Page 32 - CR-93

The southern Wanganui River Bridge being destroyed did not mean the end of the evening. There was always
The Burliet Truck on Mirror Creek Bridge the punt. Stan and Nancy are the young couple leaning on the truck

Some traditions prevailed during films. One thing that we all appear to have
forgotten was that New Zealanders were very patriotic. It was the rule for everyone
to stand whilst the British National Anthem was played at every dance or picture
show. Woe to the person who did not stand. There would be a mass in-taking of
breath, and stares. Generally the culprit would get the message, and slowly stand.
Few did not respond to mass pressure.

In 1936, Alf and Rene moved to Stillwater to increase income as the group grew
larger, and to provide a wider coverage of sound movies. The places they travelled
to from Stillwater were Ikamatua, Kumara, and Wallsend, which was central to the
five Brunner communities of Stillwater, Wallsend, Brunner, Dobson, and
Taylorville, all within a few miles of the theatre. There were two evenings of
pictures, on Sundays and Tuesdays, at Wallsend. I remember that they did travel to
Above: The Stillwater base of Westland Talkies. Alf and Rene Hokitika at times, but that may have been as extra help for the southern group. Some
bought the house for £40. friends remember Moana as well.
I accompanied them to many film evenings from an early age. If it was at a distant
place, I always fell asleep between them in the front of the van on the way home.
Alf and Rene were our second parents.
WAR - Alf was drafted and enlisted as a Driver. His total service to New Zealand
amounted to 3 years and 223 days. Westland Talkies suffered a huge blow, and
the family had to reshuffle its work plans.
Alf was called up in 1942, so he and Rene moved to Blenheim where Alf was
stationed for training. Since she had a heavy traffic licence, Rene was manpowered
into a morning job driving for Coker and Mills Bakery (Air Force suppliers) and
working for them in their cake-shop, tearoom or ice-cream factory, plus Friday
evenings and Sundays in their milk bar. The house and business in Stillwater were
Above: Cliff Moffit’s Straight 8 Buick, Bill Nairn’s Ford, taken over by Stan and his wife, Nancy, for the duration of the war. It was an
Jim Benson’s Buick and Alf Smith’s Westland Talkies Dodge Van
upheaval for everybody.
Stan and Fred covered seven communities from Ross to Fox
Glacier, including Hari Hari, Whataroa, and Ruatoria, some
biweekly. Both men were familiar with crises, like having to
back down Mount Hercules when a slip blocked the road.
(See cartoon at beginning of this article). The driving and
mechanical skills of all three men never went astray,
including nimble fingers. Broken film caused near riots with
impatient filmgoers!
In their workshops, the main tasks were maintaining
equipment, and rewinding by hand up to ten large reels of
film to be sent forward to the next cinema - within hours.
Shipping was done by rail. Alf was quite a joker, and started
discussions at the railway station between men he knew to
be diametrically opposed in their views. Then he would
return to pick up his next lot of film and stoke up the
argument again. He would do this all day! Alternatively, at
the local shop, he would choose the occupation of a waiting
customer and state something like, "Never marry a
schoolteacher. They are bad housekeepers”. Or he would
The Wallsend Hall in the background. Note the overhanging projection box at the front. say, "Bloody road workers, always leaning on their
(Photo courtesy of Tom Hartill, NZ). shovels”. Fortunately most people knew that he was stirring.

32 CINEMARECORD # 93