Spectrum 888. Aisles of abundance

Rights Information
Year
1996
Reference
21698
Media type
Audio
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Rights Information
Year
1996
Reference
21698
Media type
Audio
Duration
00:27:05
Credits
RNZ Collection
Edwards, Jim, Speaker/Kaikōrero
Perkins, Jack (b.1940), Presenter

Spectrum was a long-running weekly radio documentary series which captured the essence of New Zealand from 1972 to 2016. Alwyn Owen and Jack Perkins produced the series for many years, creating a valuable library of New Zealand oral history.

"Echoes of the 1930s Depression" came the cries, when a young woman on a Department of Social Welfare special needs grant was quizzed about her purchases at a supermarket check-out. Yoghurt and lemonade were classed as 'luxuries' by the attendant.

A body called "The Charitable Aid Board" administered a means-tested grant in the early 1930s. Armed with their C.A.B. coupons, Jim Edwards (junior) remembers queuing with his mother at Hutchinsons Store in Khyber Pass, Auckland, for food basics. A large blackboard listed banned luxuries: biscuits, scented soap, cigarettes... the list was a long one.

With these vivid memories, Jim walks the aisles of abundance in a modern Remuera supermarket with Jack Perkins, and contrasts the goods on the shelves with those available to the poor of the 1930s.

Jim recalls children queuing at local Newton factories to buy broken un-sellable Weet-Bix, cakes and biscuits by the half pillowcase, and fossicking through rejected rotten fruit at the Auckland city markets to supplement their diet.

Second hand clothing was obtained from Sister Esther’s cast-off’s in Ponsonby.

Cleaning products were virtually non-existent and cleanliness came from elbow grease. A poor diet and lack of dental care had detrimental effects and subsequently all Jim’s teeth were removed at age 12-13 following an accident.

Baxter’s Lung Preserver was the medicine of the day. Cigarettes were promoted by a doctor and advertised as having medicinal benefits, and ailments were remedied with a drop of brandy.

Jim talks about his schooling and the family having to move many times when they couldn’t pay their rent. The Salvation Army brought soup to the streets on horse and cart, and toilet paper was yesterday’s newspaper.