My Account
Hal Christian, now aged 90, has served the community well, working as a teacher for 30 years and devoting 44 years to assisting local people as a member of Orewa Lions. Ironically, it was not serving his country during World War II, because of his pacifist views, which led to his internment in a detention camp at Strathmore and various central North Island prisons for four years. Those four years were the only ones when Hal was unable to indulge his lifelong love of outdoor recreation. Hal talked with Terry Moore about his life and beliefs.
When World War II started, I was 21 years old. I was brought up a Methodist, and pacifism was a very strong part of the Methodist tradition, as it comes from the teachings of Jesus. I became a conscientious objector and was put into a detention camp in Strathmore because of these views. The camp had 1400 prisoners and roughly half were Methodists. The other half were socialists who were put there because Russia was the enemy early on in the war. A gang of us, mainly Methodists, upset the camp authorities because we didn’t like having to cut tussock just for the sake of it and I ended up in prison. I stayed there until they reluctantly released me six months after the war ended: that was so they could let returning soldiers have first pick of any jobs.
Before the war, I was working full time for the Ministry of Fisheries, doing statistics for the marine department, while studying part time at Victoria University. Earning my Bachelor of Science in Zoology took six or seven years as I had to fit study in where I could around the job. I had intended to be a pharmacist, once I got my degree, but instead I went into teaching.
After my release from prison, I spent a year at Teachers’ Training College, then taught at Northland College in Kaikohe for four years, followed by nine years at Hastings Boys High. While in Kaikohe I met Heather, who was a public health nurse. The nurses used to visit schools in those days and teach the kids about health and their bodies – that’s how we met. We married in Kaikohe in 1953 and we’ll have our 57th wedding anniversary next year. We had three children to look after so life was pretty busy. I got the job at Orewa District High School in 1963, when the children were still young, and we came to live in a schoolhouse on the school property. There was a nominal rent for the schoolhouse, but I remember it crept up pretty fast – probably when a National Government came in. Orewa District High opened in 1956 and, as a District High, included a primary school. There was a headmaster in charge of the Primary and I was put in charge of the Secondary school. I taught biology, which included nutrition in those days, as well as general science and maths. There were around 300 pupils in total at the school when I started. It was a rural community then, and many of the parents shipped their kids off to Westlake Girls, Takapuna Grammar or private Catholic schools so it took many years for Orewa District High to grow to any size. For about five years there was no change in roll and class sizes were almost too small to employ teachers in some subjects. There might be only five or so students taking Latin, for example. Numbers crept up as the school gained status and more families moved into the area. I taught for 16 years at that school, finally retiring in 1979 –five years after it became a secondary school. I liked the people, especially the children – they were country kids. We were told off in the early days for not offering Physical Education at the school, but I said ‘look how much physical education they get just coming to school!’ Most of them walked or rode bikes or even horses, so it seemed crazy to offer more activity once they got here.
I was always very keen on getting the children out of the classroom to learn science. We would go to the seaside and look at rock pools, for example – that’s a whole unit of life, right there. The kids enjoyed it, and they were learning things. Like any teacher, I had problems with the odd child who didn’t like sitting still, or being restricted to the four walls of a classroom. Back in those days there was caning, of course. As a conscientious objector, I wasn’t keen on wacking children but I was encouraged to do so by other staff. I probably caned children around 10 times in my whole career, but they didn’t bear a grudge. A couple of them came up to me in a reunion at Orewa College and said I had wacked them, and that they had probably deserved it. The good thing is, it’s all over with in a few minutes and the child is back in the classroom – instead of the hour or so of class disruption you get these days as people try to deal with discipline issues. I think the cane should still be available at schools, but used only as a last resort. Being a good teacher is about caring for the kids. They know if you don’t genuinely care about them and a lot of problems start there.
I joined Orewa Lions Club a year after I moved to the area. We did a lot of the sort of work the Salvation Army does now – things like mending or painting houses, tidying gardens and so on. I like being of service – again, a philosophy that’s come from my Methodist beliefs. I still attend the Methodist church – I think I annoy some of them because I believe in God, but also in evolution. As a scientifically trained person it’s impossible not to think those things through.
I was born in Pelorus Sound, where my father worked as a marine engineer. It’s a beautiful place to grow up, and that’s where my love of the outdoors, particularly tramping and climbing, has come from. I used to do a lot of climbing around there with my brother and went on to climb some pretty high mountains, including Mt Cook at the age of 50. It took me and a group of friends 19 hours to climb to the top and back down. The view from the top was exceptional – you could see The Hermitage, and right over to the West Coast, where you could even see waves breaking on the sand. I kept fit with tramping and cycling until five or six years ago, but I gave my bike away six months ago after a couple of falls and I’m lucky if I can manage a two mile hike now. In fact I did two miles with the Rodney Ramblers walking group last week, but they had to wait for me! As well as belonging to Rodney Ramblers, I started the Hibiscus Coast Tramping Club, which is still going. It’s getting harder to find good places to tramp around here. I wrote to Rodney District Council about five years ago now about the possibility of forming a walking and cycling track around the whole Whangaparaoa Peninsula, but nothing has come of that as yet.
