Kiwi culture paintings

A little shop that has been operating in Lambton Quay, Wellington, for several months now is Moana Road, a supplier of Kiwiana paintings and prints. These two, "Holden at the beach" and "Pick-up truck in the field" could easily be Australian scenes as well, but most of the scenes on offer are distinctively New Zealand.

June 2011 update

The shop on Lambton Quay has now closed.

Busmen anecdotes sought for a book

If you have been a bus driver or someone or know was, and have anecdotes to share, amusing or otherwise, then we will be pleased to get them for a book tentatively called "On the Buses".

We are more interested in the past than the present and unfortunately we have to confine our coverage to NZ only. Give us a ring or send us an e-mail.

Roxburgh branch railway

Those who liked the photos of the Roxburgh Branch in New Zealand 1950s Steam in Colour, whetting their appetite for more, should find this substantial volume compiled and published by Bill Cowan to their satisfaction.

Roxburgh was one of the two great branch lines into Central Otago, stretching 95 km to its terminus, and like the more famous of the two - the 236 km Otago Central Railway - ended its days supporting the construction of a hyropower dam, albeit in 1968, 22 years before the end of the OCR.

This book's 256 (actually 304) A4 size pages could have been reduced somewhat by judicial pruning and re-laying out with no loss of significant content and the saving in paper used for a hardcover which would have befitted it more than the flexicover with flaps. But needless to say, it contains pretty much everything that both the local history and railway enthusiast will want to know. The illustrations include station and yard plans, the NZR gradient profile (although it needs a magnifying glass) and a large number of photos, including 32 pages in colour. No doubt as a pre-emptive defense against the grumpy gits who expect everything to look like it was taken yesterday, he states, "Photos included are the best quality available. Those of poorer quality are included to illustrate a particular detail." Actually most of them are good, although quite a few have been printed too light.

In common with other NZ rural branchlines after World War 2 the variety of motive power was slight - essentially A & Ab steamers and, right at the end, Dj diesels. Nevertheless the lovely Otago Central scenery the line ran through is what made it stand out.

The Wairua shoots the rapids a century ago

This vessel is the Wairua, seen shooting rapids on the Wanganui river circa 1912. She was one of Hatrick's single-screw steamers, later converted to diesel motor and could carry 87 passengers. She has now been restored and is in use on the Whanganui River (note this is now the offical spelling!). Website

Kevin Milne leaves Fair Go after 27 years

Since 1983, fellow Kapiti Coaster Kevin Milne has headed TVNZ's Fair Go program, battling dodgy products and dodgy traders, petty crooks and scam artists, and stupid decisions by dimwitted bureaucrats - mostly in insurance companies, banks and local government. The result has been a compelling and often entertaining half hour program.

Good on yer, and all the best, Kev. Here is the Fair Go tribute video.

His last appearance is on next week's annual best and worst ad (TV commercial) awards as voted by viewers.

Inquest into 7/7 now underway

On 6 July 2005 this writer made several trips on London's Underground railway system, the last being to Heathrow Airport about 10 pm to catch a flight to Asia.

Ten hours later at peak time, lunatic Muslim suicide bombers began their program of murder, carnage and mayhem on three Underground trains and a London Transport bus. Among the 52 who died was a New Zealand woman. Many more were badly injured.

Yet more Muslim nutter-gangsters tried to repeat the horror a few weeks later, but fortunately this time their devices were faulty, they were caught and sentenced to lengthy jail terms.

Over 5 years later the inquest is now being conducted into 7/7. We are not sure what purpose it will serve as everyone knows what the problem is, but maybe some useful measures will result on dealing with the problem.

The book Into the Darkness - the story of 7/7 is available in our online shop.

The Ionic

Yesterday a customer rang saying he had read Peter Plowman's book Migrant Ships to Australia and New Zealand 1900 - 1939 , co-published by us, but he had made a mistake about the Ionic. The ship could not have been scrapped in 1908 because he had a certificate saying a relative had sailed on it leaving the UK in December 1922.

As we suspected, he had read page 11 of the book but had not got as far as page 68 - there were two ships with that name. The one which lasted to the end of 1936 was one of three sisters, the others being the Athenic and the Corinthic. (Note that a description as "sister ships" means that the ships closely resemble each other, but are not necessarily identical.)

Here are photos of the two ships - which one is which? This time gentle reader, we are going to let you read the book to find out!

Before the days of political correctness

Given all the fuss over former TVNZ Breakfast presenter Paul Henry's remarks about whether someone of Indian origin should be Governor General and an Indian woman's surname, it is worth reflecting on what was perfectly acceptable 80 years ago! Here is a page from the original edition of the bande dessinée or comic book Tintin au Congo from 1931 - which accurately reflected the Belgians' attitude about the population of their then colony! It was later redone in 1946 in a colour version with some of the content toned down.

"Silence! You are going to repair your dirty little machine!"
"Dirty little machine!"
"Yes your dirty little trick"
"Go! To work!"
"Me tired"
"Have you no shame? Letting a dog do all the work!"
"Go, lazy bunch! To work..."
"Are you going to work, yes or no?"
"But I'm going to get dirty"

Looking the opposite direction towards Mana

As a continuation of the previous post, here is a photo looking the opposite direction, also in 1949, but we don't know who the picture was taken by.

Quite a few houses have been built, but there was as yet very little commercial development and the railway line is still single track, despite having been being electrified about 10 years earlier. The track was not straightened and duplicated until the beginnning of the 1960s.

The Mana Station, at that time known as Dolly Varden, is in the background. This was named after a ship but which in turn was named after a "woman of ill-repute" so local pressure eventually saw the station renamed Mana! Who would care about that nowadays?

Restored Plimmerton Station opened

Yesterday the lengthy restoration of the railway station at Plimmerton, about 8 km north of Porirua, was complete and opened with special trains and people in period dress. Plimmerton happens to be the base of the Mainline Steam Trust, whose equipment can often been seen on their private sidings.

The above photo is a detail from an S.C. Smith photo taken in 1949.