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Horowhenua Chronicle
Friday, March 28, 2014
Fabulous Foxton New leaders needed By FRANKIE WEBB Foxton Guide Club needs you. Leaders for the group are in short supply, training is free and includes gaining a first aid certificate. ‘‘Basically we’re in a situation where we can’t grow without more leaders,’’ leader Alesa Hansen said.‘‘No experience is needed.’’ About three hours per week is all that’s asked for and experience as a Guide isn’t necessary. ‘‘I have never been a Guide, it was through my daughter’s involvement I came on board, she has left now and 10 years on I’m still here,’’ Ms Hansen said. The role is mostly supervisory but leaders can become more involved if they wish. Applicants must be 18 years old or over and give permission for a Police check to be carried out. ‘‘There are occasional camps and trips mostly within Horowhenua,’’ Ms Hansen said. ‘‘We don’t meet during school holidays so it doesn’t interfere with family holiday plans.’’ This month the Guide movement undertakes it’s biggest fundraising event, selling Girl Guide biscuits, with money from biscuits staying in the area in which
Langen leaves mark with mill
GIRL GUIDING
By FRANKIE WEBB Foxton’s de Molen windmill stood in silence, it’s blades for the first time in the mourning position. It is a legacy to Jan ‘‘John’’ Sefryn Langen who died in Levin on March 14. The million dollar de Molen windmill project was a dream realised for John. It began when John and fellow Dutchman, Dirk van Til, went into a business in partnership in Foxton cultivating tulip bulbs. The venture failed due to a virus and climatic conditions. Mr Van Til relocated to Australia, but he and John had shared a vision of creating a replica Dutch windmill because the land reminded them so strongly of their homeland. In 1990 John drove the project which would take 15 years to come to fruition. Assistance by the late Cor Slobbe and more latterly the entire Foxton community
Girl Guiding originally started in New Zealand in 1908 by New Zealander Lieutenant Colonel Cossgrove, as the Peace Scout Movement. Colonel Cossgrove wrote Peace Scouting for Girls with the first girls sworn in at Kaiapoi in September 1908. Girls 7-10 years were known as Fairy Scouts, girls 12-20 years were Peace Scouts. They did a wide variety of activities, many considered radical at that time for girls. The programme was built on activities that improved physical strength and stamina, mental alertness and good moral values. The Peace Scout Movement for girls flourished which in October 1923 saw the New Zealand group officially registered as part of The Girl Guide Association which had been set up in England in 1909 and became known as The Girl Guides Association of New Zealand. they’re sold. Anyone interested in helping the Foxton Guide club is welcome to visit the All Saints Church hall, Main Street, Foxton on Tuesday evenings from 6pm to 7.30pm.
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LIVING ON: John Langen may have died but his legacy lives on in the 33m high replica windmill enticing visitors to Foxton’s Main Street. PHOTO: FOXTON CAMERA CLUB
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Mill pauses for repairs By FRANKIE WEBB Foxton’s iconic de Molen windmill is to have a little time out while a small section of its four blades are replaced. ‘‘It’s an unexpected material failing,’’ de Molen manager Michael Feyen explained. ‘‘When the the mill was built the wood used on the blades wasn’t our first preference, it has been fine for 11 years but it seems water has leaked into the join causing a failing.’’ The failing is not a major one and was not putting the blades at risk of causing any damage. The blades may be silent for up to four weeks, so volunteer millers have been busy stock piling flour so no one is inconvenienced by the break. ‘‘At this stage we have no idea how much this is going to cost,’’ daughter of de Molen founder the late John Langen and trustee Judy Sanson said. ‘‘We will get some costings and then know what we need to.’’
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saw De Molen completed and officially opened on April 13, 2003. Built from plans and specifications obtained from the Netherlands it is an exact working replica of a traditional 17th Century Dutch flourmill. John Langen came to New Zealand in 1952 from Apeldoorn in the Netherlands. He took up a position with the New Zealand Railways in Palmerston North. He and wife Corrie raised their four children in Foxton. The town’s premier attraction will be a legacy to the man who in 2007 received a Dutch knighthood for his work on the project. ‘‘John always had a way of getting things done in good humour,’’ family friend and manager of the de Molen, Michael Feyen, said. ‘‘We are looking to a positive future for the mill because of him, it was his vision to attract visitors to Foxton, to promote the place he loved.’’
The de Molen charitable trust does have money set aside for maintenance. ‘‘We wouldn’t want to blow it all on one job,’’ Mrs Sanson said. ‘‘We need to keep money in the coffers for an emergency, but we need costings before we can do anything.’’A future maintenance programme proposed by the trust includes engaging a staff member from VAAGS molenwerken coming from the Netherlands to offer training so the work can be carried out locally in future. ‘‘It is part of a new direction the mill is heading in,’’ Mr Feyen said. ‘‘We have had the most amazing volunteers contributing their time and expertise over the 11 years the mill has been open, we think it has evolved to the point we will need to look at employing people to do what have become full time jobs.’’ The trust believe providing employment would be a way to give back to the community that has been so supportive of the mill since its inception.
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