Page 336 - Kimihia School Vol 3 (1998-2023)

we read the information from the chalkboard. the Huntly Brickworks where we could see the
stamping and firing of bricks made from local clay. It is
Swimming lessons were conducted on the lake edge interesting to note that when the original school closed
below the school where we competed with eels, ducks down at the end of 1966, its grounds were dug up for

and fish, as well as the lake’s reed vegetation.
the clay that the Brickworks needed.
In 1953 I shared the classroom with my older sister The other was a sports trip to the small school at Island
Stancy and my younger sister Christine. Block, somewhere eastward of the Meremere Power
My first teacher, Mr Patridge, lived in a Johnson farm electricity generating plant. I have since not been able
cottage on the junction of Kimihia Road and James to discover just where that old school was situated.
Road, about 500 meters away from school. Mrs I can remember my first (and only strap). The situation
Patridge used her sitting room as a classroom for the was that on the previous Saturday a farmer had brought
girls to do sewing while the boys used the school his tractor onto the school property to mow the lawn.
shelter shed for fret-sawing patterned plywood sheets to The long lengths of cut grass had been raked into one
construct models. area by the farmer towards the northern end of the
I recall the “Radio to Schools” programme where the school property, the furthest distance from the school
whole school would listen to 30 minutes of radio time building, about 75 meters away.
once a week on a Thursday morning. Included in the
listening was singing practice.
When I rose through the ranks to Form One I had the
responsibility of topping up the ink-wells each morning
as we had graduated from pencils to ink pens with small
reservoirs in them.
Playtime was often spent in the shelter shed, climbing
up the junction of the internal walls, or getting involved

in marbles, knucklebones or chasing games on the field.
In the mid-50s Pat Lawless became the teacher. His
home was a new house erected just across the road from
the school.
Classes were frequently interrupted by the very loud
noise of coal-trucks grinding their way up the hill and
past the school, or the empty ones using their low gears At playtime on the following Monday we older boys
to slow down when heading down the hill towards the discovered the clippings and began to construct a fort.
mine. We were so involved in the activity that we did not hear
In the mid 1950s we were informed that a visit to the school bell that signaled the end of playtime.
Kimihia mine would take place by the Governor In failing to turn up we were subsequently lined up and
General Sir Willoughby Norrie. When the time came given two strokes with the leather strap onto our
near for his journey past the school we hung out by the outstretched palms. I bawled my eyes out and
roadside fence and watched him cruise slowly by in his immediately ran straight home. My Mum returned her
chauffeured Rolls Royce. We shared waves as the reluctant son that same lunch-time.
luxury car glided past on the narrow, dusty and pot-
holed mine access road. In my senior Form 1 and 2 classes we attended Manual
Training once a week in the Manual Training building
On a few other occasions we were permitted to head at Huntly Primary. That required a lengthy bike ride
outside when we heard a passenger plane approaching along the gravelly Kimihia Road, avoiding any
from Auckland, heading for the Hamilton airport. The following or on-coming traffic by pulling over and
planes were turbo-prop and could be heard coming standing in the roadside ditch, until we got to the
from a distance away. The brand on the side of the Russell Road junction. From then on it was a tar-sealed

plane was “TEAL” (Tasman Empire Airways Limited) road.
shortly later to be renamed as Air New Zealand. The
flights were so infrequent that it was exciting to be able The remaining danger was hoping my dysfunctional
to watch and wave at the flying rarity. disc-brake would work before I hit Hakanoa Street at
the bottom end of Kimihia Road. If the brakes refused
On one occasion we watched a group of jet aircraft to work the only option was to head straight across
shoot past overhead and were fascinated and puzzled by Hakanoa street and over the main trunk railway line
the fact that the planes flew past silently before the then on to State Highway 1. That crossing had been
noise of their engines appeared to follow behind! closed in 1943.

The only two school trips that I can recall was one to Following a year away in Taihape we returned and