Old scenes in the city
An artist’s keen eye for city scenes has preserved valuable slices of Palmerston North’s history.
From the 1940s to the 1960s, John Hamilton Tetley, of Massey College, was an internationally recognised scientist in the field of sheep parasitology.
But in his spare time, he had a completely different interest.
Away from microscopes and lectures, he roamed Palmerston North with an artist’s eye, seeking out everyday scenes to transform into colourful paintings.
As the years passed, they became priceless glimpses into our vanished past.
Now, 12 of Tetley’s watercolours have been gathered together and published in the Palmerston North Heritage Trust calendar for 2020.
It is the 10th anniversary for the collectible calendar and the first time its illustrations have been published in full colour.
The paintings, mostly from the 1940s, capture unusual views of streets, backyards, shops and hotels, in sunny shades that leap from the page. Other views, on Tetley’s favourite subject – the rail yards – loom darkly in pictures such as The Train Graveyard and Loading Coal.
The behind-the-scenes vignettes can’t help but grab the imagination.
A back view of tents at the circus – which once arrived annually in Main St; the rail yard on an early morning, with the small figure of a lone conductor; a backyard bursting with greenery as a woman hangs out the washing; and who now remembers the old boarding-houses of the city and the back courtyard of the Club Hotel, looking almost Mediterranean with its trees and shrubs surrounding terracotta-coloured walls?
Margaret Tennant, chairwoman of the Heritage Trust, says: ‘‘We are really grateful that the Tetley family passed these paintings on to the archives and that we were able to use them so freely.’’
She jokes: ‘‘There are beautifully executed scenes of the untidy urban spaces of Palmerston North – we almost called it Steam And Weeds.’’ But the final title ended up as Beside the Rails.
The trust’s aim is to raise awareness of, and interest in, Palmerston North’s rich history and the need to preserve, maintain and use archival material about the city and surroundings.
‘‘Paintings are an important part of this,’’ Tennant says.
Each heritage calendar has had a different theme – in the past, it has featured parades and holidays, school days, brick buildings, transport and other subjects.
Tetley’s life story started in Waihi.
His father, John William Tetley, was a Boer War veteran who stayed on as a government service employee in South Africa for six years. Back in New Zealand, he was a longtime staff member of the Waihi Grand Junction Gold Company, and then secretary and house manager of the Waihi Hospital until his death in 1934.
He and his wife had three sons: John Hamilton Tetley (1905-1964); William, a teacher (1906-1982); and Henry, a dentist (1914-1990).
John, known in his family as Jack, was an avid rugby and tennis player in his youth.
He came to Palmerston North as a foundation student at the former Massey Agricultural College, where he completed a bachelor of agricultural science in 1932. Later, he became an assistant lecturer in agricultural zoology, and attained a masters in agricultural science and a science doctorate.
In the late 1940s he was promoted to associate professor, and served as head of the department of agricultural zoology until 1962. Along the way, he developed his already-existing interest in drawing and painting, and married a kindred spirit, portrait artist Marion Jamieson, who was of Shetland Island origin.
Cindy Lilburn, social history registrar at Te Manawa, reveals that Marion left a bequest to the museum – a tufted Shetland Islands rug from the 1880s. ‘‘It is the only one known of in New Zealand and one of only 100 in the world,’’ Lilburn says.
No 28 Ranfurly St, Palmerston North, became home to the Tetleys and their son, Grant, from 1950 until John’s and Marion’s deaths.
Grant Tetley has since donated his father’s personal papers and books to the Massey University library.
John was a popular speaker at various Palmerston North clubs during the 1930s and 1940s.
The Citizens Lunch Club, the Rotary Club, St Andrew’s Club, the Professional Women’s Round Table Club and others enjoyed his talks on agricultural subjects and, in 1941, his insights from a visit to the United States.
He was also active on an artexhibition committee that organised displays of art in the Palmerston North library between 1942 and 1946.
John Tetley died on July 24, 1964, aged 58. Marion lived on until September 3, 2008, when she died aged 92.
But the paintings of our city, as it used to be, survive and can be enjoyed month by month on the 2020 heritage calendar.
It is available for $12 on the second floor of the city library.
The paintings, mostly from the 1940s, capture views of streets, backyards, shops and hotels, and the rail yards.