First Down the Mines

Te Ao Hou, March 1966, Page 5

First Down the Mines ‘After this my father secured a permanent job with the Mines Department and our lot greatly improved. He sent us to the Maori school and later to the Huntly school. For a number of reasons, mostly lack of finance, this was all the formal education I received, much as I desired more. ‘I remember that my father was the first Maori to go underground on that mining job. No self-respecting Waikato then would venture into the bowels of Hine Nui i te Po. Father did, and apart from improving our family's situation, he bought himself a coveted pair of duck trousers. This blew up his chest in joyous conceit and set his bare feet underneath them prancing, as he showed off the cut of his fancy pants to his gaping mates. After this the old tapu was laid aside as other Maoris increasingly ventured into the mines to seek their livelihood. ‘From school I went to work till World War One intervened with my period of overseas service. After my discharge from the army in 1919 I worked as a fitter at Rotowaro. My earnest desire was to save enough money to buy a piece of land and this wish I cherished deep within me.’ From Rotowaro Bill went to Wairoa to skipper the Wairoa harbour board's tug; later he worked on the Waikokopu breakwater. ‘It was at this time,’ Bill said, his eyes softening, ‘that I married my wife, who was Ngaurupa Paki of Huntly.’ He and his wife decided to take on one of the cook-houses for the construction workers on the Napier-Gisborne railway line, which was then being built. This proved most successful. Later he gained valuable experience managing a cattle farm at Drury. Then they moved to Taranaki where Bill leased two properties. Bill recalls, ‘My wife milked the cows on one farm while I contracted for harvesting and drain digging. Our children were coming along. This made us work all the harder.