Person Recorded: Kathleen Joyce Meredith

Date of interview: 26 January 2004

Interviewer and abstractor: Morag Forrester

Tape Counter: Sony TCM 393

Tape 1 Side A

005: Opens discussion saying she was born in NORSEWOOD, HAWKES BAY and grew up around there on a FARM before the family moved to PUKETAPU, NAPIER.

015: Says primary school at PUKETAPU was a two-teacher one and there were about three pupils to each class.

024: Recalls the pupils tended the school gardens, the boys were responsible for the vegetable section, while the girls had to look after the flowerbeds. They also swept and mopped the floors after school. It was all “do-it-yourself”.

034: Mentions going on to HASTINGS GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL where she ended up with some very good friends and keeps in touch with at least one of them still.

060: Says at primary school they caught the school bus so there were no extra-curricular activities. But having three SISTERS it was out onto the FARM, up the hill, making their own entertainment.

070: Says however that they did combine with the boys at school to play rugby football. Never netball.

077: Referring to family, says her full name is KATHLEEN JOYCE and her maiden name was HALLGARTH.

079: Her SISTERS included one older, two younger. Named MARGARET, DOREEN and JEAN.

084: Says her MOTHER was born in ONGA ONGA, which is in southern HAWKES BAY. Her FATHER was born just out of HASTINGS. Both came from farming families.

092: States her FATHER was one of six children, mother was one of thirteen. Recalls meeting most of her FATHER’S family but not her MOTHER’S – most of them had moved to the AUCKLAND area which in those days was “a long way off”.

103: Remembers her maternal GRANDFATHER, the others had passed on by the time she was born.

108: Describes her GRANDFATHER as a “typical ENGLISH farmer”. He wore a hat, tie and sports jacket.

120: States her FATHER was a FARM MANAGER and her MOTHER’S work on the property was supplying refreshments for the workers during their break as well as cooking for the owners at lunchtimes.

126: Mentions the house the family lived in was 21-roomed. Says she and her SISTERS used to play in the empty rooms. The building had a big AUSTRALIAN-style verandah and five bedrooms had French doors leading on to it. In summer, they would drag their beds outdoors.

135: Tape stopped to reposition mic

136: Says she left school at fifteen years old, straight to work, in an accountant’s office (in HASTINGS).Worked her way up from junior to head girl.

143: Recalls having an in-between spell at another office but it didn’t suit, so she returned to the accountant’s office after being asked to go back.

149: Mentions moving to NAPIER (aged about 24) after her FATHER died because her MOTHER decided then to move to AUCKLAND and she didn’t want to live in the northern city.

152: In NAPIER, she got a job at the NZ FOREST SERVICE office.

157: Recalls her first wage – 15 shillings/week. Two thirds went to the cost of boarding in HASTINGS.

164: Comments that in those days you didn’t just go out and buy a new pair of shoes if you needed them, you had to save for a few weeks before you had enough money for shoes or material for dressmaking.

170: Says she made her own clothes, knitted her own jerseys. Later she used to sew dresses for her CHILDREN but now she doesn’t go near a sewing machine.

185: Remembers it was the beginning of 1958 that she began working for the NZ FOREST SERVICE. It was mainly in the office with some field work.

188: Reminisces about one time being asked to drive a truck to a destination where it would be met by another driver to take it on to PALMERSTON NORTH. “So away I went in this great big truck, sitting up top there. I got there.” (laughs)

201: Mentions that in the NAPIER FOREST SERVICE office there were three male staff, one of whom included the man who was to become her HUSBAND, EVAN MEREDITH.

207: Says she remembers the first time they met in the office. Agrees that he was much taller than she – “Oh very much, cos I am a shortie”.

214: States he was athletic being a hurdler, runner, football player.

224: Recalls it was the beginning of February 1958 she started at the FOREST SERVICE and they were married the following September.

246: Says they told their respective MOTHERS by telephone – hers in AUCKLAND, his in HAMILTON - about getting engaged.

256: Says the wedding took place in NAPIER and their honeymoon was a tour of the SOUTH ISLAND, staying most nights in a tent. The trip was also a reconaissance visit to HOKITIKA, one of two places offered to EVAN as work postings, the other being PALMERSTON NORTH.

269: Mentions it was during this tour they visited TE ANAU and camped in the EGLINTON VALLEY. This was the first time she’d come to the district.

290: Recalls it wasn’t long after their honeymoon that they moved to HOKITIKA where they stayed for five years.

293: Remembers that after two years with the FOREST SERVICE, EVAN decided to take up DEER meat-hunting. That he didn’t like indoor work, sitting behind a desk.

299: Describes sometimes going on expeditions with him. One time, they went up the TAIPO RIVER and it started to rain constantly all night. The river had risen and was fast flowing and they attempted to cross it. “I had one end of his rifle, he had the other. And we went across the river and I could feel my feet, you know, floating….Without that rifle I wouldn’t have been able to stand. It was a bit frightening.”

313: Recalls another time when she was “piggy-backed home” after a knee injury. Gives her continued problems with the same knee as reason for not going tramping unless EVAN was with her.

323: States that when he started meat-hunting, they sold the car and bought an old jeep. And he bought himself a jet boat. He would be away for two or three days at a time. They’d go up the rivers, shoot the DEER, bring them back.

326: Explains that by then she was working in an accountant’s office in HOKITIKA for a few years and had made friends in town. However, it was that “tea hour” when the house was empty and there was no need to cook tea because EVAN was away that was the loneliest time for her.

343: Mentions their setting up WESTLAND FROZEN PRODUCTS, a VENISON processing factory, with two ex-CULLERS in HOKITIKA – MICK ROSANOWSKI from REEFTON and RON HOGLIN from LAKE PARINGA.

349: Says the truck would collect the VENISON from both areas and take it back to the factory in HOKITIKA from where it was transported along with the meat killed by EVAN and other SHOOTERS to exporters in CHRISTCHURCH.

354: From the start, says she was involved in the business with him. Her work was organising the office side of the factory.

360: Explains it was an old butcher’s shop. Describes the meat-packing procedure, wrapping the legs and other joints in stockinette before putting them in sacks ready for the freezer and transportation.

366: Mentions their first CHILD, HELEN was born in NOVEMBER 1960. Says that they took the baby with them to work. As she grew older, they created a playpen in the office for her.

377: States that in 1963, EVAN’S MOTHER and SISTER moved to HOKITIKA to join them. His MOTHER took over the office work and minding HELEN which allowed KATH to work on the meat-processing.

382: Goes through the basics of how she prepared the meat. It was washed (to remove the hair), hung on a rack and shimmied along to the packers at the other end.

388: Admits she’d had no previous experience in this type of work, although EVAN would have known the procedure from his earlier days of SHOOTING when he supplied exporters in GREYMOUTH. By taking the meat to the factory, he got an insight into their methods.

392: Recalls that when they bought the old JAM factory in HOKITIKA, he set up all the meat rails, chillers and freezers.

395: In response to question, says the initial cost in setting up was about six thousand pounds with no help from the banks. “They wouldn’t touch it.”

400: They sought finance from the exporter until they cleared their debt after a few years.

405: Talks about expanding the business southwards. WILD VENISON was in high demand in GERMANY. DEER FARMING had not started then.

409: Mentions that TED THOMAS and LES LYONS had VENISON factories in TE ANAU, situated next door to each other, which she and EVAN bought and set up the FIORDLAND VENISON FACTORY, on MILFORD ROAD.

Tape 1 Side A ends

Tape 1 Side B starts

005: Resumes talking about the factory. Says it wasn’t a big building but served their purposes.

026: In response to question, says they learned to adapt to what was required in a relatively young industry. From packing in sacks, they moved on to packing into cartons and different pieces of the carcasses were chopped to size. The filled cartons went into the freezers ready for transport to the exporters.

044: Says all the meat was shot in the FIORDLAND area from LAKE HAUROKO through to LAKE MCKERROW and BIG BAY.

050: The SHOOTERS, she says, weren’t contracted. They just went in, staying in huts that were former FOREST SERVICE dwellings. Some had jetboats, and the factory would provide freezers for them.

068: Mentions the SHOOTERS were based at the KAIPO, BIG BAY, LAKE MCKERROW and all the meat from these areas would be flown out to the end of the HOLLYFORD. (Adds later that the shooters were also based in the Sounds and their deer were flown out by floatplane to TE ANAU. Their food supply would be flown in on these trips.)

076: Describes how the meat that arrived at the factory would be weighed and each shooter’s name documented with his own tally. The skinners would cut up the carcasses before the meat was washed. A total of six staff was employed as well as EVAN and KATH in the office.

093: Says at this stage (early 60s) the meat was exported mainly to GERMANY. Later markets were found in FRANCE. Wild venison was a EUROPEAN thing, the US didn’t become a market till after DEER were farmed.

103: Recalls having the factory from about 1964 to 1974.

108: Mentions that changes within the VENISON industry had an effect on the business. Soon after they’d started up, others got involved so that there were rival factories at MOSSBURN and CROMWELL, all competing for DEER out of much the same area.

115: States a company was then formed called GAME COLLECTION, which worked out from previous records what percentage of VENISON you got each year. So that when returns were collected each depot was paid on a percentage basis.

135: Explains that because the meat was a perishable product, they had to be fully committed to the business. Once it arrived at the FACTORY it had to be processed as quickly as possible so taking time off to go away was a no-no.

152: Says EVAN would occasionally go out MEAT-HUNTING while they had the FACTORY, although not often. After a while, they hired a manager because they still had the outlet at HOKITIKA and had started another FACTORY at WANAKA.

168: Explains the chronology of setting up both the FIORDLAND and WANAKA outlets at virtually the same time. They spent fifteen months based in WANAKA before they returned to TE ANAU.

184: Discusses the volatility of the VENISON INDUSTRY. When they exported WILD VENISON there was always a good market in GERMANY.

196: Mentions the by-products, the sinews, tails etc. which were exported to KOREA and CHINA which also bought the VELVET direct from the SHOOTER.

204: Recalls getting hundreds of carcasses a day when HELICOPTERS became part of the retrieval industry, especially at first. “That was just bedlam. We used to go flat out then to get everything into the chillers before the next lot came in.”

211: Says when she and EVAN moved house in 1972 from TE ANAU to their DEER FARM, the FIORDLAND WAPITI PARK, they still kept the FACTORY business. But decided to close it about two years later.

217: Explains their decision to sell was because the MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE brought in tighter controls in VENISON processing in line with other meat producers. This meant that each FACTORY had to have a meat inspector.

220: But there weren’t enough inspectors so the MEREDITHS were told they would have to amalgamate, so their quota was being processed at MOSSBURN.

226: Gives details around the formation of the WAPITI PARK. Says EVAN always had a love of the WAPITI even back to his early hunting days in the area. He could see the RED DEER were taking over and instead of having the pure-bread WAPITI they were being mixed with the REDS which are more aggressive.

235: Describes buying the land, how they built a house on it and at the same time talked with friends about their idea which ended up in four partners forming the FIORDLAND WAPITI PARK.

242: Says as well as EVAN, there was BERNIE CHANEY, ALAN CHALMERS and ALAN BRADLEY.

245: Mentions that at the start, BERNIE and EVAN went into the wild WAPITI area of FIORDLAND and caught the COWS to begin with. As LIVE CAPTURE, they went in, found what they wanted, radioed the HELICOPTER to pick up and bring out to the FARM.

251: Agrees the LIVE CAPTURE was a new phenomenon, done by dart gun to drug the animal which was then netted and carried out by rope on the end of the helicopter line and let loose on the FARM.

255: Describes that after the animals came round, they dived into the natural MANUKA cover on the FARM for weeks before gradually poking their noses out to pick at the grass on the hillside of the property.

275: Gives an explanation of the difference between WAPITI and DEER. The former is a native of the US (also known as elk) and is twice the size of the DEER. “Like a cow, you know, it’s like cattle farming.” Adds that people who farm RED DEER don’t usually like WAPITI.

284: States there is a difference between DEER farming and SHEEP farming. Although she admits that with the development of farmed DEER the two industries are gradually becoming more alike as more people are using dogs to round up the DEER.

289: Relates an instance when someone had suggested to EVAN they could round up his DEER with dogs. Their being wild, he was dubious. And as he watched the DEER circling the dogs rather than the other way round, he advised the farmer to call his helpers out of the paddock before there was dead dog to clean up.

304: Agrees that in farming the DEER, it’s better if you can think like one. Explains this by saying that eventually they had both RED DEER and WAPITI and the latter were easier to muster but the former would go down the fence.

313: Says she was in there helping to handle the animals, despite their great size compared with her slight stature. “I wasn’t too confidence at times, but you got to know your animals…there was plenty of space (out in the paddocks). If they wanted to go behind me, they could go behind me.”

317: It was a different story in the yards, however, and she says not even EVAN would turn his back on the DEER then.

324: Describes one situation when a RED DEER jumped straight over her head and leapt out the yard into the paddock again. “I wasn’t hurt; it was just a bit of a fright, this thing going over your head.”

347: Explains that at the outset, the WAPITI PARK was going to be a tourist venture. They planned to breed the WAPITI for people to see grazing in the paddocks. At first, they had bus tours which followed a marked route round the area.

354: Says things changed when the DEER farming started because the tours sometimes interfered with farm operations. At the same time the tourism industry changed; fewer people stayed in TE ANAU, instead they would be bussed all the way from QUEENSTOWN to MILFORD, so they had no time to look round other attractions.

358: They opted then, she says, to shut the gate on tours and concentrated on DEER farming, buying out the other partners in the business.

372: In response to question, says that it didn’t occur to her not to work alongside her husband on the farm. Drenching, velveting, working in the yards, she got stuck in, no question.

386: States that it helped at other times, for example, at industry meetings. She felt involved, that they were a working partnership. Adds that this helped at home because they had common ground in conversations, apart from the occasional “snappy sessions” out in the paddocks.

397: Recalls that EVAN always acknowledged publicly that KATH was very much a part of the business.

402: Mentions that a second DAUGHTER had come along by then, named JILLIAN.

406: Explains that when JILLIAN was a baby, she was looked after by the wife of a SHOOTER (many of them lived in the bush huts with their husbands) who had come out for the season to TE ANAU and had also just given birth to a second child.

Tape 1 Side B ends

Tape 2 Side A starts

002: Resumes talking about working and childcare.

027: Says there was never a problem because they were able to work the business around the family.

035: Recalls most of the nappy changing etc. was done by herself, not EVAN. Although he did take a fortnight’s leave when the older child was born. With JILL, says she was a well-behaved baby so there were few problems with feeds or crying at night.

058: Mentions that the GIRLS went to SCHOOL in TE ANAU. Although HELEN went to OTEMOTAI COLLEGE in TAURANGA for her seventh form, staying with her GRANDMOTHER.

074: Tells about the various jobs HELEN worked at, including an overseas stint in CANADA before returning to TE ANAU.

090: States JILL first went to SCHOOL at MANAPOURI but was later enrolled at TE ANAU. After schooling she took up hairdressing in DUNEDIN, before moving with her fiancée up to HAMILTON. They married in 1990 and not long after they returned to live in GORE where they now have three children.

132: Says she usually has her GRANDCHILDREN to stay during the SCHOOL holidays.

138: Describes the FARM accident in which EVAN died (in 1995). He was carting hay using a tractor and a bale came off the front end, rolled back and crushed him underneath.

140: Says she was also on the tractor at the time. Despite being pinioned in the tractor, she managed to get out and raise the alarm.

152: Admits that after the accident, she realised she couldn’t run the FARM herself, particularly handling the WAPITI herds. So she put the property and animals on the market.

161: Says the accident was in the AUGUST and by the end of the year everything had been sold at a price she wanted.

174: Recalls that at first, moving into town was strange. Says she used to do a lot of walking just so that she wasn’t inside all the time. But once her garden took hold, it helped to be able to spend more time outdoors.

192: Mentions that she still reads about DEER and DEER FARMING, but admits that she is not as involved. “Whether it’s because you’re a woman you just don’t hear what’s going on and you don’t get asked to go to things.”

200: Says it is a male-oriented business, although one or two women farm DEER.

208: Explains that EVAN was the instigator of a discussion group on DEER in FIORDLAND at about the time the NZ DEER FARMERS ASSOCIATION was formed. He ended up being president of the local branch of the association.

224: Describes her husband as a bit of a loner. Perhaps as a DEER hunter, she says, he was used to spending time alone.

236: Mentions that for a while she took on an office job at the primary SCHOOL and about the same time, she took up golf. But when she became pregnant again, she gave both up and didn’t go back to either.

244: Says there was a stint at trying badminton but once they moved out to the FARM she didn’t get involved in groups or clubs.

265: Explains the WAPITI TROPHY in her husband’s name that was awarded for a few years. But that fell away after a while.

279: States that the TROPHY was changed slightly to include a second name, GORDON MCDONALD, which would be presented as a WAPITI VELVET TROPHY. (Adds later that in 1990 EVAN was awarded the KEVIN KELLY MEMORIAL AWARD. It is awarded to the person who had made an outstanding contribution to the SOUTHLAND & FIORDLAND DEER INDUSTRY.)

288: In response to question, recalls the TE ANAU BASIN being quite different when she arrived in 1965 to present day, particularly the town itself which had much fewer shops/buildings.

300: Says they bought a house at MACKINNON LOOP before moving out to the FARM.

311: Mentions having made some good friends in the district, through playing bridge and bowls.

319: Says she’s lived in TE ANAU so long she’s used to the slower pace than that of a city.

349: Considers it unlikely that the town will become over-commercialised because as far as tourism’s concerned there’s nothing to offer during the winter months, unlike the skiing facilities of CENTRAL OTAGO.

357: Argues that local residents don’t want the town to become a major winter resort anyway.

364: Suggests that if there were to be a rash of sales of the new sub-sections then maybe it would result in more service-related businesses in the town.

370: Ends the interview saying she enjoys living in TE ANAU but mainly because of its easy pace.

Interview ends

Tape 2 Side A stopped.