Letters to the Editor

Ohinemuri Regional History Journal 6, October 1966

Post Offices

Dear Mrs. Climie,

It was with great pleasure that I read the article in the paper about your activities in what I call the Thames Postal District..

For the last two years there has been a society in Auckland which digs out the history of post offices all over New Zealand. The Society became an Incorporated body approximately a year ago and as you can imagine the members are inclined to specialize.. my particular forte is the Auckland area with a leaning to the Whangarei and Thames areas..

Our aim is in the main to possess a post office datestamp impression of each and every post office. The difficulty of accomplishing this may readily be realised from the attached list of post offices in your district. Many have been closed for years. However it is quite amazing what turns up for those who try.

The list I give you, you will realise, has taken many hours of most exhausting research and I hope it may be of some use to you..

Of course I too am looking for something all the time and I would very much appreciate it if you ever come across any old envelopes bearing stamps relating to these closed post offices if I could hear of then for date details (or get them for keeps???) Also we are most interested in hearing of the names of postmasters and their period of office.. also any stories about them. As your article says we are slowly losing all our old history and unless we can get on to it and get it recorded it will be lost for all time.

We.. the Postal History Society of New Zealand Incorporated, will appreciate any help you can give us particularly details of the site of the offices long since closed.

(JOHN A. COOPER) LIBRARIAN AND COUNCIL MEMBER. 184 Hurstmere Road, TAKAPUNA.

Tajong Lobang School, Miri, SARAWAK.

I was delighted to receive the May Journal, have greatly enjoyed it, and shall be keeping my subscription going! This town has 15,500 people and all the usual amenities. The house is by far the nicest we have ever lived in - very airy 2,500 ft., and we're all enjoying the life and eastern food.- - - The School is very modern and the hard working Students (Forms 4 to 6) pay to attend. They have to sit two exams to get to us and if they don't work they are sent home. Seems tough, but on the whole they are lovely pupils so teaching here is a rewarding experience. In the holidays Doug and I are off up-river with a small expedition in connection with the Sarawak Museum. We shall excavate a cave and shall have a professional archaeologist with us. It ought to be interesting to get into the Jungle and a good opportunity to learn more about archaeology which I find fascinating - as I did those Maori Canoe Rock Drawings in the Kaiangaroa Forest. At Christmas, we hope to do a round trip by sea to the Sabah Ports and Bankok. The whole family will go including Gran who enjoys everything. She is of great interest to the locals who all ask her age.

Very kindest regards; please remember me to the Society members giving them my best wishes.

MARTIN WlLSON. (May news from Sarawak improve! Ed.). (formerly of Te Aroha College Staff).

Glass Model of the Martha Mine

Some further details have come to hand regarding the "Glass Model of the Martha Mine", referred to in our May Journal [Journal No. 5: Glass Model of Martha Mine - E].

"Although the Glass Slides were the work of Mr. Walter Johnston and his staff - including Mr. Stewart Walmsley - the Wooden Cabinet, in which the slides were displayed, was built later by the late Mr. B.W. Taylor on the instructions of the Waihi Borough Council. This work was completed in October 1913 when the Model was sent to the Wellington Exhibition. Mr. Taylor was also in 1911, responsible for the construction of the Model of the Pithead Plant at the Martha Coy's No. 6. Shaft, now on exhibition at the Waihi Museum. It included the Winding Engine, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, the Poppet Heads and Legs, and self tipping Skips which conveyed the Ore to the surface and the hoppers. The Model involved a great deal of tedious work and correct measurement".

HARRY MILLS (late engineering Staff). (We shall be referring to these models again at a later date. Ed.)