Good Samaritan of Fox Glacier

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32703, 4 September 1971, Page 12

Good Samaritan of Fox Glacier

A West Coast saw. miller, Mr W. J. (Bill) Freitas, has established a far-flung circle of good friends, people from many parts of New Zealand and overseas. His home is in Hokitika, but much of his week he spends at the mill he leases near Fox Glacier, more than 100 miles south. On his weekly stays at the mill, kindly-natured Bill Freitas, aged 67, lives in an ordinap' mill hut, 20ft by lift, its two small rooms serving as a dwelling office. In the 10 years he’s been running the mill he has cultivated his self-imposed role of Good Samarium of Fox Glacier’s ever-growing tourist traffic, which, during the season’s peak (Christmas to end of March), can often overtax the resort’s available accommodation. But while there’s still a few square feet of floor space left in Bill Freitas’s little hut, no bona fide traveller need ever resort to sleeping out. Bill will offer him or her a free night’s “camp.” “Believe it or not, but I’ve had as many as five people staying overnight in this hut,” said Mr Freitas. Plenty of blankets He told me that apart from a spare single-bed (“take two at a pinch”), he had plenty of extra blankets, a few spare mattresses and a couple of stretchers in stock. For those wanting to get their own

meals there was an electric stove, with plenty of pots and pans. “Quite a few,” he said, “have pulled in for one night, and decided to stay two days, having their meals at the Fox Glacier Hotel 300 or 400 yards away. As well as scores of New Zealanders from all over the country, I’ve had a lot from Australia, and people from Canada, Japan, Malaya, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, South Africa and West Germany. And he has a visitor’s book to prove this. I jotted down a few comments en-

(By FRANK SNOW)

tered by some of the signatories . . .

From a Malayan: “privileged to meet such a pleasant person as you.” A Canadian: 'l’ll remember your kind hospitality.” A Londoner: “Will remember as one of most enjoyable days of my stay in New Zealand.” An Australian (Newcastle,, NSW): "one of the most kind-hearted men in the world.” A Queenslander: "You saved the day, Bill.” Another Canadian: “A lone Canuck mid the Kiwis—and loving it” And then, nearer home, a Dargaville woman: “Wish the weather was as kind as you.” A young married couple from Spreydon: "Thanks for having us. Everything spic and span.” A West Coaster Hokitika-born Bill Freitas, 6ft 2in and a third generation Coaster, told me: “I’ve had to battle for myself since I was 13 years of age.” One of a family of five (a brother, Frank, was an All Black at one stage of the 19205), Bill Freitas kicked off in life working in a Hokitika livery stables, subsequently becoming a coachdriver. At the age of 16 he was driving a Hokitika butcher's delivery cart. He then took on sawmill work. Next (19241925) he had his own taxi in Hokitika. Back then to the timber industry, employed mainly as a loco-driver in the bush. For a couple of years he managed a farm in the Cobden area for its woman owner. From there he joined the Government road service as a bus-driver, a job he stayed in for a number of years (“I was known from Westport to' Bruce Bay up and down the Coast, and inland to Otira”). He then turned publican, being licensee of the Whataroa Hotel for 4) years. Back then to the sawmilling game, in which he’s since remained. Married to a fellow-

Coaster, Bill Freitas has a grown-up family of five, four of whom live on the Coast. A son lives in Waiau, North Canterbury. There are 12 grandchildren. The Freitas’s hut stands on the fringe of the road leading from the township to Lake Matheson (4 miles) and Gillespie’s Bay (13 miles), two popular secondary drawcards for Fox Glacier visitors.

“We have,” said the easygoing sawmiller, “plenty of people, either in cars or on

fopt, who’ll stop when they spot the mill at work. So I just beckon them over and then show them around. Some of them stay watching for an hour or even more, especially those who have never had the chance before to be shown over a sawmill working.”

He added: “I’ve lived a varied life, and never did like to see anyone stuck for a bed. I know ■myself what it’s like. Anyway, I’ve always been fond of meeting new people.”