<&>Wellington Corpus of Spoken New Zealand English Version One <&>Copyright 1998 School of Linguistics & Applied Language Studies <&>Victoria University of Wellington <&>side one <&>18:23 and across to opotiki now and <,> jane hello jane oh hello there mm mm i just had a couple of stories about <,> er country stores yes indeed <{><[>lets hear them <[>and the first one happened a long time ago <,> in the days when phones were very new and there was no radios so people used to <,> the odd person quite enjoyed listening in as a sort of <,> recreation laughs and er <,> this particular person happened to own the <,> the store in that area mm and one day somebody else was having a conversation when they heard a voice <,> interrupted them very strongly <,> alice <,> take <&>19:00 your feet out of the butter <,> <{1><[1>so you can imagine there wasn't a great sale of butter in that area for sometime afterwards but er the other one was <.>b a few years later on and um <,,> er this particular person had another country store and she wasn't really very interested in the store <,> and she also ran the phone <,> er the local exchange <,> and when you were ringing people and waiting for her to answer you couldn't help through the induction but overhear everything that was said <,> and one day when i was waiting for her to answer i could hear her talking to her <,> supplier in town <,> and obviously the price of something had gone up and she hadn't been aware of this <,> and er she was complaining that she couldn't make a living if she was going to be selling for less than she'd paid for the stuff <,> and he evidently told her she should read her invoices and she said read me invoices i haven't got the soul of a grocer <,> <{2><[2>she wasn't going to waste time doing that <[1>laughs <[1>laughs <[2>laughs word and er another <,> thing about her her store was that um as i say she wasn't very keen on ordering new stuff and <&>20:00 people didn't use the store a lot <,> and one day somebody went in for something <,> very ordinary like a <,> packet of sultanas or something <,> and um <,> she looked and looked and couldn't find any and then she thought a while and she said oh i remember now <,> i sold the last one to mister brown now mister brown had been the school teacher about five years before laughs so um it wasn't a wasn't a high turnover there <{1><[1>jane talking about er country stores there's a there's a place that <.>it i i visited in oh back in the seventies it's long gone now <,> it's the store at the junction of the <,> gowan and buller rivers <.>s used to be owned by ralph diserens <,> it was known <,> commonly locally as dizzy's store <,> and er dizzy's store was real museum piece there was stuff in there that er <,> he'd had in for twenty and thirty years would you believe er <.>an and REALly it <.>w it was more um there were more items to be looked at than to be bought but anyway <,> dizzy <,> was forced out <&>21:00 of that store eventually <,> because he didn't keep the butter cool enough you know the inspectors came round and discovered that his <{2><[2>fridges were inadequate and er and so forth and poor old dizzy i think er he retired to nelson i don't know <,> um whether he's still alive up <.>th <.>d in nelson or not but that was sad the there's nothing <.>th left there now the um the store's disappeared there's just a flat area <[1>no <[2>oh yes yes it's sad there aren't many of these country stores it's er people go to town more and it's cheaper to buy <{1><[1>things <{2><[2>in town of course you don't have the convenient another thing by the way i think it was last week you were talking about shops having those um <,> overhead things that you pull you know <{3><[3>and the bucket and chute well there's still a shop in gisborne that <.>th still has that <.>th it's a big shop too but they still use <{4><[4>theirs <[1>oh yes <[2>mm sign of the times <[3>that's right mm <[4>oh is that right they still use that system jane <.>ye yes i <{><[>feel it ought to be <.>a <.>a um tourist attraction or something <[>mm yeah i think so <{><[>shouldn't it <[>can't be many <{><[>left <[>mm where was your country store your little store originally was that er opotiki er no <{><[>no it was out of gisborne <[>mm mhm and both those two stories were in that area <,> i perhaps shouldn't name the exact <&>22:00 places but <{><[>laughs <[>laughs oh well the <{1><[1>east coast we we'll say the <{2><[2>east coast <[1>word <[2>yes they were east <{><[>coast area ones mm <[>laughs thanks for talking to <{><[>us jane <[>okay then good good hello peter gidday <{><[>jack how are you mate <[>what's the weather in christchurch yeah word well <,> it's pretty good now well there's there's been a few er rain warnings around the place er i think it's more up the nelson <{><[>er <[>oh boy <.>w i think we could do some rain down here but um you wouldn't mind a bit oh no <{><[>she's very dry <[>laughs and what are you buying and selling well <,> coughs <,> was telling your <,> lady on the phone er this is the <,> story about the the car accident <.>th that the insurance company didn't believe? mm er years and years ago this is about twenty years ago i was selling <,> er souvenirs and things like that <,> and um <,> i took a trip into <,> tekapo now now <,> in the old days <,> er twenty years ago <,> it wasn't tarsealed mm and um <,> i had all <,> all my my samples and so on in the back of the car and and it was an <&>23:00 anglia <,> car? you remember those? <{><[>yes yeah <[>mm and um <,> coming towards me er as as i was going into tekapo <,> um was a petrol tanker <,,> and this is <.>th this is true this is <,> exactly what happened <,> i pulled out onto the crest of the corner <,> to let this <.>pan petrol tanker go past <,> the car wasn't even moving <,,> the petrol tanker trundled past inside me <,> and the bank gave way <,> and i rolled down this bank the car <,> just <,> three sixtied about four or five times <,> and i was left upside down hanging <.>off on <.>my was the seat belts in those days was diagonal yeah er and all my samples were strewn across the countryside <,> and <,> tourist bus went past and this is <.>i all these japanese people taking photographs of me upside down <&>24:00 laughs <{><[>laughs <[>and um nobody came to help me at all <,> and i had to wait for <.>a <.>a another petrol tanker going the other way you mean to say all those japanese tourists yes seeing your wares scattered around didn't hop out of the bus and start buying madly <{><[>no <,> not a thing <,> and the other thing which i recall from those days because <.>i <.>i i was a travelling salesman and you're talking about salespeople <,> er was out of nowhere i was absolutely covered in flies <,,> COVERed in them <[>laughs <[>laughs flies yeah mm and this would be i suppose about april may <,> er of the year <,> and i can still remember going into the insurance company and they say <.>w how fast were you travelling and i say <.>w <,> laughs wasn't moving <,,> er <.>w so <,> what hit you <,> er and i said nothing <,> <.>s well what happened <,> i said the bank gave way <,> and they were <,> just looking at me sideways like i was silly <,> and <.>i i can still remember that in fact as i TALK to you i can still see this thing turning around <,> slowly and slowly <.>s still feel <,> the left wheels <,> going out from <&>25:00 under me and you were uninjured er peter yes i was <,> <{><[>i was lucky because um the bank went down i suppose about twenty five feet <,> er and the car just sort of bowled over and over and over and the whole thing just happened in slow motion <[>luckily well the confessions of a travelling salesman <{><[>there you are <[>laughs there you go one of the dangers of the road peter all right laughs look many thanks for <.>d <.>k for that fine cheerie bye bye one of the interesting new developments in in buying and selling is um <,> the barter system <,> jack <,> <{><[>which is um being organised now on quite a a wide scale <,> and um janice mcewen down in oamaru is one of the organising figures in <,> HER own district down there <,> in i think what's called network bartering and we have janice on the phone now hello janice <[>mm good afternoon janice this is um a form of structured <,> <&>26:00 bartering organised bartering i take it that's right mm it's um <.>in instead of on a one to one bartering basis what you do is barter within a network <,> so it's pooling <.>g goods and services basically <,> and er when you join you list the things that you can offer the system <,> and you have access to all the things that <.>e all the other members of the system are offering this has been <,> has come about er janice because of pressure er <.>e economic pressure people er not having much money <.>out <.>unem unemployed and so forth yes i think so yeah um obviously there's not enough jobs around <,> and <{><[>so <[>so it's fairly new <.>i new in new zealand is it ah it's been running nearly three years <,> but over the last year there's <,> certainly been a <,> a take off in the systems that are being established now you have different names don't you for your credits er intriguing terms such as white stones <{><[>plains dollars can you tell me something about those what do they mean <[>yep laughs well all it is <,> really is <,> what we do is record the barter that's happening <,> so that <,> um you just think of it as perhaps a central <&>27:00 banking system but no money actually changes hands <,> but we need to <,> to sort of <,> call it a name <,> to register <,> um what's happening <,> so every area <,> has their local <,> name <,> in oamaru we've got oamaru stone which is white stone and so we call our trading white stones <{><[>word <[>oh i see <{1><[1>so it's not referring to an actual object that you hold in your hand or <{2><[2>anything like that it's just the term for the process <{3><[3>as it were yeah i see <[1>yeah <[2>no <[3>that's right yeah janice have you ever thought of using pieces of paper with the queen's head on one side and a fantail or a kea <&>pronounced koa or a or a pigeon on the other <{><[>laughs <[>well i think that's already been done laughs yes it wouldn't be original at <{><[>all no <[>laughs no <{1><[1>laughs laughs <{2><[2>laughs <[1>laughs <[2>what what sorts of things do people barter though oh you name it i mean what it's doing is putting <,> value back on the individual so it's anything the individual can give to the system so it could be second hand goods it could be baking for somebody making birthday cakes or it could be doing trade services <,> it might be <,> <&>28:00 somebody's looking after animals while they're on holiday or <,> going and reading to somebody that's elderly <,> cleaning their house i mean it's it's limitless how do you assess what one thing is worth compared with another thing i mean i if i look after your cat <,> and er you know how how do you know that that's worth changing my tyres on my car or something like that if you see what i mean right yeah well <,> <.>a as i said it's not direct bartering so what you do is put a value on what YOU think it's worth and it's up to the individuals to negotiate that so you'd say <,> this <,> is worth three white stones <,> and somebody else would think that looking after their dog was worth three white stones so you could get together on that er basis is that the idea no <{><[>no it's not actually what happens is say for example i was um wanting to get a well we'll use a haircut because <,> that's quite a good example <[>oh mm <&>29:00 get a haircut for example <,> and um the person that was um offering haircuts may not want <,> what i'm offering <,> say i'm offering pottery they may not need any pottery so i'd get my haircut that person would be credited <,> um in <,> white stones or the local trading name <,> which um just registers that they are owed for that much of <,> the trade <,> and then they can use that on anyone else in the system but who who decides how much that er credit is it's between the two <{1><[1>so say she says to me that <,> <{2><[2>a haircut's worth fifteen dollars so it would be fifteen white stones <{3><[3>one the equivalent of one <,> dollar is one <,> trading credit <,> yeah <{4><[4>that would be the easiest way to explain it <[1>oh yes word asked once <[2>yeah <[3>mm <[4>yeah and <.>do and do you have some sort of <,> what regular newssheet or something in this <,> nature do you <{><[>jane <.>so that lets people know what's available <[>right once a month yeah once a month we have a newsletter that goes out and <,> that keeps everyone up dated with the new members and <,> also we send out at <&>30:00 the same time a statement there'd be none of that nasty g s t either would there? it depends actually um for tax <,> for the tax department and g s t if it's your normal line of business and you're trading over twenty four thousand <{1><[1><,> then it's still taxable <{2><[2>g s t <[1>oh yes <[2>mm you can duck in under the twenty four thousand mark you're okay yeah well you don't need to register then <{><[>what's the most unusual item janice <[><.>wh ah laughs look it's it's varied you know there's all sorts of um things we've got a bushman <,> we've got um <,> you know like animal care and er driving to and from say dunedin hospital and <,> <{><[>there's i mean it's just <,> anything and everything yeah <[>mm janice are your local er retailers and business people etcetera happy with this because it's cutting the ground from under their feet to a certain extent isn't it well if you look at the longterm <,> um expectations of the system what it's effectively doing it's not taking any money away from the area at all <,> because the money's <&>31:00 still there you're still getting exactly what what you had in dollar terms before right but effectively what it's doing is it's freeing that up <.>an <.>bec so that you can spend it on things that normally you couldn't've afforded mm mm now um it also stimulates what's happening within the local economy because more work is being done <,> um smaller businesses perhaps are busier because they can get they're more affordable for people <,> um we've got quite a few businesses within our own system <,> and for businesses getting off the ground it's good too <,> but it it allows people to do extra things <,> improve their standard of living or maintain their standard of living <,> and therefore um stimulates what's happening in the local economy and your clients are <,> just about everyone are they or anyone everyone and anyone yes yeah yeah <{><[>cos everyone has things to offer <[><.>b many thanks for that er janice a most <&>32:00 interesting development <,> could be er extended far more widely couldn't it <{><[>yes <[>how widely incidentally is it <{><[>extended er janice <[>well <,> um it's throughout new zealand there are about twenty nine exchanges throughout <&>32:09