Manawatū Conversations - Oral History

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 11th October 2022.  Listening to the radio in the 1950s. Aunt Daisy, Children’s Hour, Lone Ranger. Reception problems. 2ZA locally, Garners and shopping reporters. Song requests, hit parades. In the Bag, Selwyn Toogood. Wedding announcements. Housewives listening to radio. Local participation. Crystal sets. Tangiwai disaster radio coverage. Crime serials in evenings, Randy Stone. Sport coverage. News bulletins. Valve radios. Listen with Mother. Reception issues. Teenagers and music. Overseas music. Limited Maori music broadcast in 1950s, Howard Morrison. Fashion important, but not through radio. Why Aunt Daisy was popular. Winston McCarthy, the voice of rugby. 2ZA concert party. No talkback radio. Going to the studio to broadcast live.  (Ivan and Muriel Allott, David and Margaret Beere, David Bertram, Stuart Birks)  

A broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 1 January, 2019. Relay for Life, Rotary Club of Terrace End team participants describe their experience.

Part 1: 9th March, 2013. It is nearly midnight and Katrine Imrie and Gaewyn Grant in a tent on the Relay for Life site talk about their experiences.

Part 2: 10th March, 2018. Just before midnight at the Relay for Life (noon Saturday to noon Sunday), Sarah Findlay and Emily Brewer describe the event.

Broadcast on Access Manawatu on 29 May 2018, a group discussion of building styles and materials at various times in New Zealand. Topics include: ceiling heights, heating, ventilation, food safes, design errors, and threats (floods, earthquakes, liquefaction).

Broadcast on Access Manawatu, 5 June 2018, Abbeyfield residents talk about Abbeyfield, a residence offering “senior flatting”.

Summary: Part of a global system, started in England, 13 in New Zealand. Semi-independent living. Comparison to retirement village or rest home. Gardens. Why they came to Abbeyfield. Run by volunteers. National structure, establishment of new centres. Council donated the land, built by the army. New residents’ adjusting.

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 23rd July 2024. Part 2 of 3. Manawatu Striders is a running and walking group based in Palmerston North established in 1983. Sue has been a member since 2006. She has written a book Manawatu Striders, Runners and Walkers : The First Four Decades available from Palmerston North City Library. Striders is for adults. Motto ‘complete not compete’ Meet on Sunday mornings and form groups of five or six people. Two hours. Started as a running club but now includes walkers. No dogs! Runs events in January and February for the public. Parkrun is a similar organization but not associated with Striders. Time is recorded and entered on their website www.parkrun.co.nz and can be compared with other contestants. Challenges in Striders created by Covid. Changes to routes caused by increased traffic on roads. More use of walkways. Runners sometimes use the Manawatu Gorge track. Striders have a uniform. Local membership was 300 but has dropped to about 150. 

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 11th May 2021.  Work with MPR as funding manager. Purpose of Access Radio. Range of platforms. How to run a programme. Helen’s programmes. Changing technology. Recording during Covid-19 lockdown. Archiving programmes. Station staff. Feilding hub and portable studios. Programme makers. Video. Audience, live and after broadcast. Future developments. Source of local information, control of content. Impact of the environment. Editing recordings. Manchester House in Feilding. “Manchester” products. 

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 9th July 2024. Men’s Sheds started in Australia funded by Australian government Known as Menzshed, started in Kapiti (Waikanae) in 2010 as a community organisation Men doing something with their hands. Friendship is important Many members had moved to a smaller home and didn’t have any tools 140 Menzsheds in NZ now and still growing Men’s Shed (Menzshed) started in Manawatu in 2011 Was able to access central government funding because of focus on mental health Kapiti District Council provided an old store shed at Waikanae Beach. This has now been replaced. Financial help from many sponsors. Menzshed Manawatu have made coffins for stillborn babies A member of Manawatu Menzshed has built a laser cutter which will cut wood and plastics. They make items for other organisations to give as raffle prizes Made park benches for public areas.  

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 25th February 2020.  John Ward and others discuss the 1941 and 1953 Palmerston North floods. Hokowhitu School largely submerged. Guy Avenue flooding. WWII bomb shelter in the garden full of water. Blackouts. After 1953 floods, thought of flood prevention. Dredging river with a slackline. Extent of ’53 flood. The smell of silt. Flood measurement post by Opiki (Half Crown Bend). Development in flood-prone areas. Stormwater Management Plan. Floodwater storage areas. River silt levels. Dynamic river systems in New Zealand.  

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 18th October 2022. First memories (1937), 4 years old walking about 2k for a bus. On a dairy farm, working when about 10 years old. Father left, mother repartnered. Relationship with separated father. Became very independent. Boarding at school. Working in Hastings at 13 when should have been in school. Working in a milk bar. Country dances. Wartime final leave gatherings. Limited awareness of the war. Young people expected to work. Palmerston North in 1950. Few telephones in homes. Travelling long distance alone when young.  

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio 23 October 2018.

Bev Quinn. Summary: What is Hospice? How got into hospice – other nursing training and experience, including UK and Zimbabwe, district nursing in Palmerston North. Setting up the PN Hospice. Increased demand and changing nature of care, more in own homes now, palliative care nurses. Funding. Fundraising methods. Emotional involvement. Certification and accreditation. Activities for patients. Families staying over. Animals. Recording life stories. 8

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 10th May 2022.  ANZAC Day 2022 and Covid. 2020 standing at our gates. Jack Register playing The Last Post. Significance for children in the past. Gallipoli. Technology and images from Ukraine. Attitudes to war. Women in war. John Ward’s radio station. New NZ history syllabus and Maori history in earlier curriculum. Logistics and support in war. Flu pandemic after WWI. Conflict in Ukraine. 

An episode of Manawatu Conversations, broadcast on Access Manawatu on 17 April, 2018, describing the development of Waitoetoe Park by Friends of Waitoetoe Park and others. It is located by the Manawatu River in the Dittmer Drive area and has since been included in a Treaty Settlement with the Rangitāne and renamed Ahimate Park. Native planting plus a “foraging area” with fruit trees, etc..

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio on 17 July 2018,

Anne Cheer Part 1 of 2. Summary: In Palmerston North until 8, then Woodville until 16. Palmerston North Central Normal School. Comparison of her schooling and later teaching. Using slates. Inkwells. Subjects taken. Discipline. Father an engine driver. Masterton earthquake 1942. Physical education. Games, marbles. High school in Woodville, 5th form class of 7, only girl in class. Working as 14 year old, sent to Auckland to Girls Grammar school. Parties. Few cars. Home life, shopping, home crafts, washing. Buying house with cash. Father and fishing.

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 5th May 2020.  Workers Education Association in NZ from 1915, but died away. UK origins. Revived in Palmerston North by Merv Hancock. John active mid-1980s to mid-1990s. Funding. Objectives, topics and approach. Attendance. Membership. Quarterly brochures. Trade Union Education Authority. Bicultural coverage, Mason Durie. Margaret Tate and a film on local history. Other local history films. Others who contributed to WEA. Break up of adult education into different fields (WEA had covered everything). Book Clubs. Supported by wife, a maths lecturer, while a house-husband and then worked part-time.  African student surprised to find a female academic. John in the Community Services Council. Interest in music. Problems getting people to volunteer. Anthony Lewis in the City Library. 

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 11th March 2025. Andrew Stephens, Anne Weir, Mike Lawrence, Alison Mildon, Stuart Birks.   Fondue – dip bread on long forks into a bowl of melted cheese. Progressive dinners – each course at a different home. Beer and wine. New Zealanders travelled overseas and brought back exotic food ideas such as spaghetti bolognaise and goulash. Shrimp cocktails. Temuka pottery, usually brown, was common. Percolated coffee. Dutch migrants set up coffee shops in New Zealand. About 1979 world petrol crisis resulted in carless days in New Zealand. Private car owners couldn’t use their cars one day a week. Usage of drugs was very low key although there were a few communes with their own lifestyle.  James K Baxter, a poet and writer, set up a commune at Hiruhārama (Jerusalem) on the Whanganui River. Men wore long hair with sideboards or sideburns. Private radio stations started with a pirate radio station (Radio Hauraki). 

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio 2 October 2018.

Owen Dolan, Part 1 of 2. Summary: To Hawera after mother died. Thought grandmother was his mother. Catholic community. School experience, at primary all the teachers were nuns. Protestant-Catholic relationships. Visits to Palmerston North in the war. Step-siblings. Highschool, then trained for priesthood. Got rheumatic fever in wartime epidemic. American troops, smoking. Blackouts. Limited impact of war, deaths of ex-pupils. Boarding school food. Teachers.

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 9th November 2021. PNRSA Youth Speech Competition, Tuesday 17th August 2021 on the theme of ANZAC Day. Introduction/description by Joe Hollander. Selected speakers are, in order:

Emily Connell (Freyberg HS) – Yr 10

Sophie Cumming (Freyberg HS) – Yr 11

Matt Feehan (Freyberg HS) – Yr 12

John Hopcroft (PNBHS) – Yr 13

Leo Mwape (PNBHS) – Yr 10

Lily Tavendale (Freyberg HS) – Yr 10

Winners – Leo Mwape (PNBHS) – 1st, Lily Tavendale (FHS) – 2nd, Matt Feehan (FHS) – 3rd and Sophie Cumming (FHS) – Highly Commended.

Just as the last speaker is introduced, you will hear an alert signal from cellphones in the audience. The competition was in progress when the country was notified that it would move into a level 4 lockdown at 11:59pm after a community case of COVID-19 was detected in Auckland.

Broqadcast on Manawatu People's Radio 16 October 2018.

Barbara Bridewell. Summary: Two cochlear implants. Hearing aids not effective. Nature of implants. Before and after the implants. Washing dishes instead of mixing at events. Discovering had hearing problems. Comparison of implants to normal hearing. Music. Use of phones. Value of conversation. Costs/funding, waiting times. Ages for implants. Support networks. People not using hearing aids. Implants giving better than normal hearing, but nothing when take off external part (e.g. nights).

Broqadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 10 July 2018. John Perrin (b.1934) Part 2 of 2.

Summary: Apprenticeship – joinery. Radiata pine. Terrace End railway station. Timber truck hit by train. Building inspections, residential then commercial. Liquid concrete falling on a car. “No parking” signs. Clerk of works for Ministry of Works. Seed storage building at Massey University (seed bank).

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio 24 July 2018.

Anne Cheer Part 2 of 2. Summary: Teachers College, Ardmore. April 1st pranks. Accommodation. Activities. Teaching. Rose to Assistant Principal. Pupils changing, less respect later. Changes with Tomorrows Schools. Pay. Working when a mother, child care. Retirement age. Reading recovery teaching. Living in a retirement village.