Taranaki Stories
Showing stories tagged as Family.
by Virginia Winder on 16 December 2009
Graham Mourie's mum, Juan, has been worshipped as the ‘Mother of God’.
During a tour of Wales in the 1980s, Juan and husband Colin found themselves revered as the parents of the former All Black captain.
Juan laughs at the memory. "A couple of Welsh boys got down on their knees and said 'Can I kiss your hand?' and asked 'What's it like to be the Mother of God?’"
Colin adds....
by Sorrel Hoskin on 14 December 2009
Doris and Bill Gordon's family grew up steeped in the medical profession - so it wasn't a surprise when three of their four children turned to medicine.
"We were surrounded by it," recalls Dr Ross Gordon. "It was in the days when doctors were available for their patients. Our phone was answered 24 hours a day. There was always someone there. It was quite obvious to me from the age of nine...
by Sorrel Hoskin on 14 December 2009
Alison Gordon was only a young woman of 22 when her mother died but she still has lasting memories of a mother and woman ahead of her time.
"I am very sure Mother was way ahead of her colleagues in the field of treating her patients as a 'whole identity'... she realised that a person's state of mind, living conditions, relationships etc played a huge part in whatever was causing their 'physical...
by Rhonda Bartle on 11 December 2009
Dicky Barrett was a man who caught everything life threw at him. To escape the slums of England, he signed on as sailor at fifteen to sail the South Seas, eventually becoming one of our earliest traders. When tribal war brought an end to trading, he turned his hand to whaling. As interpreter he acted for The New Zealand Company in the wholesale purchase of Maori land for new settlers, and yet he...
by Rhonda Bartle on 11 December 2009
As a stranger in a new land, far from all things familiar, what kind of details would you wish to share with family left behind?
Letters sent by ship to England by some of New Plymouth's earliest settlers reveal an emigrant life of unexpected pleasures, and a few unwelcome surprises as well.
7 February 1842
From Jane Crocker to her father, Mr Samuel Crocker,...
by Rhonda Bartle on 07 December 2009
Sawmilling in their blood
In 1909 Henry and John Bartle balloted for two sections of land at Arawhata Road, Opunake, in order to start a sawmill. Milling was in their blood as their father William Bartle had been one of the first millers in the district.
After leaving Stibbard in Norfolk and sailing with his family from Southampton in 1890, William farmed land at Koru. Later,...