A Review and New Information on Yvonne Rust, QSM

Spirit of the Quarry – By Yvonne Rust, QSM, with help

This combination of a review and an offering of information on the life and times of Yvonne Rust, recently recieved from John Ball, speaks for itself. The image shows detail of a large statue designed and created by Yvonne Rust with help in the construction from others, which stands at the entrance to the Quarry Arts Centre in Whangarei and is known as Spirit of the Quarry.

5 Feb 2015

Greetings Theresa,

I write primarily to thank you for your wonderful book on the life of Yvonne Rust.  My brother and his wife gave me an autographed copy as a Christmas gift and I have read and enjoyed it from cover to cover.  And why is that?  I am not an arty person, but I and my parents have been involved with the Rusts in one way or another over 70 years.  Perhaps hundreds pf Northlanders’ could say the same!  I also write in support of PEP workers and, surprise surprise, to put a positive spin on the work of the Labour Department at that time.

My father, the youngest of five siblings, was born 1906 in Hikurangi and was educated when Alexander (Yvonne’s grandfather) was the headmaster of the Hikurangi School (1903 – 1924).  When my father started school Yvonne’s father, Gordon, was 15.  At least two of my uncles would have also been students during Alexander’s Headmastership and probably friends of Gordon.  In a small town everybody would have known everyone.

Our next knowledge of the Rust family came when my Dad moved his family to Milford in Auckland about 1940 where he and my Mum quickly made friends with Helen Matthews, mother of Phillip, through their joint activities as Anglicans at the Church of St Pauls-by-the-Sea.  At that time Peter Cape and his parents were also friends of my family in Milford.  Peter’s father was the local Cub/Scout Leader.

Helen had moved from Awarua to a spacious two story house right on the Milford Beach. By the time we knew her, her husband, Earnest had died and she somewhat rattled around in the big house.  Helen told us stories of bringing up Phillip where a white child was such a novelty to the Maori and they were always intrigued and wanted to see him and poke him to see if he was real.  Phillip’s bassinet was often hoisted on a rope in a tree to get him some seclusion and a place for uninterrupted rest. Awarua became real to me as a small boy listening to her tales.  About 1950 Helen moved to a smaller house in Milford and I and my older brother became her lawn mowing boys.  Helen was a good friend for all her life.  I had a couple of holidays during my schooldays on Phillip’s sister, Diana’s farm out of Te Awamutu.

In 1957 my then fiancé, Rowena Leggett, worked at the Ministry of Works in Auckland city where Helen was the filing clerk, queen of her unique filing system where nobody could find anything but she could lay her hand on any required document within seconds. So Rowena knew Helen. When we married in 1958 the government policy was “no married women to be employed” and Rowena became a housewife.  Helen came to our wedding.

Jump to 1977.  I was employed as the manager of the then small Employment Service office in Whangarei. The Employment Service was the section of the Department of Labour responsible for registration of those seeking work and wishing to apply for the Unemployment Benefit (UB), and assisting them in finding employment.  Without registration, unemployed people were not eligible for UB.  In 1977 there were about 120 registered unemployed in Northland, if my memory serves correctly.  By about 1981 there were about 5500 registered unemployed (p.160, your figure) in addition to the over one thousand people in PEP work employed by local authorities, charitable and Maori Trusts and other eligible non-profit organisations in Northland. It seems I had presided over the biggest downturn in Northland employment in its short history.  By then we had opened new offices in Dargaville, Kaikohe and Kaitaia with a staff of around fifty who worked very hard to help people find work,  (mostly) within the government’s policy and rules for creating government subsidised employment.

Is it true, “the Labour Department appeared to be hell-bent on making things difficult” (p.161)?  We had a multi-million dollar Northland budget that many (employed) taxpayers thought was a gross waste of money, and we were expected to ensure that money was spent honestly and auditable accounts kept.  I expect Kevin Hayes who was our constant contact within the NCT, and an excellent person to deal with, had his hands full in meeting that obligation. Money from the Labour Department to NCT must have exceeded many times over everything the NCT received from every other funding source.  You can’t employ thirty people over several years for nothing.  And in spite of the difficulties the PEP workers did largely create “The Quarry”.

Many of the organisations involved with PEP, particularly Maori Trusts, were new to employer responsibilities and discovered they had a lot to learn.  In spite of the difficulties they daily faced, it was a time of personal and community growth in achieving their organisation’s goals.  Many were very appreciative of the Employment Service’s guidance and help.

Many of the PEP workers had previously been employed in skilled jobs and were in the difficult throes of down-skilling.  In rural areas many Maori had returned home to gain the support of land and family and were in significant economic difficulty. It is not surprising that many of them objected to the class of work they were offered, but what choice was there?

Did we support arts and crafts? You can visit many of the rural Maraes in Northland and you will find that they are beautifully carved, and this task was mainly funded through the much maligned PEP and later Work Skill Development Programme (WSDP).  At Te Kopuru the Marae was very active in many areas as was Te Roroa (I think) Marae at the mouth of the Waipoua River.  Ask them what they did.

As part of my monitoring responsibilities I was privileged to visit Richard Parker at his home and pottery enterprise in Kaeo where he employed a subsidised worker.  From him I learnt about kilns carved into hillsides, that every item he produced was unique and perfect in its own way, and in Japan bodies of processed porcelain clay are treasured, kept maturing over centuries.

In our own office we had an “artist in residence” (Joanne I think) from near Waipu, who created a mural on Whangarei’s development, but she found it very difficult to be creative while employed on an hourly rate and having to come to work.  I sympathised with her but it was the only way to get away with it within the rules! What she created was entirely up to her. She objected so much she would not sign her work but it gave her an income and an opportunity practise her craft.

Dargaville had an incredibly active and competent PEP supervisor and development work around the town blossomed everywhere.  He was hands on and stood no nonsense, like Yvonne, except he knew how to manage workers, perhaps like “Uncle John” at the quarry.

I could go on like this for pages but won’t bore you.

Did we get ripped off?  Occasionally, but that is another story.

My wife and I visited Yvonne at her home on Tahunatapu Point, enjoyed her hospitality and admired her beautiful and creative home and came away admiring her even more than when we arrived.

Your book has added to this adventure and I thank you most heartily.

Sincerely yours,

John Ball