Old piece of telegraph pole holds onto place in history
Val Burr discovers the rich tale of an overlooked, forgotten piece of wood in central Palmerston North.
Few single-storey buildings remain in The Square of Palmerston North, with one being a little more unique than the others.
This is a two-shop building in Coleman Place, one shop of which has most recently been occupied by Monsoon Asian Kitchen.
If we were to start a story about significant pieces of wood in The Square, the first thought would be of the beautiful carvings adorning the Civic Administration Building and overlooking Te Marae o Hine/ The Square.
Another might be the sad hitching post opposite Fitzherbert Ave that was once one of three but which has now lost its siblings – and much of its white paint.
However, these are not the chunks of wood that relate to this story.
Telegraph poles appeared on The Square during the dead zone of 1885-1900, a period when effectively no local newspapers survived.
However, we know from
G C Petersen in The Birth of
Palmerston North that the first telephone appeared in the town in 1888. This single private line proved so attractive to others that by 1901 there were apparently 161 local subscribers – and ‘‘telegraph’’ poles were now dotted all over town.
In about 1904, a scheme to beautify Te Marae o Hine was set in place. Five years later, the work was nearly complete. However, the
Manawatu¯ Standard of August 25, 1909, expressed one particular sense of annoyance.
There was ‘‘one disfiguring feature that is beyond the control of the local authority. That is the multiplicity of telegraph poles and maze of overhead wires that undoubtedly mar an otherwise delightful prospect.
‘‘Until these are removed there will always be a certain jarring note in the harmony of the scheme. The alternative – the only alternative in fact – is the placing of the wires running through The Square in an underground conduit.’’
The writer looked forward to ‘‘a pleasing absence of what is technically known as ‘induction’, but what the irate subscriber more often calls ‘buzzing’ ’’.
It was also getting harder to secure the poles, many of which were imported from Australia.
Page 4 of the Manawatu Times of
May 21, 1913, at last reported that the ‘‘large multiplication of the telegraph poles in the streets of Palmerston – particularly in Main Street – has lately been noticed, and some alarm may naturally be felt as to their obstruction of traffic.
‘‘It is gratifying, however, to have an assurance of the Mayor [Mr J A Nash] that all the old posts are to be removed and the whole of the wires carried on the new poles. Consequently, the poles will shortly be fewer.’’
So in due course all the multitude of telegraph poles went – except one. A photo looking across Te Marae o Hine that has been dated to about 1890 shows the building on this site, next to the Theatre Royal, complete with a telegraph pole already in place in front of it.
This building belonged to Harriet Elizabeth Kerslake (nee Best), whose husband, Thomas Tozer Kerslake, had run a tailoring business from one of the two shops it contained.
However, Foxton’s Manawatu
Herald recorded the events of March 14, 1895: a serious fire on Thursday at 2am, in which the Theatre Royal, owned by Mr Linton, and two shops owned by Mr Kerslake, burnt to the ground. A number of other buildings were also destroyed in this fire. Luckily the Kerslake building was insured, and the present building was erected in its place later that year.
The telegraph pole perhaps survived the fire, or maybe it was immediately replaced, lest everyone be unable to phone each other. However, either way, it became incorporated into the new building as its central veranda post, and also assisted further by holding up its signage.
Between 1896 and at least 1974, the eastern shop (164 The Square) was occupied by a tobacconistbarber, with father and son, Lou and Lance Giorgi, in succession running their family business there between 1896 and 1972.
During this time the bottom portion of the telegraph pole came to be painted with the familiar barber shop striped red, white and blue colours. Lance Giorgi and his wife, Ada, also drew nationwide media attention in 1939-40 when their busy bookmaking side business got raided.
The other shop (165 The Square) led a quieter life – other than the rear portion being gutted by fire on the night of February 22, 1924. It was a grocery store until at least the latter 1950s, and both shops have housed a range of different shop types since their original long-term occupancies ended.
However, the telegraph pole was quietly still earning its keep – holding up the veranda and displaying its distinctive striped paintwork to passers-by in need of a haircut.
Photos taken between 1915 and 1920 show that the other poles in the street had gone – and also that this one had been beheaded.
Originally each little shop had its own odd-looking, tall and sharppointed upper facade that together looked much like the ears of a doberman. These, presumably, helped blend it in with its twostoried neighbours.
Three solid-looking timber decorations also perched atop the facade. However, these were all gone by 1940, and the present bland facade had replaced them. Possibly the original facade succumbed to the 1936 gale that evidently caused havoc in that part of The Square.
Somewhere along the line, the lower portion of the telegraph pole was also removed, thereby leaving the now ‘‘topped and tailed’’ section of telegraph pole – about a metre in length – perched atop a new pipe veranda post.
So next time people glance at this slightly tired little building in its secluded corner of The Square – one shop now Monsoon Asian Kitchen and the other unoccupied – then hopefully they will recognise a 125-year-old piece of the city’s history.