Kaihoka – half a century of mains power supply
Dave Ferguson (right) was only 12 years old when Harrie Wells (left) put the power line through to Kaihoka in 1961. Photo: Gerard Hindmarsh.
By the usual standards, it was just a small celebration, an afternoon tea last Sunday at Dave and Marilyn Ferguson’s house at Kaihoka, but it was a chance to reminisce about getting the power on 50 years ago—the last district in Golden Bay to do so.
“I didn’t think we should let the event go unremembered,” said Dave. “It was a significant achievement that involved a huge effort and changed our lives forever.”
At the Fergusons’ were Harrie and Rona Wells from Takaka. Harrie was 29 and a linesman with the Golden Bay Electric Power Board in late 1960 when he was given the job of stringing up some 10 kilometres of poles off the main line that had been run out to Mangarakau and beyond to Snake Creek just two years before. That earlier job had occupied Harrie for around 10 months as foreman of a crew that included many labourers from the Benara Timber Company.
Before starting at Kaihoka, Harrie looked over the terrain with Mac Mackay. No actual engineers were involved; the final job was given entirely to Harrie and workman Ted Fayen (who, unfortunately, couldn’t attend the 50th celebration). The two men started the job on a Sunday, equipped with only 30 white battens to mark where the first posts should go, a .22 Hornet rifle to sight the line through the crosshairs of its telescopic sight, a rangefinder and Abney surveying level, and a lot of rags to tie in the tops of trees to mark the eventual line through sections of bush and scrub.
By noon on that first day, bad weather had set in and the two men retired to Jock Wyllie’s, where two bottles of B&W Whiskey were produced along with a steaming kettle and a big bowl of sugar so they could mix up their own brews. Local farmers Bruce Ferguson and Jock Wyllie, along with their workers (Jock’s being Dudley Wilson, Noble Flowers and Merv Grainger as cook), were all expected to dig the holes for the poles. Even Jock’s visiting sister Jean (Sparrow) got on the end of the shovel.
The holes for the concrete poles had to be six feet deep, while the railway iron holes only had to be 5’6”, many of them dug in gritty and hard sandstone country. On the best day, 26 poles were seated in the predug holes, hoisted up alongside an upright truck chassis bolted to the back of a bulldozer. Putting the last poles in over the mudflat in front of the Fergusons’ cattleyards proved a little more tricky, as the six railway iron poles used for this 350m section had to be “rocked” down into the mud. Once these were in, it was found that their height did not adhere to shipping regulations, and Bruce Ferguson and Harrie had the unenviable job of bolting hardwood extensions to the top of the poles, perched only on two ladders, while aligning them and bolting the precut holes as they went.
Harrie recalls how practised Ted and he were working atop the double Australian Karri crossarms.
“When I wanted to roll a smoke, I’d just climb up and sit on top of the pole with my foot jammed between the crossarms. That way I knew if I fell, my leg would have to break off first if I was going to reach the ground, which would be a pretty hard thing to do. Ted used to skid down the railway iron poles real fast by just holding on to the outside of them and keeping one foot in the groove to direct his way down.”
Stringing the aluminium two-cable (single phase) line, without the aid of a helicopter as is done today in rugged terrain, was long, laborious work that involved clearing lines through forest and scrub so it could be laid out first. The job went on all through that hot summer and first weeks of autumn, mosquitoes and sandflies ever attendant.
Dave Ferguson was 12 when the power was finally switched on at their family farm at the end of the Kaihoka line on 31 March, 1961. “I recall my mother [Dora Ferguson] being so happy because it meant she could get rid of her wood range and kerosene fridge. Suddenly we had a new electric oven and fridge. Being able to have a freezer later on made life a lot easier too. We had been using a diesel generator up to then, but mains power was a huge upgrade.”
Kaihoka residents connected to the line were charged an annual guarantee of £135 for 15 years. Remembers Dave: “It was far more than the power bill we could expect so we just left lights on for years, just enjoying its usage, knowing the bill would not exceed the guarantee.”
Kaihoka was the last area of Golden Bay to get power, although a side line to the Millers’ farm at Ngaroa would not be completed until some years later. Takaka township’s houses were first connected around 1928 after construction of the Pupu Hydro. But it was the result of a poll of western Golden Bay in 1946 by the Golden Bay Power Board that would prompt it to raise £23,000 for the reticulation of Bainham, Rockville, Ferntown and Collingwood. Power was turned on in Collingwood and Rockville in 1949, with Pakawau and Puponga included some years later.
Gerard Hindmarsh
