The Country 18/05/26: P J Montgomery talks to Jamie Mackay

An iconic New Zealander phoned up this morning to see how the Century Farm and Station Awards went at Lawrence on Saturday night, as 36 farms were recognised for family ownership of more than 100 years, one for 187 years. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
PJ. Peter Montgomery, Peter, Hello, where are you? How are you?

Speaker 2 (00:06):
I have great greetings, Well, thank you. I'm an Awland
at home at the moment and just ticking over and
tuning into the country on ten eighty at works in Auckland.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Brilliant. Now you phoned me this morning because you have
a connection where I was on the weekend Lawrence for
the Century Farm and Station Awards. You have a connection
to that wonderful little town.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, I do. Soon after the war my father came
back and he and mum bought a business in Lawrence,
and so it was the very late forties early fifties
that I lived there. But my father because he had
been in Burma during World War II and got every
tropical disease you could and ended up getting TV it

(00:50):
was seriously ill and had to go to the n
Eden Hospital and subsequently Pleasant Points. So I lived at
Lawrence for about three or four years. The old Bank
of New Zealand building, which is huge, was where my
mother opened a first bank account in Lawrence.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Well, and you've gone back in time because there's a
family connection, I think to one hundred and twenty five
years ago. We celebrated one farm by the way, that
was one hundred and eighty seven years old and in
one family's ownership since the year before we signed the
Treaty of White Tongy. But in nineteen oh one they
had a bike race, and I can imagine how tough
it would have been on the gravel roads from Lawrence

(01:28):
to Why to Herna and back again.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yep. And my grandfather was a photograph through the hock
and libraries out of Tiger University. And they've got quite
a few people who were named in it. And my
grandfather was number nineteen and he won it and I'm
actually holding his medal right now. I planned to give
it to a Lawrence museum when I get back together

(01:51):
or more importantly get back down to Otago. So but furthermore, Jamie,
it wasn't called a bike race. It was called the
Lawrence Bicycle Pub Race. Why the fancy music. I've never
heard the term bicycle for so long until I reread it.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Well, now, of course there is a like a rail
trail or not a rail trail there. Yeah, well that
is actually there was a railway through there. But they've
got a bike you can basically eventually you're about a
bike from Queenstown to Duned and it's wonderful what you're doing.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, it's absolutely magnificent. And the last seven kilometers get
into the need and the sooner the better. I think
there's a stop in way to Hornah Isn't with a
fantastic cafe there, and good luck to them for all
the people on their bikes that need a top up.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Well they've converted the old railway shed in whiter Horna
to a cafe and I think it's proved very very popular.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, yeah, I remember my mother telling me that I
was too young and I don't remember this. This is
just I'm the messenger here from my mother. She used
to say that where we lived in our shop in
the main street of Lawrence wasn't very far from the
railway line, and the railway the train used to go
through at about two am in the morning, un presumably

(03:08):
delivering goods up to Watsborough.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Well that is amazing, isn't it. Hey? It was the
fun that ran into a whole lot of interesting farming
people and like you, some listeners to the show, and
we'd really really appreciate that Big alb Anderson was there
his farm. You remember Alb Anderson the all black lock.
Albi's farm's been in the same ownership since eighteen ninety

(03:32):
four and he hasn't got any smaller, right, No, But.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
That tells you something about those families that have done it,
because if over the generations is more than one or
two children that can sort out, how do they resolve
all that and the ownership and being fair to the
siblings that don't make it, and also how profitable and
how they've changed. A very interesting article in the Targataty
Times this morning where you've got to change with the Times.

(03:59):
Tell me this where is the venue and lawrence figure
of how many families were there?

Speaker 1 (04:04):
There was thirty six farms there there was two hundred
and eighty people. It's amazing what they do. Oh in
the local community center. There's a gym there that the
local area high school uses, so they get them all in.
It's quite a big building. But unbelievably, in this gig
and my job and yours, Pete, you go to lots

(04:25):
of corporate functions. I go to too many to be
perfectly honest, but the catering and lawrence for three hundred
people was probably better than anywhere else in the country.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Wow. God, it's a credit to them. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Just a final word from you, What are you doing
with yourself these days?

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Ah? Well, I've got enough to keep you off the streets,
and I've got contending going on. Still. I'm still patron
or a trustee of too many sailing events, and I'm
trying to winkle my way out of those. But that
takes up quite a lot of time. I say, like
the Peter Blake Torbay Regatta, I'm patron of tor Bay

(05:05):
and I'm going to their prize giving in a couple
of weeks. And there's enough to keep me off the streets.
And you know, I keep an interest in various things
and listen to various commentries and think, well, they need
someone to help them. But now I'm still a Well,
the big thing is coming up this August. Three years
on the seventh of August, Claudia, who was my great

(05:29):
supporter and did so much for me, she died suddenly
and unexpectedly. So life goes on without. But it hasn't
been as easy as it was.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Well, honestly, it was a real thrill for me. I
was sitting in here and I just finished pre recording
an interview and the phone rings, PJ. Montgomery, I'm thinking,
what's that? So it was great to hear from you
this morning. Absolutely fantastic and thank you. Thank you Pete
for listening to the country. I know you listen on
Saturday morning.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
I do absolutely yep, on ten eighty it'll be easier
to get as well, so I'm looking forward to that.
And you're doing a great show and all the stuff
of trees and so on. I know Vera bashed your
way back long ago, but photosyncesses. Everybody should know that,
and why we're planting pine trees when they don't take
into credit the photo sensitive all our Fieldaland National Park

(06:22):
and all the other national parks and let alone lawns
and sums, yeah, pastures. I mean, I don't know why
we even have a problem and think about trees. But
what would I know, Well.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
I know you'd know quite about PJ. Montgomery. There you go,
the voice of New Zealand Sailing.