My Account
For about 10 years from the early-1950s, the late Allan Papworth used a Bell & Howell 8mm amateur camera to record his family’s life in and around Warkworth. For posterity, he captured boating trips to Kawau, the building of the family bach at Algies Bay, calf day at the Warkworth A&P Show, a Puhoi settlers’ reunion and, most importantly, the 1953 visit to Warkworth of the newly-crowned Queen Elizabeth, who was just 27 years old. But at some stage, the camera and films were packed away, and largely forgotten. Allan’s oldest son Richard says their discovery last year in his brother’s basement, in Auckland, has brought to life a hugely significant slice of Warkworth’s recent history. He spoke to Jannette Thompson …
Dad really was a man before his time. He loved electronic gadgetry and I only wish he’d lived long enough to experience the internet. He was a ham radio enthusiast for most of his life, who was still talking to his old mates around the world up until the last day before he passed away in 1996, aged 75. He did his apprenticeship in Palmerston North, but left during the war to join the NZ Navy’s radio electronics section. After the war, he came to work for Tudor Collins, who had an electrical shop selling radios, in Queen Street (Warkworth). About 1946/47, he and Stan Roy acquired Collins Radio, and introduced the first Fisher & Paykel (F&P) appliances to the district. The business expanded and Dad eventually took over sole ownership while Stan concentrated on his farming interests at Kaipara Flats. Branches were later opened in Wellsford and Helensville. Upon Dad’s retirement in 1979, the business passed to the McKinnons who later sold to Phil Hall. Phil had worked for Dad and, of course, Halls are still in business next to where the original Collins Radio store used to be.
They were funny old days – every radio and television had to be registered. I’ve still got the ledger that records these sales, diligently written in Joan Osborne’s handwriting, and stamped and signed by a Post Office official Mr Meiklejohn. The records date back to 1948 and there are a lot of old family names there. When television arrived, Warkworth couldn’t get reception because the signals missed us in the hollow. To remedy the problem, Dad and Dennis Cobb built the first translator for the town, which was located up Clayden Rd.
It was great growing up in Warkworth. We lived in Lilburn Street and holidayed at Algies Bay where my three younger brothers and I learned to water ski. Algies was just farm land and quite a journey from Warkworth, over clay and metal roads. Mr Algie was still milking his cows and we’d get a billy of milk from him each day. Dad sold our bach in 1971, not something my brothers and I particularly agreed with, but he reasoned that we’d left home and there was no-one around to use it. So, when my wife Jan and I got the chance to buy in Algies in 1988, we didn’t think twice.
I did my schooling at Warkworth and then Whangarei Boys High. I think boarding school routines and discipline set you up well for life in the workforce. You also learn time management and how to think for yourself. It’s something that kids don’t always get today. During school holidays I’d help out at the shop and Maurice Paykel’s visits were always something to look forward to because he’d buy me an ice cream. Little did I know then that he’d one day be my boss. It was through Dad’s contacts at F&P that I got a start as a sales cadet at their Lorne Street office, in Auckland. When I retired 38 years later, I’d been the company’s national general manager for sales for the previous 16 years. It really was a great company – my brother Bruce still works for them as the technical consultant for the Refrigeration Division. Employees were looked after and appreciated, and in return many of them spent their whole working lives with F&P. I admired both Sir Woolf Fisher and Maurice Paykel, but Maurice in particular was a fantastic guy. They both had a great interest in horse-racing which rubbed off on me.
Thoroughbred horse breeding and racing hasn’t made me a fortune but it has been a lot fun and made me some good friends. One of the best horses I had was Seigla (Algies spelt backwards) Bay, which Cam McRae and I bought in the 2002 for $10,000. In three starts, he won two and was placed in his only other start. We received a big offer from a Hong Kong syndicate so sold. We then invested some of those returns in an Australian syndicate of eight fillies – in two seasons we only ever won one race … a real balance in fortunes. Ala Moana was however another good horse for us.
Retirement is a great time to relax and enjoy the things you like to do in life. A friend Grant Gillett, whose family had a bach in the 1950/60s at Scandretts, and I set up a small investment fund around 1978. It was just a hobby really, but we dabbled in a bit of share trading, horse trading and selling sides of beef from cattle we raised. The proceeds were put aside for an eventual retirement travel fund, so now every few years Jan and I along with the Gilletts are able to take a trip. This year we’re off to Venice and a cruise down the Croatian Coast.
My brothers and I still own property in Warkworth where Flight Centre, Franklins Chemist and Harveys Real Estate are located. Although Jan and I live between Auckland and Algies, I’ve been able to take a bit more interest in local affairs since I retired, mainly through the Warkworth Community Liaison Group but also the Algies Bay Residents & Ratepayers. The Liaison Group has made some real progress in highlighting Warkworth’s roading issues on NZ Transport’s agenda. I’d also like to see the final two stages of the town centre upgrade completed as soon as possible, but feel things will be in limbo until the new Auckland Super City Council settles in. Having just done a tour of the South Island, one project that really needs to be championed in Warkworth is the issue of public toilets. The standard at present, particularly for visitors, is just not good enough. We need another set of toilets located elsewhere with improved visible access.
The old man would be absolutely delighted to know that his old movies of the town and district are being shown and shared. When we found the films, they were in amazingly good condition so the first thing we did was to make a digital copy of them all. Now we’re sorting through it and making compilations for family members and footage we think places like the Warkworth Museum might be interested in keeping in their archives. I’d only be guessing, but I think there could be somewhere between five and 10 hours worth of raw footage. Dad gave up filming when the technology changed, but looking at them now brings back a lot of happy memories.
To view footage from Allan Papworth’s movies, visit localmatters.co.nz
One of the events captured on Allan Papworth’s movie camera was the visit of Queen Elizabeth to Warkworth in December 1953. It is rare footage that shows people gathering for the big occasion in a purpose-built grandstand in the vicinity of the present ANZ Bank and a stage where Sportsworld is now located. Dignitaries presented to the Queen included Town Board chairman Les Ginn. The Royal Tour in the summer of 1953-54 was a momentous occasion for the whole of NZ, as the following article from nzhistory.net.nz records.
The Royal Visit – Summer 1953–54
For those New Zealanders old enough to have experienced it, the visit of the young Queen and her dashing husband, Prince Philip, to New Zealand in the summer of 1953-54, is a never-to-be forgotten event.
Those who were children at the time recall the BIG Day, marked for months in the calendar, when they dressed in their posh clothes, pinned a royal tour medallion to their chests, collected a butter box to stand on, a Union Jack to wave, and perhaps a periscope to look through, and set out to ‘see’ the Queen.
Perhaps three in every four New Zealanders did see her, as the Queen visited 46 towns or cities and attended 110 separate functions. One woman saw her 30 times. Crowds would turn up hours before and wait patiently for the split second when she drove past. At Tirau, a community of 600 people, there was a crowd of 10,000. At the Ellerslie and Trentham races, crowds turned their backs on the horses to gawk at the royal box.
People went to extraordinary lengths to show their devotion. Sheep were dyed in the patriotic colours of red, white and blue; in New Plymouth both bowling club members and the local pony club formed into an E on the ground. Screens were erected to hide unsightly buildings, and citizens were instructed when and how to plant blue lobelias, red salvias and white begonias. Hardly a car did not sport a Union Jack, hardly a building in the main cities was not covered in bunting and flowers during the day and electric lights at night. This was truly a remarkable event.
