How Well Do We Know People in our Community?

Graham Clark.

Graham Clark

By Lyle Griffiths

Graham’s father’s family had settled in Featherston around 1908, his mother’s family in Carterton. For Graham, the Wairarapa is home. 

After attending Featherston School, Graham commuted to Wairarapa College daily by steam train on the Wairarapa line. Two years later he decided that that was quite sufficient in the way of education. It was time for a new chapter.

He was taken on as an apprentice electrician at Cotter and Stevens in Martinborough.

“Your first job, and you naturally think that it is time to purchase your own car. My first car was a 1939 Vauxhall 10. The roads were largely gravel, except in town. Naturally, the cars did not go quite as quickly as they do today, and you could pretty much do as you liked on the roads. But the roads were maintained by the District Councils, who had their own employees, and they were maintained to a remarkably high standard.

My first vintage car was a 1947 Hillman. It had had quite a checkered past. Mrs Griffiths who lived in Martinborough purchased it brand new from Les Campbell, the Mayor, who owned Campbell’s Garage. She died in 1985 and the car was put up for auction. Tinny Malten then took ownership of it. After a couple of other owners, it finally ended up at John Harvey’s place at Dyerville, left by a worker who unexpectedly died on the Remutaka Hill, while helping someone else in trouble. I was doing some electrical work for John and saw the car just sitting there. It was a wreck. I bought it for next to nothing. I took possession, put it on the trailer and brought it home. I worked on it in my spare time. … Continue Reading

From the Mayor

Katherine Jacobs, May & Peter Croft.

By Mayor Martin

Early in November I went to meet Craig Nelson, Mark Guscott and other members of the Martinborough School community. They showed me around the school, they discussed their plans, and they shared some history of the school. Against this adult conversation was the animated noise that comes from school children who are having a particularly good time defeating a teachers’ team in a sporting event.  Thank you to everyone who gave up their time to educate me about the way that modern education now works. 

Two weeks later I went to meet May and Peter Croft at the Food Bank in Strasbourge Street. I learnt the history of the Food Bank, the extent of the support it provides across the district, and the way in which the need for that service continues to grow.

May and Peter talked about how the Food Bank is the “ambulance at the top of the cliff.”  I was impressed by the range of ways they have thought up so that people who need help get it, while retaining the ability to make choices for their own families. This is an outstanding example of neighbours helping neighbours. And the help is widespread throughout Martinborough, including from people who drop off food, and the P&K SUPERMARKET that provides food nearing its ‘best before’ date. If you can think of ways to offer support, I am sure that May and Peter will be pleased to meet you. … Continue Reading

From the Library

By Anna Jong

Printing service

Printing your documents at our libraries has just become a lot easier! You can now send your printing directly from your device. No more trying to remember your email password or waiting for the next available computer.

All you need to do is email your file/s to monitor@print.apnk.nz whereupon you’ll receive a reply giving you a unique Job ID as well as a map of libraries handy to your location. You can then present this Job ID at your nearest library to collect your printing.

If you’re sending a print job from home, it’s a good idea to call the library you plan to collect your printing from to confirm the correct print job has been received. For example, when printing an email attachment, double-check that the attachment has been received, and not just the email itself. And don’t worry, your document/s are deleted automatically as soon as they’re printed. … Continue Reading

From the CEO

By Harry Wilson

Season’s greetings, everyone. We enter this Christmas season with a new Council in place, and an annual report for the 2021/22 year that is to be tabled at Council soon. 

Annual reports give a detailed rundown on how the Council’s financials are tracking, and how it delivered against its plans from the Long Term Plan. It’s well worth a read. We’re hopeful it can be adopted at the next Council meeting on December 14, subject to Audit New Zealand sign off.

Our thoughts this Christmas are with the residents at Hinekura and all the other residents this year who were affected by damage to our roads. We estimate about $2 million worth of damage has been done and we hope to claim about 72 per cent of it from Waka Kotahi. 

This year has certainly had its challenges. However, there have also been a lot of reasons for cheer. 

For a start, it’s been great to see Toast and Martinborough Fair return to the town this November, a happy reminder that while Covid-19’s tentacles are still out there, the community’s desire to get back to near-normality is very strong. 

While Martinborough’s Christmas parade isn’t going ahead this year, there will be Carols in the Square on December 10 and I hope, like me, you will all relish afresh the opportunity to come together.  … Continue Reading