Jack Perkins looks at the central north island township timber town of Tokoroa, which supplies the labour force for the adjacent Kinleith pulp and paper mills. The particular focus is the people who live and work there.
A variety of voices and different accents are heard, which represent the diversity of the community of Tokoroa. A male speaker explains the population of Tokoroa is 19,000 and while it is not quite a city, it somehow has managed to retain its small town atmosphere. He explains ‘you walk up the street – people speak. You’re not just a name, you’re not just a number but you are somebody here’.
The Kinleith Mill has resulted in Tokoroa being a wealthy town that is also young both in demographic and origin having being established in 1948 with the formation of the mill. State Highway One connects Tokoroa to Taupo and Hamilton. When local historian Jim Hassel [?] came to the area in 1915 the town was a dirt track afflicted by the same soil deficiency that affects the whole of the central plateau. Jim talks about the difficulties faced by the early pioneers. Experimentation with different elements finally led to the introduction of cobalt into the water system and then into the manure via top dressing. During the 1920s thousands of bush sick acres of land were on the market for virtually nothing until they were bought up by several companies. They bought up the cheap land to plant pine trees not realizing they were laying the foundations for what would become a multimillion dollar industry. By the late 1930s over 150,000 acres were planted in pine. David Henry, with experience from Scotland, formed New Zealand Forest Products Ltd. The birth of the modern pulp and paper industry began.
In the 1950s along with Maori, many workers arrived from Pasifika, particularly from Aitutaki in the Cook Islands. That trend continued with Tokoroa having the second largest population of Pacific peoples in the country, after South Auckland. The varied skills and experience required also drew immigrants from Europe, America and Canada. Tokoroa today boasts a community of over twenty six nationalities.
Senior Police Sergeant Peter Wood has been in Tokoroa seventeen months and states there have been no major incidents and it is a very stable little town. He believes this is because everyone in the town mixes together on an equal footing, because everyone is employed together doing similar work for a similar wage at the Mill. Ani Bryon [?] is Maori and has worked for seven years broadcasting on the local radio station. Because of her work she has become a spokesperson for Maori in Tokoroa. She has worked hard to progress the interests of Maori in the area, when she first arrived she felt that the only social option for Maori was sport on the weekends. She feels Maori are a humble race and need to be invited to speak out on local issues or risk being marginalised. She feels the lack of facilities and lack of Marae negatively affects Maori living there.
Most people move to Tokoroa for a job. This applies not just to people working at the Mill. The local high school art teacher talks jokingly about the rough impression he had of the town before moving there to take up his position. He refers to “tough toke” which it was known as, during recent industrial unrest. He speaks of the diversity of the students in his art classes. He believes that Tokoroa attracts a diversity of people from all over the country for work and they all bring their own unique sense of home with them.
At the church on Sunday morning there are three services a day to accommodate the various Pacific peoples. A congregation singing hymns is heard.
Puko Morgan [?] originally from Aitutaki talks about how the women folk of Tokoroa do craft work, far more intensively than they would have done at home in Pasifika. Put simply, there is more time for it here.
Peter Wood says that a curious problem he has encountered in Tokoroa is that of peeping toms, which he believes is due to the nature of shift work.
By and large the problems that face the people of the area are the same of people everywhere. Despite the existence of the mill unemployment, particularly for Maori and Polynesian young people, it is still a major issue. Qualifications are an issue when most Maori leave school in the fourth form.
The Pasifika community has somewhat transplanted its village social structure and maintained strong ties with the people back home. Much of the good money earned at the mill is sent back to the islands for community projects. Travel between New Zealand and the Pacific is a feature of transplanted island life, as is the sharing of money and materials.
This item ends with the background sounds of an enthusiastic Pasifika performance taking place.