This interview was on the 1st December 1983, by Les Slater for the Richmond Borough Council. '' I am 87. I was bom two days before the Brunner mine

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1 Narrative of Mr Les Kerr, of Richmond. Mr Kerr lived first on the West Coast, and later worked in Richmond for 37 years until retirement 18 years ago. He recalls Richmond of the late 'twenties and the 'thirties, including the Depression. He was for 33 years a member of the Fire Brigade. This interview was on the 1st December 1983, by Les Slater for the Richmond Borough Council. '' I am 87. I was bom two days before the Brunner mine disaster, and my father's brother's wife's father was killed in it. I came from Granity. My father was bom in Charleston. My grandfather came from Scotland to Bendigo, as a miner, then went to Gabriel's Gully, then to Hokitika, then to Charleston. He finished up on a little farm in Granity. I was of a family of twelve; there's only a sister and myself left. I started work for the coal company at 14. The wage was fifteen shillings a week; with the Stockton Coal Mine. I travelled with the Territorials on the Mapareka from Westport to Nelson when General Godley was in Nelson, to hear him speak. That would be in 1912 or I remember the Armistice Day celebrations; I was in Karamea, working in the coal company's office My family left the coast in I went from Ngakawau. My father had bought a farm in Takaka. I rode a horse from Granity to Takaka. It took four and a half days. I stayed in hotels and dxj <ssr> ^ b

2 2 (Mr Les Kerr, 1 xii 83) boarding houses along the way, Inangahua, Murchison and Stanleybrook... While I was in Murchison, in the Hampton Hotel, there was a bar-room brawl. A fellow got his ear bitten off I His name was Barclay. He died recently. The biter was named George Leatham. He was a t-ay A blacksmith in Nelson. They were brothers-in-law. I don't know what they were fighting about. After Takaka the family shifted to Wanganui and Eltham. Then the family bought 100 acres in the Waimeas. I worked on all traction engines in the Waimeas at the time, running after chaff-cutters and threshings. There was a McLaren and it was owned by Jessups, a John Fcwler owned by Satherly. And the biggest of all, a Rustin Proctor owned by Perce Ford. Then there was a Burrel owned by Charlie Nauman. And a John Fowler owned by Billy Hill in Wakefield. These were used NVWMAaJ Vh»-L only for threshing, chaff cutting, bailing hay. I think Perce Ford's Rustin Proctor finished up in Christian brothers' sawmill, in Korere. In Richmond I worked on the steam-engine at Wilkes' (timber yard). Billy Wilkes was the boss. I was at Wilkes for 37 years. The engine at Wilkes was not big enough to qualify for a steam ticket, and I got the job. When the power came on I just carried on in the yard. I retired at the age of 68, eighteen years ago. J

3 3 (Mr Les Kerr, 1 xii 83) In the Depression I got three pounds and five shillings a week, but it was week on and week off with another man; we shared the job, the work. We both had families and that was the only way to keep us both in work, in the week off I didn't do much. I had a cow at the mill which I milked morning and night. Seme of the milk I gave to the boss in exchange for grazing. And in the weekends I would go and kill a pig for a farmer to make into bacon, and I got seven shillings and sixpence, but no bacon: Kill him on Saturday and go back on Sunday and cut him up for salting; they cured it. I first met my wife on the tennis courts in Oxford Street. We were married in And we lived since then, here, in Edwards Road. Our house cost 650 pounds. Rates were five pounds per year. There was generally no electric power in Richmond then.! We had five-eighths of an acre. Since, we have given a quarter acre to the oldest girl when she married, to build on, and I'm just in the process of selling an eighth of an acre, so we'll have only a quarter acre left (Mrs Kerr -"And that's still too much!"). Our first car was a Hillman Minx bought in Christchurch for 310 pounds. In the 1930's. We traded it in for a Humber 10, then for a Humber 80, and then for a Cortina.

4 4 (Mr Les Kerr, 1 xii 83) Some of the things I remember about Richmond in the 'twenties and 'thirties; The old Council chambers were where the Power Board is now. Jimmy Hunt was mayor when I first came here. Vf\>KT^ The shops were adequate; all shopping could be done locally. In the old days, before we came, the Plough Inn was where Wilkes is now. Crouchers had a big granery between Oxford Street and Queen Street where Houston's motors were. The bakehouse was on the east side of C ft Queen Street. The site where the mall is now belonged to Ethelbert Croucher: He milked cows and had a farm. The tip was down at the bottom end of McGlashan Avenue, and we had to take the rubbish to the tip ourselves. There was one train in and out from the city. And at the other end of the line the train went only as far as Belgrove for many years.

5 5 (Mr Les Kerr, 1 xii 83) Mays shop was opposite the Butter factory, on the comer of Gladstone Road and Queen Street. I was 33 years in the fire brigade. The first station was opposite & the Stoke Road Board office. There was an old manual engine there. I remember seme of the fires: The biggest was the Grange 0 ^ ^ nursing home in Gladstone Road and King Street. It burned to the ground. It was at the end of the main, and the water pressure was low, too low. I was 36 hours at the freezing works fire without a break except for coming home for meals. There were lots of sheave stacks, and haystack, fires caused by putting hay away too green and getting spontaneous combustion. I was made a life member of the fire brigade. And I was made a life member of the bowling club. I was secretary of the club for nine years, and president. But I can't take part now, in bowls, 3 because I'm going blind. About the ferries; there was the Arahura to Wellington, and the Mapareka between Westport and Nelson. There was the Matangi, with Captain Hay who had the Ngaio before the Matangi. There was the Wairoa between Collingwood, Takaka, Motueka and Nelson."

6 6 (Mr Les Kerr, 1 xii 83) (Sane remarks by Mrs Kerr on her family): "I am fron Appleby originally. My father's family name to*? is Ford, and my mother's family name is Kerr (but no relation to Mr Les Kerr's family): They are related to the Hon. John Kerr from Lake Station and Blue Glen. The Fords were farmers. We have some photographs of the Peace Celebrations in Richmond." (19 July 1919): (these photographs are in excellent condition. These are postcard printed; there are nine separate photographs and four are duplicated. No firm identification of the persons pictured.)