Otago School of Mines & Metallurgy

1950s Graduates Newsletter

October 2002
Editorial
Well, it’s been a while, eh! Time flies when you’re having fun! I had originally intended to create this epistle
before the Normandy Reunion in June. But there was a lot going on at that time, and it’s taken me until now
to find a “round tuit”. Those of you who wonder how they ever found time to go to work will understand what
I’m talking about.

The Reunion was a memorable occasion as all who attended would remember, and as the photos supplied
by Jock Braithwaite attest. Perhaps the most poignant aspect was John & Odile Hitchon’s resolve to
continue with the arrangements despite his serious and deteriorating health condition. I must say I
wondered why they didn’t cancel it all; but I’m sure it did John’s heart good to meet many of his old time
mates again, and to enjoy their shared comradeship and memories for the last time. I am sure all who
attended were moved by their determination to make a memorable experience of the event. I’m sorry I
wasn’t there.

You will not be able to avoid noticing the substantial contributions from the venerable John Bullamore
Mackie, and the redoubtable Rex Guinivere. The reason, in part, that we three have kept in touch by email
since the 2000 “Birthday Bash” in Nelson. It’s been a very rewarding experience for me. I continue to be
amazed by Jack’s wit, wisdom and surviving technical knowledge. Just recently he brushed up on our
knowledge of how to calculate the sun’s azimuth at setting at mid-summer in your own latitude.

The other reason is that I haven’t received much in the way of contributions from the rest of you. A couple of
potted histories and some info about the Reunion. But it would make the newsletter more interesting an d
varied if more blokes sent me stories about their careers and family lives, the strange places they’ve been
and the things that happened to them there.

The Otago School of Mines is dead, and even the name may not be resurrect able. But OU are progressing
with the development of an applied science course in mineral technology. Dr Ahmad is very interested in the
project. And Prof. John Hannah is the man to keep in touch with about it . . . . . not to mention sending the
MONEY to !

The format is “pdf ” which should be readbale in any computer or platform providing you have Acrobat
Reader installed. You can get this free just about anywhere – including www.adobe.com .
 Some Good News At Last!

Drinking and Dementia

From
The Health Report with Dr. Norman Swan
ABC Radio National, Australia, 2nd April 2002

Should you drink to forget or maybe, just maybe, should you drink to remember? There's evidence from
Bordeaux in France, that the more wine you drink, the lower your risk of dementia. They would come up with
a result like that, wouldn't they? But Holland doesn't have the same conflict of interest - and they've been
following the health of thousands of 55-year-olds, first seen about 10 years ago, when none of them had
dementia. Over 5000 participants gave good information on alcohol intake, and after six years, the figures
for those who had developed dementia and those who had not were analysed. About 200 had some form of
dementia after this time. Mostly it was Alzheimer's disease, but others had vascular dementia (where the
blood vessels were involved) and there were a few where the problem was Parkinson's disease. Anyway,
regardless of the type of dementia, light to moderate drinkers (that's one to three standard drinks per day) of
any form of alcohol - beer, wine, spirits, sherry (yes they still drink sherry in The Netherlands) - had around a
40 per cent reduction in the risk of any form of dementia and about a 70 per cent reduction in vascular
dementia. Men had a bit more benefit than women; and the person's age, whether they smoked, and how
well educated they were didn't alter the influence of alcohol. The reasons could be either the benefits of
alcohol on arteries or even perhaps an antioxidant effect. The key to light alcohol drinking, and dementia of
course, is remembering when to stop.

For reference: Ruitenberg A, et al The Lancet, 2002 vol 359 pp 281-2862

Websites Of Interest

Sovereign Hill. VIC http://www.sovereignhill.com.au/about/index.shtml

Cornishmen @ Cobar, NSW http://www.nijelo.webcentral.com.au/CANSW/cobarone.htm

History of Broken Hill http://www.walkabout.com.au/fairfax/locations/NSWBrokenHill.shtml

Line of Lode (Broken Hill) http://www.lineoflodebrokenhill.org.au/about_us.html

If you have found any sites which might interest our mining, metallurgical, surveying or geology oriented
members, please email me for inclusion in the next newsletter.

By the way . . . . have you discovered “Google” yet ? It’s the most incredible search engine. It will search a
bit under 2,000,000,000 web pages in less than one second. Mind boggling! Plus there are a number of
interesting sidelines like Groups (chat rooms I think), Images (of just about any city you like to enter the
name of), web directory, etc. You can even set it up in a toolbar in Internet Explorer. Amazing stuff.
 Is this the Auckland YOU remember?

Decades Of Tragedy Underground Writ Large On Memorial

From the Sydney Morning Herald,17/01/2002

The names of nine miners killed by percussion deep underground at Broken Hill South mine on July 18,
1899, are listed on a memorial atop today's mullock heap at Broken Hill. The memorial, aided by a $4.3
million Centenary of Federation grant, was opened last April. The men had seen the danger of a roof
collapse and had retreated to what they thought was a safe distance. But it was not far enough.

There are 807 names on the memorial. From the time the first mine shaft was sunk in 1884, men and boys
have died in the service of mining. They have fallen, been crushed, scalded, blown up, suffocated and been
caught in machinery. Techniques have improved, though there is still the possibility of disaster. In the old
days, it was closer and more personal. Miners tested the rock with iron bars to ensure it "rang" true and
nothing was loose. They refrained from wearing ear protection because they needed to keep an ear open
for the tell-tale crack that might precede a rock fall. Going to work was a calculated risk, as Richard Murphy,
guide in one of the regular underground tours, explains. Many Broken Hill women became widows two or
three times over.

The brief details on the memorial only hint at the grief. The youngest victim, John Armitt, aged 12,
suffocated from dynamite fumes on August 8, 1890, but he was just playing. The oldest victim, who from the
record appears to have died while working, was Edward William Williams, 78. He died at Consols Mine
Pinnam on September 28, 1985.

Veteran mining boss Bill O'Neil said 833 mine victims had been identified, while about 1500 more had died
of the dust-related disease silicosis. Two of his uncles had been killed, one in a fall and anothe r hit by
timber. He himself had 28 untroubled years and then had both legs broken in a single accident, ending his
active mining career, after which he went into union affairs.” In the old days, you worked hard," he said.
"You had to do 20 tonnes a day and you got 4 shillings and 3 pence a tonne. But when you heard a crack,
you ran."

Every year, the present union boss, Eddie Butcher, will make pilgrimages to the memorial, one for a friend,
John Arthur Semmens, killed by a rock fall at the New Broken Hill Consolidated Mine in 1973. Bob Groves,
58, retired, worked underground for almost 30 years at North Zinc Mine and is far from untouched by
tragedy. His daughter, Jasmin, was about to marry a miner, Ray Kolinski. On August 15, 1992, Kolinski fell
200 metres down a shaft in the North Mine. Like everyone else, he has shed tears, but he has used his
talent in drawing to contribute to the health and safety of miners. His cartoons, like those of the other great
outback artist, Jolliffe, have graced union publications and posters that have gone all around the world,
depicting the most horrendous events in an eye -catching way. Miners still go back because that is the way
you earn your living, he said. "If it's your turn to go, you go."

Malcolm Brown

Another Fascinating Story From Our Nonagenarian Surveying Whiz kid

These dulang washers were specially licensed to wash for tin in the Malayan rivers, and there were a lot of
them. They were a hard-case lot but they had a sense of humour. Their licence took the form of a booklet
which had their photo and thumb-print in it; it had to be renewed each year and in one place I had over a
thousand of them and they all came in a great throng at renewal time and besieged my office, making a
great picnic of the occasion. Every licence had to be signed by the District Inspector of Mines and this
sometimes took as long a couple of weeks. Their licence had pages for the recording of tin sales to
registered tin-buyers. They were allowed to sell up to 20 katties (about 27lb) of tin ore per month. If I saw a
group of them working in a river I would go and check up on them and have them on a bit. They could give
as well as they could take! They were nearly all Chinese women and it was one of these groups that must
have follow ed me to my private river-pool. While I was luxuriating in the cool water they stood around and
poked the borax, and wouldn't go away so I could get out and dress. They giggled a lot and finally left, but
I'm sure they hid in the bushes and watched me! I have other stories about the tricks they got up to in order
to get in early to get their licence renewed. All my ex-pat neighbouring colleagues in offices used to
complain about the noise they made while having their 'picnic' in the surrounding grounds.

Incidentally, a dulang is a saucer-shaped wooden dish about 60cm in diameter. It is used with a dextrous
circular motion to wash out the lighter sand etc. centrifugally while concentrating the heavies in the bottom.
I used to employ them with the boring gangs to wash up the material from the holes.

Jack Mackie

Vale

The only deaths I know of since Newsletter #2 twelve months ago, are those of John Hitchon and Ted Hart.
It was very sad to hear of John dying so soon after the Normandy Reunion in June, but it must have been
very good for him to have seen all his old mates for the last time. I guess we’re going to see more and more
of this as we all accelerate on the downhill run!

Eddie also sent me a copy of the “local” (St Pair) newspaper article about the NZ ers’ visit . . . . in French,
or course. Attached was a very touching letter from Odile. But I think it’s a bit personal to include here.

Here is an excellent obituary about John, written by his old friend Eddie Price.

John W. Hitchon.
Obituary by Eddie Price.

It is inevitable that the ranks of the 50s graduates of OSM will slowly diminish. However, it was a sad
surprise to find John Hitchon in such poor health when a number of the older Otago School of Mines (OSM)
graduates and their wives assembled in Rouen for a mini-reunion and a tour of Normandy that John had
promoted and organized over the preceding 18 months. Even more sadly, John was to die about 9 days
after we had all left, but it was a consolation that John had really enjoyed meeting so many of his former co-
students, most after an interval of more than 40 years, although the stimulation and excitement of the
occasion possibly drained much energy from him.

John or “Hitch”, as he was generally known when he was a student, was an unusual occurrence at OSM. It
wasn’t usual for OSM students to score such high marks in their first year as John did and to go on to
graduate with first class honours. Although a top student, John found time to be part of the activities of the
OSM, including the OSM drinking team that maintained its dominance over the Dental School, (helped
immeasurably by the awesome pouring swallow of Charlie McPhee.) John, with many others, was of course
a keen player of liar’s dice in the common room and participated in the capping concert reviews.

Although some of John’s working experience is written up in previous newsletters, it is useful to repeat it
briefly, if not only to partly address the subject he had suggested for future newsletters: how national
political decisions, international monetary policy and international financial crises influenced careers of
individuals. After he left Dunedin, he spent a short time in Broken Hill before taking up a research
scholarship at the University of NSW in Sydney to study the technology of melting titanium and the
interaction between molten titanium and the various ceramics that were possible mold coatings for reactive
metal castings. It likely started his lifelong interest in casting technology. He then obtained a French
Government grant to study and work near Paris and at the end of the grant time decided to continue working
at IRSID (Institute de Recherches de la Siderurgie) at Saint Germaine en Laye near Paris. In the physical
chemistry section of IRSID he was put in charge of a model steel converter to develop the technology of
oxygen injection to molten steel which had become a factor in increasing steel production rates for both
open hearth and Bessemer technologies following the availability of tonnage oxygen.

At this time he met his future wife Odile, who was to be so supportive over the years. After this period he
and Odile travelled to Australia and John worked in Melbourne, at Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation at
Fisherman’s Bend before he and Odile decided that their future life would be in France. In 1963, John
obtained a position in St. Etienne, in the south of France at the Cie des Ateliers et Forges de la Loire,
(CAFL), a series of large steel plants where his responsibilities included tracking down the cause of defects
seen in the final product. He stayed at St Etienne, (where their three children were born) until 1967, when
the steel plants were absorbed into the much larger complex that was to become Creussot-Loire. As his
CAFL responsibilities were duplicated in Creusot and transferred to them, John was appointed technical
director of Fonderies de Laval, located in the Mayenne department of the Loire just south of lower
Normandy. It was an investment casting foundry and John worked hard to upgrade the quality of the final
products, becoming a minority owner after a number of years.

While he was at Laval he became the French representative on the European Investment Casting
Association that allowed him to visit the plants in other European countries and see the state of their
technology. I remember meeting him after he had returned from a trip to England and how horrified he was
of the working conditions of professional engineers and their relative status in society there, compared to
what was enjoyed in France. He also spent some time in Kokomo, Indiana, developing expertise on the
melting and casting of the more exotic nickel-based alloys mostly used in aircraft jet engines. John really
enjoyed keeping up with the technical developments taking place in the steel industry. He was a member of
the ‘Iron and Steel Society’, the ‘Institute of Materials’, and the ‘French Technical Association for Steel
Making’. He followed with great interest the developments at BHP in continuous strip casting and the mini-
mill innovations in North America. John’s time in Laval came to an end when the majority owner decided to
sell the plant to Swiss businessmen. John didn’t hit it off with them and he agreed to have them buy him out
as well.

He then moved to Rouen to a position in charge of the casting division of the nearby Strasor steel plant.
Although he successfully reorganized the casting division and upgraded the quality of the products
produced, his work in Rouen was stopped by a decision of the French steel industry to retire all employees
over 55. However he was then able to concentrate on his golf while periodically undertaking technology
transfer excursions to Viet Nam, Brazil and China under French Government sponsorship. It was after his
fourth visit to China, late in 2001, that he was diagnosed with asbestosis from breathing the asbestos
contaminated foundry air many years before.

John always had a wide range of interests outside his work. His natural mathematical bent was fascinated
by the capability of bookmak ers to hold in their head the commitments of the bets they had taken at various
odds and he took a job as a bookie’s clerk in Sydney to earn some extra money and see how they did it. He
also helped set up a friend to make marcasite jewellery by developing the chemical solutions needed. He
had a long-term interest in horse racing and was able to indulge his passion in St Etienne and Laval and
was proud of the 21 races won by horses that he owned. He started a golf club in Laval back in the 80s,
using a rented farmers field for the 9-hole course because golf in that part of France at that time was not
common. Unfortunately, it has reverted to being a farmer’s field. After retirement he even turned his hand to
making golf clubs. John, in his letters was often noted for his long discourses on subjects as varied as the
tides and quicksands of Mont Michel Bay; (he claimed that Victor Hugo created unnecessary fear of
quicksand in his novels, because the natural buoyancy of the human body would not allow it to sink; the real
danger was the rapidity of incoming tides); the tin road of southern France and the circular history of the
Hitchon name which he believed originated in northern France, migrated to Scotland, thence to New
Zealand and finally it was his fate to return it to Normandy. He had a keen interest in Astronomy and from
tables followed the day-by-day courses of the stars. Following visits to the Dordogne region of France he
also became interested in caving, though not from physically exploring them. In his retirement he wrote (in
French, with the important grammatical help from Odile), a short book, “Breve Histoire d’un Miracle” on the
importance of steel technology development in various countries over the ages and how the economic
power of a dominant country was always paralleled by the dominance of that country’s steel industry, going
as far back as the Damascus steels and their superior swords in warfare. He saw in it a lesson for the
French government and their perceived lack of interest in the decline of the French steel industry. He sent a
copy to the French minister for Industry but it evoked no response.

John will be missed as his varied talents made for an interesting life. We all express our heart-felt sympathy
for Odile, whose hard work made the Normandy reunion such a success, and to his three children, William,
Stanley and Gladys, and the children of William and Stanley.

Ted Hart

Ted died peacefully at his home in Adelaide on Christmas Eve 2001. Although he had been in poor health
for some time, June Said that his death was quite sudden in the end, and resulted from a general
breakdown of all his systems. His death was very peaceful, and he was not in any pain, for which we could
be thankful. Their newest grandchild was born a few days later.

Ted would have appreciated the symbolism I’m sure. He’s one person I really regret not having kept in touch
with. One of nature’s gentlemen.

An Old Surveyor’s Anecdotes

(You’ll recall that Jack was a prisoner of war in Malaysia during WWII. I never
thought he would, but it seems he has managed to forgive them as a nation).

I recall another curious incident when I was visiting the Earthquake Research Institute (ERI) at Tokyo
University in 1971. To keep expenses down I had asked to be booked into a Japanese-style hotel near the
Uni. The bathhouse was communal, but appeared to be for males only. Even so, it felt a bit odd to be stark
bollocky naked among 20 or 30 Japanese blokes. The thing that amused me, though, was that you took off
all your clothes, put them in a basket and went into the bathhouse. Then, after having a thorough wash and
a soak in a special pool which seemed to be heated to near boiling, you went out and put on the same
clothes you'd taken off!
 I found out, though, that the toilet was communal. I was standing at the men's having a leak when a
Japanese woman shot in. As she got near me she stopped, bowed courteously and then dashed into a
cubicle at the back. She finished before me (was there any wonder!) and stopped and bowed on the way
out! On the first encounter I dried up instantly and my old man shrank back into my pants. I was still waiting
for a resumption of flow when she made her second bow! The only daily meal I took in this hotel (the Hongo
Kaikan) was breakfast which consisted of a bowl of rice, thin black strips of seaweed and raw fish. The
latter wasn't bad when you got used to it. I found a Japanese steakhouse where the steak, cooked on a hot
plate was served on a hot cast-iron platter set into a wooden base. It was excellent, served with warm sake
which was heated in small cast-iron vessels on the hotplate.

I went on an interesting 3-day excursion from the ERI, north west of Tokyo to look at some interesting
geology and one of their crustal observatories up a mountain in a tunnel. The observatory HQ was in a nice
building equipped with living quarters where I stayed the night with a Jap technician named Okada. This
was a chap after my own heart. We went into the small local village and had an excellent meal and bought
some beer which we took back to the observatory HQ. Okada was an excellent classical guitarist and while
we got stuck into the beer he entertained me during the evening with some fine music and singing. The
equipment in the tunnel consisted, from memory, of tilt-meters, strain-gauges, seismographs and some
other stuff; it was all hooked up to a transmitter which sent the data back to the ERI in Tokyo. The scientist
in charge of the project was Prof. Keichi Kasahara, a very nice bloke -- in marked contrast to some of the
Japanese bastards I encountered as a POW!

“Tan Sri”
From JBM

I read somewhere that the title "Tan Sri" originated in Malacca (now Melaka). ; The Sultan of Singapore,
Iskandar Shah,was chased out of Singapore by pirates and other 'baddies' in the 14th century, took the
remainder of his army 200km up the west coast of Malaya and founded the state of Malacca which
flourished until taken by the Portuguese, then the Dutch and then the British. ; It is probably one of the most
historic spots in Malaysia, with the remnants of Portuguese and Dutch buildings and an interesting
museum.. ; I'm not sure how Ahmad is connected to Malacca, if at all. Neither am I sure whether Tan Sri is
now a federal title or a Perak one. I fancy the latter. It's certainly not a common one.

Perhaps our very own Tan Sri Dato’ could confirm or correct this information ?

(As you probably know, our friend “Dr Ahmad” has been honoured both by the Federal Government in
Malaysia (Tab Sri) and by the State of Perak (Dato’). The “Haji” in his title refers to his having made a
pilgrimage to Mecca. And the “Hj” refers to his father’s pilgrimage. Ed.)
A Fascinating Old Mining Character

Contributed by Jack Mackie

 Potted Histories

Colin Laing

(Robb Webster found Colin Laing while doing a U3A course in Brisbane.)

As an old boy of the school of Mines 1945-50 I have lost touch with many of them. I am in the Independent
Consultants with Bob Beatty, and at an Aus.I.M.M. function met Angus Norrie and Wally McGregor. George
Grindlay, Ian Reilly and Les Oborn(all ex NZGS) are retired in NZ. The following is from my resume:

1950 - graduated B.Sc., A.O.S.M. ; M.Sc. at Victoria University of Wellington 1963 .

1951-1954 worked in the N.Z. Geological Survey on geothermal ,regional geology and NZ tectonics.
1954-1960 worked in AAR(Minad) mainly on regional geology and gravity work but also in reinterpretation of
Roma area that led to the 1959 and later gas discoveries.
1960-1962 worked in NZ for BP Shell & Todd Petroleum Development.
1963-1973 was Senior then Chief Geologist for Alliance Oil Development during their great period of operating
and discovery. During this period carried out basin studies of nearly all Australian basins.
1973-1981 was environmental geologist then acting OIC Groundwater Section Victorian Geological Survey.
1966-1981 was a councillor Heidelberg City Councillor, Mayor 1972,
1969-1972 and 1979-1981. Commissioner MMBW
1981 appointed life member of Heidelberg YMCA as one of founders and chairman for 3 years.
1981-1985 was involved in starting Queensland Petroleum . Developed Sambas Gold Mine for them.
1983-1996Technical adviser finding mineral and spring water for Cottonwood Valley Pty Ltd, a major water
exporter.
1985-1986 consulting geologist.
1986-1990 was Chief Petroleum Geologist and Chief Petroleum Inspector in charge of the Petroleum
Division, PNG Dept. of Minerals and Energy. Was instrumental in getting Kutubu Oilfield and Hides
Gas field developments going.
1990-present consulting geologist A.C.M.Laing & Associates
1996-present Tutor in Environmental Geology, Brisbane University of the Third Age
2000- present Director Kokstad Mining Pty Limited planning to produce sodium bicarbonate from
groundwater north of Roma in Queensland

Henry Levinson

(Bryce Russell found Henry Levinson, and I (JN) found Bryce Russell !)

After completing my course at the OSM&M, I tried to find work as a metallurgist in New Zealand but even in
those days that was not easy. So early in 1953 I started off, for several months, employed by the Ministry of
Works in Christchurch on non-destructive inspection of welding, by radiography, on penstock pipes
destined for the Cobb river scheme. I
couldn't see myself engrossed for the rest of life in NDI and I grabbed an opportunity, which came up in mid
1953 at the metallurgy section of Dominion Physical Laboratories (DPL) of the Department of Scientific and
Industrial Research (DSIR) in Lower Hutt. I became involved in short term industrial production problem,
consultancy and quality assurance. The only project of any moment that I remember was the repair of rock
drill shanks, by solid phase welding, for the Rimutaka railway tunnel construction. About 18 months within
my starting with DPL the section was taken over by Chemistry Division DSIR and my new boss was Thom
Marshall, a 1951 graduate of OSM&M.

At the end of 1955, I took off for England to get my overseas experience. I worked for nearly 2 years at the
British Welding Research Association (BWRA) with the head office in London but their laboratory centre was
near Cambridge. The work there was really superb and I got a chance to become involved with two projects,
firstly, the gas shielded self adjusting arc welding process on steel and then, a similar project on aluminium
alloys. I progressed to become the liaison officer between BWRA and the British Electrical and Allied
Industries Research Association who were studying welding arc physics. I freely admit it was great there
and I probably would have still been there but for one major interruption to my life style. A lot of New
Zealanders in London migrated to certain districts in the city, such as Hampstead Heath, Swiss Cottage,
Kensington and a few other localities. And we ex-patriots took lots of opportunities to get together for social
functions. And hence I meet a Dunedin phys-ed graduate who was teaching in London at the time. Well one
thing led to another and we returned to New Zealand at the beginning of 1958 and got married. Although my
job with the DSIR was held open for me, I came to the conclusion that I needed a job that paid more than a
subsistence life style allowance and the situation became more urgent when we were informed that our son
was on the way.

I was successful with an application for a quality control and assurance metallurgist in Auckland with
Associated Engineering (AE) who were in the business of manufacturing consumables for the motor vehicle
engine reconditioning industry. It was an interesting and challenging job coping with an iron as well as an
aluminium foundry, a forging shop, heat treatment facilities and a plating shop. The growing work load at AE
called for an additional metallurgist and John Weston, a 1961 graduate of the OSM&M, joined my staff.
However, in 1963 there was a major re -shuffle of the top management and I decided it would be a propitious
to seek alternative work. I suppose my highlight at Associated Engineering was that we were one of the first,
if not the first foundry in New Zealand to successfully cast spheroidal graphite iron.

And so early in 1964, I signed up for the last time in my career with an employer with whom I stayed 27
years, namely, the Royal New Zealand Navy. This Department advertised for a Dockyard metallurgist, I
applied and was duly appointed. Initially my work was oriented towards marine corrosion, boiler corrosion,
paints, fouling organism and a whole host of subjects I knew virtually nothing about. Talk about a learning
curve, I don't think I swatted so hard since I left OSM&M. The fact remains that I no sooner caught up on
one subject and I was plunged into new territory. It was a never ending challenge and just to add a new
dimension to my work the laboratory was incorporated into the Ministry of Defence in 1969 with the result
that the Air Force and the Army had access to our facilities. This launched us into military aircraft fatigue
cracking projects, engine health monitoring of gas turbines, helicopter gearboxes and gear boxes in ships
and personnel carriers. The field of work extended into tribology and fuels and lubricants with additional
projects on particulate contamination of hydraulic servo systems. In 1979 my staff became involved in
designing and writing computer software programs to predict engine reliability based on engine health
monitoring. What started off as a one man band finished up as one of the best equipped materials research
and testing laboratories in New Zealand, employing a dedicated team of about 10 engineers and
technicians. In 1976 my staff organized the Inter-naval Corrosion Conference with overseas Naval
delegates from the UK, USA, Canada and Australia. In 1977 we became members of the technical co-
operation program involving military materials research and development with the other four countries. We
then began to participate in collaborative projects, which required considerable overseas travel by my staff
and me. In the nineteen eighties, we needed to look into fibre reinforced plastic polymer components for
aircraft and by the end of the eighties I could saw no end to the demand put on our section. I was in my
early sixties and I became patently aware that the technological developments were overtaking my mental
capability to absorb new knowledge. In the mean time the neglected naval dockyard had to build another
laboratory to service its needs as we were now preoccupied with a load of other work. Early in 1990 Brenda
and I decided it would be good time to retire.

In the years I spent with the Ministry of Defence, there was not one day when I did not look forward to going
to work. As my director once said to me, the defence scientific research laboratory is the best paid social
welfare scheme in New Zealand. Although toward the end of my career a lot of my work was desk bound, I
never missed an opportunity to try my hand in the laboratory but unfortunately most of the new equipment
was computer driven and that was an area I was unab le to come to grips with. So on my retirement I
acquired a computer took books out of the library and started from scratch. Now I spend close to 40 hours
on the internet every month, when Brenda and I are not flitting around the Pacific Basin. After all the work
travel I needed to do I have no craving to go back to Europe any more and prefer the exotic resorts in this
part of the world. Brenda and I go overseas at least once a year. And when we are not doing that there are
always the grand children, which has the advantage that you can always send them home to their parents.
The fact is I am so busy now-a-days I can't imagine how I found time to go to work.
Eddie Price

After leaving Dunedin in 1956, I spent 6 months in the steel works at Port Kembla/ Woll ongong, working in a
new open hearth plant where the new design of furnaces were turning out record tonnages of steel each
week, (each open hearth employee got a box of chewing gum when a record was broken). Deciding that
steel making was not my forte, I went to the University of New South Wales in Sydney working on a process
for melting reactive metals suspended in an electromagnetic field. The intent was to scale up the process to
make casting of a useful size. Learnt a little electrical theory to complem ent the night school classes at
Dunedin Tech, and a little more metallurgy, but scaling up was an elusive goal.

I then took a ship to the UK in late 1960 and landed a job doing research on platinum metals with the
International Nickel Company in London, at their Acton plant. Mostly, it was on processes for fabricating
metals such as iridium and ruthenium into useful conditions such as wire and developing alloys that would
have potential use, for example as electrodes in heavy duty piston engines used in helicopters. Quite an
experience to have to lock up one’s working materials in a safe at the end of the day and at the end of the
year produce an accounting of where each gram went. After having a large deficit at the end of the first year
I quickly learned the procedure of ensuring the technicians collected all dust and scrap from laboratory
working operations to which I gave an estimated composition and which produced a surplus the following
year.

In 1963 after a tour of Europe, I moved to Canada where I started a job as a metallurgist in the aircraft
engine industry at Orenda Engines, in Malton, just north of Toronto. At about that time I married Barbara
whom I had met in London and who had originally come from Melbourne. The aircraft industry in Canada at
that time was starting to recover from the cancellation of the Avro Arrow fighter plane project which the
Canadian Government had cancelled a couple of years earlier. The morale in the plant was low, as for most
of the employees the experience of working on a project to produce a fighter plane ahead of anything in the
world at the time, was the most exciting thing that they had ever been involved in and infuriatingly the
project was cancelled just as it was coming to fruition. However the project was po orly controlled financially
and it was not clear who would buy the fighters. So the firm was split up and the engine plant settled in to
make industrial gas turbines and supply engines and components for GE and Pratt and Whitney.

I spent a number of years doing failure investigations on engines from Canadian fighter aircraft that had
been dug up from the muskeg after the pilot bailed out. At the same time I started development and test
programs on nuclear reactor materials for the CANDU reactor under contract to the Chalk River
Laboratories of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL). Eventually I saw the light and in early 1971 joined the
design and engineering side of AECL in their facility in Mississauga, just outside Toronto. It was a joy to
work in an encouraging environment after the ups and downs of the aircraft industry and the first series of
large scale CANDU reactors were to come on line soon after. I specialized in the design and production of
reactor core components, in particular the zirconium alloy components, as well as those of the main heat
transport circuit. The work involved a fair amount of travel to domestic and offshore sites and manufacturing
plants to resolve product, installation and performance problems. Some of the most difficult and technically
demanding work came as a member of multi-discipline task forces set up between AECL and utilities to
solve technical problems that occurred in operating reactors. The duration of such task forces could be as
long as 2 years reflecting the diff iculty in coming to grips with the causes and developing solutions.

At AECL, I moved from metallurgical engineer to a position supervising a group of metallurgists, welding
engineers and chemists. Eventually it included sitting on committees determining funding priorities for
proposed R&D programs. I finally became Director of Metallurgical Engineering in the Office of the Chief
Engineer providing technical oversight to the design development. In the last few years I became the
company’s liaison officer to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. Since the work required a
number of visits to Vienna each year, it was no great hardship, and I continued to work on an IAEA
committee for a short time after retirement.
 Over the years I spent a lot of time helping to organize conferences for the Canadian Nuclear Society,
including the Pacific Basin Nuclear Conference in Bannf in 1998, for the Pacific Nuclear Council. I served
on the council of the Society for about 16 years and was president of the Society in 1994-95. I was made a
Fellow of the Society in 1997.

I am now retired and Barbara and I continue to live in Oakville, Ontario, our home for the last 35 years. We
have 4 children; 3 boys and a girl. The two oldest boys live in Toronto and have 5 children between them.
Our daughter is a high school teacher in NZ, north of Wellington and our youngest boy is in Melbourne and
hopefully moving to Sydney to a new job in the investment industry. I try to avoid anything that looks like
work but I give the occasional lecture at workshops organized by the nuclear society and to secondary
school students at the Science Centre in Toronto. Mostly I concentrate my activities on the golf course in
futile pursuit of a low score with as much travel to interesting locations as is reasonable.

Bill Croxford

After living for many years in Brisbane while working for Mt Isa Mines, bill retired to Timaru (you remember
Timaru ?). Hopefully he’ll send us his life’s story for the next issue.

Normandy Reunion
June 2002
Report by Jock Braithwaite

Back in Godzone after the Normandy expedition, and really pleased we made the effort to go. It was a
shock when we arrived to find John with advanced lung cancer which had been diagnosed in last Oct-Nov.
They really sweated over whether to call it off, but decided to let it run. Ed and Barb stayed with them a
couple of days before everything started and were a big help to Odile. John perked up amazingly when
everyone arrived with the aid of oxygen gear and took a full part in the proceedings.

The reunion dinner was an excellent meal served in the oldest restaurant in France overlooking the square
where Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake. Rouen is an interesting old city and well worth spending a day or
two in. Those attending were Dr Ahmad and Asmah Azizuddin with their daughters Azian and Aniza, Les
and Ina Black from UK, Mick and Ruth Buckenham, Denys and Susan Harraway, Bill and Sandra Hunt, Ed
and Barbara Price from Canada, and Rosemary and myself. Rex Guinivere had to pull out at the last
minute.

Following Rouen most of us drove round to Bayeaux to look at the tapestry and then on to the landing
beaches. It was good to be there on D-Day as there were a lot of ceremonies going on and the place was
swarming with yanks riding round on old army Indian motorbikes and jeeps, and old Brit soldiers with pots of
beer remembering their mates. We saw the museum at Arromanches with the Mulberry harbour floated in
from GB and the American cemetery at Om aha Beach. Next day on to Utah Beach and St Mere Eglise
where the paratrooper is still hanging from the church spire, and through to St Pair (just south of Granville)
where John had arranged a mayoral reception.

The mayor M Jacques Olivier welcomed us (said it was the first group from NZ they had received) and John
translated. They were intrigued that a group from so long back had kept in touch. It was a pleasant
occasion and I wished I had taken something on OU and NZ to leave with him. Next day we took a boat out
to the Chausey Islands (just below Jersey and Guernsey) where granite was quarried for the streets of Paris
and London, and building the monastery at Mont St Michel. Quite a pleasant day with a walk around the
island looking at the birdlife and the old chateau restored by Renault.

Ed and I stayed with John and Odile at their beach house for a few days and cut the grass for them as John
obviously was not up to it. We hoped he would be fit enough for the drive home to Rouen, and they
managed that OK but John went downhill very rapidly after that and only lasted another 9 days. I hadn't
seen him for 47 years so it was good to catch up just in time.

Here is one of the photos Jock sent with his “report”. There are nine of them. If anyone would like copies of
the six photos Jock sent, please ask: janeilson@bigpond.com

Anecdotes From 47 Years In The Business

From Rex Guinivere

Looking back on forty-seven years of experience can dredge up a great many memories of people, places and events.
When I was with Kaiser Engineers in the 60’s-70’s I sometimes travelled 200-300 thousand miles a year. So I met a
large number of people, saw some pretty wild places and did a great many different things. (Harry Conger, Chairman of
Homestake came back from a trip one time and asked me if I knew everybody in the world? Six degrees of separation is
a fact of life.)

After Otago I spent six years in Australia in coal mining and metal mining with a short stay at Lake George Mines and a
longer one at Broken Hill South. Lake George Mines was an interesting operation as it had rill stopes. The only
apparent reason for using rill stopes in the Elliot section of the mine was because the senior members of the company
were old Fresnillo types and they had used the system there. It was a rotten application at Captains Flat as the richest
ore was on the footwall which was a soft clay shear-zone so they had to leave all the high-grade ore to keep the rills
from collapsing! They used overhand cut and fill stopes in the smaller Keating section.
The concentrator produced copper and lead and zinc cons and a pyrite con for sulfuric acid when the price of sulfur was
high. Unfortunately the big sour gas wells came on stream in the late fifties and dumped all their sulfur onto a market
that had been controlled by the likes of Freeport with its Frasch process from salt domes in Louisiana. So there wasn’t
much sale of pyrite by the time I was there. I had actually applied to work as a shaft sinker as they were doing a shaft
extension with a rentiss and I was interested in learning about it. When they saw I had a degree from Otago they offered
me a staff position so that was my first time on staff.

After I had been there for about six months Don Fairweather at the South Mine in Broken Hill, where Bob Kininmonth
and I had worked at the end of 1954 offered me a staff position there so I went back to the Hill for a couple of years
before joining Kaiser in their Joint Venture project at T2 on the Snowy Mountains as a tunnel engineer in the headrace
and underground powerhouse at the end of 1958. The pressure and tailrace tunnels at T2 were fully concrete lined and
26ft in internal finished diameter. Charlie Webster was there with me for a while. They were mined with three deck
cantilever jumbos that had 12 GD 93’s on 12ft chain feeds mounted on the old GD hydraulic booms. Behind the jumbos
was a 350ft long California switch and the empty 6cuyd Granby muck cars were hoisted in the middle of the jumbo so
the full car train could be shunted back and forth underneath. The mucking machines were electric powered units and
this arrangement was capable of doing 400ft of tunnel excavation a week.

The 305ft long machine hall was 55ft wide and 110ft high. The pressure shafts from the headrace tunnel were 10ft ID
steel lined with prepakt concrete backing and 800ft long. Their angle of 55 degrees was cleverly designed so that the
muck would not flow downhill of its own accord-bloody civil engineers! The most interesting aspect of T2 is probably the
fact that this is where rock bolt technology was refined under close engineering supervision. The machine hall and
transformer hall excavations were destressed with thousands of rock bolts before placing the concrete arches in the
roof. As a result the arches were only 2ft thick. At T1 they had been 5ft deep and failed!

From there I went to Bukit Besi at the end of 1960, where I found Dave Newick to be already. In Malaya I used to see a
lot of cheerful old Ahmad Azizuddin and grumpy old Abdullah along with Rahim and Tan Kim Bee from the old days in
Otago. Malaya is a beautiful place with lots of nice people but it does have a lousy climate when you prefer middling
temperatures with middling humidity! The Bukit Besi story is an absolutely fascinating one in the annals of mining. If no
one has written it someone should. Perhaps one of the Otago chaps reading this will know if the story has been told.In
brief it goes like this. Bukit Besi was a high-grade iron deposit inland from Sura on the east coast of Malaya in
Trengganu State. It had been started by the Japanese in the early 1930’s and it shipped wash ore to Japan. It was a
low sulfur ore and very high grade with magnetite and hematite the main minerals. Nippon Mining was the operator and
all its mining personnel were also spies for the Imperial Armed Forces of Japan. They mapped every path in the jungle
of the entire peninsula. The ocean on that side of the Malay Peninsula is very shallow so the ore ships stood about five
miles off shore and were loaded from 200t lighters by hand, using ships gear to hoist 1 ton skips. The lighters
themselves were filled from a conveyor on a jetty which went out into the sea for about a mile or two.

When the Japanese invaded the area they landed first at Pantai Chinta Brahi, just across the border in Thailand, but
they also brought troop ships in behind a big island that stands off the coast-Pulau Tinggal. The mining company towed
the lighters out behind the island, loaded them with troops and then came in to invade Malaya at Dungun and Sura. The
soldiers were all equipped with fold-up bicycles and they had maps of the trails to all the kampongs in the jungle so they
bicycled down the coast and came in behind the British Naval fortifications at Kuantan. The big guns at Kuantan, as at
Singapore, could only traverse out towards the sea. The British had just spent the then enormous sum of 400,000,000
pound sterling on beefing things up at Singapore. The Japanese came in from the land-almost unopposed and took the
entire peninsula in 52 days. Well, the mine continued to mine but the British kept torpedoing the ore ships so they
stockpiled the ore at Sura and it was still there when the war ended. The British moved back in and “The Disposer of
Then I did the first feasibility study for Jabiluka for Pancontinental and Getty. Now that is one helluva uranium deposit!
210,000 metric ton of uranium at grades up to 30% and, in common with uranium deposits in Oz lots and lots of radium.
I did the study both ways-as an open cut and as an underground mine. The cap rock was a nice gold mine!
Unfortunately you could spit on the nearby Kakadu National Park so I recommended going underground-that put me in
the middle of another big argument -with Gett y’s mining engineers this time! My point was that the environmental battle
of trying to put a big hole in the ground and great waste dumps within sight of Kakadu wasn’t worth fighting for. U/G
mining was more expensive, certainly, but at their grades it wasn’t that big a deal. As it happened I noticed in the press
years after that they eventually agreed to U/G mining but that’s a moot point anyway with OZ uranium mining
regulations. (It was laughable watching them wriggle out of their political positions when Western Mining wanted to start
their huge project in SA at Roxby Downs or Olympic Dam or whatever they call it these days-you couldn’t mine the
copper and gold without mining the uranium!

When I first landed in OZ in July of 1972 Kaiser had a project with Westinghouse and another with Queensland Mines
on the Nabarlek deposit. THAT was a hot one-in more ways than one! The inner part of the deposit ran 10% uranium
and was very high in radium. If you took all the outer halo it still ran 2.5%. A miner could not stand on a bench without
getting a full dose of radiation! He had to have a bulldozer under him and you had to ventilate the cut or the radon would
kill everybody! (I’ve been told that Nabarlek is aboriginal for “place of sickness” That may be true as you would get a
lethal dose if you happened to spend the night sleeping on top of that deposit! So, in the Queensland Mines study
we recommended they put a whole bunch of equipment on the project and mine it out as fast as possible and then store
the stuff on the surface and feed it to the mill as needed. Which, I believe is what they eventually did.

The Westinghouse study was something else, altogether! Westinghouse was in the Nuclear Power Plant design
business and they had been selling plants all around the world with the uranium included in the price and they didn’t
own a single uranium deposit! So, they thought if they bought Nabarlek they would solve a lot of that problem. But the
politicians in Canberra, in a spate of nationalism, had declared that foreigners couldn’t own more than 18.5% of
Queensland Mines. Get that? Queensland Mines! The Act didn’t mention the ore bodies that Queensland Mines owned!
So we were in the middle of a fascinating deal to buy the ore body.! It was all going according to plan when the Whitlam
government was elected in November of 1972 . This new government then got into the act with the Canadians and the
French to corner the market on uranium and forced the price from around $7/lb to $40-60! Westinghouse found itself
short on around $2 Billion dollars for the nuclear plants it had sold with fuel and no chance, now, of obtaining Nabarlek.
Westinghouse then sued the various governments for being an illegal cartel-which they were in the US, but they weren’t
in the US. Paul Riddel, the GM of Getty in OZ, and an American, couldn’t go home for years because he was subject to
subpoena before the US Congress on this uranium cartel business but he was a director of an OZ corporation and
forbidden to testify in a foreign court! An interesting side note is that Paul’s father was the guy who invented the Riddel
Shaft Mucker which I had operated in the two shafts at Oakdale for the NSW Coal Authority! Of course, after the utilities
had all made bloody fools of themselves running round buying this extremely expensive yellowcake-the market
collapsed as uranium came out of the woodwork-it’s not exactly a rare mineral and it’s very easy to abstract, once you
know how and, by this time, everybody did! The utilities spent the next decade suing the sellers to adjust the cartel
price!!

So, all in all, OZ was a lot of fun and we figured we had eaten one dozen oysters, drunk a bottle of white wine and read
a paperback per day, during our stay-not bad! (that’s each!) I left OZ in October of 1974 to take on the PM job for New
Jersey Zinc’s Zinc Refinery in Clarksville Tennessee. This was an extremely interesting project. Initially it was to be a
210,000tpy refinery but that proved too expensive as it was a full residue processing facility. It was committed to VM
technology out of Belgium so we had lots of great times in Brussels as they were providing the basic engineering
through Mechim. In order to lower the cost they opted to go for 90,000tpy and to design it just for Gordonsville ore which
was from a mine they owned south-east of Nashville that was very pure stuff that didn’t need residue processing. In
addition they took on Union Miniere du Haut Katanga-a Belgian mining company from the good old days when King
Leopold owned the whole bloody Congo personally!

The UM geologists insisted that there was twice as much ore in the mine as the NJZ geologists thought but, when they
came to mine it, they never even found half what the NJZ chaps had reckoned on! (This sort of thing happens a lot-even
with the big guys!) As a result they had to go on the open market for low iron zinc cons and they can get expensive! It
was a $130,000,000 project and had lots of interesting technology. The site was a mile long and around half a mile wide
with a fluid bed roaster, acid plant and a totally automatic cell house with the first use of distributed control throughout in
the minerals business. The site proved to be horrible Karst formation so we had fits with the foundations. A cell house
has these big concrete tanks full of lead anodes and aluminum cathodes that get coated with zinc and pregnant liquor
with an SG of around 1.6. It’s disastrous if the cell foundations move because of the liquids and the indexed cranes that
move the cathodes and anodes in and out of the cells. Veeeery interesting!

I wmplete with this project when the company made me Manager and the Vice President of the Non-Ferrous Division-
without bothering to tell me exactly what it was a Vice-President did- but what the hell! It looked like fun! I had been
offered a VP job on a project in Saudi Arabia by Holmes and Narver. I didn’t know what sort of pay you should get for
working there so we called a family friend who had worked there. “Rex”, he said, “whatever it is it wont be enough!” That
made it easy for Kaiser to make things more interesting for me.

At the time I had what was probably the largest engineering group in the world doing lead-zinc projects as well as
uranium extraction projects. We were getting around half the uranium projects on offer and we had the El Paso lead
smelter job As I was able to demonstrate later the hot embers had fallen to the ground where there must have been a
broken edge to one of the liner panels. In this condition the stuff lit up like a candle and the siding and panel formed a
chimney that sent flames up to the green translucent panel around the top of the wall, just under the eaves. That stuff
isn’t made flameproof either and it acted like a fuse and spread the flames right around the perimeter of the building.
When we entered after the fire all the roofing had gone with the intense heat , the aluminum had melted into pools on
the floor and wisps of fiberglass were floating in the air along with plastic soot-a very dismal sight! We had been ONE
DAY away from handing the completed plant over to the owner! Because of this last point, all the tanks were full of
water so the damage to equipment was minimal. The roofing, insulation and electricals had to be replaced and some of
the siding but we had it all back and handed over in six weeks!

It was while we were doing the rehearsing of the Cerrejon Proposal that I accepted the position of Vice President,
Engineering, with Homestake Mining Company which was, until October of last year, the longest listed public company
on the New York Stock Exchange. It no longer exists-and nor does Kaiser Engineers. The world has changed! Lord
Sauron is in control!

Editorial Note

Rex & Jack can’t be the only blokes in our group to have had such a variety of interesting experiences.
So let’s hear from more of you about your professional experiences, “on & off the field”.
This is probably the one publication which will never knock back your manuscript !
 From The Sunny Climes of Nelson
February 2002

A week or so ago Ian Reilly (OSM c.1947 - 50) and his wife Elizabeth were in Nelson for a few days. They
were travelling round having a break from Christchurch celebrating their golden wedding. I laid on a little
dinner party with John and Linley Taylor, Ian and Elizabeth, and Sue and I, at Trailways. It went off very well
and I'm attaching a photo ahowing, left to right, John T., Sue, Ian Reilly, Elizabeth R., Linley T. and myself.
The other people in the dining room found out the occasion and gave Ian and Elizabeth a round of
applause, which was much appreciated. Ian went into geophysics in the DSIR soon after he graduated and
did all our NZ gravity and magnetic mapping. He also invented the NZ Map Grid, the projection on which
most of our maps are drawn.

Miscellany

Channel 9 Journalist Warren Clarke tells us actor Dudley Moore once was asked: “Who would be your
favourite actor?”. His answer: “Edward Woodward would”.

New Zealand Mining

Annemarie Crampton
Publicity Unit, Crown Minerals, Ministry of Economic Development
PO Box 1473, Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
Ph 64-4-474 2828 Fax 64-4-499 0968
Email: annemarie.crampton@med.govt.nz
Website: http://www.crownminerals.govt.nz

This very helpful lady advises that everything you want to know about mining in Godzone is to be found at
these web sites:

Their minerals homepage is

http://www.med.govt.nz/crown_minerals/minerals/index.asp
and you will see the last material was added to this on 1 October 2002.

Another site that may be useful is the NZ Minerals Industry Associations on

http://www.minerals.co.nz/html/index.html

or see our list of useful mining sites on

http://www.med.govt.nz/crown_minerals/about/links_nzmining.html
 Otago School of Mines “An Historical Sketch”

Dr Ahmad sent me a copy of this 12 page 1979 article by Gordon Parry. It makes very interesting reading,
and it’s a pity it stopped at 1979. If you’d like a copy Ahmad or Michael Buckenham may be able to oblige.
Or me as a last resort, as my copy if a third level photocopy and not very clear in parts. There is no
indication of where it was originally published, but Jack Mackie or Gill Parata may know.

Another interesting “article” is a transcript of the main ABC news commentary program “7:30 Report”. It
concerns the effects on individuals, families and communities of 12-hour shifts in the mining industry in
Tasmania. You can find it at www.abc.net.au and search for the 7:30 Report on 23/09/02 transcript. As I
always suspected, the news is not good. It seems an unnatural way to work/live.

The Proposed BappSc Degree Course

Here’s the latest from Prof. John Hannah

Yes, we are moving forward with the degree programme. We have taken the four-year BAppSc degree and
designed an academic programme that will allow a student to major in Applied Geology (with AusIMM
accreditation) complete the business/entrepreneurial elements of the degree whilst also being able to
complete minor in the measurement science/mining side of Surveying. While it is a heavily prescribed
programme, it certainly captures the flavour of the old OSM, albeit in a 2002 form, in both its character and
design. We, i.e., Geology and Surveying, really like the programme. Now all we need are the students!!!

Autobiography of “Captain Jack”

“One For The Tiger”

On the “lighter” side of things, our venerable elder statesman has produced a monumental work of fiction
[J] entitled “One For The Tiger”. When asked for the origin of the title, he explained that in Colonial Malaya,
as it was then called, birthdays were celebrated in true British fashion with “Happy Birthday to You . . . “ and
“For he’s a Jolly Good Fellow”. But when it came to the “three cheers” bit, some lark would add “And One
For The Tiger”. I feel privileged to have received a copy of the self-published tome of 400+ pages, complete
with maps and photos. I haven’t got all the way though it yet but am thoroughly enjoying it. Not just for the
story of Jack’s life, but also for the parts I can relate to from my own direct experience.

There is talk of having it published professionally. I hope it happens. If it does, don’t miss the chance to buy
a copy.

Oh la la ! Tradition Hangs Its Head At The Demise Of The Beret

(It’s a pity John Hitchon isn’t around to enjoy this one!)

Oloron-Sainte-Marie: Farm workers, philosophers and winking cyclists made the beret an icon of French life.
But now it has all but vanished from everyday life, and the remnants of the beret industry are struggling to
survive. Forty years go there were 15 beret factories in Oloron -Saintel',1arie, France's beret capital, a
picturesque town in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Now there is just one, employing 85 people, churning out
berets for armies from New Zealand to South America, and a few for the domestic market.
But even the foreign markets are drying up. The Cubans, for example, use cheaper manufacturers in the
Far East. Their last big order, for 20,000, came in 1997 for the 30th anniversary of Che Guevara's death. A
beret bought in a souvenir shop in France has probably been made in China. It will be very different from the
real, handcrafted French beret, but few seem to care. "We suffer from the savagery of fashion," said
Bernard Fargues, head of Beatex, the last beret maker in town.
The beret's popularity surged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in France and soon the fashion
industry adopted it, making it a popular item for American women in the 1920s. Then came the British Army;
followed by the Americans, and the Boy Scouts. By the 1950s the beret was everywhere, on children and
celebrities, such as Che and Picasso. "Urbanisation ruined everything," Mr Fargues said. “At first when rural
people moved into the cities they carried on wearing the beret. And the intellectuals began to wear it as a
symbol of solidarity ...But then people stopped wearing berets in the towns because it carne to be seen as a
sign of a provincial, a peasant. Beret wearing declined in proportion to the rural exodus."

Beatex and the only other French maker, Blancq-Olibet, in nearby Nay; have had to layoff workers in recent
years. Fargues's factory makes 700,000 berets a year, of which just a 10th are the traditional berets
basques. The growth part of his business is in women's berets for Eastern Europe and novelty gear.

The Telegraph, London SMH 03.08.02

Ancient (Australian) History

Thanks to my pal Rex, I have recently learned that there were two ancient expeditions to the Land of Oz. In
about 1800BC an Egyptian prince visited the Hunter Valley for some time. They left evidence of their stay in
caves near the Hawkesbury River. Hieroglyphics in caves telling the whole story. Apparently the prince died
here.

Then up near Mackay in northern Queensland there is substantial evidence of long-term colonization by the
Phoenicians. Apparently the land of “Ophir” mentioned in the Bible, is Australia. Black opal from Lightning
Ridge has been found in ancient Egyptian necklaces. The evidence includes huge granite-lined fish traps –
big enough to feed hundreds of people, remnants of jetties, smelting furnaces and cultivation sites. This was
all about 1000BC and went on for hundreds of years. Apart from the biblical references to Phoenician
colonies, it is well documented that both Cook & Magellan had maps from ancient times, including Chinese
maps of Australia. Cook didn’t “discover” Australia – he just went looking for it.

One of the main purposes of the Australian colony was mining – gold, copper, meta-cinnabar, dolomite (for
furnaces). Quarrying took place on a large scale for road and retaining wall building. I have videos relating
to the Phoenician colony, but am still digging the dirt ( J ) on the Egyptians.

Fascinating stuff, eh!

Education

I don’t know if you’ve all caught up with the revolution in education in Australia yet ? There has been a
dramatic shift, over the last 5 to 10 years, towards ‘competency based training”. Instead of studying various
subjects and passing exams to get an award, “learners” (as they are now called) need only demonstrate that
they can DO the various elements of the job they aspire to. It’s all a bit complicated but the general idea is
that it is work-place based, you learn at your own pace, and you are assessed, not against other class
members (1 st, 2nd, . . last) but against a defined set of competencies.

The technical education people (TAFE or Polytech in some countries) have had their world turned upside
down, because they are no longer essential to the process. You can acquire the necessary knowledge any
way or any place you like. All you have to do is convince a qualified assessor that you can DO the
competencies which make up the job.

The universities haven’t quite come to terms with it all yet. I’ll be interested to discover how they do so.

My old organization, TAFE, has put the Quarrying Courses online – from basic operator level (Certificate II)
to Superintendent level (Certificate VI). I have been called in from retirement to act as an assessor and as a
mentor to the online students. :Part time of course.
 News From David Tennent

We had a visit to Central Otago during the year. Among other activities we had Mick and Ruth Buckenham
to our place for lunch, together with Peter and Anne Presland. Peter started at OSM with me in 1948, and
was terribly popular because he was the only student who owned a car. He could usually get 8-10 bodies
on board if they were prepared to stand outside on the running boards. He was well known for doing
repeated figure of eights in his car, on the North Ground football field after the odd bash in that famous
shed. He ended up owning and running Minaret Station, out of Wanaka, but is now comfortably retired.
Mick told me that the very successful merchant banker daughter of Cam White, had bequeathed a large
sum of money to Auckland University, I think for engineering scholarships, in Cam's name. A very nice
gesture. I think Cam is still hanging on in Bath, UK. Cam was a great friend of Rosemary and mine, in fact
he introduced us while I was on student vac at BH I do see Wally Mc Gregor from time to time. He and his
wife Leslie have lived up on Mt.Tamberine, inland from the Gold Coast, for some 15 years, where they have
a commercial Avocado farm.

If you wanted to follow up I have the address of Campbell White, not all that well, living at Avonpark Care
Centre, Winsley Road, Limpley Stoke, Bath, ENGLAND BA36HP. Mick Buck recently told me that Cam's
Merchant Banker daughter, living in California, recently set up a scholarship in the Eng Faculty, Auckland
Uni, in Cam's name. A nice gesture from a grateful daughter Rosemary and I had a letter from Cam a few
weeks ago. We s till see glimpse of his sly humour.

Rosemary and I usually see Wally McGregor two or three times a year. He and his wife Leslie live -129
Curtis Road, North Tamberine, Queensland, 4272.

From The Alumni Section of Our Alma Mater

Gill Parata

The Sydney dinner for alumni being held on Friday 1 November at Tattersalls Club. The special attraction at
that event will be a performance by 2002 Mobil Song Quest winner , Anna Leese, soprano. (Anna is a final
year music student at Otago.)

The fact that at the 4 July alumni function in Toronto Rex Guinivere and Ed Price met up for the first time in
30 years. Perhaps one of them could provide a brief comment.

Mick Buckenham and Bill Hunt (along with 450 others)attended the alumni function in Auckland for those
who graduated before 1990. FYI the following night 550 attended the post 1990 "do". A week later we had 2
functions in Wellington, again 450 were at the pre1990 evening and 600 the next night.

Next year's alumni function schedule is already in draft and will be put on the web as soon as it is finalised.
The full schedule will also be published in the Feb issue of the U of O magazine . Given the travelling habits
of your newsletter readers it could well be that some might join us at venues away from home base.

I trust you have received an invite for the Sydney dinner, they were posted last week.
 Widely Respected Geologist Honoured
In New Year Honours 2002

By John Gibb

Distinguished geologist Emeritus Prof Douglas Coombs is "quite overwhelmed" to have become ~
Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Prof Coombs (77) was regarded nationally and
internationally as New Zealand's greatest mineralogist, the honour citation said.

He officially retired from the University of Otago in 1990 after 34 years as head of the geology department
He has since continued to work Closely with the department, undertaking Foundation for Research, Science
and Technology research contracts, Prof Coombs said he was pleasantly surprised to receive the honour,
which he viewed as recognition of the work of whole Otago University Geology team. If I have, as a teacher
and a researcher, been promote a better understanding of our terrestrial environment in its historical
perspective, I am more than happy” he said.

In returning from Britain after his PhD studies, he had wanted to show "that good research could be done in
New Zealand". His research and many publications in the fields of mineralogy, petrology and geochemistry
have earned him an international reputation. “Mineralogy was the scientific study of the thousands of
minerals that together made up the rocks of the Earth's crust, and other cosn1ic objects” he said yesterday.

He is a former president of the Geological Society of New Zealand and former vice-president of the
International Mineralogical Society. He is an Honorary Fellow (1981) of the Geological Society of London
and became a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) in 1961, He was awarded the
Royal Society of New Zealand's Hector Medal in 1969 and gained an honorary DSc from Geneva University
in 1974.

From The Otago Daily Times, 31st December 2001

(I remember Doug as a breath of fresh air in the Geology Department while studying Geology 2 . According
to Gill Parata he was delighted to receive a copy of our last Newsletter. He has an office in the Geology
Department , and goes there daily. Ed.)
 Who’d Have Thought It?

Girls Can Do Anything – Including Beating The Pants Off The Boys!

Epilogue

Well Boys (& Girls?) I hope you’ve enjoyed this little effort. Don’t forget to send me some interesting stories
of your careers, or even your non-working lives – and potted histories from those who haven’t yet sent one.
It’s not MY newsletter, but YOURS.

Also any feedback as to how the Newsletter can be improved would be appreciated. Tell what you liked or
didn’t like; what you would like to see more or less of. And any problems you had reading the thing. The
next issue will be in mid 2003, God/Allah willing (my son’s in the business you see J ).

John Neilson 8th October 2002

 Contact Details

This is the list of recipients at the time of sending. If you know of any changes to others’ addresses,
please let me know. If you live within cooee of any folks without email addresses, please print and
mail a copy to them.

Azizuddin: klong_15@tm.net.my Reid: ian.reid@mozal.com

Blaikie: ahblaikie@bigpond.com Riley: priley@tpm.co.nz

Braithwaite: jcbraith@clear.net.nz Sparrow: bill.sparrow@xtra.co.nz

Brown: ibrown@milburn.co.nz Taylor: taylorj95@xtra.co.nz

Buckenham: buckhouse@xtra.co.nz Tennent: d.ten@bigpond.com

Farhadian: farhadian@aya.yale.edu Thomson T: thomcrom@xtra.co.nz

Graveson: FrankG@mitre10.co.nz Webster: webster@zygo.com.au

Guinivere: rguinivere@buckeye-express.com

Harraway: densus@melbpc.org.au

Hitchon: john.hitchon@mageos.com

Hogg: windsorhogg@xtra.co.nz Floyd, Doreen (Bob Deceased)

384 Busby Road, Katikati, New Zealand
Hunt: bhunt@eaglecondev.com
Hart, June (Ted Deceased)
3/82 Glen Stuart Road,
Jackson: ivan.jackson@clear.net.nz Rostrevor, SA ,5073
Jones L: lsj.jones@xtra.co.nz Kininmonth, Bob
3 McArthur Place,
Lee: tuckchewlee@eudoramail.com Fairy Meadow,NSW,2519
Levinsohn : henrylev@ihug.co.nz McGregor ,Wally
129 Curtis Road,
Lindqvist: william_lindqvist@yahoo.com North Tamberine, Qld, 4272.

Mackie : jbmackie@xtra.co.nz Peirson, Bob

13 Park Avenue,
McKenzie M : Murdoch.Mackenzie@cognis.com Chatswood NSW, 2067

McQuillan: zagros@ts.co.nz White, Campbell

Avonpark Care Centre,
Metcalf : fmetcalf@amaze.net.au Winsley Road, Limpley Stoke, Bath,
ENGLAND BA36HP
Neilson: janeilson@bigpond.com

Parata: gill.parata@stonebow.otago.ac.nz

Price: price.edward@sympatico.ca