<I>

  <&>Wellington Corpus of Spoken New Zealand English Version One</&>
  <&>Copyright 1998 School of Linguistics & Applied Language Studies</&>
  <&>Victoria University of Wellington</&>

  <&>side two</&>
  <&>12:50</&>
  

  <WSC#DGI089:0005:IJ>
      <theme music>hello in today's programme we hear how the BACK
      country came to town <O>inhales</O> <O>tut</O>

  <WSC#DGI089:0010:IJ>
      yes that's quite literally what happened during RECent hard
      TIMES when <&>13:00</&> indignant country folk left their farms
      to protest at a succession of threatened mortgagee sales of
      rural properties <O>inhales</O>

  <WSC#DGI089:0015:IJ>
      heavily involved for some years in helping hard pressed</theme music>
      farmers is collis blake and a network of people throughout the
      country devoted not just to organising protest but also to
      helping farmers and their financiers get together to sort out
      their problems <,>

  <WSC#DGI089:0020:IJ>
      we pick up collis blake's story back in the eighties at a time
      when farm sellups were becoming commonplace

  <WSC#DGI089:0025:CB>
      a fellow not far from us er i saw him on the side of the road
      and he was having a mortgagee sale and it looked totally unfair
      to me and i discussed it with him and um <,> <O>tut</O> yeah we
      thought it wasn't on so um we decided to protest it

  <WSC#DGI089:0030:CB>
      we ran er a fence along the neighbour's put up for nothing

  <WSC#DGI089:0035:CB>
      the wire was <laughs>going</laughs> for nothing um <,>

  <WSC#DGI089:0040:CB>
      we electrified it with electric units on each er <&>14:00</&>
      wire which was er hidden so we guessed er anyone would get a
      shock

  <WSC#DGI089:0045:CB>
      FINally that was pulled off <O>voc</O> and cancelled and that
      was the first <.>t</.> time we had actually beaten the system

  <WSC#DGI089:0050:IJ>
      i think it was palmerston north coliss er when you had one of
      <drawls><.>the</.></drawls> er <.>th</.> the big confrontations

  <WSC#DGI089:0055:IJ>
      it was <{><[>quite</[> early on <latch>

  <WSC#DGI089:0060:CB>
      <[>mm</[></{>

  <WSC#DGI089:0065:CB>
      mm <O>inhales</O> that was the only REALly big confrontation <&>pronounced
      confrontration</&> we've had and it proved that the community
      were behind us <,>

  <WSC#DGI089:0070:CB>
      now we had this young fellow who hadn't been given a fair go in
      <.>our</.> in our opinion <,>

  <WSC#DGI089:0075:CB>
      er we tried all the legal moves er and that didn't work

  <WSC#DGI089:0080:CB>
      we asked the people to back off and that didn't work

  <WSC#DGI089:0085:CB>
      we made it public to the police and advertised it in the paper
      and <,> that we were going to do this so everybody knew what was
      going on

  <WSC#DGI089:0090:IJ>
      you were going to do what

  <WSC#DGI089:0095:CB>
      we were going to stop the sale

  <WSC#DGI089:0100:IJ>
      mm

  <WSC#DGI089:0105:CB>
      so er we get there and there were a lot of <&>15:00</&> people
      there

  <WSC#DGI089:0110:CB>
      we had er loudspeakers and that sort of thing

  <WSC#DGI089:0115:CB>
      we had the national party candidate er paul curry and he was er
      on the radio or on the er loudspeaker sitting on the back of the
      truck a very nice young man um <O>swallows</O> <O>tut</O>

  <WSC#DGI089:0120:CB>
      i don't think it was too well received by some of the hieRARchy
      of the national party but any rate in fact i know that he was
      told not to do it the night before but he chose to do it <O>inhales</O>

  <WSC#DGI089:0125:CB>
      any rate we went round the back <latch>

  <WSC#DGI089:0130:CB>
      this is round the back of the office where <.>the</.> the sale
      was going to take place is it

  <WSC#DGI089:0135:CB>
      yes it was <{1><[1><.>i</.></[1> it was in palmerston north <{2><[2>and</[2>
      there it was and er <O>inhales</O> er there was a courtyard
      round the back carparking

  <WSC#DGI089:0140:CB>
      anyway when the people went round there gee it was pretty full
      <,> <O>tut</O> and er things got a bit hot and i was interested
      my er er my <.>ei</.> eighty <laughs>year old</laughs> parents
      were there <,>

  <WSC#DGI089:0145:CB>
      there were TWELVE people that I knew who'd been honoured by the
      queen there <,> um

  <WSC#DGI089:0150:CB>
      it wasn't a <,> just a rabble mob

  <WSC#DGI089:0155:CB>
      it was thinking citizens you <&>16:00</&> know

  <WSC#DGI089:0160:CB>
      any rate that was okay and they started to chant and all the
      things that went with it and er one thing and another um <,> <O>swallows</O>
      <O>tut</O> i was standing alongside the policeman and he wasn't
      very happy with me and he told me to get the hell out of it and
      i said look if you tell me to get out of it i think we're going
      to have problems you know and um i could see from a slightly
      elevated height

  <WSC#DGI089:0165:CB>
      over the back fence was about thirty of <laughs>these red</laughs>
      squad guys just <laughs>jogging along up to it</laughs> batons
      out and the whole caboosh you know <laughs>but the rest</laughs>
      of the community couldn't see that and i thought <.>g</.> i
      don't know what's going to happen and any rate i held my <.>hei</.>
      hands up and the noise stopped <,> and i thought it was quite
      tremendous these people

  <WSC#DGI089:0170:CB>
      <slowly>they were determined they were conscious</slowly> they
      were good members of the community and yet they were totally
      under control

  <WSC#DGI089:0175:CB>
      it <drawls>WAS</drawls> not going to be a problem <O>inhales</O>
      um <,> and at that stage this thing was called off um

  <WSC#DGI089:0180:CB>
      the sale <&>17:00</&> was stopped er

  <WSC#DGI089:0185:CB>
      shortly after that a couple of er young fellows came along er
      and er i met them in wellington and i thought i knew all the
      answers and you know was a bit full of myself perhaps but um <O>tut</O>
      when i MET them in parliament grounds they had an unregistered
      unwarranted motorcar without enough petrol to get home to
      masterton <O>tut</O> <drawls>so</drawls> you know i thought okay
      fine you know i know about it

  <WSC#DGI089:0190:CB>
      we sailed up to the minister of social <drawls>welfare's</drawls>
      office er and they said go here and there which worked <,>

  <WSC#DGI089:0195:CB>
      i was in the room when the interview was made with these people
      <.>and</.> and i will never forget this <,>

  <WSC#DGI089:0200:CB>
      the man said how much money have you <drawls>got</drawls> and
      the young fellow said i haven't got any and he said i don't mean
      how much money have you got <.>in</.> on the farm

  <WSC#DGI089:0205:CB>
      he said how much have you actually got in your pocket

  <WSC#DGI089:0210:CB>
      oh is that what you <&>18:00</&> want said the young fellow <,>

  <WSC#DGI089:0215:CB>
      he said i've got twenty cents <,> and they had a three week old
      child <,> and we worked the system through and got some money
      for them but that was the situation

  <WSC#DGI089:0220:CB>
      they were living on possum meat er and um we did certain things
      that enabled the er children's er hospital things to be paid for
      and <.>every</.> but any rate that's one of the success stories

  <WSC#DGI089:0225:CB>
      it might sound a bit otherwise but <.>it</.> but it's one of the
      things that really pushed us into action <,>

  <WSC#DGI089:0230:CB>
      just <.>to</.> to talk about the sad things and i don't want to
      HARP on the sad things the CANcer rate is the disaster <,> er

  <WSC#DGI089:0235:CB>
      we have four times the cancer rate of er the standard with the
      people i deal with and it's a bit of a shocker very largely on
      the women

  <WSC#DGI089:0240:CB>
      breast cancer is <drawls>something</drawls> like eight times
      what one would expect <{3><[3><?><.>th</.></?></[3>

  <WSC#DGI089:0245:IJ>
      <[1><?>yeah</?></[1></{1>

  <WSC#DGI089:0250:IJ>
      <[2>yeah</[2></{2>

  <WSC#DGI089:0255:IJ>
      <[3>this</[3></{3> is people who are in financial difficulties

  <WSC#DGI089:0260:CB>
      yes people that i am dealing with or i and my friends are
      dealing with yep <latch>

  <WSC#DGI089:0265:IJ>
      yes <latch>

  <WSC#DGI089:0270:CB>
      <.>it</.> <.>its</.> <latch>

  <WSC#DGI089:0275:IJ>
      it's as high as that <latch>

  <WSC#DGI089:0280:CB>
      <.>it</.> <{><[>it's</[> er a REAL problem <&>19:00</&>

  <WSC#DGI089:0285:IJ>
      <[>mm</[></{>

  <WSC#DGI089:0290:IJ>
      you must have had confrontations many times with um er people
      trying to foreclose the banks er and so forth financial
      interests

  <WSC#DGI089:0295:CB>
      oh yes yeah people do silly things

  <WSC#DGI089:0300:CB>
      i walked into one of the bank's er head offices here and er a
      fairly high guy came out and said out out out go down the
      corridor

  <WSC#DGI089:0305:CB>
      don't want to know what you're here for don't want anything to
      do with you and um <,> he really didn't have the authority to do
      that um and <drawls>i</drawls> er wandered over the road which
      happened to be to the beehives and said to one of the guys there
      and let's face it we do get on with politicians <O>inhales</O>
      um <,>

  <WSC#DGI089:0310:CB>
      i was back having cup of tea out and club sandwiches with the er
      general manager of the bank about twenty minutes later <latch>

  <WSC#DGI089:0315:IJ>
      <O>laughs</O> <latch>

  <WSC#DGI089:0320:CB>
      um we don't have a problem with HIGH management top management
      fine <O>inhales</O> er bottom workers who just are <&>20:00</&>
      sweeping the floor fine

  <WSC#DGI089:0325:CB>
      the MIDdle management er and i guess it's <drawls>er</drawls> a
      sign of what the times have been <,> we've HAD the problems
      where people have had more authority than they're able to handle
      <,> and they're chasing for a position and they <.>w</.> <.>w</.>
      won't just sit down and talk

  <WSC#DGI089:0330:CB>
      it becomes an eye to eye situation over the thing er very
      difficult to sort out with them

  <WSC#DGI089:0335:CB>
      that's fortunately getting less and less <latch>

  <WSC#DGI089:0340:IJ>
      it's a compromise that you're looking for usually <latch>

  <WSC#DGI089:0345:CB>
      look <.>all</.> all agreements are compromise

  <WSC#DGI089:0350:IJ>
      can you give me an <{1><[1>example</[1> of <,> when things <.>gets</.>
      get tough when <{2><[2>things get rough</[2>

  <WSC#DGI089:0355:CB>
      <[1>mm</[1></{1>

  <WSC#DGI089:0360:CB>
      <[2>when things get</[2></{2> tough well there was a fellow up
      <.>in</.> in um well in the waikato actually and i'd worked with
      him for a long time and we had a pretty realistic arrangement
      and this guy had um he had um flattened a fellow with <.>a</.>
      <?>me</?> shovel who <drawls>legally</drawls> was entitled to do
      what he did but <&>21:00</&> didn't have enough brains to do it
      decently um <O>laughs</O>

  <WSC#DGI089:0365:CB>
      well i don't know that he flattened him actually

  <WSC#DGI089:0370:CB>
      he <{1><[1>held</[1> a shovel up in front of him

  <WSC#DGI089:0375:CB>
      the guy fell backwards over a motorbike and it was <.>a</.> you
      know what the hell um BUT the lawyer and their friends would not
      stay away

  <WSC#DGI089:0380:CB>
      i begged them to stay away

  <WSC#DGI089:0385:CB>
      i said stay away for a week

  <WSC#DGI089:0390:CB>
      that's ALL i want you just to stay away and i will fix it but
      <drawls>no</drawls> they were entitled to be there and be there
      they would and they <?>sent <.>down</.></?> and they goaded this
      guy beyond belief <O>inhales</O>

  <WSC#DGI089:0395:CB>
      one morning at eight oclock in the morning i got a collect call
      from a phone box from the waikato

  <WSC#DGI089:0400:CB>
      my husband has left for so and so but i said we took all the
      guns off him and he said yes but he's got a killing knife

  <WSC#DGI089:0405:CB>
      he WILL kill that man <,>

  <WSC#DGI089:0410:CB>
      it takes forty minutes to drive there

  <WSC#DGI089:0415:CB>
      he left five minutes ago

  <WSC#DGI089:0420:CB>
      what can you do about it

  <WSC#DGI089:0425:CB>
      now um and this is important

  <WSC#DGI089:0430:CB>
      i RANG the police i <&>22:00</&> identified myself and they said
      okay we'll fix it

  <WSC#DGI089:0435:CB>
      i never heard another thing

  <WSC#DGI089:0440:CB>
      there were no charges

  <WSC#DGI089:0445:CB>
      i would have presumed the car was just stopped and the guy was
      just quietly taken home <{2><[2>and</[2> that was that

  <WSC#DGI089:0450:IJ>
      <[1><O>voc</O></[1></{1>

  <WSC#DGI089:0455:IJ>
      <[2>mm</[2></{2>

  <WSC#DGI089:0460:IJ>
      it was diffused yeah <latch>

  <WSC#DGI089:0465:CB>
      he was diffused yes and er of course sometimes we've diffused it
      ourselves er

  <WSC#DGI089:0470:CB>
      some of my friends have diffused things er

  <WSC#DGI089:0475:IJ>
      what kinds of things have they had to <{><[><.>dif</.></[>

  <WSC#DGI089:0480:CB>
      <[><drawls>oh</drawls></[></{> well one particular case near <.>he</.>
      in the middle of the island really er we actually er rammed a
      car into a side of a bank and took the gun off a guy and took
      him home

  <WSC#DGI089:0485:CB>
      he was heading for a <.>stock</.> a station manager um

  <WSC#DGI089:0490:CB>
      the things that got me down at that time and THANK goodness
      they've STOPPED <,> <slowly>well pretty much stopped</slowly>
      were the suicides <.>and</.> and i <drawls>refused</drawls> to
      even acKNOWledge that they existed in the end um

  <WSC#DGI089:0495:IJ>
      how do you <{><[>mean by that</[>

  <WSC#DGI089:0500:CB>
      <[><.>be</.></[></{> <&>23:00</&>

  <WSC#DGI089:0505:CB>
      well <.>i</.> they were coming over and they came over my desk
      at ONE a week on average the worst day was three for eighteen
      months <,>

  <WSC#DGI089:0510:CB>
      i HAD to totally shut off <,>

  <WSC#DGI089:0515:CB>
      a person very CLOSE to us actually committed suicide and my
      mother got very upset because i wouldn't discuss it look at it
      <,> do anything

  <WSC#DGI089:0520:IJ>
      this was having a VERY bad effect on YOU <{><[><,>
      psychologically</[>

  <WSC#DGI089:0525:CB>
      <[>oh yes i <.>cou</.></[></{> couldn't live with it <{><[>mm</[>

  <WSC#DGI089:0530:IJ>
      <[>mm</[></{>

  <WSC#DGI089:0535:CB>
      i couldn't live with that so <.>i</.> i shut it off

  <WSC#DGI089:0540:CB>
      rightly or wrongly i just SHUT the door on it <,>

  <WSC#DGI089:0545:CB>
      one of the er <.>h</.> funny things that really happened was at
      er shannon <.>w</.> near where i live and it was in the middle
      of the election <,> <O>tut</O> and somebody at the pub suggested
      that collis blake might send a thousand bulls down the road as
      mister lange was coming to address shannon and this was taken
      seriously er and er of <{><[>course</[>

  <WSC#DGI089:0550:IJ>
      <[><?>of course</?></[></{> you're a bull farmer er <latch>

  <WSC#DGI089:0555:CB>
      of course i'm a <{1><[1>bull</[1> farmer <{2><[2>AND i</[2> had
      a i had thousand bulls AND i was at shannon and when this got
      around i couldn't see any <&>24:00</&> point in stopping the
      rumour or doing anything about it so i just laughed <O>inhales</O>
      <O>tut</O>

  <WSC#DGI089:0560:CB>
      finally the police came <laughs>along and said what are you
      going</laughs> to do and i thought well i'd better actually tell
      THEM <laughs>i wasn't going to do</laughs> anything so what we
      did do we took along a lot of utes and about a hundred dogs and
      tied them on the back of the utes and when mister lange came we
      were <.>spok</.> spooked the dogs up and a hundred dogs make
      quite a lot of noise and it's really quite <laughs>good <{3><[3>and</laughs>
      they were all competing and that was that</[3> good humoured and
      whatever and um <{4><[4><O>laughs</O></[4>

  <WSC#DGI089:0565:IJ>
      <[1>yeah</[1></{1>

  <WSC#DGI089:0570:IJ>
      <[2><O>laughs</O></[2></{2>

  <WSC#DGI089:0575:IJ>
      <[3><O>laughs</O></[3></{3>

  <WSC#DGI089:0580:IJ>
      <[4><O>laughs</O></[4></{4>

  <WSC#DGI089:0585:IJ>
      collis blake talking about his WORK as part of a provincial
      support group who help hard pressed farmers

  <WSC#DGI089:0590:IJ>
      well that's all we have <theme music>time for this week

  <WSC#DGI089:0595:IJ>
      we'll be somewhere out of town again at the same time a quarter
      to one next sunday <,>

  <WSC#DGI089:0600:IJ>
      i'm jack perkins

  <WSC#DGI089:0605:IJ>
      join me then</theme music> <&>24:50</&> <&>end of interview</&>
</I>
