Pipiwharauroa

Rangi Puano Moeke

(continued from last edition)

School was not for me and I left at 16 years in 1963 without gaining any qualifications. My first fulltime job was as a factory hand at Eastern Bottling Company Limited. It is now the Electrinet Sports Centre on the corner of Stanley and Aberdeen Roads and a well-known soft drink supplier to Gisborne. I just walked in one day and offered to work for nothing to see if they liked me, they must have as it was not long before I was getting paid the princely sum of five pounds a week. Mr Meade was the boss and I sometimes got to drive the work truck.

My main job was to load bottles into crates on a moving chute that transported them into a washer, it was a monotonous job but I challenged myself to keep them continuously full. An older lady sat all day quality controlling the washed bottles to ensure they were thoroughly cleaned. From there they were taken to the front of the building to be filled with soft drink or fruit juice from a machine and capped. I didn’t stay on that job for long and the young fellow who came after me couldn’t match my speed with many crates heading into the washer only partially filled.

I was offered a promotion to quality control, I guess it was a step up from loading the conveyor belt with bottles. During my induction for my new role I was told in no uncertain words that it was my responsibility to monitor the conveyor belt of filled bottles to make sure that there were absolutely no foreign bodies inside and if I missed just one that would be the end of my fledgling QC career.

One day some bright spark thought it a good idea to stuff something rather nasty looking inside one of the bottles to test how sharp I was. Whatever their intentions, it certainly worked. I jumped up off my seat and rushed to grab the offending bottle. I reckon the supervisor was sitting in his office cracking up at my sudden burst of energy but nothing was going to get past my sharp eyes. At a later time, after I had left, my father Sam and my future brother in-law Pii Wilson worked there, Dad was in charge of the lemon juicing machine.

I lasted for about a year at Eastland Bottling before taking up an opportunity in 1964 with a hardware outfit, RE Searle and Company as a storeman and I was chuffed to have my very own delivery van. It was similar to Bunnings and Mitre 10 but not nearly as big. Part of my duties involved banking the day’s takings that could be in the thousands of pounds. Russell and Leigh Searle were my supervisors, they were very Christian folk and I really enjoyed working for them. They, and the job, were awesome and I left with their blessings which may have been something to do with where I was heading.

I had taken up the opportunity to attend the Apostolic Bible College in Rotorua for a year and still have a copy of my diploma confirming I was an excellent student in the analytical, synoptical, expository and doctrinal subjects. I believe all of that learning stood me in good stead right throughout my working life and I still enjoy learning new things. Pastor Keane found me and some of the other students part time work in the mornings for a Dutch company called Lockwood stacking timber and segments cut out using a jigsaw for their popular kit set houses. We then attended Bible School classes in the afternoons.

On returning to Gisborne from Rotorua in 1970 I made my way to the Department of Labour informing them of my plans to become a carpenter. Mum had told me I had better get a job and not to get smart and start speaking in Māori at the interview.

The chap at the Labour Department suggested I head down to the closest building firm and talk to Peter Lomas of Story and Lomas which I did. On explaining my plans he directed me to the Watties building site telling me to ask for Dave Hughes who in turn said to me, “See those fellas down there waiting for a concrete pour, head down there and give them a hand.”

That was it, I stayed there for three months pouring concrete, constructing boxing and