Hero photograph
Gay Buckingham's The Grand Electrification of the South
 
Photo by Mary Egan Publishers

Gay Buckingham's The Grand Electrification of the South 

Chris Carrell —

[published by Mary Egan Publishers]

http://www.powernet.co.nz/The Grand Electrification of the South by Gay Buckingham was published last December to record a revolutionary, early 20th century Southland scheme to build a hydro-electric power station and supply electricity to the entire province. Over 100 historical photographs and many diagrams illustrate this well-indexed, substantial book, designed and produced by Mary Egan Publishers.

Chris Carrell interviewed the author about her new book in January.  

We take electricity for granted. What impact did it have beyond the familiar domestic changes?

Electricity changed the face of cities: people were able to live in one area and travel by electric tram to work elsewhere. In rural areas the impact on dairying was immense. It wasn’t just the fact that milking no longer had to be done by hand, but inspectors no longer had to contend with ash in the milk from using manuka-stoked fires for sterilising equipment, and refrigeration removed the risk of milk ’turning' at the cheese factory. Shearing sheep by machine was a new (and noisy!) innovation. Flax mills, coal mining, lime-works, sawmills all benefitted.

Do any characters stand out?

Alexander Wylie Rodger first proposed the Monowai dam, then fought hard for it. But the men who erected the first poles mustn’t be overlooked. They lived in huts with wooden floors and canvas sides, towed around the countryside by traction engines. The huts had slat beds with no mattresses, no running water, no stoves for cooking, heating or drying clothes.

Won’t most provinces have a similar story to tell?

Southland innovation drafted the legislation that made it legal to generate and reticulate electricity for public supply; the rest of New Zealand followed. During the interwar years, New Zealand had the greatest number of rural people with access to electric power in the whole of the developed world.

What sort of research was required?

There’s a wonderful photographic supplement to the Southland Times of the opening of the Lake Monowai dam in 1925. The verbatim recollections taken down during the diamond celebration fifty years later are of great anecdotal interest. I found uncatalogued ephemera in the Company archives, and a few newspaper records. Early board meetings were held behind closed doors, so I often had to deduce what persuaded members to pass particular minutes. One member of the first board of 1920 was my great uncle, described as a ‘strong, silent, rather dour man’!

What did you most care about when putting the material together?

Veracity was most important. I wanted narrative drive in the book too, along with corporate ‘facts’ which underpin aspiration and political intervention. It’s about people pursuing their goals. I loved writing about the personal and the anecdotal.

What does the book offer the modern reader?

It gives us a chance to contemplate and recognise pioneers who worked for the common good, who were optimistic about the future. Their scheme illustrated a provincial culture of self-reliance and initiative, which has endured.

The Grand Elecrification of the South is available from the Dunedin Public Library, or $20 from The Power Company Limited,

251 Racecourse Road, Invercargill