Twenty-three Gaiters, Gumboots and Glamour 1944

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Gaiters, Gumboots and Glamour

The golden era of New Zealand’s stock agent/auctioneer is still remembered by some, but sadly the aura of glamour surrounding these rural knights with their cocked hats, gaiters and gumboots, armed with a sturdy lancewood, mounted on horseback, or more recently on eightcylinder mechanical stallions, has now diminished with the arrival of better communications, the digital age, modern transport, and the consequential general enlightenment of those who live and work in rural communities. Today technology makes everything readily accessible. Apart from undertaking general stock agent duties, the stock agent of yesteryear was knowledgeable in market trends, valuing, selling and buying livestock and general merchandise and all other farm-related matters. The agent became the carrier of good and bad tidings and happenings in the community, and a family friend and confidant to those who lived on farms and in other isolated places. Generally he was a down-to-earth, outgoing man with a genial personality, trustworthy and respected. He stood tall amongst those he served in the rural community and in most cases he remained in the position throughout his working life. The working day never ended; there were constant demands from his large client base. As the Taranaki provincial farming community evolved, the stock and station companies, agents and auctioneers played a major role in the acquisition of stock and land for many farmers, in many cases sourcing finance, and other work until then undertaken by real estate agents. Eventually most famers’ merchandise, stock and land was likely to be in the hands of a trusted local stock and station agent and he and his company became critical to their wellbeing and survival. With the stock and station company’s considerable influence and control over income and expenditure, farmers were often dependent on them. It was not surprising that the stock agent

Harold Slater, stock agent for Farmers’ Co-op 1926–69, and woodman.

COURTESY HILARY AND DAVID BREWER.

role was highly sought after by many ambitious young men. Once bitten by the bug of this hugely demanding yet rewarding work, most stock agents/auctioneers, regardless of promotions within the industry could not remove themselves from the sale ring and continued in some capacity until they were no longer able.

Little has been written about these rural stalwarts. Spending much of their lives wading through knee-deep cattle droppings in gaiters or gumboots, wooing both Mr and Mrs farmer at the same time, many became household names within the districts and provinces they serviced and often acquired the status of reluctant glamour-boys of the countryside. Their stylish high profile and standing in the community that was second to none. This profession has yet to receive the acclaim it deserves for the huge contribution it has made in the evolution and success of trading in the rural communities.

Many of Taranaki’s stock agents of the past 125 years will unfortunately, like other uncelebrated heroes, not be mentioned in this documentary. However, the almost legendary status of some of the early agents lives on though they are long departed. Eltham-born Harold Slater became synonymous with all things to do with livestock in Taranaki. He was known within the farming and auctioneering circles throughout New Zealand for his genial personality and his integrity. He joined the Society as a stock clerk in 1926 and a year later transferred to the Stratford branch. Within three years he was appointed stock agent and auctioneer for the Hawera branch and finally received the appointment of livestock manager for the company. He gained a reputation as one of the country’s leading auctioneers, and his wisdom and style became a benchmark for many of his younger aspiring agents. It is surprising how many people who had been associated with Harold Slater still extol the virtues of this down-to-earth practical man 40 years after his death.

As a boy young Keith Newland, who in later years would take on Harold’s position of the company livestock manager, had spent considerable time at sales with his father Ted, also a stock agent for Farmers Co-op at Eltham and later Inglewood. Keith had watched closely as agents and auctioneers went about their daily work. He openly idolized his Dad’s friend, Harold Slater, who was ‘the best auctioneer he had ever heard’:

He was a grey-haired man, who on visits to our home had a great habit of rubbing his hands through my hair, I had a great deal of admiration for Mr Slater. … He was an orator, and when he spoke, people listened to him. I don’t consider myself a Harold Slater by any means, but I remember the advice which he gave to me: He said ‘when you stand up, you are in charge. When you speak, speak out, speak slowly and don’t mumble. Make sure that people understand what you are saying’. … I patterned myself on Harold.

Harold was with Farmers’ Co-op in good and bad times, including the Society’s heydays after World War II when it could concentrate on the growth, the needs of its shareholders and those in the firm’s employ. It was not unusual for Harold to find himself at a Hawera Lamb Fair with some 10,000 sheep offered for sale. His participation in many clubs and organisations in the town saw him awarded a life membership of the Hawera Aero Club. He was a member of the Hawera Golf Club and an enthusiastic follower of rugby. In his earlier days he was a cornetist in the Eltham Band, a member of the Hawera Pipe Band and the Eltham Operatic Society. He was also a keen follower of the hounds and was for some years a member-supporter of the Egmont-Wanganui Hunt Club. A member of the Egmont Racing Club, his interest in racing saw him serve as a steward from 1946 until 1968. Harold Slater died in Wellington on Monday 19 March 1969. He was predeceased by his wife Muriel and was survived by his two daughters, Hilary (Mrs D. Brewer) and Janet Law, New Plymouth.

War interrupted the lives of many at home as well as those abroad. Some recently married young men had set up a home and established themselves in chosen careers. One such employee was young W. H. (Bill) Ellingham who joined Farmers’ Co-op in 1937 with the specific intention

of fulfilling his life-long ambition to become a stock agent. He had been working for Williams and Kettle in Dannevirke for five years as a stock clerk when a neighbour, Jim Trotter, a stock buyer for Borthwick’s and brother of Farmers’ Co-op’s general manager Clem Trotter, advised Bill that a position was available in the Hawera branch of Farmers’ Co-op in Taranaki. With his family connection Jim Trotter made an appointment for Bill’s interview with the general manager Clem Trotter. He remembers the day quite clearly. Bill had broken his arm in a rugby match the previous Saturday and had it in a sling. The interview did not go to well. Bill recalls that Clem Trotter asked what his salary was over in Dannevirke, Bill told him and Mr Trotter replied, ‘then that’s what you are going to get here’. Although disappointed at not receiving a higher salary, he accepted the appointment. He had as least jumped the first hurdle. However, his ambition to become a stock agent was yet to be realised. Appointed as a stock clerk, he remained in that position for two years. Bill recalls those early years with a wry smile and that familiar twinkle in his eye, ‘Writing out delivery dockets may be a simple enough job but it’s one hell of a job to perform in the rain’. Before the days of the biro, keeping the paper dry was vital. The trick was to find somewhere dry to make the pencil entry: ‘You had your pencil in one hand, and the book in the other, and you were required to keep a record of who bought the stock, what the price was and who the buyer was.’ Bill had met his sweetheart Audrey Harding in Dannevirke. She taught at the local high school and following a year at Rotorua, she returned to her home town Hawera where they married. The demands of Bill’s work made it difficult to find a suitable time for their marriage ceremony, which eventually took place ‘between the lamb and ewe fair’! Finally Bill was appointed stock agent for the Ararata, Hurleyville districts, also serving a short stint in Eltham. Alas the war and 1941 was about to change this family’s life. Bill said goodbye to his wife and newly born son William John, ‘young Bill’. His initial posting was Australia, where, as a member of the Special Company, he was trained as a commando. Staff who served abroad were certainly not forgotten by general manager Clem Trotter. He made sure all employees overseas were kept up with company news and events of the day. It must have been a great boost to their morale to know that the company cared for them and was looking after their jobs and other interests, including their families. Clem Trotter Bill H. Ellingham QSM, Farmers’ Co-op employee 1937–78. From stock clerk to wrote many letters to staff members serving in the armed forces throughout the war, that also included handwritten notes and messages from other stock agent, credit manager and Hawera staff, either scribbled on the annual balance sheet of the day or the rear of branch manager. Clem Trotter’s letter:

No. 42614, Capt. W. H. Ellingham, Special Coy, Central Infantry Battalion, 2nd/ Section, 7th/ Reinforcement, OVERSEAS. 26 Sept. 1941

Dear Ellingham, This little gift is sent with our best wishes for a Happy Xmas, and also as a reminder that you are not forgotten by the Society or the Staff.

We are sending you herein the Balance Sheet for the year ending March 1941 so you will be able to judge whether we are keeping the old ship trim and in good shape. If you are not satisfied with our efforts we will welcome any constructive criticism.

I am pleased to be able to tell you that the Directors have created a rehabilitation Account, and

last year a sum equal to 9% on the salaries of all men serving overseas was placed to the credit of this Account, and your share will be available to give you a start when you return. With best wishes to you from the Directors and Staff, Yours sincerely, C. G. Trotter General Manager On the face of the Auditor’s Report attached to the 1941 balance sheet, comments were scribed from a few work colleagues: Bill, Your cat which has adopted us has four kittens. That beats your effort. Jack Bernard. Willie, Hope to see you soon. Merry Xmas. Dawson Cox. Hello Bill. The colt is growing. Will see to his stocking for you. Hugh [McWilliam]. Best of luck Bill. We had a lot of fun at the Gala football & missed your dashing play. Jim Honeyfield.

Bill’s unit was eventually broken up, and he was posted to the 19th Division in the Middle East. This later became the 19th Armoured Regiment, in which Bill became a squadron commander. His time in the army, along with the many other staff who served abroad is a story in itself. However, he mentioned two near-misses that have remained in his memory. One, while standing in the tank turret he felt a sting to the cheek and found blood streaming down his face. His comrades thought he had been shot, in fact the bullet had just grazed his cheek, but Bill knew that ‘one inch closer would have blown my head off’. The other incident occurred when the 19th Battalion were supporting the Maori Battalion at Casino:

I had been LOB [Left Out of Battle] in case the squadron leader was killed. I was his 2IC and designated to take over the squadron if the worst happened. We were camped at a crossroad. Jerry always shelled crossroads and did on this occasion. Fortunately no one was killed, although some were injured and had been taken away by medics. I was in the process of picking up their gear and as I pulled the heavy lid and jumped out of the scout car I fell backwards onto the ground. Others came running, thinking I had been shot. I could not straighten up and must have damaged my vertebrae.

The correspondence from general manager Clem Trotter to those serving overseas continued throughout the war years and knowing that they had a job to come home to was a great source of comfort and reassurance.

No. 42614, Capt. W. H. Ellingham, 19th N. Z. Armed Regmt. 2nd N. Z. E. F. MIDDLE EAST FORCES 4th August 1944

Dear Bill, Things are moving so quickly now it will probably take this little parcel a while to catch up with you. However, our very best wishes go with it, as well as the hope that it may not be long before you are back with us again.

We are enclosing a copy of the last Balance Sheet, from which you will see that we have had another satisfactory year. The Annual Meeting went off well. It was held on a Thursday this time which perhaps accounted for an extra large attendance.

We have been glad to welcome back several staff from overseas. Bob Jackson has rejoined the stock department at New Plymouth and Roy Claringbold is also back at work, while Betty McGlashan started with P. & M. at the beginning of this month. Ivan Hill is in New Zealand again too, and Bill Sadler, though he will not start work for a while yet. Quite a few of the boys are home from the Islands – Ron Thrush, Mick Flynn, Bob McCay, Lin Brathwaite, Phil Black – and very glad we are to see them, though we could wish that they were taking up their old jobs again instead of going into ‘essential

industry’, necessary though it may be. There have been one or two other changes too. Winifred Quin was married recently, and has left to live in Wellington. Earle Newland also entered the ranks of the Benedicts.

The staff all join in sending their good wishes. Yours sincerely, C. G. Trotter General manager

On the reverse side of the general manager’s letter were again penned a variety of notes of good wishes:

Best wishes [Initials unknown] Wishing you all the best for a speedy return. Maisie. All the best Bill, and hope you will be back with us before long. Daisy Tulloch. Hope you’re keeping in the best of spirits, good luck from [Unknown] Good luck and best wishes. C. Uttinger. Best wishes. Hope to see you before long. H. Slater. Good fortune be with you. Hope you’ll be back before long Bill. Ackroyd. All the best. H. Burke.

Keep smiling Bill. Wishing you all the best. Beryl. Best of Luck. [Unknown] Best of everything. Good HUNting. N. Whyte. Good luck and best wishes. M. Butchart.

I am just wondering how many of the names you will know. Anyway there’s a warm welcome waiting for you and the rest of them. M. Corry. Thumbs up. Often see Audrey and young Bill – they are keeping their spirits up till that Grand Day. My kindest regards Bill. I am cashier at the moment so you can imagine I am kept busy & what a good thing too! Gladys Honeyfield. This last entry was written in the firm hand of Gladys Honeyfield, widow of E. R. Jim Honeyfield who had been killed on active service just a few months earlier on 24 May 1944.

Hostilities finally ended and Bill returned home in 1945. But the war had left its mark on him as it did with many others. Four and a half years of self-preservation left many kinds of scars: I remember one day when I was drafting lambs at a client’s farm, and a farmer nearby who must have been clearing tree stumps was using blasting powder. There was this huge explosion. It was automatic – I just hit the ground! I felt one hell of a fool, but I think my client understood.

The back injury Bill sustained remained with him for the rest of his time overseas and on his return to New Zealand he convalesced for three months in Rotorua before returning to his Farmers’ Coop position at Hawera. Bill and his wife Audrey were the recipients of a grant from the Buchanan Trust, established by Kate and Jennie Buchanan for ex-servicemen, nurses and members of the mercantile marine domiciled in South Taranaki, who suffered temporary or permanent disability as a result of their war service. The Buchanan sisters’ philanthropy and generosity was felt by many South Taranaki people and local organisations. At the age of 93 Bill maintains that he still has trouble getting up from a chair because of the back injury he suffered over 65 years ago. On his

return, he started at daybreak – drafting sheep. Lambs destined for the Patea Freezing Works were at that time killed straight away, rather than standing the lambs overnight and killing them the next day, which is the practice today. Along the way Bill auctioned with Harold Slater and Arthur Smith, the company’s principal auctioneers. Bill would take the number three slot and cover some of the smaller sales.

Being a stock agent was the sort of job which was hard to switch off from. I’d be at an auction looking for bids, and be calling out ‘yes, here’. My wife reckoned that I used to sit up in bed in my sleep shouting ‘yes, here!’

Characters were aplenty in bygone days when eccentricity and non-conformists were generally tolerated and accepted. A colourful character Bill remembers was Francis M. (Dot) McCarthy who he worked with for many years. He chuckled explaining how Dot got his name: Mrs McCarthy wanted a daughter, but she got a son, and she called him Dot. Then another boy arrived, and he was called Florrie. When the third son came along, he was called Jean. All the boys were given girls’ names because Mrs McCarthy never had a daughter. Dot used to go over to Gisborne, where he would buy his stock. He’d put them on the road with a drover with the idea of going to Feilding, but they would never get there. He’d sell them all the way down. Dot would have notified some firm in Feilding that they were coming, but it didn’t make any difference to him if they didn’t arrive, and that happened to him quite often. Another character etched into Bill Ellingham’s memory was one Friday Watkins: He’d bring up cattle from Whakamara, and drove them along the Manawapou Road. I remember my next door neighbour lived on Manawapou Road at one time, and she had a baby out in a pram on the front lawn. The front gate to the house was open at the same time Friday was going past with his cattle. A bull dived in the gate, and Friday retrieved him, yelling at the same time what he thought about people who left their gates open.

And then there was Doug Brookes, a gentleman drover, who dressed for the role in his bowyangs, but always went to work in a collar and tie. He has a myriad of stories to tell, but, paradoxically, it was at a funeral that Bill received the most profound insight into what enjoyment his career had given him. After the funeral I was walking back to my car and saw two chaps standing by their vehicles. As I went past, one said ‘gidday Bill’, and I heard him tell the other chap that I used to sell all of his cull cows, and that I had put him on his farm. From stock clerk to stock agent, he was appointed to the position of company credit manager reluctantly, and for the last five years of his employment Hawera branch manager. In addition to these roles he became a jack of all trades within the company and served on many committees and organisations connected with the company and the industry. He was a compassionate, moderate man who, with his wife Audrey and four children William, Leigh, Douglas and Wynne, met the challenges of life and occupied many positions of public responsibilty. He was a member of the Hawera School Committee, Deputy Chairman of the Hawera High School Board of Governors, member and chairman of the Hawera Competitions Society, member of the Ngahuru Presbyterian Social Services, member of the local Housing Corporation Committee, member of St Mary’s Anglican Church Vestry and Synods man, South Taranaki Braille Appeal and Red Cross organiser, member of the Hawera Chamber of Commerce. He was the New Zealand RSA Intermediate Golf Champion and Patron and Life Member of the Hawera Cricket Club, Life Member and Treasurer of the Hawera Golf Club, Life Member of the Egmont A & P Association, and a member of Rotary for 40 years, where he also held the position of president. In 1983 he was awarded the Queen’s Service Medal for public services to Hawera and district.

The name Ellingham became synonymous with Farmers’ Co-op. He continued to work with the Society for 41 years, finally retiring in 1978. Thirty years later he still spoke of this family-orientated company with passion and a sense of ownership. Bill was one of that special breed of men who gave their best and took all the good things out of a long and at times challenging yet fruitful life. He commanded respect from all who knew him and in turn respected the many people he worked with. Bill, a gentleman in every sense, passed away on 21 February 2009 at Hawera in his 96th year. Perhaps the message scribed in Bill’s own hand, in the back of his notebook best reflects the character and personality of the man and the way he lived: Give me the strength to accept with sincerity the things that cannot be changed Give me the courage to change the things that can and should be changed Give me the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.

While Bill Ellingham was away during the war another family introduction brought a young man into the FCOS fold who would prove to be one of the longest-serving members of the stock and station fraternity in Taranaki. Keith Newland was born in 1926 in Masterton, where his father managed a farm property. Two years later, in 1928, the family moved to Eltham when Ted Newland, introduced by Mr Henry Wooffindin, the New Plymouth Farmers’ Co-op manager, accepted a position with the Farmers Co-op. The Wooffindins also came from Masterton. Henry Woffindin’s father had worked for Ted Newland on the farm and this friendship provided him with this challenging opportunity to take up a position of stock agent at Eltham, where he worked for five years before being transferred to Inglewood. Consequently son Keith grew up in Inglewood and spent most of his young years at the saleyards: ‘My father was not a great one for schooling and did not think it was important. When there was a big sale on it was quite usual for Newland junior not to be at school, but at the saleyards, which I loved.’

In 1942, at the tender age of 15, and at the time when the Dominion’s male work force was dramatically reduced by World War II, Keith’s father decided to send young Keith to Hawera to become a stock clerk for Farmers Co-op. Keith was initially opposed to the idea. With two ponies and three dogs he enjoyed working alongside his father who also had a part-time job breaking in horses that Keith liked to ride. His protestations were to no avail and he was unceremoniously ushered onto the train at Inglewood. Keith remembers it clearly: It was 2 June, and as I stood waiting for the train at the Inglewood station my father said something I never forgot, ‘don’t walk when you can run, everyone is Mister until you are told otherwise, and if you buy anything pay cash for it’. The instruction to call everybody ‘Mister’ annoyed me for years – with people who had been in the company five minutes calling Harold Slater and Clem Trotter by their Christian names.

Keith describes his first work experience: I came into Hawera on the train and started work on the Tuesday after Kings Birthday. It was Opunake sale day and I went with Harold Slater and Jim Honeyfield out to Opunake to learn the job of stock clerk. When we arrived at the top of the Riverdale hill we stopped and Mr Slater made a remark that I never forgot. He said, ‘look out there in front of you boy – that is the greatest farmers’ country in New Zealand’. I still say he was right.

The memory of his first day at a sale as an employee of Farmers’ Co-op remained with Keith throughout his long, distinguished career. I was the stock clerk, the auctioneer was Alf Lenz. Alf, who was on the last pen, opened his mouth and nothing came out. You take this pen – and of course it was the only thing I wanted to do … In those days they had cabbage plants, geese, ducks, turkeys, pigs. The sale started about 10 o’clock and things like mattresses, furniture – you name it – it was in the Opunake sale. There was a big Maori population out there in those days and a big stock sale. It was raining and the book got wet and I was a

terrible writer – I am still no better – and I thought ‘I don’t like this – what a bugger of a job this is’.

When I went home my dad asked, ‘How are you getting on?’ I said ‘I am not – I am coming home!’ He said ‘No you are not!’ And forty-five years later I was still there, thoroughly enjoying it.

Staff shortages during to the war meant early promotion for some, and shortly before his 19th birthday Keith was ‘put on the road’ as a junior stock agent. Over the next four years he gained valuable grounding as a stock agent, attending sales mostly in the south Taranaki area – Waverley, Patea, Opunake and Hawera. Young but eager to learn, he was sent out east of Stratford. Working in the remote back country of Taranaki provided him with many lasting memories. Although based in Stratford, he was responsible for much of the eastern back country, including Douglas, Huiroa and Tututawa. Two and a half years later, with the retirement of an elderly gentleman named ‘Pen’ Jenkins, Keith was posted to Eltham. I really enjoyed working at Eltham. I was an agent in my own right, working under the guidance of the Hawera stock department. I was also very grateful for the help of the manager of the Eltham branch, George Cathie. He was a returned First World War man, who had very sound judgement. Although I had nothing to do with the running of the store, if I happened to be around at morning or afternoon tea time, I would take my tea and sit and chat with Mr Cathie. He gave me a lot of good advice. The one piece which I remember in particular was when he asked me where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. I replied that I wanted to be an auctioneer like Mr Slater, and he said ‘Keith, there is only one person who will put you where you want to be and that’s you. What you put out is what you get back.’ That was my goal from then on. I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

After three years at Eltham, Keith was transferred to Hawera to take over from Bill Ellingham, who had been promoted to the role of company credit manager. This single event helped him achieve his life-long ambition of becoming an auctioneer like his mentor Harold Slater, ‘the best auctioneer I ever heard’. His auctioneering role was interspersed with drafting clients’ sheep for the Patea Freezing works, but after a few years, other agents took over the drafting, leaving him free to auctioneer full time. He worked mainly in South Taranaki, but if there were bigger sales, also in North Taranaki.

A year or two before his retirement at age 60, Keith received a series of promotions, which saw him serve the company in a managerial capacity, firstly as the manager for South Taranaki, and finally as district manager. In his 46 years with the company, numerous characters stand out as being memorable, but head and shoulders above them all was again the inimitable Dot McCarthy. Keith recalls:

Dot was a trader based in Patea. He called around to the office at Patea one day to see the manager of the Patea Freezing Company, Jock Grant. Dot put a lot of stock through the works and asked if he could borrow one of our young agents, Kevin Gray, for a day or two. Kevin was working around the back of the yards in the stock-room, and Dot asked if it would he alright if he went around to see him.

Dot told Kevin that he had seen Mr Graham, and explained that he needed him for a day or two. He told him that he would also need to bring along his saddle and dogs, and that he would pick him up at 6am.

Dot picked up Kevin the next morning, and they seemed to drive forever. They got to Palmerston North, then Feilding, Dannevirke and Hastings.

‘Don’t worry boys, we’re nearly there’! Dot reassured Kevin and Joe, a young Maori boy who worked for Dot as a drover, who was accompanying them. They went on to Wairoa where they took delivery of 2,000 sheep. Kevin and Joe, along with the dogs, and the horses which Dot brought for them, had been on the road for two months by the time that they got the sheep to Patea.

Sometimes Kevin and his assistant would get a decent night’s sleep if they could put the sheep into salesyards along the way, but other nights there were no yards, so they would drive the stock up a side road. Kevin would sleep out in the open at one end of the road, and Joe at the other. Kevin Gray would have been in his early 20s then, and he became a very good agent.

As lovable a character as he may have been, Dot McCarthy was notoriously unreliable, as Keith explained:

I was at a sale one day when he told me that he would be sending some cattle to a sale at Kakaramea. He told me to meet him the next morning at 11am at the Spence Road corner, just this side of

Kakaramea. Ever the keen young agent, I arrived just before 11am, but there was no Dot McCarthy. There was a Landrover on the other side of the road, and I wandered over only to find a dog in it, asleep in the back.

I waited until noon, and then returned home as wild as hell! That night I rang Mr McCarthy – I always called him Mr McCarthy – I reminded him that our arrangement had been to meet that morning at 11am, at the Spence Road. I told him I had waited until noon. ‘Oh my God, Boy’, he said. ‘I was taken away elsewhere. I told the dog to tell you that I had to go elsewhere, and to ring me tonight’! You just had to put up with Dot. I probably sold three or four hundred cattle for him the next week, but he was unreliable.

Changes in the stock industry mirrored those in other sections of society and Keith says: It’s hard to visualise now but there was 200 or 300 cattle would come out of the Hawera saleyards, go straight down the road, past the Railway Hotel straight down Collins Street and then at the end turn left to the south and down the main road towards Patea. The Patea Freezing Company owned what was known as the Patea Holding paddocks – 50 to 100 acres where Eustace used to be past Whareroa. On the Thursday they would stay there and cattle – some 700 to 800 – would come from other areas and on Sunday morning one mob would be driven to Patea by two drovers. Doug Brookes was one of the top drovers in those days, a Maori chap and others included Bob Johnson, Roy Pratt, Charlie Gillingham, ‘and a swag of other drovers’. Farmers used to fatten Jersey cows in those days and make a reasonable profit. Selling them as a fat cow. We ate a lot of Jersey meat in those days. Apart from the decreasing numbers of stock, the major change in the industry was the introduction of transport, involving rail and trucking. Eventually trucks were able to transport eight hundred lambs on a truck and trailer unit. Droving, which had been an integral part of the stock and station industry since the introduction of livestock into New Zealand, became a practice of the past.

Keith Newland, Farmers’ Co-op employee 1942–2007. He progressed from stock clerk to stock agent, head auctioneer, livestock manager and district manager of South Taranaki.

Company records show Keith’s retirement date as 1987. In fact 45 years after starting with Farmers’ Co-op on 2 June 1942, he continued on the company’s payroll working on a casual basis delivering matured debenture advices and soliciting renewal business until October 2007, 65 years after he started, a record of service second to none. From a stock clerk at Hawera, junior stock agent at Stratford, stock agent at Eltham, auctioneer and fat-stock drafter at Hawera, head auctioneer for the Society, livestock manager, district manager for South Taranaki and finally company operations manager.

For many the culture of this company created a deep-seated loyalty to the organisation. Although, in comparison to many others, Bernie Mann’s tenure at Farmers’ Co-op as a stock agent was somewhat shortened by a sequence of events, his contribution and continuing influence will remain part of the folklore of this company and of the stock and station industry of Taranaki. Bernie Mann’s interest in livestock began as a young schoolboy when, with his mates, he used to help out at the trucking yards at Hawera Railway Station. It was the 1930s, when Hawera, then a major stock centre, bore little resemblance to the town of today. Collins Street, for example, was the main stock

route from the south, and the thoroughfare for hundreds of cattle and often thousands of sheep either heading or departing from the nearby Loan and Mercantile, Farmers’ Co-op or Newton King saleyards. He describes his early childhood: As a small boy, I often used to run behind the cattle or sheep as they were driven along Collins Street, We used to finish up at the trucking yards at the Railway Station. From the trucking yards, some of my mates and I ‘graduated’ to the salesyards.

Even as a boy, Bernie’s ability to handle stock had been noticed by stock agents. He loved the work and relished the admiration of his peers: I very quickly learned good stockmanship, which in those times was as much a matter of survival as anything else. As a small boy I learned the difference between good bullocks and bad ones, and I learned how to score bullocks. An agent might tell me to open the pen and let out the two-and-a-half-year-old heifers. The average little boy wouldn’t know what two-and-a-half-year-old heifers were, but after a while it came naturally. Then my Dad, who was a sawmiller, and the manager of George Simon and Company, a sawmill and big sash and door firm, bought me a thoroughbred horse – Miss Bardot. She was an ex racehorse, and I used to gallop her up Tawhiti Road and on to the Hawera Primary School. After school, if there was a sale on at the Loan and Mercantile saleyards I’d often call in to see if I could get any work. Drovers such as Charlie Eastbury, Friday Watkins, Roy Pratt, or Mr Brookes, who took a particular shine to me, would often ask me to work with them. I was just a handy boy who could be called on to open and shut gates and, if I was lucky, they might shout me a pie in the canteen afterwards.

The unpaid ‘apprenticeship’ came to a sudden halt when Bernie, then of secondary school age, was admitted as a boarder to Wanganui Collegiate. In the winter term of his third year (1946), his father, who had fought with the New Zealand Mounted Rifles in the First World War, died suddenly from complications from a leg wound which he received in the Sinai Desert. He was in his early 50s. Bernie’s ambition to go on to Massey College, as it was then called, was dashed with the death of his father. He left school to look after his mother at home in Hawera. While he had earlier turned down an invitation from Newton King’s manager, Mr Les Carr, to join that company, Farmers’ Bernie Mann, Farmers’ Co-op employee Co-op general manager, C. G. Trotter, was more successful in his approach, as 1946–73. Stock agent. Bernie explained: I was standing near a chemist’s shop at Haberfield’s corner, just across the road from Farmers Co-op, when Mr Trotter pulled up in his blue Austin 10 car. He must have come from drafting sheep, because I can remember he had blue raddle on his fingers. Anyway, I think Mr Trotter was a mate of my Dad’s. He was a very straight-to-the-point sort of guy, who didn’t mince words. He opened the car door for me, and asked me to get in. He took me up to his office in the Farmers’ Co-op, and he told me that I was going to join the company as an office boy. He didn’t ask me – he virtually told me! Bernie was probably too non-plussed to fully appreciate his good fortune. It was just after the war, and it was difficult to get a start in a stock and station agency. What jobs there were, were being held open for former employees who had left the company to serve overseas. Like most before him, though, Bernie had to start at the bottom. The role of office junior was a menial one – tidying up people’s desks, answering the phone and running messages. ‘It mightn’t have paid much, but it had one huge benefit’. He felt accepted. From time-to-time, Bernie was seconded to other branches of the Farmers’ Co-op, where he received grounding in various aspects of the company’s business activities.

He gained an appreciation of real estate under the tutelage of George Ranford, and acquired an understanding of the mechanics of the company while working in the farm supervisory department under Len Newell and Lyn Bremer. Eventually he was promoted to the position of stock clerk, to work alongside another young man, ‘Lofty’ Henderson. Bernie’s time as a stock clerk spanned three or four years, and as for most either before or after him, it was a sharp learning curve!

Bernie was soon introduced to the ‘paddock book’. All livestock entries were recorded in the ‘paddock book’ in long-hand. In Bernie’s opinion, the system was more reliable than modern-day computers: Someone would come into the office and say that he had sold 15 empty cows at a sale two years before, and my job would be to go to the Burroughs ledger machine and go through the man’s cards. You’d check that the man had sold 15 cows on the suggested date, and then you would get out the ‘paddock book’ to see what they had made and who had bought them. You can’t do that today with a computer. I know, because we’ve tried it!

Very early in his career, Harold Slater advised him of the benefits of wearing a hat. It shaded the sun from his eyes, but more importantly, when it rained, it kept the water off the books which he had to work from as a stock clerk:

I’d be all dressed up; it would be teaming with rain, and I’d be running out of hands. I’d have my sale book in one hand, recording with the pencil in the other, the name of the vendor, the name of the buyer and what the price was. Along with all of that, I’d be clutching delivery tickets. It was a work of art. Today, an auctioneer would have five or six clerks – they can’t handle it!

We’d have 6000–7000 bloody lambs at the Hawera lamb fair, and the pace would be on all day. It took me ages to learn how to hold my book, complete with carbon paper, so that it didn’t get wet. It might look easy, but you try writing entries in the rain, keeping up with the auctioneer, and then writing up a docket! On top of that, you had to get the address of the buyer, because the stock clerk was always reminded that this was his responsibility.

In his earlier days as a stock clerk, largely because of the nature of the work, Bernie’s favoured attire was a straw hat, a black-bush singlet, a pair of khaki shorts and sandshoes. Temporary pens would have to be erected at sheep sales, and this was the responsibility of the junior stock clerks. Posts would be driven into the ground with a mallet: ‘You got pretty good at it too. If you missed the post and hit your shins, you’d bloody near break your leg!’

On one particular occasion Bernie recalls acting as a ‘spotter’, where he had the dual role of spotting bidders for the auctioneer, and mouthing the sheep in view of the buyers, in order to verify the age of the animal. It was a large yarding and Arthur Smith and Harold Slater were the auctioneers. Bernie had already tried his hand at auctioneering at some of the smaller sales, and when one of the star entries, Mr Bill Dunlop’s four-year-old ewes, came up for offer, Harold Slater nodded to Bernie to conduct the sale.

My heart sank – Mr Bill Dunlop was a very strict man and not the sort to be mucked about with. I thought that the ewes should make somewhere around the three pound ($6) mark, so I called for a bid of three pounds. There was no bid, and I dropped it all the way down to two pounds ($4). I edged the bid upwards in half-crowns (25 cents) – two pounds two and sixpence; two pounds five shillings, two pounds seven and sixpence, and when I got it to two pounds 10 shillings, I dropped the increases to shillings (10 cents). On we went. Two pounds 11 shillings, two pounds 12 shillings, two pounds 13 shillings. Arthur Smith kept whispering to me to knock ’em down, but I was enjoying the moment! Two pounds 15, two pounds 16, two pounds 17. Arthur Smith was getting very red in the face, and was nearly beside himself when I dropped the increments down to sixpences. ‘For Christ’s sake, hurry up and knock ’em down, we’ve got a bloody long way to go,” he pleaded. Then I dropped the increments to threepence, and worked the bid up to three pounds, two shillings. Well I could have dropped to pennies, but I wasn’t game to. By this time Arthur Smith had had a guts full and had walked off. I knocked the sheep down at three pounds two and sixpence.

Mr Smith wasn’t impressed, but I made a good friend in Mr Dunlop, who said that he would advise Mr Slater that I was to sell his ewes from then on.

It was at that same sale that Mr Slater accused me of being the worst-dressed auctioneer in New Zealand, and instructed me to attend the next sale in a collar and tie. I told Mr Slater that it was okay for him to make such an accusation, but that my day had started at 4am, drafting and penning sheep!

Bernie Mann may have lost his natural father, but in his formative years of training as a young stock agent he acquired four father figures. Each, in their own particular way, shaped the man and the type of agent which he became. Harold Slater was the first, who he described as a great philosopher and judge of character, an excellent auctioneer with a wonderful sense of humour and highly respected, but for all of this, was easy-going. The easy manner didn’t extend to casting a blind eye to any breach of company rules, however. Bernie recalls an occasion when, after being caught in a pub after hours, he was summoned to Mr Slater’s office: ‘It was a serious offence – you might as well have murdered someone! You got your name in the paper for being in the pub after-hours, and it was even worse for you if you were driving a company car.’

Arthur Smith, a graduate from Uppingham College in England, and who Bernie described in the kindest possible way as ‘a typical Pom’, was the second father figure. Razor sharp, he kept those working for him on their toes. Bill Ellingham, manager of the company for South Taranaki, and for many years Bernie’s boss, was the third ‘father figure’, and company general manager, C. G. Trotter, the fourth.

The Farmers’ Co-op had some wonderful clients, and I attribute a lot of this to Mr Trotter. He was a wonderful judge of character, and would back a man if he had three credentials: that he was a good farmer; that he had a good wife; and that he had a good farm. If the client failed in any of those areas, they would probably not receive Mr Trotter’s backing, and there are many third generation farmers still farming in Taranaki today who would not know that they are still on their farms only because Mr Trotter gave their grandparents his personal support.

This genial character of the South Taranaki stock and station industry, Bernie Mann, continued to hone his trade with the Farmers’ Co-op for 27 years, from 1946 until 1973, when he accepted what seemed an offer too good to refuse from trusted friend Ron Trotter, chief executive of the recently merged Wrightson NMA and son of Clem Trotter, to establish a Taranaki branch of Wrightson NMA. Although lost to the Farmers’ Co-op, Bernie continued to respect and admire the people who had influenced his life, and from a historical point of view his memoirs and reminiscences, too many to include in this profile will provide a significant record of some of the most colourful days of the stock and station industry. Bernie passed away on 9 January 2008, but will be remembered as one of the truly impressive characters of the industry.

Junior stock clerk is the earliest career memory of many long-serving stock agents. Barry Bishop was no exception and started as the junior stock clerk in the Hawera branch of Farmers’ Co-op in 1957, aged 23. Raised on a small dairy farm in Inglewood, he had always wanted to be a stock agent, and received his chance while working for the livestock transport firm of Clark and Rogers. The job, which was mainly of a clerical nature, brought him into regular contact with stock agents when he was working at sales. Barry applied to join the Farmers’ Co-op, and started work as the junior stock clerk under the tutelage of Llanfair (Lank) Lewes, the chief stock clerk. Arthur Smith, he recalls, was the manager of the dairying side of the

Barry Bishop, who commenced employment with Farmers’ Co-op in 1957 as a stock clerk and retired from his position of livestock manager, New Plymouth in 1997.

livestock division, while ‘Lofty’ Henderson, Keith Newland and Bernie Mann the Hawera-based stock agents.

A vital part of the work was canvassing for potential clients at the plethora of dairy factories which existed in Taranaki at the time.

On three mornings a week, at about 6.15am, one of the agents would pick me up and drive me out to one of the little dairy factories. It might be the Tawhiti Dairy Factory, or Normanby, Riversdale or Manutahi, and you were dropped there to canvass every farmer who arrived at the factory to deliver his milk. My job was to strike up a conversation to see whether the farmer had any pigs or cull cows which he might want to sell at an upcoming Hawera sale. Then about 8.30am the agent would pick me up and take me back to the office to carry on with the day’s work. There was no extra payment for doing anything like this.

Barry concedes that as a 23-year-old still learning the basics of his profession he was sometimes embarrassed approaching a farmer whom he didn’t know very well, but there was no room for coyness. It was a job which had to be done: I found that some factories were better than others to go to because you seemed to be more accepted, and that farmers were friendly with you even if they didn’t deal with your company. It depended to a certain extent on your approach too. There were a few grumpy buggers around, especially in the autumn if there was a bit of a dry spell or if their production was dropping.

In an era well before the advent of calculators, Barry found being good at arithmetic, and readily able to work out commission rates of huge benefit. Promotion came after 12 months, when Barry Stewart, then the stock agent for Farmers’ Co-op based in Waverley, decided to take a trip overseas. Barry was appointed a junior agent and was sent to Waverley to work under the guidance of ‘Snowy’ Thompson. In those days there was very little dairying in the Waverley area. ‘It was basically all dry stock’, says Barry. He was based in Waverley for about 12 months and then Barry Stewart returned home and he was posted back to Hawera for a year. He was transferred to Patea, where 12 months later he married. His catchment area embraced Hurleyville, Whenuakura and Manutahi, and took in a mix of dairying and dry-stock farming.

In 1961 Barry was transferred to Ohura in the King Country, where the Farmers’ Co-op had opened a new branch office. Barry said: ‘Like most small, remote communities, the further you go back from the main road in these farming communities, the more they appreciate you and the bigger the welcome they give you.’

Being transferred to Inglewood after a five-year stint at Ohura, was like returning home to a major city. Barry concentrated mainly on working with dry stock, but a shortage of auctioneers in the area convinced him to try his hand at something different. It was a brave move for someone who had suffered from a speech impediment during childhood: he had once had a slight stutter but he wasn’t fazed at the prospect of speaking at pace in front of an audience. You have to have confidence and be able to think on your feet a bit. A sense of humour helps as well. I always remember there was one guy who tried to catch me out. He must have thought that I was trotting the price up on him, and he called out ‘where’s the bid, whose got the bid, where’s the bid? I replied don’t worry about it Fred. Mr Parker has got the bid. ‘Mr Parker’? he asked, Yes, Fred, I countered, Mr Nosey bloody Parker! Now carry on! In 1983 Barry was appointed livestock manager based in New Plymouth. A year later, he was appointed rural financial services manager, with the responsibility of monitoring credit control. Looking back over 40 years in the stock and station industry, Barry Bishop says Taranaki Farmers’ Co-op can be proud of the fact that unlike many rival companies, they weathered the storm, and are still operating today. After forty years of service Barry Bishop retired in 1997. When expressing his personal views on the lot of the New Zealand stock agent he said:

It is very much a people job. That was the guts of the job, really. For every hard case or bloody rogue that you either didn’t or couldn’t get on with, you met ten other people who were appreciative of what you could do for them. It was the sort of career where you got great job satisfaction.

East of Stratford was the focus of the board as the company moved into its 31st year of operation in 1945. Tarata district had been serviced by the Inglewood branch of Farmers’ Co-op since 1916 and with continuing solid support from the community the time was now ripe for the Society to make a permanent and lasting material contribution to the district.

The first saleyards at Tarata were situated on a corner between what was the Tarata school and store. A one-acre block (section 50 of the Tarata Township survey), was purchased in 1892 by Inglewood stock firm Vickers and Stevens. The first sale was held at this site on 10 February 1903. Section 48 on the other side of the village owned by the Estate of R. Speck was sold to Vickers and Stevens and used as sheep yards in 1909. The following year Vickers and Stevens sold to Matthews and Bennett, Mr Matthews being a son-in-law of Mr Vickers. A Mr Gamlin became a partner in 1913 and in 1915 Mr Bennett withdrew from the partnership. World War I saw a decline in business and the saleyards were almost abandoned. However, in 1916 N. Z. Loan and Mercantile Agency Coy. purchased and operated the yards for almost two decades until they were purchased by Newton King Limited in 1934.

The Farmers’ Co-op directors received an invitation to meet with a gathering of settlers in November 1944. Mr Dickie reported he had visited Tarata in the company of Mr J. Gibbs and Harold Slater and had ‘been met by a representative gathering of settlers’ when the possibility of the Society commencing business in the district was discussed. It was recognised that it would be uneconomic to build a separate set of yards and a resolution was passed at the meeting that Farmers’ Co-op should endeavour to arrange joint sales with Newton King Ltd. ‘Sheep, ewe and lamb fairs were suggested, with an occasional cattle fair if warranted.’ It was considered that once a start had been made the Society would obtain a large portion of the business. The question of erecting temporary accommodation if the Society were not able to make a suitable arrangement with Kings was also gone into, and after some considerable discussion it was moved by Mr P. Thomson and seconded by C. R. Sarten ‘That the question of holding Fairs at Tarata be left in the hands of the Executive and that Mr Gibbs be co-opted to act with them’. A few months later, in February 1945, a section was purchased for the sum of £40, with a condition of the sale being that ‘if Farmers’ Co-op vacate the section or cease to use it as a saleyards they should offer it back to the original owner at the same money in the same condition as when purchased’. Negotiations were also being made to purchase an adjoining section of 2 roods 20 perches ‘leased from the Commissioner of Crown Lands under a yearly license by W. Ludermann who had agreed to forego his license’.

A piece of land being considered by the Farmers’ Co-op to construct saleyards was originally owned by Edward Olsen in 1889 and subsequently sold to Robert Paterson in 1911 and a further section ‘between the cattleyards and the river had been set aside in the original survey’. This was also Final Tarata Cattle Fair, 7 March 1986. purchased and the Society had received a COURTESY OF THE TARATA SCHOOL AND DISTRICT CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE

letter from the Commissioner of Crown Lands stating that the Society’s application to purchase Section 35, Village of Tarata, had ‘been favourably received’ and that following three advertisements in local newspapers to notify locals of their intention and no objections being received, the purchase would be finalised at £50. Mr Wooffindin advised that ‘it had been anticipated the yards would be completed in time to hold a sale this season’ but would now be delayed as the original arrangements had fallen through. A plan of the proposed yards was tabled for consideration by the board, with a quote from H. Rowe of £456 to complete the work, including supplying the concrete. The Society would supply timber and complete any levelling of the site required. The total cost of the saleyards was estimated to be ‘about £900’. The work to build the Tarata Farmers’ Co-op saleyards commenced at the end of March 1945.

Considerable maintenance on the yards was approved in 1953, including alterations to the adjacent roadway to improve access and ‘bring the yards up to standard’. Stock sales continued throughout the years; however, cattle sales were discontinued after the autumn fair held on 7 March 1986 and the yards were dismantled with timber sold to raise funds for the Tarata hall. Sheep yards and sales continued until approximately 1996 and then the sheep yards were sold to Mac Paterson in 1999 and dismantled in the following few years. The timber, mainly Rimu and White Pine, was used to construct new cattle yards on the existing concrete pad.

Kohuratahi and Douglas saleyards were in ‘a bad state of repair’. The yards were now used jointly by the Society and Newton King Limited and the matter of renovation had been the subject of correspondence with Newton King as the amount of expenditure required to remedy the matter was considerable. Farmers’ Co-op still owned yards situated north on the left-hand side of the road adjacent to the railway line on the property of Ned Shewry. These were to be demolished and a valuation by Mr H. Wallath valued the timber at £282. 17. 6d. and estimated the cost of dismantling at £45. Mr Shewry was anxious to purchase the yards from Farmers’ Co-op but Newton King Ltd. were in favour of retaining the material to use in the present yards down the road. The board minutes stated: ‘If we decided to sell, it was therefore a matter of arranging with Newton King’s a price at which it would pay us and would be fair to Mr Shewry.’

Although the outcome was never recorded we can assume that Ned Shewry got his way because the yards are still on the property. Director James D. Law also reported on a conversation he had with the present proprietor of the store at Kohuratahi, Mr Stockwell, who was ‘prepared to consider a sale’, and he considered that further investigations would be an advantage. It was decided to send Mr Wooffindin and Mr Snelling to visit Kohuratahi to make further investigations. Following a meeting Mr Stockwell advised the Society that he had given ‘one of Newton King’s men verbally the first refusal on the business’, and in view of this he did not feel at liberty to negotiate with the Society at present. If, however, he decided to sell later on he would give the Society the first opportunity providing Newton King was not in the market. It was decided that as shareholders were well serviced from Stratford and the business available at Kohuratahi did not warrant another store, the matter would be left in abeyance at the present time. The Kohuratahi store continued for many years with a succession of owners, including Colin Hill, Keith Couchman, Brian Terry and Les Keith. However, although the Farmers’ Co-op were offered an option on the store in 1953, it was still considered too marginal. The Farmers’ Co-op thus never owned or operated a store in the district. Repairs and additions to the Matau yards were also completed to provide extra accommodation and it was reported that ‘repairs had been effected and carried out most economically’. Plans to upgrade the Douglas yards were approved by Farmers’ Co-op and Newton King Ltd. The estimate for the work was £2,350 plus £130 for concreting the small pens if required. It was left in the hands of the executive and in November 1945 it was reported that work on the Douglas and Kohuratahi yards was ‘well underway’.

Other saleyards around the province also came up for consideration with an offer from Firth Concrete Company of £500 for the former saleyard site at Stratford, inherited from the N.Z. Loan

Farmers’ Co-op, Waverley Staff, 1949. Back row from left: Dave McGorrey, Charlie Pollard, Russell Hammonds, Jack Mickelson, Ted Ward, Snowy Thompson. Front row from left: Bruce Walker, Myles Sutcliffe, Ngaire Tremain, Pat Slater, Kevin O’Leary, Neil Fowler.

and Mercantile Company purchase in 1942. The value of the property was considered to be between £700 and £800. Firth Concrete had a contract with the Government to supply tiles for state houses and the property was being purchased to accommodate this operation. Two thirds of Firths’ cement and other goods were purchased from the Society who also sold a large amount of their products and this was taken into account in arriving at a price for the property. It was agreed that the property be offered to Firth Concrete Company for £700. Mr Firth waited on the company at the February 1945 meeting and, after some discussion, ‘intimated his willingness to take the property at £700 cash, provided the Land Sales Court consented to the sale at this price and in the event of the sale not being completed he suggested a lease’. It was finally agreed by the board that in the event of the Land Sales Court reducing the amount of consideration to an amount not acceptable to the board they enter into negotiations for a satisfactory lease of the property to Firth Concrete Company. The Land Court approved the sale of the old N.Z. Loan and Mercantile saleyards at £700.

Out at Opunake the lease on the Opunake saleyard land from the Opunake Harbour Board had come up for renewal. Acting on behalf of the Society Mr G. W. Williams had failed to come to an agreement with the Harbour Boards’ representative and proposed to let the matter go to arbitration. The secretary requested that the matter be completed without delay, and he had ‘undertaken to do so without delay’. Reports circulated amongst board members regarding saleyards at various other centres in the province indicated that only minor repairs were required at Hawera where renovations had already been carried out, and repairs at the Kakaramea yards would cost £470. The Stratford yards were in good order. Waverley’s yards were in need of a loading ramp and the construction of this was left in the hands of C. R. Honeyfield, P. G. Bremer and D. G. Thomson. Urenui yards were also in urgent need of attention. Newton King’s had already arranged for plans

to be drawn up for the reconstruction of the yards which had been made available to the Society. The Society considered estimated cost of over £6,000, however, ‘not warranted’, and as there were no accommodation paddocks adjacent and the yards’ proximity to the school had been ‘a source of trouble to the School Committee and the Health Authorities’. An expenditure of £6,000 was out of all proportion to the returns that might be expected from the yards. The board resolved to arrange for representatives of the two companies, Farmers’ Co-op and Newton King, to interview the secretary of the Education Board at New Plymouth to solicit his assistance in an endeavour to obtain Income Tax Commissioner’s permission to treat a portion of the expenditure as repairs and maintenance in the event of yards being built on a new site. The deliberation over the Urenui yards continued for some months. The outcome is unknown.

The Society recorded its greatest progress ever, when it announced a record £2,000,000 turnover for the year ending 31 March 1946 at the annual general meeting. Mr C. D. Dickie, chairman, announced that it was ‘a year of more rapid growth than any other in its history’ and said: When the difficulties at the Society’s inception were remembered, he thought it was deserving of every congratulation on the present sound financial position and on the policy of the directors and the management in safeguarding the future against the effects of inflationary values of stock. … As far as markets are concerned we know that our greatest customer, Great Britain, has suffered enormously during the war. Before the war Britain had been New Zealand’s only safe and stable customer, but today international competition in dairying was becoming keen, particularly from Denmark … There is no doubt that we shall have to face up to this increased competition and search for further markets. Significant changes were made in shareholding when by unanimous vote the shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting at Hawera passed a resolution which would have the effect of making the Society more co-operative in line with the system of shareholding in co-operative dairy companies. Instructions relating to the change had been advised at the annual general meeting two years earlier and the recent resolutions passed reduced the nominal value of each share held from £10 to £1, restricted the rights of shareholders to transfer shares and approved a system whereby shareholders were required to acquire shares in proportion to the volume of business transacted with the Society.

Farmers’ Co-op Stratford Motor Garage. With all the goodwill within the ranks of the Farmers’ Co-op it was with dismay that Clem Trotter announced to the board that during the month of November 1947 a staff member who held the position of Hawera branch manager was to be charged with misappropriation of the Society’s funds, including cheques totalling £140, endorsed by a third party, ‘although in one case the endorsement had been torn off’. The Society’s solicitor, Mr Burns, stated that he considered there was a good chance of succeeding in a demand on the third party for payment ‘of at least £100’ and there was

a possibility of obtaining the full amount. This course was approved. The actual total amount of misappropriation is unknown. An offer had been received for the culprit’s house of £2,000 which would be subject to the approval of the Land Sales Court. The proposals submitted by Messrs O’Dea and McCarthy, and the alternative of making the offender bankrupt were thoroughly discussed and it was resolved that the executive committee be left ‘to act as they think best’. Eventually the house and furniture belonging to the staff member were sold for £1,750 and £300, with the Society receiving £80 of the furniture and a case was brought against the bookmakers who received some of the money misappropriated. The chairman, C. D. Dickie, was adamant that the whole matter would be exposed and they would finish the investigation ‘irrespective of the amount that might be recovered’. The man was jailed for the offence, but apparently he later became a well known and successful life-insurance agent in Auckland.

Advertisements to fill his position drew a large number of replies and following interviewing several suitable applicants the executive committee selected Mr S. P. Bill Girdwood for the position of Hawera branch manager. He took up the post at the end of March 1948 and remained with the company for several years until he took a position on the east coast. His wide experience as head fieldsman for New Zealand in the Lands and Survey Department and ten years service in other Government Departments, including a time in banking and farming, and several years experience with Dalgety and Co. in the stock department provided the Society with a highly experienced and capable staff member. During his relatively short time with Farmers’ Co-op he became a well respected and trusted branch manager with shareholders, staff and directors and considerable weight was lifted from the shoulders of the managing director.

Much was happening, with many alterations, additions and improvements being considered at many of the Society’s sites throughout the province. An offer to purchase or lease the Auroa saleyard site in 1948 had been received from Mr F. W. Norgate, who had purchased a house for removal. It was an opportunity for the Society to dispose of the facility and a motion to sell the property was carried. In addition, negotiations were underway with the Cape Egmont Dairy Company for the use of the Pungarehu store with a purchasing clause, and the Farmers’ Co-op Pungarehu operation opened in August 1948. The Society also acquired the business of Mr Cyril Moss to provide greater service to the shareholders in the area. Early returns showed a satisfactory position; in fact within one year such was the volume of business and large amount of cash handled in what was inadequate office premises attached to the operation, that the directors inspected the property with a view to making improvements at the earliest possible date. Plans were immediately drawn up with the consent of the Cape Egmont Dairy Company through Mr Brophy and alterations estimated to cost £9,000 were made to rectify the problem. Following negotiations, £5,000 was approved by the dairy company. Delivering groceries from the Waitara branch was also instigated due to a well known long-established firm closing down. It was estimated that an additional £10,000 in turnover would be required to cover the cost. The eventual location of the Stratford saleyards was still undetermined, pending the Railway Department decision. Health regulations were beginning to impact some of the saleyards owned and operated by the Society namely in the three locations of Manaia, Kaponga and Okaiawa. In February 1950 the closing of Okaiawa was now becoming a reality and the Society decided to place the matter before shareholders of the district at the next Okaiawa sale. They would advise shareholders that the Society would be willing to build a loading bank for use if they considered it would be of assistance.