Ewan McGregor H.B.’s Agricultural and Pastoral history

 
Ewan McGregor is the speaker at the April Landmarks History Talk. He will speak on The Road to Tomoana 1863 to 1925 – the origins of the Hawke’s Bay agricultural industry and the formation of the Hawke’s Bay Agricultural & Pastoral Society.
This talk will be held upstairs at the Hastings Library from 5.30pm to 6.30pm on Tuesday 9 April 2013.

Kevin Hansen Horse of the Year

Kevin Hansen talks about the Horse of the Year Show

 

 

The Horse of the Year Show continues to grow in prestige and stature not only within New Zealand, where it is now recognised as one of the main annual sporting events, but also on the World Equestrian Stage where it has now become one of the premier events. Although dominated by Showjumping and Dressage, the Show is now home to 17 different Equestrian Disciplines all competing on the beautiful 100 acres of the Hawke’s Bay Showgrounds.
With a record number of trade stands and good visitor numbers, this year's show has been another great success

Brian James Part 2 - "The Rise & Fall of the Historic Stock & Station Industry - Part 2"

He will give part two of his fascinating lecture titled “The Journey through 150 years of the Stock and Station Industry and the tumultuous years of amalgamations, mergers and characters that dominated the 1990s”.

By 1980 amalgamations had reduced this group to seven: Allied Farmers’ Co-operative (Auckland and Waikato); Farmers’ Co-operative Organisation Society (Taranaki); Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Co-operative Association; New Zealand Farmers’ Co-operative Association (Canterbury); Canterbury Farmers’ Co-operative Association (South Canterbury); Reid Farmers Ltd (Dunedin); and Southland Farmers’ Co-operative Association.

Allied Farmers

In 2008 Allied Farmers, based in Taranaki and the central North Island, was the only remaining farmers’ cooperative, dealing in merchandise, livestock, wool, real estate and financial services. Incorporated in Taranaki in 1913 as a farmers’ cooperative, it later merged with King Country Farmers, Manawatu Livestock and Waikato Farmers. Allied Farmers provides merchandise, livestock, wool, real estate and financial services over most of the North Island, and has an annual turnover of more than $400 million.

An expanding sector

By the start of the 20th century farmers were served by at least 40 regional and national agencies, ranging from one-man bands to companies employing hundreds. The national companies were Wright Stephenson, New Zealand Loan & Mercantile Agency, National Mortgage & Agency Co. of New Zealand (NMA) and Dalgety & Co.
The big agencies faced vigorous competition from smaller regional firms and farmer-owned cooperatives. Companies joined together to build saleyards and wool stores.

Rationalisation

After the wool boom of the early 1950s, livestock and wool prices fell. Stock and station agencies’ commissions fell too, and dairy company-owned stores provided competition. The bigger stock and station companies began taking over the smaller ones, to extend their regional coverage and for economies of scale. Businessman Sir Ronald Trotter observed that when he began in the industry in the late 1950s there were 45 companies competing. When he retired as chairman of Wrightson in 1998 there were only five – Wrightson, Pyne Gould Guinness, Williams & Kettle, Allied Farmers and Elders New Zealand.

Jack of all trades

One stock agent claimed that a successful agent ‘must be a Nationalist, a staunch Labour man, a Social Credit disciple, a Catholic, a Protestant, a technician, a politician, a mathematician, an all-round mechanic, and, on occasion, a Communist. He must be an expert driver, talker, traveller, bridge player, golfer, bowler, diplomat, a football maniac, an authority on astrology, dogs, cats, sheep, cattle, horses, all types of leases, water rights and noxious weeds. The person with all these qualifications is truly entitled to the initials C.S.S.A. after his name – Country Stock and Station Agent.’¹

Final mergers

Seven years after Trotter’s comments, the first three merged as PGG Wrightson. This brought together six big families of companies which began to coalesce in the 1960s. Dalgetys had merged with NZ Loan & Mercantile in 1962, and NMA with Wright Stephenson in 1972. The Crown Group made several consolidations in the 1970s, and merged with Dalgety New Zealand in 1983. Dalgety Crown was bought by Wrightson NMA in 1986.
Wrightson was floated as a public company in 1993, partly taken over by Rural Portfolio Investments in 2004, and acquired Williams & Kettle in 2005. That same year it merged with Pyne Gould Guinness and became PGG Wrightson, which is a listed company traded on the New Zealand stock exchange.

PGG Wrightson

PGG Wrightson (and its predecessors Wright Stephenson and Wrightson) has always been active in Australia, particularly selling pasture seeds. It also sells seeds and develops dairy farms in Uruguay, and had an annual turnover of more than $1 billion in the early 2000s.

Other agencies

Elders Australia was active in New Zealand in the 1980s, buying smaller agencies and attempting to prevent the 1986 merger of Wrightson and Dalgety. However, when its parent company ran into difficulties, Elders retreated across the Tasman. It left behind the finance business and some livestock agents, which formed a private company. In the early 2000s, Elders New Zealand is a privately-owned company which is rebuilding a national network of livestock, wool and real estate agents, along with some merchandise outlets and financial products. It has a joint venture with broker Primary Wool, and buys in products and services from Elders in Australia.
The Allied Farmers group covers most of the North Island with merchandise, livestock, wool, real estate and financial services.
There are also many private livestock agents who operate throughout New Zealand.

Other suppliers

In the early 2000s, farmers use many other suppliers. There are cooperative supply stores like RD1, Farmlands and CRT (Combined Rural Traders). Stock and station agencies no longer sell or represent farm machinery, and some fertiliser and chemical companies sell direct to farmers.
Rural finance is now vigorously contested by all major trading banks and some specialised rural lenders. Agencies have only a small portion of total rural lending – around $30 billion, mainly seasonal finance for livestock and crops.

PART 2: BRIAN JAMES’ JOURNEY THROUGH THE 150 YEARS OF THE STOCK AND STATION INDUSTRY

We finish the year with

PART 2: BRIAN JAMES’ JOURNEY THROUGH THE 150 YEARS OF THE STOCK AND STATION INDUSTRY and the tumultuous years of amalgamations, merges and characters that dominated the 1990’s.




DATE: TUESDAY 13TH NOVEMBER 2012
TIME: 5:30 P.M.

VENUE: Hastings War Memorial Library : Gold coin donation



PLEASE LET ANY OTHERS INTERESTED KNOW THANKS!

Bill Nimon - Nimons Transport

Bill Nimon - Nimons Transport The speaker will be Bill Nimon talking about the history of Nimons Transport. Nimon and Sons Passenger Transport was established in 1905 and Bill and his brother Garth are the fourth generation to run the company. This is sure to be an interesting and entertaining address. Photo: Havelock bus service, two buses, the Advance and the Retreat taken over by J.G. Nimon from W.A. Beecroft in 1900; driver Mr. J.G. Nimon. These served the Havelock - Hastings route until Studebakers replaced them in 1913. HPL 99_519

Joe Nimon and the Nimon Bus Co.

Mr. Nimon belongs to one of the oldest families in Havelock North. His mother was born at Exmoor, Somerset, in England in 1855. She came to New Zealand to join her brothers who had taken up land some time previously in the Kimbolton district (Manawatu Area). She took a job with Mrs. Kirkaldy in Wellington to help with the family and later with Mrs. G P Donnelly (a Maori princess) who was Joe Nimon’s Godmother. In 1894 she married Mr. J.G. Nimon and carne with him to Havelock North in 1897 when Joe was a year old. His father took over the management of Beecrofts transport which were in the days of horse and coach. Young Joe was eventually sent to Havelock North school and that was all the education.





He was able to get as he was needed to help his father in the

business. All his brothers were sent to secondary schools.

After his father took on the business from Mr Beecroft he made steady progress. The first motor bus was solid tyre Studebaker

and was purchased by his father in 1912 and replaced the horse and coach on the Havelock-Hastings run.



In 1920 Joe, following his father’s footsteps, he was elected on the Town Board. He subsequently became Chairman of the Board and later Mayor of the first council.

In his younger days Joe loved playing football but Said his work was his main hobby" He was a member of the original Havelock North swimming baths committee and played an active part in raising money for the construction of the pool.

0n the retirement of Mr. J. Phillips in 1938, Mr. Nimon succeeded him as the Havelock nominee on the Hawke’s Bay Electric Power Board. He has been a member of the Power Board ever since.

Mr Nimon was created a Justice of the Peace and has since been the recipient of the coronation medal in 1952 and MBE in 1972.

He and his three brothers were members of the Havelock Volunteer Fire Brigade in the early days of the Brigade.































The History of the Bus & Nimon Bus Company in Havelock North

Mr. W. A. Beecroft operated the Havelock North-Hastings service from the mid-1880s, with stables maintained at Hastings and at Lucknow Lodge, The Bus service itself was started in 1883 by William Beecroft who kept a stables from which horses could be hired. He built the house at the old site used as Nimon's offices, on the corner of Lucknow Road and Middle Road. At that time there were stables attached to the house, which was known as Lucknow Lodge.







The first Hastings bus was, of course, a horse-drawn ve¬hicle, Havelock North. It started with a daily return service. The service was soon expanded.

The late Mr. John G. Nimon started with Beecroft on this run in 1895 and bought out the Havelock North bus service in 1900, buying two horse buses, gigs, buggies plus 30 horses and all equipment for cash paid in gold sovereigns.

At that time, the Boer War was raging and the buses were named Ad-vance and Retreat, no doubt indicating the progress of hostilities at the time.





The Nimon family were living in Railway Rd, near where the An¬gus Inn now stands, when the 1897 flood swept through Hastings. They had to be rescued by boat.

So Mr. Nimon decid¬ed to move his family to higher ground and moved into the cottage next to Lucknow Lodge.





Nimon's horse buses —Advance and Retreat —

outside Lucknow Lodge





The early bus service was a grim, unpleasant run. Starting at 7am, the driver continued right through, with only meal breaks, until 11pm frequently for seven days a week.

The Havelock North-Hastings road was a swirl of dust in summer, requiring goggles for the driver.

It was a quagmire in winter when the big trees on the northern side kept the sun from melting the frost and ice on the slippery, rough, metalled road.







Three or four horses were required to pull the bus through the winter mud compared with two horses in sum¬mer. Opposite St Andrew's Road one can see a belt of poplars planted in 1900. They were planted well back from the road to allow the road to dry more quickly.

Nimon's drivers have had their moments. When Wirth's Circus came to Hastings the smell of the elephants sent the horses in a frenzy and, on at least one occasion, the horses bolted with a full load of passengers and were quite uncontrollable. There were a few frightened passengers looking rather pale when they left the coach.





Horse Doctor

The original J. G. 'Nimon had a wonderful reputation with horses and his eldest son, Joe, frequently had to hold a horse's head while his father extracted a tooth.

Fuel for the service was no problem. Chaff came in by traction engine in 40 ton loads from Ngatarawa to be stored in the loft above the stables in Lucknow Lodge.





Drove buses at 13

The late Mr J. J. Nimon left school in 1909 and was 13 years old when he started driving the buses. More than 60 years later he was still taking his turn at the wheel when required. He carried the pupils of the boarding schools for over - three

generations and Mr Nimon often received a message from a boarder “Mother and grandmother send you their regards. You took them both to school.”







The company's first motor vehicles were two Studebaker 7 passenger cars purchased in 1913 to supplement a quick service along with the horse buses. These were some of the first cars in the district with electric self-starters, as Charles Kettering of Delco did not produce the first self-starter until March 1912.





Nimon's cars were used for years to pull the Havelock North Fire Brigade hose reel, and later one of their bus chassis, a Denby, became Havelock's first fire engine.



The first motor bus in 1915 was a Garford with solid tyres and a horse-bus body. Mr. Nimon would not take delivery from the Tourist Motor Co. until it fitted hooks on the front so the horses could maintain the service if the engine failed.





A Nimon Thorneycroft bus at Havelock North. It carried

21 passengers inside and 14 on the roof.





















Mr Nimon said he remembered, as a small boy travelling on this bus with seats straights across like a toast rack.







A new landmark on the Havelock North scene will be the Nimon's Bus Depot and Workshop on the corn¬er of Martin Place and Karanema Drive. The building

Commenced in February 1967, but it is hoped that it will be completed at an early date hopefully by Easter. I t is designed and built by J.C. Mackersey Ltd., the new complex will house facilities for three Companies. Nimon and-Sons Ltd., operates the well¬ known Bus, Service between Havelock North. Road-Air Hawke’s Bay Ltd., carries refrigerat¬ed freight and perishable goods between Hawke’s Bay and Auckland. The third company in the group is Road-Air Coach Builders which does most of the coach building for the freight company and is at present situated in Napier Road.







At present the Depot on the corner of Lucknow Road and Middle Road carries out the servicing and mainten¬ance of freight trucks and buses on an area of about three quarters of an acre. The new Centre in Martin Place is four acres in extent.

The new building will com¬prise a workshop, coach shop, a wash bay, and body-building shop. The administration area will include offices, a lunch room, locker and change rooms.

Construction of the garage and workshop areas will be steel frame which will be metal clad. The offices will be of concrete with wide attractive windows surrounded by inset panels.



The building is to be set well back from Karanema Drive to allow for the two lane highway which is eventu¬ally planned. This frontage will be bordered with a plantation strip to be planted by the Borough Council. In addition there will be some landscaping on the site, with a small lawn area and trees and shrubs.

The main entrance to the new buildings will be from Martin Place, so as to make the least possible interruption to traffic in Karanema Drive. The exit will allow space for a wide sweeping turn into the two-lane highway when it is, constructed.

Best of all the new site will allow space for further growth, and as the Managing Director, Mr. John Nimon, said in inter¬view, "We take any opportuni¬ties we can, to expand."







The Nimon bus company now situated on the corner of Karenema Drive and Martin Place.











Some of the buses from several years ago up to last year.

Hawke's Bay Aviation History 1906 to 1960 By Ian Granger

12th November 1928
Hawkes Bay Aeroclub was incorporated. The 2nd registered aeroclub in NZ.



16th November 1928
The first offical meeting of the club.
166 listed members.
First airfield located on corner of Bridge Pa Rd and Pakipaki Rd.
End of November a holding company was formed (The Hawkes Bay Aeroplane Company) for
the purpose of underwriting early set up costs and put the club into a position where it became
self supporting.
The company bought Cirrus Moth G NZAT and re registered it as ZK AAB. The aeroclub
named the moth “Heretaunga”.



1929:
Training in AAB began.
1st Instructor Tiny White
First aerial pageant
First PPL.s



1931
The Napier Earthquake.
The aeroclub makes its presence welcome in the aftermath. For three weeks the club had
eight to ten moths in the air every day,keeping communications alive delivering telegrams
and letters, doctors and nurses, medicine and distressed relatives, and running errands in to
the remote areas of Hawkes Bay. The practical application of aircraft to a community had
been well demostrated to Hawkes Bay in a most timery fashion.



1932
August 3. The aeorclub executive agree to purchase land for a new aerodrome – an 80 acre
block next to Hastings Golf course at Bridge Pa.



1933
January 20. The new club house was officially opened by Charles Kingsford Smith with the
official North Island air pageant arranged to mark the occasion.



1936
NZ Aerial Mapping purchase first plane – a Monospar SD25



1938
The Esk Valley floods again saw the club running relief operations this time for flood victims.

1939
Pilot training stepped up to provision trained pilots for the Air Force. Hawkes Bay recieved
an inital quota of 12 trainees, which was supplemented with an extra five pilots every eight
weeks.
The club linked with the Air Training Corps and in line with a national move agreed to give
the Government its planes in the event of war.
With the out break of war Hawkes Bay Aero Club effectively went into hibernation.
By March 1940, thirty two of the clubs trainees had joined the RNZAF, the RAAF or the RAF



1946
January. Club operations resume



1968
Hawkes Bay Skydiving Club was born
Hawkes Bay Gliding Club builds a hangar at Bridge Pa

1976
Full runway strip lighting installed


1978
NZ Aerial Mapping seal a 1000metre landing strip.