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NB. This is an unedited field recording with intermittent breaks in response to background noise.
An interview with 79 years old koro Sam Emery in 1964. Sam is originally from Tainui but has lived at Rotoiti most of his life. Born around 1885 he moved to Rotoiti in 1907. [Sam speaks a little in te reo Māori]. He never had any schooling or learned to read or write so worked on the roads, in the saw mill and as a farm supervisor. Despite this Sam gained a marine certificate, ran a 34 passenger launch, between Rotoiti an Rotorua and later ran a bus service.
He describes the large size of his whānau and how they voted on building a meeting house/ wharenui to live in. Apart from subsidies of $4,000 from the government and $1,000 from the Arawa Trust Board, the whānau raised the balance of $21,000 towards building costs. Sam describes how he was postmaster for 29 years and operated the oldest transport service in the area. Sam has spent 25 years on the Te Arawa Trust Board.