Obituaries
- Arthur David Mead
- Don ‘E.D.’Wright 1915 - 9 November 2007
- Stanley Arthur ‘Bill’ Hanson 16 December 1913 – 16 July 2006
- Arthur Desmond Pike (Des) - 1922 - 17 April 2006
- Doris Margaret Pearce 17 December 1911 – 9 May 2005
- Lily Webber 1910-2003
- Jackie Jenkins 1923 - 25 September 2003
- John Stanley Crump Hanson 5 May 1941 – 18 September 2002
- Buddy (Fredrick Ross) Lucas 22 May 1931-18 October 2002
- Barbara Agnes Way 6 October 1913 – 1 October 2002
- Desmond Byron Schubert 1921 – 22 April 2001
- Tup Oxley 29 November 1926 - 2 January 2001
- J T Diamond 21 June 1912 - 20 February 2001
- back to History page
Arthur
David Mead
“The Father of the Centennial Memorial Park”
The creation of the
Auckland Centennial Memorial Park arose out of the vision and determination
of those people who dreamed of a great park in the Waitakere Ranges, and
whose political skills and persistence led to the passage of the enabling
Act in 1941. They were supported by others who gave funds and land, so
that when the Act was passed, 3300 acres of land had already been purchased
and another 900 acres donated. But the growth and development of the Park
over the next nearly 30 years was due largely to the skill, knowledge,
vision and determination of one man, the late Arthur David Mead.
He was a civil engineer, who joined the Auckland City Council staff in
1910 at the age of 22. After service in WW1, he returned to city council
employment, on the water supply staff. He was appointed Water Works Engineer
in 1929 and remained in charge of the city’s water supply operations
until his retirement in 1953. He was a great outdoors man; he loved tramping
and the bush. As part of his council responsibilities, he thoroughly explored
the Waitakere Ranges, mainly on foot, and obtained an unrivalled knowledge
of their geology and native flora. He made and kept careful notes about
his observations. He played a significant part in the design and construction
of the Upper Nihotupu, Upper Huia and Lower Nihotupu Dams and in the acquisition
by the city council of land required for water supply purposes. He developed
a great love for the Ranges and became an ardent conservationist.
In March 1942, he was appointed the Honorary Secretary of the new Centennial
Memorial Park Board. He performed those duties in addition to his responsibilities
as Engineer in charge of the city’s water supply operations. In
May 1954, having retired from city employment, he was appointed Secretary
of the Park Board, and supervisor of its outdoor work, at a salary of
£200 pa plus £50 pa travelling expenses. He remained in that
position until 1966, by which time the Board had been merged with the
(new) Auckland Regional Authority. The Authority established its own Regional
Parks Division in 1966, and his responsibilities for the Centennial Memorial
Park ceased. (He was then aged 78!) But he continued in the capacity of
Honorary Field Advisor until March 1970 – and even then, the minutes
recorded that “With his intense interest in the Park, his experience
and advice will continue to remain available.”
As a city council employee, it was of course inappropriate for Arthur
Mead to take a public part in the campaign to create a great park in the
Ranges. But he must have been active behind the scenes. In July 1941,
even before the Park Board was constituted, it was he who had responded
on behalf of the city council to an inquiry from the Waitemata County
Council, giving the full legal descriptions of the land already acquired
or donated for the purposes of the new Park. His appointment as Honorary
Secretary was the obvious choice.
As Honorary Secretary and then as Secretary, Arthur Mead had responsibility
for management of all the Board’s affairs. At first, and throughout
his terms of office, that involved mainly negotiating many purchases of
land for inclusion in the Park. As the Park expanded and rangers came
to be employed, he also had oversight of the work of the rangers. And
of course he reported to the Board on the many issues which called for
its consideration.
In March 1942, the new Park Board started off with nearly 4300 acres of
land, a capital sum of £15,000 and the objective of expanding the
Park to 10,000 acres.
In April 1946, he reported on a scheme of development for the Park. The
Board had previously determined that “its policy (would) be to maintain
and restore as far as possible the original native condition of the Park,
with only such works as are necessary to make its points of interest accessible
to visitors.” He recommended the systematising and upgrading of
existing tracks and “the gradual formation of a continuous track
linking the whole of the reserves open to the public, including Park areas
under the control of the City Council”. In addition, he recommended
that the Board should increase its annual levy in order to provide funds
for development.
Notwithstanding that it was war-time, Arthur Mead had enabled the Board
to purchase various blocks of land at low prices. By 1947 the Park had
been enlarged to 9300 acres, but the Board had only £2000 of its
original capital unspent, and that was earmarked for negotiations in progress.
Early in 1947, he submitted a report which described in general terms
the land already acquired, the special features of land which should still
be acquired and areas of special botanical interest and restricted habitat.
The report went on to identify in detail the additional lands suitable
for inclusion in the Park, according to criteria he had defined, with
their estimated value. He recommended that an additional 8965 acres be
acquired at an estimated cost of £30,389. The Board adopted the
report and then made a public appeal for additional capital funds. But
the appeal brought in very little money. (Two things are significant about
the report. It illustrated Arthur Mead’s exhaustive knowledge of,
and vision for, the Waitakere Ranges; and full implementation of his recommendations
would have increased the size of the Park far beyond the original objective
of 10,000 acres.)
Notwithstanding the financial setback, over the years Arthur Mead continued
to patiently negotiate many purchases, which the Board financed out of
its annual levy income. It is impossible to go into detail. Perhaps 2
of the most significant occurred in 1949, when he negotiated the purchase
of 409 acres at Karekare from the Farley estate and the108 acres block
which contains Mount Donald McLean from the well-known Huia identity Bob
Gordon. By 1955 the original objective of 10,000 acres had been achieved.
In 1964, when responsibility for the Park was taken over by the new Regional
Authority, the Park comprised 12,971 acres, with several purchases still
in the process of negotiation. By 1967, just after Arthur Mead had retired
as Secretary, the Authority was able to report that recent purchases “had
placed in public ownership the coastal fringe from Whatipu to within a
mile of Piha”. By 1970, when Arthur Mead relinquished the position
of Honorary Field Advisor, the Park comprised over 14,000 acres.
After his retirement from his city council responsibilities, Arthur Mead
was able to devote more time to Centennial Memorial Park matters. In 1958,
the mamaku fern was adopted as the Park emblem, on his recommendation.
In February 1959 he reported to the Board that recent search operations
in the Ranges had indicated the desirability of adopting recognised names
for the many tracks, with defined starting and ending points, and identifying
some significant interior points. His 4 page report went on to suggest
names for 96 tracks, with short descriptions of each and their length
(in chains). The preparation of that report must have involved him in
a massive amount of field work over a period of years. It is likely that
he had tramped every track, many more than once. A submission from the
Associated Mountain Clubs led in July that year to a few modifications
to the suggestions made in his original report. His recommendations, as
modified, were adopted by the Board and led to the publication of the
first map of the tracks in the Ranges. The names adopted then remain virtually
the same today.
In November 1960, he reported that he had spent a day examining the possibility
of providing vehicular access to Mt Donald McLean. At the time, the county
road extended for only a short distance from the Whatipu Road, and from
that point it was a difficult tramp through thick scrub to the summit
(as this writer can testify from personal experience). Arthur Mead defined
the grade for a park road from the end of the county road to what is now
the parking area, and for a track from there to the summit. The Board
adopted his recommendations and the road and track were constructed in
1961.
He wrote many articles about the subjects on which he was an authority.
In 1961 he and J.A. McPherson (Director of Parks for Auckland City) wrote
a brochure The Waitakere Ranges and their Forest Parks, which included
sectional maps of the Ranges, and this was published by the Park Board.
In 1969 he wrote on The Native Flora of the Waitakere Ranges.
In 1972, he was awarded the Loder Cup, which is New Zealand’s premier
conservation award. It is: “Offered to lovers of nature in New Zealand,
to encourage the protection and cultivation of the incomparable flora
of the Dominion.”
In his retirement years, he lived in a house on the Piha Road, near its
junction with the Karekare Road, within his beloved Park. At the time
of his death in 1977 he was being cared for by his daughter in Wellington.
Three circumstances came together and enabled Auckland to have its Centennial
Memorial Park in the Waitakere Ranges. The first was the widespread public
desire of the time to create a scenic park in the Ranges. The second was
the economic climate of the day, which enabled the Park Board to acquire
large blocks of land at relatively low prices. But perhaps the most significant
of all was the appointment as the Board’s principal officer, of
the one man in Auckland who was uniquely qualified by training, experience
and vision to pursue the Board’s objectives successfully. Truly
Arthur David Mead was the “Father of Auckland’s Centennial
Memorial Park”.Arnold R. Turner December 2003.
THE CITATION
ON THE AWARD OF THE LODER CUP IN 1972:
Arthur David Mead
Auckland
Mr. Mead played an active role in the preservation of the Waitakere and
Hunua watersheds. He ensured restriction of access and introduced other
measures to safeguard the catchments, but also encouraged the establishment
of tracks and lookouts so those interested in these valuable forest areas
could make use of them for study and recreation.
Mr. Mead also urged the establishment of the Auckland Centennial Memorial
Park Board which by 1972 managed 14 000 acres of hill forest. He regularly
led nature groups and societies into the Park and helped with the building
of tracks. He also helped develop the Tongariro National Park.
As an author he published a description and checklist of Waitakere native
flora, contributed papers to the Journal of the Polynesian Society, and
being especially interested in the Maori and European history of the area,
wrote a handbook on the Wanganui River.
***************************
Don
‘E.D.’Wright 1915 - 9 November 2007
Don Wright, one of the icons
of surf lifesaving, died on Sunday 9 November. He was on his way to his
regular Grey Watch surf patrol when his van went off the Piha Road. At
88, Don was the oldest active member of Piha Surf Club and quite possibly
the oldest active member of any surf club anywhere in the world. He was
regularly to be found in the restaurant at the Piha Surf Club, of which
he was patron, and he cut a fine figure when he attended the AGM of the
club in July, resplendent in the black silver fern blazer he earned in
1950 as a member of the victorious New Zealand surf life saving team that
prevailed over the Australians.
Don first came to Piha in 1924 as a nine-year-old. His mother Irene and
her second husband Merv Otto retired to Piha in 1938 and built a bach
in Garden Road. It was from there that Don had his first adventure with
a surf ski, the piece of surf rescue equipment with which his name became
synonymous. There were already a few skis at the Piha and Karekare clubs
– Don built his first nine-foot long board with a skin of totara.
When he paddled it out, it tipped over at the back of the breakers on
North Piha beach, an experience he described as ‘frightening and
bloody lonely’.
His second ski was over twelve-foot long and he tried this one out in
front of the surf club so there were people around. It worked, and he
went on to develop the teardrop surf ski as an efficient rescue machine.
He made skis in a workshop under his house and orders came in from clubs
all over New Zealand and his designs were copied in the US. He demonstrated
the ski on film and was dominant in the sport for many years, winning
the national championship four times and the provincial championship six
times in the late 1940s and early 50s.
Don joined the Piha surf club in 1939 and held virtually every office
in the club at one time or other. Gear steward, club captain, boat captain,
president, instructor, delegate – Don did them all. He directed
the effort to build a new clubhouse, opened in 1952, and was a mentor
for younger men who joined the club. They knew him as ‘The Champ’
because he was, in Ron Cooper’s words, ‘A1 in all facets’.
For services to surf lifesaving he was made a life member of both the
Piha Club (1962) and Auckland association.
Among the many awards he gained was a Meritorious Award in Bronze which
he received from the New Zealand association for a dramatic rescue of
a man in 1962. North Piha was closed because of the heavy conditions with
surf at 20 feet. As Don tried to get out to a man who was swept out to
sea, he was continually knocked off his ski, so he dismounted as each
huge breaker crashed over him, then remounted to struggle further out.
Eventually he reached the man who was being supported by Peter Way, and
successfully brought him back to shore on his ski.
Don married Joyce and they had four children – Terrill (Stanton),
Colin, Bluey and Max. All Don’s children have been involved in the
Piha club in one way or another, as competitors, innovators and administrators.
The Wrights’ property in Rayner Road was acquired in 1946 and only
sold by Don in the last few weeks. In town he lived in Remuera, in a house
he built himself. After Joyce died in 1990, Don lived alone, and although
he often said how much he missed Joyce, he always had a second home at
Piha and many Piha friends.
Don’s love of the surf ski was matched by an obsession with boats.
He had a strong partnership with Tom Pearce in pioneering recreational
fishing on the coast, culminating in their joint ownership of the legendary
Kawerau. The double-ended Kawerau was modelled on the lines of an Australian
surf boat, but with a planing hull like a speedboat to make it go faster.
With a six-cylinder Dodge truck engine it could reach speeds of 30 knots
in the open water. The name was selected by Tom’s wife Doris from
the West Coast iwi and the boat was painted bright red so it was easily
visible. To get into the beach from out the back, the biggest waves were
selected to ensure sufficient water under the boat as it sped over the
bar. Line fishing was carried out from the Kawerau, but Don and Tom also
pioneered skin-diving with aqualungs to raid the colonies of crayfish
up the coast to Muriwai. This was dangerous work with big surges around
the rocks. Don said he ‘wore out a pair of gloves on each trip from
the rocks and the crays’. The pair had a license so sold fish and
crays back at the beach for astonishingly low prices, ‘even then
people would pinch them if they could’, Don reported. In 1954 the
two men took the Kawerau to Campbell and Raoul Islands on the coaster
Viti to land stores, and in another adventure the following year, they
joined a party which dived the wreckage of the Wiltshire off Great Barrier
Island, Tom and Don being the only members of the party not wearing rubber
suits as they didn’t feel the cold. Later, he built a kauri launch
and there were always plenty of hands willing to accompany Don on fishing
trips.
Don never gave up on his love affair with the sea, surf and boats. People
said that if you were ever stuck with a boat that had broken down, as
some surf club members were once on the Manukau Bar, the best person to
have on board to fix it was Don Wright. He represented the fast disappearing
first generation of Piha surf club members and will be sadly missed by
many on the Coast.
Sandra Coney
Stanley
Arthur ‘Bill’ Hanson 16 December 1913 – 16 July 2006
A lover of the West Coast and a loyal participant in Piha’s Anzac
Day parades died in July. Bill Hanson loved the annual gathering and wouldn’t
have missed it for anything, even though as his health failed he had to
get down to Lion Rock in a four-wheel drive.
He had his own proud record of service, being a captain and quartermaster
in the Royal New Zealand Signals. He completed army service in 1946, but
remained a territorial and attended annual camps into the 1950s.
His association with the West Coast began when he joined the Karekare
Surf Club in its second year. He was club treasurer when war broke out
and arranged the affairs of the club so it could go into recess as fit
men went into the war effort.
In 1940 he married Betty Crump, and the growing Hanson family spent holidays
at Karekare before shifting their loyalties to Piha, where they used a
local bach before building in Garden Rd.
There were seven in the Hanson tribe – John, Peter, Robert, David,
Andrew, Mark and Elizabeth. At their Blockhouse Bay home, set in wide
lawns with a large garden, Bill used his homegrown labourforce to keep
up a supply of vegetables, poultry and fruit for the dinner table. A hard
worker and perfectionist, he expected the same of his family. He loved
competition and had a great deal of success at breeding birds and showing
Great Danes, Sidney Silkies and other breeds.
As a young man Bill excelled at athletics and hockey, but bowls, both
indoor and outdoor, became his great obsession. He was involved in several
city clubs, especially the Portage Bowling Club, and played bowls at the
national competition level. During the summer he enjoyed bowls at the
Piha Bowling Club.
Meanwhile, when not bringing up a large family, Betty got involved in
education politics, then represented Piha for many years on the Waitakere
Community Board. Son John was immersed in surf life saving until his untimely
death in 2002.
With a growing brood of grandchildren, Bill was proud of his family’s
accomplishments and was always interested in what they were doing. As
his mobility decreased, he spent his last 18 months at the Ranfurly War
Veterans Home in Mt Albert where he passed away. Another old soldier Gone
West.
Arthur Desmond Pike (Des) - 1922 - 17 April 2006
Des Pike, one of
Piha’s legends, died on 17 April, aged 84 years.
The past President and life member of Piha Surf Life Saving Club and Piha
Bowling Club was farewelled by a large turn-out of the Piha community
in a memorial service at the Piha Bowling Club on 29 April.
Des first came to Piha in 1936 as a 14-year-old. He grew up in Northcote
and studied mechanical engineering at Seddon Memorial Technical College
(which became AUT), where he was head prefect. He spent much of World
War Two working for the DSIR, making automatic gun sights, submarine detectors
and the like. During the war, Des represented Auckland and later Wellington
at rugby, and Auckland at cricket. He joined the Piha Surf Club after
a doctor suggested swimming would help him heal from a rugby injury.
Soon after the war Des married Avis, before heading off without her to
complete an Army stint in Japan. The couple then settled in Mt Wellington,
raising Gary, Lynn and Wayne. (The Pike tribe now includes 4 grandchildren
and 3 great grandchildren.) Every weekend, the family came to Piha, staying
in cabins and then with Tiger O’Brien. In 1956, they bought a quarter
acre on Marine Parade North for 150 pounds and built a bach on it.
Des and Avis were both musical. Avis sang and Des regularly played tea
chest base for the Puhoi Bohemian Band at the Puhoi Pub. All three children
have also performed music, in various bands.
Des served as president of the Piha Surf Club from 1967 to 1971 and was
patron from 1983 to 1990. In 1983 he joined the Piha Bowling Club and,
true to form, won the first year singles. Des served as President of the
Bowling Club for 12 years, became a Life Member and was Patron for the
past four years. He also gave sterling service on the Domain Working Party
over a number of years.
Several years ago Des moved to Kaponga in Taranaki with his son. He quickly
became an identity in that neighbourhood as was attested at his funeral.
He continued to visit Piha regularly to catch up with old friends. Des
had a prodigious memory and could entertain for hours with his stories
of old exploits at Piha. He will be sadly missed.
Doris
Margaret Pearce 17 December 1911 – 9 May 2005
Doris Pearce died in her 94th year. She came out to Piha on the Saturday
of Anzac weekend, sat and looked at the Lion Rock from the veranda of
her bach, heard the surf and went to bed after dinner and didn’t
really wake up.
Mum was probably the last of the generation who bought land from the original
subdivision of Piha by the Rayner Estate in the 1930s and built baches
at Piha.
She was born Doris Morgan in 1911 to parents who had emigrated from the
gold fields in Ballarat, and attended Ellerslie Primary School. In 1924
she won a Junior National Scholarship to go to Seddon Memorial Technical
College where she excelled in her commercial course. From there she went
to the Public Trust Office as a shorthand typist which is where she met
Tom Pearce when he came to work there in 1930.
Mum was a very attractive young woman with dark sloe eyes and brown wavy
hair. She liked nice clothes and picked up designer gowns in the sales.
She had a strong shapely physique and excelled at sports.
At that time Dad was wrestling and playing senior rugby, so their joint
love of sport was part of the attraction, although Dad disapproved of
women taking part in athletics. He had been biking out to Piha since he
was 14 and he was lucky that when he introduced Mum to the place she fell
irrevocably in love with it. Dad had a Rex Speed King motorbike, and Mum
sometimes drove it over the hair-raising roads with Dad as pillion.
At first she and the girlfriends of Dad’s friends – Olive
Chapman and Barbara Way – stayed in various baches – Miss
Melville’s, Miss Rankin’s (the old Rayner house) and Cullens
- while the men stayed in tents. When Dad joined the surf club, the men
stayed there. In 1938, they acquired their first property at Piha, choosing
it for the superb view. As Rayner Road was not built, they had to drag
everything up the steep hill from Sylvan Avenue. The property was in Mum’s
name as she paid for it month by month from her earnings teaching at night-school.
Mum was sceptical about Dad’s ability to save and delayed marriage
until they had 100 pounds in the bank. They had their priorities right,
for at this stage they did not own a house in town.
The first bach was a car-case that the surf club men hauled up the hill.
Their honeymoon was spent there, an idyll that was dramatically interrupted
by a major fire in Beach Valley Road, the celebrated ‘body in the
burning bach’ case.
Once my sister and I were born, a pattern was established. Every weekend
and every school holiday was spent at Piha, with Mum making massive bottling,
baking and other preparations for the sojourn at Piha. The bach she lovingly
decorated with great flair, doing much of it herself..
Dad died in 1976 and Mum had a long widowhood, but her loyalty to Piha
was unwavering. She loved all the native trees and kept inventories of
what she found on her property. Our friends visiting Piha would frequently
find Mum with gloves and a large knife, cutting pampas out by hand. A
trip down the beach would take her hours as she punctuated her journey
with long conversations with anyone she could find to chat to on the way.
In her later years, Mum continued to drive out to Piha in her ‘one
lady owner’
Triumph Dolomite, a powerful but heavy vehicle. She took the road at speed
and people in Rayner Road said they could hear the gravel scattering as
Mum swung around the bends.
She loved going to watch the tennis at the Piha Tennis Club and a highlight
was hitting a ball with the Mayor at the club’s 50th anniversary
when she was 85. She kept swimming till she was nearly 90 and she loved
having a steak at the Piha Surf Club, where she was a vice-president.
Even though she was admitted very ill to Auckland Hospital, she was determined
to get to her 90th birthday at the club in 2001, where she met up with
old friends, many, like Barbara Way and Don Wright, now sadly gone. Her
favourite pastime of all was sitting on her veranda smoking a cigarillo.
She was the matriarch of our family, the repository of our family memories,
values and stories. Her indomitable strength of character came out in
her final years when she struggled to keep her independence in the face
of daunting disability.
Mum was buried with Dad at Waikumete. With her into her grave she took
a handful of Piha sand, her swimsuit, a favourite photo of Dad with the
mill donkeys, and many sprigs of the kowhai, pohutukawa and karamu that
grow on the land that she so loved.
Sandra Coney
One of Piha’s
oldest personalities died on 26 June and a large crowd of Piha devotees
gathered at her funeral to celebrate a long and joyful life. Lily Webber
was diminutive but radiated enjoyment of life. She greatly loved Piha
and in her latter years could spend a whole day watching the ever-changing
ocean from the window of the Webber house on the beachfront. Her husband
Claude, Piha surf club president and chairman 1955-56, began a family
tradition of association with the club. Three generations of Webbers have
served in the Piha surf club and right to the end Lily loved a meal at
the club where, with her family around her, she could see old friends
and familiar faces.
Lily was born in Glasgow and came to New Zealand with her family when
she was 15. The family was unsure about settling here and went back to
Scotland, Lily finding a position as a dressmaker in London. After a year,
the family came back for good and it wasn’t too long before Lily
met her husband-to-be when she went to dances at The Orange Ballroom in
Newton with her sister Lena. Claude Webber played the trumpet in the Snappy
Six band at the hall, and the sight of Lily dancing with another man is
said to have caused Claude to blow on his trumpet especially loud, from
agitation.
But Claude won his girl and the couple began a long and happy marriage.
Brian was the first child, born in 1940, followed by Graeme, Francis and
Angela, all inheriting Lily’s striking auburn hair. Claude had been
an apprentice jeweller to his father – when the apprenticeship was
finished he opened his own shop in Ponsonby, then moved to Queen Street
where he and his oldest son did business for many years. Claude’s
profession explains the to-die-for diamonds and other jewels that Lily
wore even at relatively casual events. Lily was always immaculately groomed
and stylish.
Piha reminded Claude Webber of his Cornish birthplace and the family first
camped, then rented baches. Around 1950, the family bought a house built
by Gwyn Denning on a property adjoining the surf club. Claude’s
key role in the club was fund-raising, and he gave silver cups to the
club as prizes. In those years, Lily brought up her family and was hostess
when Claude showed films he had shot at cinema nights and outdoor movies.
Lily was lively and outgoing and Piha provided plenty of opportunities
for socialising. The journey from the Webber house to the water’s
edge could take Lily and her good friend and neighbour Dorothy Lamont
considerable time as they stopped to chat to friends on the way. Lily
had a great love of the sea and continued to swim till late in her life.
Claude died in 1991, but Lily continued to live in the Mt Eden home the
family had moved to in 1940, in recent years with a caregiver. A devout
Catholic she also enjoyed church and visits from the priest. Virtually
every weekend she would come to Piha where she would stay with one or
other of her children. There she had all her children around her - there
are nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Son Brian says there was also a creative side to Lily. She loved reading,
composed poems and kept a vivid diary of events in her life. She retained
her Scottish accent all her life and at her funeral Larry Rountree told
of Lily singing ‘Danny Boy’ over the entire Northern Lifeguard
radio network. She loved everything about Piha and always reminded her
children how lucky they were to be able to go there. She will be sadly
missed.
Jackie Jenkins 1923 - 25 September 2003
Members of three
Piha clubs – bowling club, surf club and RSA – were saddened
by the death on 25 September 2003 of Jackie Jenkins, aged 80. A quiet,
self-effacing man, with an engaging sense of humour, Jackie had a sporting
history as distinguished as any of the elite sportsmen who came to Piha
in the 1930s. His chosen sport was boxing, which he took up at the age
of 13 when living at Gisborne with his family.
In 1935 the family moved to Arch, Hill, Auckland. Tutored by Eugene Donovan,
from 1938 Jenkins won an astonishing number of amateur boxing titles,
in paperweight, bantamweight, featherweight, welterweight and lightweight
classes. Described by those who saw him as a brilliant and consummate
boxer he regularly won the title of most scientific practitioner of the
code. By 1946, when he was 23 years old, he was described as ‘the
country’s outstanding amateur fighter…it is a tribute to his
skill that his face is practically unmarked. He bears no apparent scars
from the numerous ring battles in which he has engaged.’
He was only defeated about five times in 140 contests and in 1942 won
the New Zealand welterweight title and in 1946 the lightweight title.
In the Second World War Jackie joined the army but was recalled by his
former employer for essential industry. He later joined Dominion Motors
as a welder and in 1947 was badly burned so that he was unable to box
for many months, thus missing out on selection for the 1948 Olympic Games.
He turned professional in 1949 and had some significant wins in New Zealand
and overseas.
He was introduced to Piha in 1939 by wrestler and surf club member Hadyn
Way and joined the Piha Surf Club in 1941. His love for Piha was instant
and he bought a Rayner Road section in 1939, paying it off weekly. In
1952 friends helped him build Castel Fisticana where he lived until he
recently moved into the Aaron Court resthome.
In 1962 he transferred his sporting talents to the Piha Bowling Club where
he won the first year singles in the year he joined. He went on to win
many tournaments, his last in 2001 playing in drawn pairs with Graham
Ashdown. He was notable throughout the Auckland bowling scene for his
gentlemanly and sportsmanlike demeanour on the green, a strength that
had won him so much admiration in his boxing days. He was a life member
of the Piha club.
Jackie also possessed another surprising talent. He was a very good photographer
and made many sensitive black and white portraits of Piha that perfectly
captured the moods of the skies and seas of the Western ocean.
The Piha Bowling Club has a cabinet displaying Jackie’s trophies.
More have been found as his house was cleaned out including a belt, training
mits, and his boxing boots. These will join the other items at the bowling
club as a lasting tribute to a good friend and great sporting champion.
Sandra Coney
John Stanley Crump Hanson 5 May 1941 – 18 September 2002
A devoted supporter
of the surf lifesaving movement in New Zealand, John was the son of Betty
and Bill Hanson of Garden Road. The husband of Caroline, father of two
sons and grandfather of eight grandchildren, John spent many years in
the Nelson region and only more latterly spent a great deal of time at
Piha. John was a cheerful, unassuming man who did not broadcast his wide
service to the community. As well as his involvement with surf-lifesaving,
he gave stalwart service to credit unions in New Zealand, including Maori
credit unions.
He was a founding member of the Rarangi Surf Life Saving Club where he
also worked closely with Nelson Sea Rescue. His great love was IRB racing
and he attended racing carnivals all around New Zealand, at regional and
national level, acting as a marshall and official. His obituary in Surf
Rescue New Zealand described him, megaphone at the mouth, calling instructions
to competitors at events. When he moved to Auckland for health reasons,
he quickly became involved in the Piha Surf Club.
He became a member of the finance committee, valued for his knowledge
of surf life saving as well as financial matters, a position he held at
the time of his sudden death. His involvement was regarded as a coup for
the club. John was always available for financial advice or the more hands-on
work of organising club days. He will be missed at the club, and by his
large family and friends.
Buddy (Fredrick Ross) Lucas 22 May 1931 - 18 October 2002
There was shock when
news spread that Buddy Lucas was seriously ill and disbelief when this
fit, vigorous man died. Around 500 gathered at Piha Surf Club to farewell
Buddy and watch him to take his last circuit around Piha - this time in
the Westpac Helicopter instead of walking his dogs.
Buddy was the only child of Ida (born Oxspring) and Freddy Lucas, a former
All Black in the legendary Invincibles, who first came to Piha with friends
Monte and Selma Winter and camped in the camping ground. The Lucases built
a bach a few doors from the surf club, which Buddy made his home when
he retired.
He grew up in Owairaka and went to Kowhai Intermediate and Mt Albert Grammar.
He loved swimming from an early age, learning by paddling up and down
in the Blue Pool and then had formal lessons from the legendary 'Professor'
Anderson at the Tepid Baths, and later Reg Thomas. He was the swimming
champion at Mt Albert Grammar, and went on to win national championships
and a place in the 1950 British Empire Games squad when the Games, the
first since 1938, were held in Auckland. The 880 yards freestyle relay
team of which Buddy was a member took first place, and Buddy also won
bronze in both the 440 yards freestyle (a New Zealand record) and 1,650
yards freestyle events.
The following year Buddy became the first New Zealander to win a swimming
scholarship to an American university when he went to Iowa State University
to train under the top US coaches. Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey recalled
how glamorous Buddy seemed to the young surfers who used to gather at
the Lucases menswear store in Queen Street, when Buddy came home with
an all American blond flat top.
In a controversial decision, Buddy was not chosen for the 1952 Olympic
Games in Helsinki, but at the 1954 Empire Games in Vancouver he won a
silver as part of the medley relay team, swimming the freestyle leg.
He was a glorious natural swimmer and Ron Cooper spoke at the funeral
of watching a pod of dolphins joining Buddy surfing on the waves, soon
after he came back from America with a revolutionary dolphin kick.
Buddy had joined Piha Surf Club in 1944 and in 1949-50 won the junior
national surf race and in 1951 the senior surf race. On his return from
the US in 1957 he devoted himself to surf life saving, following his father's
record to become club captain (1970-71) and then president from 1972-89.
His peers honoured him by awarding him life membership of Piha and Auckland
surf lifesaving. He was a member of the Greypower patrol at Piha at the
time of his death.
Over a decade ago Buddy retired to Piha where he lived with son Greg,
and then Greg's wife Sian and babies. He was a strength to his whole family
- Greg, Sian, Brad and Sue, Liane and AJ, and adored his grandchildren
- Cody, Callum, Staci, Dana and Shae.
Many at the funeral commented on Buddy's daily walk around Piha with his
beloved dogs. It was as if he was checking up that everything was in harmony
and order in Piha and that at the end of the day he needed to know all
was well in his world. He had a wave for everyone he passed and would
often stop for a chat. People remember Buddy as someone who was not harsh
or critical but always had a kind, friendly word. He managed to keep above
the rows, arguments, factions and feuds at Piha. Friend Rodger Curtice
said at his funeral that he was 'modest in victory and generous in defeat,
Buddy set an outstanding example as a sportsman and his quiet demeanour
made him popular with thousands of New Zealanders.'
Barbara Agnes Way 6 October 1913 – 1 October 2002
The Ways –
Hadyn and Barbara - were among the early bach owners at Piha, their distinctive
circular-front roughcast house is still prominent on the lower side of
Seaview Road. Barbara was an elegant powerful swimmer and an early woman
lifesaver, though Piha surf club did not allow women members when the
Ways came to Piha.
Barbara was born Barbara Crowther at Taihape, one of 9 children, and lived
in a number of North Island towns before coming to Auckland. She lived
for swimming and was a founding member of the Milford Girls’ Surf
Life Saving Club, founded in 1932. Water ballet was another of Barbara’s
loves and she instructed troupes of performers at the Tepid Baths for
years, until water ballet (now synchronised swimming) fell out of fashion.
In the 1930s Barbara met Hadyn Way and started coming to Piha. Hadyn,
known as ‘The Grap’, was a big man who raced motorcycles,
wrestled and surfed. His love of the water matched Barbara’s and
the couple lived for the weekends at Piha. Barbara often walked or hitch-hiked
to Piha at the end of a day spent strawberry picking to raise money for
surf life saving. A striking good-looking blond, Barbara was magic on
the water. She could backstroke onto a wave and body-surf in, and was
one of the few women who went out fishing on the legendary boat, the Harmony,
owned by her husband, Tiger O’Brien and Alf Broadhead.
In 1936 Barbara and Hadyn married. A baby born in 1937 died, and then
Peter was born in 1939. The hard-case Peter became one of the key members
of North Piha Surf Club for years, and a pioneering surfer and board maker
of note.
Barbara turned her hand to many jobs in her life – she was a dietician
at Middlemore, drove taxis (when in her 60s) and tirelessly volunteered
for many causes, including driving vans for IHC.
She was a woman ahead of her time, game to take on anything, a good sport
and totally unafraid. Surf was the great love in her life.
Her latter years were spent at Selwyn Village, but she had good friends,
many from Piha, and was loved by the Crowther clan, including Brenda and
Kevin from North Piha.
Desmond Byron Schubert 1921 – 22 April 2001
Desmond Byron Schubert died
on 22 April 2001 aged 80 years. His daughter Anna described him at his
funeral as a 'party boy', 'always the centre of fun', a man whose life
was split into two halves - the first forty years were the Piha, rugby,
party years, and the second 40 revolved around family, who in turn had
to fit around Des's golf and deep sea fishing. The theme song at Des's
funeral was I did it my way.
The Grafton Rugby Club was the common theme for many of the elite sportsmen
that came out to Piha in the 1930s. At Grafton, Des and his brother Lindsay
were mates with Tom Pearce, as well as the Hall brothers, friendships
that were forged for life.
Des joined the Piha Surf Club in 1939 and got his surf medallion in 1949.
In between Des served in 40 Squadron, as a flight engineer on transport
between Hobsonville and Guadacanal. He was a successful businessman, managing
to retire at the enviable age of 39.
He built a bach in Rayner Road in the 1950s , a modernist Bill Haresnape
design, possibly the first architect-designed bach in Piha and certainly
the first pole house. The bach, still standing, was legendary as the place
to go for a good time.
Des was a founder of the iconoclastic Spivs and Drones Club, with headquarters
in the army tent pitched alongside Mrs Ketterer's house where Des stayed
when he first came to Piha. It was apparently Des who was originally given
the S&D name by my father, Tom Pearce. Des thought it a huge joke
and the club was born.
Despite their love of Piha, Des and Lin always spent three weeks at Christmas
at Mt Maunganui, where they enjoyed a change of scenery and beach culture.
It was here that Des was involved in one of New Zealand's most dreadful
boating tragedies. On 28 December 1950, coming back from Mayor Island,
the boat Ranui struck the rocks at Mt Maunganui in huge surf. Des was
on the reel when they pulled in nine bodies. He was hospitalised with
injuries from being repeatedly bashed on the rocks.
Des sold his bach just before his marriage, but he never lost his love
of Piha. He was honoured to achieve a 50-year service award from the Piha
Surf Club, and proud when his daughter Anna became club captain in 2000,
Piha's first woman club captain.
He is survived by his wife Flo, two sons and three daughters.
Tup Oxley 29 November 1926 - 2 January 2001
In January Piha Surf
Club members attended the funeral of Robin Petin Bartlett Oxley, always
know as Tup Oxley to his friends.
Tup wasn't a surf life-saver himself, but his abilities in finance and
management were always at the service of the Piha club. He never married
and didn't have a family, but had a wide circle of friends drawn from
work colleagues and surf life-saving.
Tup was the only child of elderly parents and attended King's College.
He was an accountant by profession and when his father died, took over
the family import agency which brought in English fabrics, trimmings and
lycra.
In his youth he spent time with his family at Bethells but in the early
1960s he started staying at the Piha Hotel which had recently been refurbished.
He was a familiar figure heading for the beach, pipe in his mouth and
armed with a wooden surf board.
He bought a section in Rayner Road where he built a bach as his personal
retreat and through this got to know club members in Rayner Road including
Murray Seager, Pat Follas and Murray Bray. In the early 1970s he stood
and was elected as an associate member to the management committee of
the Piha Surf Club and after a year became chair of the committee, a position
he held for some five years. His financial abilities were valuable to
the club, especially when funds were being raised for extensions to the
clubhouse which was achieved in 1974. In the 1980s, when the club was
undergoing management change, he came back on the committee as Treasurer
to help reorganise the club's financial affairs.
Through his connection with the Piha club, Tup Oxley also assisted the
Auckland Surf Life-Saving Association with organising fund-raising and
street appeals.
Through his contribution to surf life-saving Tup gained close long-standing
friendships.
Buddy Lucas , who gave the tribute at Tup's funeral, noted that all the
folk who farewelled Tup had been his friends for 30 or 40 years.
Tup was 74 when he died on 2 January 2001.
Sandra Coney
J T Diamond 21 June 1912 - 20 February 2001
Jack Diamond, the
pioneer historian of the West Coast, died earlier this year, aged 88.
Although he had no academic degrees or formal training, Jack was the inspiration
and mentor for following generations of local historians, his encyclopedic
knowledge freely shared with younger writers. When I was working on Piha:
A history in images, Jack willingly helped with information and photographs.
His own archives were meticulously organised and indexed. Bound volumes
of his manuscripts lined the shelves of his Pakuranga home.
Jack's love of the West Coast began at Piha as a teenager. In 1926 he
began cycling out to Piha with his next door neighbours from Ethel Street,
Morningside, my father Tom Pearce and his brother Bryan Pearce. The road
was clay from Lone Kauri onwards and Jack said the boys used to meet at
staging posts along the route to make sure one of them hadn't come to
grief. Punctures and broken chains were the bain of the cyclists' journey.
The boys camped in the recently abandoned Piha Mill houses and school
or Charlie Cowan's old hauler house at the top of the Piha Hill. Jack
was fascinated by the old newspapers that lined inside walls of the mill
houses and he eagerly questioned old residents who could tell him about
the mill.
The Pearce boys loved the surf and gravitated towards the Piha Surf Club
when it opened, but Jack's great passion was exploring the Waitakere Ranges
where the structures of the kauri industry, the cookhouses, bush huts
and great dams, were still intact.
In 1931 he joined the Auckland Tramping Club with Melville, his wife-to-be.
He began researching the Ranges but found little in archives and libraries.
So he started interviewing old residents, writing down his conversations
on a pad tied to the handlebars of his bike as he pedalled back to town.
He made detailed notes about the mill buildings he came across while tramping,
as well as the old house built by Edward Lovett and Sarah Ussher by the
Karekare turn-off. Neville Ussher was a key Piha informant and he interviewed
David Ness, whose family came to Piha in the 1860s.
Jack also used his camera to record what he saw and he photographed the
albums of old-timers he met. Many of these photos he later deposited in
the Henderson Public Library. He also lectured widely on West Auckland
topics.
His first book was the ground-breaking Once the Wilderness which recorded
the history and stories of West Auckland. First published in 1953, it
has gone onto to many editions. Other books, co-authored with Bruce Hayward
and David Lowe, documented the prehistoric and historic sites of West
Auckland, and the history of milling. In 1975 he was asked by the Auckland
Regional Authority and Lands & Survey Department to suggest names
for unnamed streams and features of West Auckland. The 250 new names he
suggested were all accepted and included on maps. Names at Piha such as
Moana Stream (Piha beach) and Lovett's Stream (The Gap) were the work
of Jack Diamond.
Jack was awarded an MBE for his work in 1986, and was an Honorary Life
Member of the Auckland Regional Committee of the Historic Places Trust
and West Auckland Historical Society. He is survived by Melville and his
children, Judith and John.