Open 7 Days 28. Drummond Store

I wrote and illustrated ‘Open 7 Days’. It was published in 1991. It’s a series of freeze-frames of some historic New Zealand general and convenience stores as they were preserved in the last decade of the 20th century. Bit by bit, on this blog, I re-publish some of the entries from that book.

DRUMMOND STORE

Memorial Avenue, Drummond, Southland.
Proprietor: Mel Hall

Drummond, of Scottish flavour, serves an area which, after systematic draining of its swamps, started its pastoral life in the 1880s cropping oats, wheat and lighter grasses. Dairying came and went, as did Drummond’s dairy factory, and these days sheep safely graze the quiet acres.

Mel Hall’s Four Square store is as neat and tidy as the village it serves. It’s a smaller, tighter village than it once was, and Mel’s store is the survivor of two that were once able to compete and stay in business.

Mel is a ‘foreigner’ from Invercargill but, for all that, still a Southlander. He took over the store in 1983, the latest of a line of owners going back to around 1880, when it was set up by Ezekiel Roberts, one of the original townsmen. Roberts, whose descendants still live in the district, developed an efficient weekly horse-and-cart delivery service to outlying farmers and needy itinerants. As with most country storekeepers in those days, he lived with the reality of long-range credit and payments in line with farmers’ receipts.

When I visited in 1990, the Drummond Store supplied groceries, petrol, fruit, vegetables and ice creams to the people of the town and passers-by travelling the long, straight roads of this tranquil district.

Since 1883 there’s been a hotel where the Traveller’s Rest now stands.

© DON DONOVAN

donovan@ihug.co.nz
.

Open 7 Days 25. Wanaka Store

I wrote and illustrated ‘Open 7 Days’. It was published in 1991. It’s a series of freeze-frames of some historic New Zealand general and convenience stores as they were preserved in the last decade of the 20th century. Bit by bit, on this blog, I re-publish some of the entries from that book.

WANAKA STORE
78 Ardmore Street, Wanaka, Central Otago.
Proprietors: Dave and Iris Gillespie.

Wanaka is the lake: a magnificent glacial aqua-sculpture that thrusts deep into the heart of the Southern Alps and points the way to the grandeur of the Haast Pass and southern Westland beyond.

Wanaka is one of those fortunate resorts that works as well in winter as in summer, with the consequence that there are always visitors as well as residents to make life busy at the store.

It was started in the 1870s by Robert McDougall (a legendary figure who had a kind heart as well as being postmaster, justice of the peace and registrar of birth, deaths and marriages) to supply the diggers at the Cardrona goldfields. It was taken up later and rebuilt by D.W.Jolly.

A storekeeper had to stock everything imaginable then, and Jolly’s carried men’s and women’s clothing, horseshoes, nails, picks, spades, pans, basic foods and patent medicines. They baked bread, too, and delivered to Luggate, Albert Town, Hawea Flat and Makarora. Right up to the 1950s, Wilson Bros., the then owners, were still carrying on in the same way.

The Gillespies bought the store in 1981 and started a self-service and check-out system. But tradition dies hard and the Wanaka Store, whose Four Square paint can’t hide its sturdy lines, still serves as a meeting place and information exchange for the townsfolk.

The tourist launch Ena De is pink by design, and the question I heard a local wit call out is obviously a standing joke: ‘When’re you going to give it its top coat?’

© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz
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Open 7 Days 15. Piriaka Store

I wrote and illustrated ‘Open 7 Days’. It was published in 1991. It’s a series of freeze-frames of some historic New Zealand general and convenience stores as they were preserved in the last decade of the 20th century. Bit by bit, on this blog, I re-publish some of the entries from that book.

PIRIAKA STORE
Main Highway South, Taumarunui.
Proprietor: Joy-Ellen ‘Taffy’ Climo

Waving the flag is a tradition that’s become unfashionable recently, so it was nice to see the New Zealand ensign flying so proudly over the Piriaka Store. The store has been in the family for many years, and tradition is important to Joy Climo.

‘My grandfather John Braithwaite and his wife were early settlers during the mill days [1900s], when he had a mill at Piriaka. There used to be a mill where the shop stands. My uncle, William Braithwaite, once owned the shop. He and his friend Lefty Gray ran out of beer once so they emptied all the bottles of liniment out then put the empties back in boxes on the shelves. You can imagine what happened - many men went home trying to ride their horses and bikes back to front. It’s a wonder nobody died!’
That was in the era when the King Country was officially ‘dry’ but ’sly grogging’ was rampant, Matai beer being made by the railway workers and whisky brought in by packhorse from Tokaanu.

While Joy, who took the store over from her sister Carol Laurent in 1985, insists that she maintains the family tradition of ‘serving the needs of the people’ it’s strictly Four Square and postal services these days, and ’sly grogging’ is consigned to history.

This cryptic sign opposite the store is obviously not intended for high-speed readership by passing traffic!

© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz
.