Chapter 5 - Frederick

Frederick (Fred) Beazley

Fred started school at Pakotai at about the age of nine and then went off and on until he was fourteen. He spent most of his earlier life going between different uncles and aunties. Somewhere in those earlier years he picked up the nickname of "Mokai", meaning being either a pet or slave.

Around the period 1940-42 he served in the N.Z. Army. Soon .after that, he joined the Air Force where he served a total of one year eighteen days. He was sent back to the farm as meat was getting scarce for the public and they thought it better for him to return. No sooner had he landed back on the farm then the war ended.

You may have noticed Fred speaks little Maori, if any at all. The reason being, he recalls, is that when they were at home in Mangakahia if he spoke Maori, Susan used to laugh at him because of the way he pronounced different words. To make matters worse, when he served in the Army they also laughed for the same reason. It was then he decided never to speak Maori again.

He recalls the time when he was ten or eleven how he and some other kids used to crawl around and watch how the men made a clearing in the T-tree for their parties (parties in those days were never held in the homes). They built a fire for light and warmth for them to drink around. There was one particular person by the name of Hauariki Poa, he was the greatest marksman in N.Z. in those days. Anyway, this person whenever he had a few drinks too many used to somersault through the fire, whether it be big or small, and always walked away unhurt. He remembers how they used the tops of cream cans for glasses or if you were lucky, a can of some sort even syphoning hoses were occasionally used.

When Fred was about seventeen he left home to stay at Tautoro, a place not far from where he was working. There were six other men staying there as well. He was told by one of them to make sure he hid this clothes when he went to sleep at night otherwise when he got up in the morning they might be gone because if your clothes were cleaner they would rather yours.

He recalls when Norman made homebrew, had bottled it up and hid it, when the way was clear he would take some bottles from each pile and then hide it somewhere else. When Norman had friends around and they ran out of homebrew he would bring out the bottles he had taken from Norman in the first place.

The only birthday in his earlier years that he ever had was his twenty-first, which he paid for himself. In those times Maoris were not allowed to take beer out of a pub but somehow he managed to get one keg. While they were drinking in the T-tree it started to pour down. Sammy Allison had his car parked by the house so they decided to put the keg in his boot. As the rain kept on pouring down and the men kept coming around the car for their beer, it made a drain. Sammy Allison was managing the keg and when they came to fill up their glass Sammy used some water off the ground and then topped it up with beer (one of them was a man by the name of Ngaro Tia) - no one being any the wiser. The funny thing about it was that Sammy Allison married Ngaro Tia's daughter six years later.

Fred recalls the time when they all went to church one day and came home in the dark. Having no power, their father asked Ngaro Tia if he could find his axe. Ngaro Tia said "no" all the while knowing where it was because he had 'pinched' it and thrown it into the blackberry bush, and then said that Sonny Jim would be able to find it (Sonny Jim was a Morpork). He set about to find this axe and when he got up to the blackberry bush he made out that he found it because Sonny Jim said it was there.

Fred was a shepherd for fourteen years. He had eighteen dogs and one in particular he got very attached to. He had to move on from being a shepherd to milking but there was one problem - he had too many dogs. Different ones offered him top money for this one particular dog of his but he would not part with it. He had two youngsters staying with him around this time and this dog would not go to them. One day while he was mowing the lawn, he called out to these two boys to come for lunch. At the same time he was walking towards them the two boys started yelling out to the dog and it jumped over the mower but his two back legs got caught in the mower and were cut off. He told one boy to get the shotgun and the other to dig a hole. When that was done, he told his dog to get into the hole, which it did, and then he shot it while looking straight into it's eyes. Every other dog he owned someone else had to put them down, but because this was his favourite dog he had to do it himself. That was one of the hardest things he ever had to do.

Many years ago when Norman was about thirty they were drinking out where Bob lived then. Norman in his drunken state started walking along the road. Somewhere in the vicinity where Mati and Bill Baker had their station, he laid down on the road and went to sleep. A truck came along and the driver seeing this thing lying on the road and thinking it was a sack went over the top of it. After going about 200 yards or so he stopped after hearing something thumping under the truck and to his astonishment, found Norman. His coat had got caught on the bolt holding the spare tyre. Norman was lucky to be alive and he spent many weeks in hospital.

Fred participated in and enjoyed all sports, especially rugby, although he received an eye injury once while playing which gave him alot of bother years later. He was selected to play against South Africa when they came here. In those days Maoris were not allowed to go out of N.Z. to play. He gave up rugby vowing never to play again when he critically injured another player.

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Editorial Notes

• Although no accreditation is given to the author(s) of this panui in the Reunion Book, it would appear the stories in it come from an interview with him while he was still alive.

• Any corrections, additional information or pictures relevant to this whanau chapter or whakapapa can also be submitted

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Frederick Chapter Attachments

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