Wally's tales

Christchurch has some unique places of interest. One that stands out one is the Johnson’s Grocery in Colombo Street. To enter their Emporium is to take a large step back in time. In the past one hundred years they have resisted all progress made in grocery retailing. The proprietors still serve every customer personally, tightly wrapped up in spotless white aprons, riding up and down the isles, on their side of the counter on ladders fastened to the walls on roller rails, grabbing items from shelves floor to ceiling to make up your order as they pass by. They also carry a surprisingly extensive stock. An example, after being introduced to Turkish Apple Tea that Lynn and Mark had brought back from their holiday abroad for us to taste. We really liked it, seeking more we hunted around Christchurch stores without success, We found in one shop, a packet of Turkish Delight made by the same manufacturer, but alas they carried no tea. No demand they cried. But surprise, surprise, Johnson’s had it in stock. While completing the purchase another women customer inquired what was it and went out of the shop with us clutching a packet as well. So there is a demand. It’s well worth anyone making a visit to Christchurch to also make a visit to Johnson’s, just for the trip back in time, their prices are close to what you would expect to pay elsewhere.

Another surprise here, children’s Playgrounds. I can remember a time back and all that these consisted of, was a swing fixed to a tree. The first organised playgrounds started to arrive when our children were young, then they consisted of a simple merry go round, slides, swings, and monkey bars. That was until the safety people OSH got into the act. They reworked everything. Each piece of apparatus now has to be ‘Safe’, and as well, the ground underneath made soft. But here now, it all has moved indoors and turned unto a modern day ‘Amusement Barn’. Chock full of everything a kid could wish for, providing you can afford the nominal entry fee. It has Pumped up castles to play in, these are about the size of a small house, and are included. However according to the yellow pages you can hire about a dozen similar Castles and even have them bought to your home for the day.

Our town has probably one of the best water reticulation systems in the world. What a difference to makes to the taste of your hot drinks. The water is ‘Old’ and has travelled underground from the main mountain range in flows at different depths all heading for the sea. It requires no treatment, but is loaded with minerals which do effect your electric kettles or jugs when boiled, leaving a white deposit. The water can also etch window glass if you leave it on after a cleaning.

However after living for many years in Queenstown where it was surrounded by many square miles of pure water, but the Council unfortunately found it necessary to chlorinate that water because they kept on having accidents with sewerage. The chlorine taint was so bad I just gave up drinking tea being so heavily chlorinated it tainted everything. For me it was so bad, I just gave up hot drinks made with reticulated water and brought our own in from outside the area. On arrival here the change was unbelievable, I can’t describe the pleasure derived from a simple thing such as the cup of tea made with local tap water. This is the same water this city has enjoyed for over a hundred years, the only difference is the City no longer runs a continuous supply down the street gutters just to flush, and keep them clean. In spite of this wonderful water supply, the Supermarkets and specialistic stores still sell bottled water from the four corners of the world. The youth of the city as well as carrying their cell phone, they wouldn’t be seen dead without their bottle of water. There is a snob value to this bottled water as well and some will only imbibe exotic water from France or the USA. So naturally there are shops catering for this demand and import water from the four corners of the earth. This is unbelievable when the best water is available from their tap and free.

New Zealand could make a killing here to take advantage of this demand for pure drinking water. We have several Large pristine rivers on the West Coast, miles from any habitation that could be exploited, and would effect no one and greatly benefit our Nation. Even the mention of this brings out the rabid ‘Green Brigade’ with their ‘Dog in the Manger’ attitude, and one hundred reasons why it shouldn’t be done. I suppose we should be grateful that they are in a minority in Parliament and they have no influence how we live. Could you ever manage to think what it would be like to be married to one?

I will now close this letter off, go and take a hot shower, free of chlorine, with water I can even drink should I want.

Greenpeace activists today are busy giving the Japanese Whaling Fleet a hard time. I’m not sure why they are so intent on saving Whales, their last campaign was against Nucleor Testing in the Pacific, or anywhere for that matter. Yes I can relate to that, but then as always, they pushed a little too hard and came away with a Bloody Nose. We now know it was the French Secret Service who sank their vessel, ‘Rainbow Warrior’ while moored in Auckland. A couple of small bombs did the job when they became a little too annoying. I had actually been down to the Auckland wharves that very same day when the deed was carried out. I had been making a visit to an Out Board Agency, intent on buying a replacement part for my own ‘odd ball’ engine while in Auckland. I actually saw this highly painted green boat, decorated with a huge rainbow painted on it’s side. I didn’t know then what all the attention and fuss, that people were making over it. Or even that it was the centre of the Greenpeace protest movement, as I didn’t live in Auckland. What a dummy I was, I didn’t know either, that soon it would be sunk, more to the point after the bombing, attracting worldwide interest. I really wasn’t much interested in what they were up to, everyone and his Uncle were at this time busy protesting about most things. I considered they were just another Bunch of nerds, with too much time on their hands. Then came the explosion, this blew their protest onto the front page of newspapers around the world. Not exactly what the French wanted. The French Secret Service who did the deed escaped, but turned out to be a clumsy bunch, who really didn’t deserve to get away with this act. I formed the opinion that at this time, the French Secret Service must be an easy organisation to get employment in as they seemed to behave like rank amateurs.

Today Greenpeace is in just about as much danger if they keep on pushing the parameters of their protest. This technic of ramming at high speed to frustrate the Whale Catchers can only result in grief. At some point the Japanese will strike back, and the Antarctic is not the place for these high stake games, however well intentioned. Further more, the pristine environment of the Antarctica shouldn’t be put under such a threat by these clowns. Which is exactly what they are doing. Any serious damage sustained, Japanese or Greenpeace, could cause an irreversible situation which would be unforgivable, no matter how just they consider their cause. Oil and other fuel could contaminate the continent and bird life for a hundred years.

The Whales after being hunted nearly to extinction have made a wonderful recovery, they could now sustain some culling. But I don’t think, no matter how great their recovery that hunting will ever be condoned. There will always be a Greenpeace or like organisation busy riding shotgun on them. I’m not sure what the love affair with Greenpeace and the whales is all about. Maybe it’s because the Whales have a large brain, and it’s said to be intelligent. I don’t how you would measure this, but we too have many humans with big brains, and it’s no measure of their intelligence. Many of these have never had an original thought in all their lives. The height of their ambition for many seems to be a member of a gang and spend their lives being lead around by their nose.

I know the Japanese like whale meat, as do the Norwegians and Eskimos. I haven’t tried it, but have eaten a Dolphin Steak given to me by a fisherman. If given a choice of take it or leave it, I think now I would just leave it, as the dolphin meat was a little too fishy for my taste. I have read somewhere that whale meat was on sale in England during the War, possibly from Norwegians vessels that evaded capture when their country was overrun by Germany during the War II.

I’m very wary of all the ‘Green’ movements. They seem to attract on their fringe, an element that considers any action they take should be condoned by the world at large, no matter how extreme. In my mind, many times they are just plain Terrorists.

The new school year has started, it’s reported that in many cases there is also a grumpy teaching staff coming back to School as well. It seems the teachers are not refreshed, full of complaints regarding the new Reporting System the Government is introducing. In my mind many shouldn’t even be in this profession at all, and from time to time my view is continually being reinforced. There is a glaring need for a reporting system and informing parents progress of their children. I speak from our personal experience gained from the hands in the system. If the reported News is to believed, some Headmasters are ready to do battle with the Minister of Education over the reporting of progress of students. All doing their damnest to fudge the introduction, demanding trials, and anything else they can dream up to delay. They lost this battle long ago when ‘Today’s Schools’ was introduced by David Lange, then some of their power was largely transferred over to the School Committees. I could tell them, stop wasting time, this is one battle they are not going to win. I have no sympathy for them at all. As well I have a personal axe to grind. For all that, the teacher’s Union who seem to be the force behind their campaign, all powerful, but not as bad as the Teacher’s Union in New York as reported this week in ‘Time Magazine’. There according to the article, the power there that Union wields is unbelievable, it’s near impossible for the authorities to fire a teacher, even one accused of a crime, or worse, a drug addition. Also in New York Authorities are even forbidden by law to evaluate teacher performance by using student test results. ‘Union again’. It would seem our teachers are or would like to go down the same path.

Years ago when we had children at school, one so called teacher tried his damnedest to damage my son’s education because, he considered that I questioned his ability as an educator. It started simply enough with the question over dinner. ‘What did you do at School today, Son?’. He replied, ‘Gardening’. On subsequent occasions our questions were the same, And always a one word reply, ‘Gardening’. This didn’t seem right to me, so I made a visit to see his teacher who confessed that he had a classroom of these, ‘Dummies’, (his words) and rather than have them disrupting his classes and wasting his time, he had kept them occupied by working in the school gardens. On reporting this to Jessie, my ‘mother in law’ who was also a teacher. She in her time had brought up many ‘Lame Dogs’ to speed, and gave them a start in life. Her reaction was an immediate, and resulted in a visit by the family to the Otago University to have our boy accessed, and to find out if there was anything wrong with his brain, or for that matter his learning ability. ‘Above average’, was their verdict. But you should know, he can’t read. To assist us we were given a list of helpful reading material that we should obtain. ‘Give this to your teacher, you will have to pay for it as you can’t access it yourself’. We did just this, and the result was the teacher ‘Williams’ flew into a rage, that we had the audacity to challenge his ability as a teacher, and go over his head for help. As far as the sourcing of any reading material, that would come under the heading of, ‘Passive Resistance’ nothing was done in spite of repeated inquiries. A short time later it was time to move on to Waitaki High, I went along with my son to enrol him. The Rector John Donaldson was on an enforced Sabbatical, and the Assistant Archie Gibb was in charge. I told him why I was present, and what are they going to do about my situation. He told me they I had no idea of the enormity of their problem. They had classrooms of these ‘non readers’ and they were bringing back a retired Headmaster from Waimate School to run a remedial reading programme. What a treasure he was, he kept me in touch by reporting weekly. We did our part by introducing and reading with Rod every exciting book in the Library. It would seem to me, the problem arose when educators changed from the ‘Phonetic’ method of teaching students to read, to something called ‘Look and See’. The teacher at the Intermediate could claim that he too was a victim of the system, but in my mind he was really was part of the problem. He made no effort to advise the parents what was going on, and when we entered the picture, he was obstructive. As I saw it, he was the one who should have been the person out Gardening

Rod would have made a good gardener, but as it turned out he was able to manage a Bank. Young Doug Maxwell when I was discussing this article, he said that he had the same problem, Now he considered that he had dropped out of University because of problems he was having expressing himself with ‘English’. He too overcame his handicap, and rose to the top of another profession. I came across many adults in my daily life who were the same, or worse. l was quick to zero in on their problem, and helped them with form filling in, or their cheque writing, pretending I wasn’t aware of their problem. My wife a nurse at the Medical Centre where she also had several others under her wing. Many were unable even to fill in the admission paper to see the doctor. The damage these people did to many in our community is unforgivable.

My hope for the future is that teachers will see the light and perhaps start thinking for themselves, and not be lead around by control freaks.

In my youth one of the Institutions that controlled and played a large part in our daily lives was a most unlikely candidate, the Post Office. It’s hard to believe that it had such a profound effect on our lives, even though it was completely and tightly wrapped up in Government ‘Red Tape’. At that time the Post Office seemed to have a finger in every pie, it was the number one business centre in most towns. Sure it was an extension of our Government, but to be fair at that time we couldn’t have managed without it. It was the mail centre, telegraph Office, and as well the only interface to the Government, being the payer of all the Government’s pensions and Child allowances. As well the sole operator of the New Zealand Telephone systems and of course, our Telegram service.

The Post Office was the licensing agent for most of the Government’s other activities such as the tightly controlled Radio, both the transmitting and receiving mediums. In addition, it also ran a well structured Banking Service which paid interest on Savings accounts. This was only 3½%, the going rate at the time. Of course it was also responsible too for it’s core business, ‘Mail Delivery’, the sale and issue of Postal Stamps. As you can see it was all powerful, and if you weren’t happy with the service you just had to put up with it, as there was no second choice. It was inevitable that some employees took advantage of the situation and became very pedantic and difficult to deal with if should you step outside what they considered the accepted norm.

With the telegraph and cable systems available, the Trading Banks used them in a very efficient manner to speedily transfer money and cheques around New Zealand and the World. Every Bank Branch had a Code Book and a ‘Key’ which was changed at regular intervals, and as well additional security was built in with several ‘Tests’ to guard against any fraud. I never heard of anyone taking advantage of this cheap method of dispatching money around the Country which had evolved over time and was delightfully simple. For instant, there was one word for any registered address. Then say for example to take the code word ‘CAADF’ This said when expanded, ‘Pay and advise…….The sum of…..Currency…..Sent by….. And all you had to do then was fill in the gaps. Of course, the Gaps were also in code. A final check, was a ‘test’ number made up from several components of the message. Of course there were hundreds of additional five letter codes available to cover every contingency.

Another one of the organisations that we depended on was the Friendly Societies. They were a grouping of benefit Lodges such as the Odd Fellows, Foresters, Buffaloes, and perhaps even more. They had amalgamated to provide and subsidise both the Medical Services and Medication. These friendly Societies or Lodges were all very wealthy institutions, albeit from only the small sums all members paid in weekly. They were a godsend to those for all those who suffered from ill health. Some of their social benefits even extended to monetary matters and they even lent money to members for housing.

When I joined the Banking Service, any machine within their hallowed walls was a rare item indeed. There was the odd mechanical adding machine, but certainly no calculating machines. All calculations had to be carried out with pen and paper. I enjoyed a very rapid promotion by being put in charge of a Ledger Department of a City Bank. I felt that this was not because of any outstanding ability of mine, but I suspected is was because no one else wanted to have a bar of working with Women, or these new Fangled Machines, that were being introduced. I loved the job and the new challenge, which evolved day by day until the ultimate technological arrived, in the form of a computer.

The Railways also played a large part in our early life. The Railway Stations were the show piece of spit and polish and their many brass fittings were polished daily. They all as well seemed to have show gardens that were all kept to a pristine standard. The Christchurch Station also boasted a set of six or eight highly polished bronze doors which I admired every time I passed through. However the once imposing Station has now been sold and Rail activities relocated to a small inferior building on the edge of the town. The old Railway Station has been born again as a Movie Multiplex. Yes, the bronze doors are still there in the foyer, but it’s not the same. Today they are a sorry sight, grimy, and covered in verdigris. I’m not happy with what’s happening, with the efforts of the graffiti delinquents and the steady decline in our standards we will soon be living in a ghetto unless steps are taken to arrest this trend.