type is a compromise between the Indian type and the old NZ hip roof that had no overhang.

From the front door one enters a reception hall which is the size of a small lounge. In fact this was the original lounge. All ceilings and walls are of fibrous plaster, the walls being wallpapered.

The ceiling of the hall has an elaborate 6ft wide moulding inset about 6 inches.

The next room is the dining room which is also of good proportions. There are two plastered beams running across the ceiling with a moulding in the centre.

Next across the front is the lounge which was originally built as the billiard room and is very large - about 30ft long by 15ft wide. The ceiling has two plastered beams across and three in the other direction, rather like noughts and crosses. There is a large oval moulding in the centre square and smaller oval mouldings on either side. A wide bay window is at the front of the room.

Three fireplaces with high, wide tiled surrounds are in these rooms. The bedrooms also have decorative mouldings in the ceilings. Picture windows are of coloured leadlight and fanlights are the same. The service rooms are at the rear.

Originally the house was of seven main rooms with an area of 2300 square feet. Mr Chainey has added some more space to the kitchen area and a carport added on the south side, with a 5ft wall of brick built entirely by Mrs Chainey. All the brick walls are of aged bricks mellowed to the period of the house.

A flat has been built at the rear for Mr Chainey’s father, Mr Fred Chainey. Now the area is 3000 square feet. Occupying the house also are Mr and Mrs Chainey’s teenage children, Johanne and Bradley, not forgetting Wolf the Alsatian and Nosh the beagle.

Thanks to Miriam and Paul Chainey and the Bevan family for help in research. Voluntary contribution Francis Corrison Swanwick of the Horowhenua Historical Society.

In 1904 the company, which had been formed with such names as Messrs John Kibbled, W. H. Simcox, Peter Bartholomew, James McCleavy and H. J. Richards, built a large two-storeyed warehouse and shop of timber on the southwest corner of Mako Mako Road and Oxford Street, called the Swainson and Bevan building.

Hardware, grain and stock food, etc., was stocked. Sales of hides and wool were held regularly. The first liquor licence in Levin was held by the company.

At least by 1909 Messrs Bert Hankins and Val Hitchins leased the building and business. Walter Bull had been secretary of the company and carried on with Hitchins and Hankins.

RAZED BY FIRE

The building was razed by fire in what has been described as the most spectacular fire in Levin in 1911.

A child and her mother related to me that they were collecting a repaired pair of shoes in Levin when the fire bell sounded. They left the shoes and hurried down to Weraroa. There were large quantities of explosives and ammunition exploding frequently.

Perhaps this was the time the fireman was pulling the hose reel to a fire. This had a hose and a double ended handle to work the hand pump to obtain water from races or other supplies where the mains supply was unavailable.

The reel got bogged in the mud outside the Arcadia Private Hotel (now Trustee Bank). The fireman called for help to pull the reel out of the mud from passersby. They replied “We are in too big of a hurry to get to the fire to help.”

MASONIC LODGE

The Masonic Lodge had their rooms upstairs specially built for their purpose.

These rooms were handsomely furnished including three fine oil painted tracing boards, two large columns, a Lewis and an organ. All this was lost in the fire.

An insurance of only 100 ponds was held but this amount was mortgaged to the bank so the fire was a disaster to the Lodge. The Masonic history authenticates the date of the fire as 1911.

The Englishman who taught Bill Clark to play golf before the golf club was formed also lost his golfing equipment in the fire. Bill was a long time reigning champion of the Levin Golf Club.

The building was erected again in brick, but history does not record who for.

Tom Broome had a grocery in it in c.1911 and later about 1920 G. Martin had a mixed grocery and hardware business in the building.

From 1948 Jack Rankin had his barber’s business in it until 1960. Rene Dallenger had her florist’s business in the south portion from 1950 to 1953 until Olive Morgan took it over until 1955.

The Paint Pot began in portion of this building after 1955.

Later, Barraud and Abraham bought the building and revamped it as a wholesale warehouse shifting the Jan Roman’s liquor licence to the front. Little or anything remains of the former brick building.

Thomas Bevan went into partnership in 1905 with John Macdonald of Heatherlea in a flax mill at Poroutawhao, but history does not record how long it ran.

SEDGEMOOR

In 1918 Thomas sold the farm to Henry (Dick) Bryant and moved to a house in Mako Mako (then) West Rd, west of where Mr Steve Bevan built his house (No 67) in 1953 and now resides.

Thomas, his wife and their four children Thomas (the fourth), Steve, Marjorie and Joan resided in this house which had been occupied by Thomas’s horse trainer. He had owned race horses for many years.

The children in time went their various ways. Thomas Jnr (third) died in 1949. The house was later demolished and new houses are on the site now.

Dick Bryant farmed the 350 acres at Manakau until 1953 with sheep and later with a dairy herd also.

He died in 1937 and when the land was sold with Nola, a daughter, and her husband Richard Bennell obtaining 59 acres and farming it. Richard died in 1973 and then Mrs Bennell subdivided the land into 10-acre blocks.

Mr G. Toebes of Wellington bought the block with the house on it.

RESTORE

Mr Toebes started to restore the house. It was repiled and reroofed and some brick flooring was “restored”. He intended to restore the large stable. He unfortunately died some years ago and the work stopped. I am told a son intends to finish the restoring at some future date.

MEMORIES

Mrs Bennell has related to me her memories of her 60 years residence on the property.

She remembers the house had 11 main rooms of generous proportions. The dining room was very large and was used by the local hunt club to have their breakfast after the hunt. The drawingroom was only a little less in size.

The hall was 22 yards long and 6 feet in width with two carved archways. The ceilings were of painted wood and the walls in scrim and wallpaper.

One of the fireplace surrounds was carved. There were large gas-lit chandeliers in the living rooms.

INSULATED

There was a room which apparently had been the office of Swainson and Bevan, as outside walls were insulated with pumice dust against sound. When Dick Bryant removed a bay window from this room because of rot, pumice dust plummeted outside and inside. There was a later office in a building the size of an average house now. Mrs Bennell remembers the office having a vast amount of the firm’s records and as a child looked through very large account books, etc. Unfortunately for posterity the building and the records were destroyed by fire later.

The house, stable and probably other early buildings were lit with acetylene gas system in an outside shed.

Dick Bryant did some internal alterations to the living room at some time in his residence. Mrs Bennell remembers that about 1920 the horse stalls in the stable were used as bails for hand milking.

On the west side of the main highway, there was still a large storage shed for storing flax tow with acres of tow-drying fences. Swainson and Bevan at first obtained water from bores but these failed in summer. These were very large pumps set solidly in concrete and a large reservoir in concrete. Later, a race was built from a water-race with the water being put through a large gravel filter which blocked at times so that fresh gravel had to be put in. The water was stored in the reservoir.

This system was still in use when Mrs Bennell left the farm nine years ago. She believes the pumps and reservoir still exist.

The house is still in remarkably good condition outside. The old stables have collapsed and look beyond repairing. Some of the “restored” brick flooring is visible in the kitchen.

Thanks to Mrs Joan Sellars, Miss Marjorie and Mr Steve Bevan, Nola Bennell, Audry Meredith for help in research.

The premises of Rod Weir and Co. Ltd, Oxford St consist of two former original buildings. The one on the corner of Stanley St used now as the firm’s head office and for the real estate agency, was probably built about 1900 as Marco Fosella had his tailoring business there about 1900.

Marco came to Wellington from Florence in 1875 opening a shirt factory there. In 1893 he opened a tailors, drapery and store about where Bonaventure Travel Ltd is now. It is recorded that he owned 80 acres of land at Kereru (now Koputaroa) and that he grew 10 acres of good grapes in 1896.

He advertised as a storekeeper in Levin and Weraroa in 1897. The Weraroa shop was where the Church of Christ now is in Seddon St. Charles Welby says the original shop is the back part of the present church.

Marco apparently gave up these shops, as Hock Keys grocer and J. James bootmaker were in the shop later, and opened in the Stanley St corner as a tailor only.

Living Quarters

There was until recent years living quarters in this building, probably up until Jim Eccles opened his drycleaning business in 1931. Mrs Josiah Harvey told me her family lived in it in 1911 when they came to Levin.

Mr Bates carried on as a tailor from an unknown date perhaps 1915-1920. Mr Eccles carried on his Levin Dyeing and Drycleaning business until 1963 when it was shifted to the Cambridge St South area.

Mr Charles Foster bought the building in 1963 dividing it into three premises. Taylor’s Drycleaning occupied the front part for a few months before shifting to where Levin Sports Centre is now. A tiemaker rented the centre part but his ties with his landlord were soon parted, as he did not pay the rent. Tisco rented the end part.

Rented

In 1963 Rod Weir and Co Ltd rented the front part, extending into the whole building by 1968. They wanted some alterations done but Council restrictions delayed the alterations so Charles Foster sold the building to Rod Weir and Co. Ltd and let them sort out the restrictions. The building was used as the firm's stock and station agency and real estate agency.

In 1921 Mr John (Jack) C. Milnes built his new garage premises on vacant land south of the Stanley St corner building up to the original Borough Council Chambers now occupied by Young’s Gift Store.

A rear part about 30 feet deep and across the full width of the section was built in timber construction and the workshop moved from across the road from where Jack had established his business in 1910 as the Levin Motor Garage. The Settlement now occupies the site.

At an unknown date but probably during the period 1915-1927 the garage, as the Ford dealer, advertised Model T tourer at $400 and the two seater runabout at $370 F.O.B. Wellington. Inflation would have been almost nil over the 1915-1927 period.

Jack was a boilermaker by trade and a tradesman of any trade, he wanted to practice. His father, George Milne, had operated a general store probably about 1900-1915 where the north part of Carpet Call is now on the north-west corner of Oxford Street and Queen St.

Exhibition

Before the workshop was equipped, an exhibition of World Ward I munitions was held in it in 1921. I remember seeing German helmets, machine guns, rifles and hundreds of both Allied and German war munitions.

No contractor was employed in construction. The staff in their spare time including weekends at no overtime did all the construction of the whole building. It is thought boys from the Boys’ Training Farm in Kimberley (now Kohitere) assisted.

The garage staff consisted of Dick Bevan, foreman, George Groome, painter, Aussie Doyle, Henry Bird (the name still lives on in the garage business), Dick Thompson, George Capper (his father was Bill Capper, the originator of Cappers Transport), the unapprenticed apprentice Harry Barnett and May McCallister, the office-girl cum- teamaker for the builders.

The concrete was mixed in a hand mixer with Jack watching closely to see if the mixture was of good quality. The walls were well reinforced with steel rods and some horseshoes (old ones would have been plentiful at Dave Malcolm’s farriers smithy a little further north) were put in for extra strength or perhaps only for good luck if the shoes were stood up the right way.

Benzine tins

The concrete was carried in the inevitable benzine tins and full too, up ladders as the walls rose up. Jack tried to get the workers to carry two tins at a time on a shoulder yoke up the ladders, but only Henry Bird could do it.

A simple hoist was used for the higher part of the walls. The king beam (main roof beam and the queen beams side to centre) were of about 12 inches by 12 inches Oregon.

The garage was considered to have been the best equipped one in the district. A 3 foot high Pelton wheel driven by water mains supply drove a long shaft with pulleys and belting leading down to drive a lathe, drills and other equipment. No portable electric drills then.

Another Pelton wheel, 2½ feet high drove a generator, a 110V Westinghouse, producing electricity. Wastewater cascaded down the street gutter. This lit the building including footpath lights and for the battery charger. This electricity was probably the first produced in Levin though picture theatres could have produced it earlier.

At times the Masonic Hall was supplied with electricity for lighting at functions and it is thought for Druids Hall too. Both were close behind the garage.

When Mangahao power was available in 1924 the Power Board insisted on this power being used which Jack [part missing].

A feature that was installed was a vehicle turntable. This was about 24 feet wide being a circular wooden platform supported by steel struts radiating from the centre with 40 small wheels under the perimeter. It was turned by hand.

The staff had some fun with it when Jack was away. A car was driven onto it, braked hard and the turntable would revolve like a merry-go-round.

A large vulcanising plant heated by gas was used not only for repairing tubes etc. but for resoling and other repairs to gumboots. It was a large trade as farmers etc. during the depression of the early 1930’s found it very much cheaper than buying new ones when butterfat was only about 5c a lb and meat and wool not much better.

There was no specialising of motor repairs then. A garage did all, including panel beating, painting and electrical repairs. A blacksmith shop even made and tempered car springs. A hand-driven bellows gave the forge high heat required.

Benzine was only available in four gallon tins, two to a case until well into the 1920s. Filling a vehicle tank with benzine in tins was laboursome so a method was devised. A large funnel was set at the right angle into the bonnet filler. The funnel had two spikes in it, one being to create an air hole. A tin of benzine was slid down an inclined shute with the spikes holing the tin so that the benzine poured into the tank.

First bowzers

Two bowzers, the first in Levin, were improvised. Tins were emptied into a trough with the benzine being pumped up to an overhead tank and then piped out to the bowzers at the kerbside.

Benzine in the late 1920s and into the 1930s was 19c a gallon at the modern kerbside bowzers by then served by tankers. Almost all bowzers were then kerbside until gradually the Borough Council forced them inside the premises. But inside this garage there was a bowzer in the workshop, entered by the side entrance. There, benzine was only 18c a gallon. When serving a mechanic would look for bad running motors or other defects in a vehicle and advise the owner to have the repair done. This gained extra work for the workshop.

Benzine prices varied a little in price in brands so this could have had a bearing on a lower price. In fact, benzine could be transported in drums as this bowzer was filled from Wellington by carrier cheaper than by tanker. Bulk benzine was transported by rail tankers to depots in Cambridge St and tankers were filled from there, creating double handling.

Brands then were Atlantic, Shell, Plume, Big Tree and Voco, all 83 octane. Later Russian petrol, Europa, became available. The Europa Co. an independent formed by motorists to try to decrease the price of benzine, did so for some years until the war forced pooling of the newly named petrol. In use the pooled petrol seemed the same as the brand names.

Mr (Jack) Butler built the first Levin made aeroplane in the workshop. It flew quite a distance at the beach. Jack built it from 1927-1932. The plane was under-powered with a Model A Ford engine. It crashed from a low altitude breaking the fuselage. This and bureaurocratic controls ensured that the plane never flew again.

About 1933 the long king of beam of the garage was sagging. Allan Tindale had the job of jacking it up, fixing thick boards on the sides, boring holes through the 15 foot timber, with a hand drill and fixing bolts through the strengthened beam up a high ladder. He was only a young apprentice.

Jack Milnes had the Ford agency from 1910, but it was transferred to Levin Motors run by the Faloon brothers in the late 1930s where Kenden Motors Ltd are now. He then obtained the Morris agency.

In 1938 Wright Stephenson Ltd bought the business and leased the building having the Chevrolet, Holden and Vauxhall agencies.

During this period it was decided to remove the turntable as it had deteriorated. The workshop staff were asked to return at 6.30 pm one night to lift it out.

However, the staff on a higher level had it lifted out before then and gained $80 in small change which had rolled under it over the years. Allan Tindale vouches for this.

When Wright Stephenson built their own garage complex further north in 1968, they relinquished the lease. Rod Weir and Co Ltd bought the garage from the Milnes estate in 1968, then converted it to suit the general merchandise section of their stock and station agency.

The corner building has been converted for general office use for the headquarters of the Company which has now expanded with ten branches in the lower North Island and for offices for the staff of the estate agency section.

A two-storied structure was built at the west end in 1975.

At some stage the original wooden lean-to at the rear of the garage building was removed as it had deteriorated and a concrete back wall dividing it from the front main building has been demolished. The original 30 foot deep lean-to workshop has been replaced with a concrete block addition of only 8 feet to comply with Council requirements for off-street parking and land for the lane.

In 1982 the frontage was renovated, giving a uniform appearance to the two buildings.

Many uses made of empty benzine tins

The use of tinned benzine must have carried on into the 1930s, as plenty of empty tins were available. Farmers bought cases of benzine for use at home. Also kerosene bought in cases and tins was used a lot in tractors.

Before signposting of roads was universal, a driver knew he was off the main by the plentitude of benzine cases and tins on the side of the roads.

The uses of these empty cases and tins were many and varied.

Harry Barnett built a benzine store at the garage in concrete and what did he use for boxing ……… case timber of course. The cases, about 24 inches by 12 inches by 16 inches, were made of planed timber, the ends being ¾ inch thick and the sides ½ inch. The full cases were imported, probably mostly from the USA.

A tier of cases with open tops on their sides made shelves or a cupboard, if they were doored or curtained, for baches or even in houses of needy families.

Armchairs were made of several cases and with some padding and upholstery, were comfortable. Storage of various materials was a use for them. Dismantled, the boards had many uses.

When I was in Norfolk Is during the war I used to go fishing with a local man. The 200 foot cliffs had loamy formation on a steep slope for the top half. This soft material had a few tussocks growing on it and was riddled with mutton bird burrows. A 120 ft rope was tied to a split piece of benzine case to enable us to get down to a ladder with half of the rungs missing and tied with rusty wire to the rock. This ladder was straight up and down and had been put in by the convicts in the early 1840s.

I was rather galley about descending, but when a 10 year old boy went down I overcame my fears. It was the flimsy rope anchor I did not like.

As for the empty tins, the uses were more varied.

As buckets their use was universal. A piece of wire served as a handle. The skim milk on farms was carried to the pigs and calves and on poultry farms food and water was carried to the fowls.

They were also used to hold the big catches of whitebait in the 1920s and earlier. They were used for concrete boxing for piles and not removed, cake tins either cut crosswise or lengthwise, coal scuttles and general storage in houses or sheds for solids or liquids. Soap was put in split tins to harden after being made in a copper. They were used as pots and even fruit in jars was preserved in them on stoves. Split, leaving one end uncut, folded back and strengthened with boards, they made a good dishwashing sink, one half providing drainage for the washed dishes. Clothes were boiled, rinsed and even dyed in them. But right open they were used as sheathing on the outside of sheds.

On my previous five acre property a shed sheathed on one side thus, probably done in the 1930s, was, though rusty, mainly intact eight years ago. Once a bach at Hokio was entirely sheathed in opened out tins.

At Scobie’s Nursery in the 1930s, hundreds of tins opened on one side leaving one end hinged were used to pack flowers in and millions of violets went to market thus. We wrapped the tins in brown paper.

Tin canning

The most bizarre use was for tin canning a newly married couple when they arrived home. Friends etc would march around the house hitting the tins with sticks until they were invited in for refreshments to stop the infernal racket.

Many a person washed themselves in cut open tins. Always for whatever use they were put to the sharp edges were turned over.

Beer was even made in them. The tinny taste was overcome by the thought of the 5c cost of a pint in a hotel.

44 Many uses made of empty benzine tins

The use of tinned benzine must have carried on into the 1930s as plenty of empty tins were available.

Farmers bought cases of benzine for use at home. Also kerosene bought in cases and tins was used a lot in tractors.

Before signposting of roads was universal, a driver knew he was off the main by the plentitude of benzine cases and tins on the side of the roads.

The uses of these empty cases and tins were many and varies.

Harry Barnett built a benzine store at the garage in concrete and what did he use for boxing ……… case timber of course. The cases, about 24 inches by 12 inches by 16 inches, were made of planed timber, the ends being ¾ inch thick and the sides ½ inch. The full cases were imported, probably mostly from the USA.

A tier of cases with open tops on their sides made shelves or a cupboard, if they were doored or curtained, for bachs or even in houses of needy families.

Armchairs were made of several cases and with some padding and upholstery were comfortable. Storage of various materials was a use for them.

Dismantled, the boards had many uses.

When I was in Norfolk Is during the war I used to go fishing with a local man. The 200 foot cliffs had loamy formation on a steep slope for the top half. This soft material had a few tussocks growing on it and was riddled with mutton bird burrows. A 120 ft rope was tied to a split piece of benzine case to enable us to get down to a ladder with half of the rungs missing and tied with rusty wire to the rock. This ladder was straight up and down and had been put in by the convicts in the early 1840s.

I was rather galley about descending but when a 10 year old boy went down I overcame my fears. It was the flimsy rope anchor I did not like.

As for the empty tins the uses were more varied.

As buckets their use was universal. A piece of wire served as a handle. The skim milk on farms was carried to the pigs and calves on farms and on poultry farms food and water was carried to the fowls.

They were also used to hold the big catches of whitebait in the 1920s and earlier.

They were used for concrete boxing for piles and not removed, cake tins either cut crosswise or lengthwise, coal scuttles and general storage in houses or sheds for solids or liquids. Soap was put in split tins to harden after being made in a copper.

They were used as pots and even fruit in jars was preserved in them on stoves. Split, leaving one end uncut, folded back and strengthened with boards, they made a good dishwashing sink, one half providing drainage for the washed dishes. Clothes were boiled, rinsed and even dyed in them. But right open they were used as sheathing on the outside of sheds.

On my previous five acre property a shed sheathed on once side thus, probably done in the 1930s, was, though rusty, mainly intact eight years ago. Once a bach at Hokio was entirely sheathed in opened out tins.

At Scobie’s Nursery in the 1930s, hundreds of tins opened on one side leaving one end hinged were used to pack flowers in and millions of violets went to market thus. We wrapped the tins in brown paper.

Tin canning

The most bizarre use was for tin canning a newly married couple when they arrived home. Friends etc would march around the house hitting the tins with sticks until they were invited in for refreshments to stop the infernal racket.

Many a person washed themselves in cut open tins. Always for whatever use they were put to the sharp edges were turned over.

Beer was even made in them - the tinny taste was overcome by the thought of the 5c cost of a pint in a hotel.