Memories by William G. Lowe

Memories by William G. Lowe
I spent most school holidays (between 1936-1941/42)  in Waipori at my Grandparents.   My grandfather was George Firman, Fitter Engineer at the Waipori Falls Power Station.     I was young and Waipori Falls provided a wonderful place to run wild without problems.
Facilities were at a rock bottom, the one and only shop (which I think was only open three days a week) was run by the Carmody Family from Berwick, the nearest fuel was also at Berwick, there was fresh milk from the herd at " the Falls ".   Just by the shop was a rooming house for workers and behind Grandads house was the huts for single men when one became available.  There was a tennis court and pool unheated and refreshing.   The large building by the shop was the garage for the council trucks and a carpenters shop behind that. The greatest number of workers did not own cars so had to get the bus at Berwick { Finnies } or perhaps the train at Henley.  The Gorge Road was a bit of an adventure the road only being a car and a bit wide and if you met a  vehicle going the other way one had to back quite some distance to pass.  Half way down was the road mans house – this would have been a very lonely job.    Probably the main sport was fishing for the lovely, very large Brown Trout that lived in the river, probably the only ones to watch and feed were the men at the No 2 station’s black smith shop. The greatest thing I will comment on and it has never really been recognised is the work the men did in constructing  not only the power stations but the pipe line from Mahinerangi to No 2 station this was horse and cart days and the confidence shown in my Grand Father when he was asked to come out of retirement to supervise the extensions.  To the best of my knowledge there was not a fire station or I believe a fire brigade !   Last from me is again the sad thing of war when with such a small population all the young men who went to war did not return.   There was a memorial erected outside the school which names the 4 ex pupils who lost their lives.   They were Allan B. Cameron, my Uncle, George Firman (Jnr), Vincent J. McNulty and David C. Stewart.   When the school closed the memorial was moved to the grounds of the Power Station.