Overview For most of his life, the Hollyford Valley has played a significant role in Murray's life. As a boy it was a distant place where his father, Davey Gunn, tried to make a living as a high country farmer. On the other side of the country, Murray grew up in Oamaru surrounded by women, his mother, aunt and two sisters. His first visit to the Hollyford was as a schoolboy in the late 1930s when he was one of a party on a walking holiday. The contrast between his home environment and that of his...

Abstract Murray Alexander GUNNInterviewer: Morag ForresterInterview date: 13 October 2008Tape I Side A011: States he is MURRAY ALEXANDER GUNN, born in MIDDLEMARCH in 1925.016: His first year, he says, was spent at his family's 1100-acre rural property at SUTTON near MIDDLEMARCH, which he describes as a small (grazing) RUN. He adds that his, FATHER (DAVEY GUNN) had to sell the property (in1926) due to making financial errors on the stock market...

Overview The younger son of a Canterbury dairy farmer, it was Tony's boyhood ambition to run his own sheep farm. School holidays in the early 1960s were spent on an uncle's sheep farm in Northern Southland where he learnt the basic skills of stock management such as drenching, lambing and shearing. A decade later Tony returned to Southland with wife, Judy, when they moved to their own 500-acre sheep and beef farm on one of the newly developed farm settlement blocks in the Te Anau Basin. This recording,...

Overview Anthony Phillip (Tony) MATTHEWSInterviewer: Morag ForresterDate of interview: 10 September 2008Tape I Side A005: States he is ANTHONY PHILLIP COLIN MATTHEWS, born in 1944. He adds that his FATHER was JOHN ROBERT CHARLES MATTHEWS who emigrated from ENGLAND at the age of nineteen, starting out in KAIKOURA.015: Goes on to say that his paternal GRANDFATHER, who was a church minister, died suddenly, leaving his estate to both sons. This,...

Abstract Interviewee: Mrs ROSE GRAHAMInterviewer: Joan HarveyAbstracted by: Joan HarveyFIRST INTERVIEW: 16 April 1997SIDE 10.30 EARLY YEARS. Birth at home. Description of house. Food preparation - recalled type of food eaten. HEATING in the home.2.40 WASHING DAY - lack of running of hot water - oil lamps. Use of copper for washday. Bathtime. BOILER.3.50 CHILDRENS CHORES in the home - gathering firewood - minding...

Overview William Smith was born in Lumsden in 1917. Gives details of his father's gold dredging in the Waikaka Valley. Describes a dredge, its operation and the shareholding of three companies - Lilysleaf, Rosedale and Star Dredging. Discusses associated industries including coal carting to feed the steam engines on the dredges. Mentions the coal came from the Waikaka Valley. Describes the dredge on Cummings' property owned by J A S Aitkin. Recalls the sound and smell of dredges. Describes the landscape...