I’ve had a lot of calls about Jim Fraser’s photo of the bird, which he wondered might be a long-thought-to-be extinct New Zealand snowbird.
More on Kirk
Islay McLeod, of Seacliff, sent some amazing details of being on duty at the NZBC on the evening of Saturday August 31, 1974. Mr Kirk died around 9pm that night.
"It would have been around 4pm when I was walking down from my home in Hill St, Wellington, to work at Waring Taylor St.
"Normally there’d be a mass of rowdy pigeons on the window sills at Parliament buildings, but I noticed and stopped because there was an eerie silence that day (Norm Kirk hated pigeons with a passion, apparently).
"I was the NZBC continuity announcer that night and Bill Toft was the newsreader. We were both sitting, waiting for the end of whatever programme was running. He would then read the mid-evening news (about 9.15pm), then I’d promo what was coming up. But the studio door burst open, the news editor stuck his head in and called to Bill: ‘Drop the bulletin, Kirk’s died’.
"‘The prime minister’s died’, he said.
"‘What do we do now?’ I asked.
"He probably said something like ‘wait’. And, sure enough, the editor came in with a replacement script for Bill with instructions to read only that and read it twice.
"Meanwhile, one of those filler slides was on screen with appropriately sombre music. The slide and music faded through to Bill Toft, who announced, twice, to an incredulous nation that the prime minister had died. Then it was back to the slide and sombre music.
"I went into the control room to find out what we’d do next. No-one knew. There was nothing in the manual, so they mixed through to, of all things, Big Time Wrestling.
"In only the time it took him to dial the number, the director-general of broadcasting was on the phone to the control room and in no uncertain terms instructed us to drop everything and close down immediately.
"My job was to front that and so I advised, quietly, slowly and seriously, that, as the prime minister had passed away, TV would be closing down for the evening. Back to that slide and music.
"And when I walked out up to Willis St, cars were stopped in the middle of the street. Kirk’s death stopped the nation that night.
"It was scary at the time — me and Bill Toft were in shock. But it was the director-general’s expletive-ridden phone call I’ll never forget!"
Thanks so much for sharing that Islay. I love the details.
Ken Brown writes to clarify that the aircraft carrying Mr Kirk and his entourage was actually a Hercules and never made it to Timaru because of low cloud and poor visibility.
"I was one of many traffic officers and police sent to Timaru for his funeral. Our job was to block every intersection on the route from Timaru Airport to Waimate Cemetery.
"But the weather caused a last-minute diversion of the plane to Christchurch, where frantic arrangements were made to sort out a convoy from there to Waimate.
"The end result was every intersection from Christchurch to Waimate was blocked, giving a clear road and a very fast trip for all concerned."
(Makes me think of another very fast trip on that same route, but going the other way, by a different Labour prime minister.)
Margie Smith, of Oamaru, says that Tom Scott, in his book Drawn Out, talks about following the cortege and how the Hercules could not land in Timaru and had to return to Christchurch from where the procession to Waimate began.
A few more memories of that gloomy time in tomorrow’s column.
Serendipity
Do you recall that photo we ran from John Noble of a single car parked outside Woolworths in Mosgiel, sometime in the mid-1960s?
Alison Hebbard, of Albert Town, says there is "a good chance that is my car".
"Early in 1965, I purchased my first car, an Austin A40 Somerset, for £200. My parents had a footwear shop beside Andy’s Milk Bar and just along from Woolworths."