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T I N U I
Tinui, Masterton District, New Zealand
Tinui was a county seat in the good old days when rural population was significant. Now it's a stop on the road to Castlepoint beach, with not much beyond three retailers, a school, a fire station, a church, a tennis club, and a number of fine old houses. But roads are sealed (which is more than could be said of parts of a former State highway south of Waipukurau not 100 miles away) and farmers prosper despite drought.
What's New (relatively - until residents send in newer news or a newspaper prints some):
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Sad recent happenings in the district were recalled by a half-page article in a daily paper about rural drink-driving. Breaches of the licensing laws were mentioned, but were not specifically blamed for the fatality involving a Tinui family.
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Tinui Primary School proudly proclaimed its smokefree status some time before the law required all schools to follow suit. Over 20 former pupils have signed up with OldFriends.co.nz. Now how about a website for the school?
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The pub was recently on the market but no signs betray that fact now. It still displays the statuesque bilingual pun in the shape of beer barrels forming "the Big T" - an appropriate entry to Tinui.
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From 26/12/2003 Robin and Julie Patterson had another enjoyable visit to their oldest niece's farm at Annedale Road (though the map shows a different name "Manawa Road" and there's conspicuously no clarifying sign on the post that labels the western end of Charles Street).
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Robin and Julie spent Labour Weekend 2002 at our favourite farm.
If any readers have heard the song that goes "Will you teach me, will you teach me, Dad, teach me to drive the tractor?" you may shudder at the thought that a certain 61-year-old, who had never driven a motorbike, was asked to drive the Quad Machine so as to deliver 25 kg of nuts twice a day to some calves across the road (and through three gates and down to the far end of the third paddock - why the far end???). The training run worked just fine, and would have been better if Robin had learned to ease off the throttle while changing up to 2nd. Rhys just laughed.
Fortunately, perhaps, the machine wouldn't start after Rhys and Shona had gone off to the mountains for some quality time and the next feed was due. Julie said she had seen a trolley in the garage. Yay! Better than "over the shoulder" for what was the best part of a kilometre.
The calves in the shed (who didn't get fed the first evening because they hadn't finished their breakfast) and the others close to it were a doddle by comparison.
In between bouts of real or surreal farming, Robin did some planting and a spot of weeding and made enough measurements to be able to present Shona with a plan at a scale of 1:100 showing the locations of all currently obvious trees in the fenced-off indigenous plantation. Now who's got a silly uncle who planted a rimu right under the powerlines?
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Famous Tinui old boy:
Edwin Perry was born - a bit before 1960 - and raised in Tinui. Got to shearing 400 lambs in a day. He became a Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa rugby rep. He chaired the Taupo branch of the National Party. He worked in sales and marketing after shaking off the gumboots. By 2002 he had become a member of the South Wairarapa Enterprise Board and the Wairarapa Landfill Development Board (which may occasionally require fresh gumboots) and contributed to the births of four children.
What more natural, then, than to enter Parliament as a list MP for New Zealand First? How many other MPs enjoy pig-hunting and collecting early Land Rovers and classic Minis, one might ask?
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Above the village of Tinui, between Masterton and Castlepoint, on 25 April 1916 a service of remembrance was held by local vicar Basil Ashcroft on top of Mount Maunsell. The cross erected there, since replaced by a more permanent one, became the first ANZAC memorial in the country. The annual service was reinstated by the local Lions Club some years ago, having lapsed when most returned services personnel had left the area.
[21 April 2001, Evening Post p 3]
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On 8 March 2001, armed police cleared an Annedale Road house after receiving reports of gunshots. It was suspected children were in the house. Everyone inside - including a 10-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy - was found safe and well at about 6.30am. Sergeant Warwick Burr, of Masterton police, said the alarm was raised about 11.30pm the night before. "While awaiting the arrival of the armed offenders squad, police spoke to a woman who had been at the Annedale Rd address earlier in the evening prior to the shots being heard," said Mr Burr. "She confirmed that there had been a domestic dispute . . . and that when she left there had been three male persons and two children present." Mr Burr said the area was rural but neighbouring residents were aware of the situation and stayed indoors. Firearms were seized from the house. Police were interviewing the adults involved, and charges were being considered.
[8 Mar 2001, Evening Post, page 1]
A 39-year-old man appeared in Masterton District Court the same day, charged with threatening to kill and possessing a firearm while intoxicated, and was remanded in custody to reappear on Monday 12 March.
[9 March 2001, Evening Post]
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Your news or queries or suggestions will be welcome - email Robin at robinp@xtra.co.nz
Rhiannon Drummond's ancestry
Wairarapa on Wikipedia
Porirua - it's amazing!
David Brian Carrad, great-grandfather of three former Tinui residents
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IllumiRate's NZ local directories
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