Apprentices remember genius boss

A lot has been written about Charley Maxwell since he died. The extraordinary Taranaki farmer-inventor designed and built mechanical devices in the 1940s and '50s that helped revolutionise agriculture, not only in New Zealand but in many other countries.

But not much has been heard about the many apprentice mechanics who worked for him at his garage, Maxwell's Garage (now Coastal Motors) in Okato.

They helped build the prototypes of Maxwell's haybale loader, haysweep, a tractor, automatic crate nailer and milk meter. The petrol brands sold then were Europa (imported from the Soviet Union by the Todd family - it was the foundation of what is now Todd Energy) and Plume (renamed Mobil).

Three of those apprentices are still alive and kicking: Ray Rook, Ashley Heydon and Merv Putt. I met them at Okato in the garage, which they say has changed little. It has the same smells, dark corners and cobwebs and some of Charley's machinery is still in use.

Mr Rook, 85, has never really left the garage. He bought Coastal Motors in 1950 and now works on old cars there, for himself and others, pretty much every day.

Ashley Heydon (81) owns Heydon Priest Motors at Oakura and he works there as a regular mechanic, every day.

Merv Putt (82) retired in Okato at 61.

"We've lasted because we're non- smokers. Virtually everybody else here smoked tobacco. There were nine of us here and all the younger ones are dead," he says.

"I came home one night from high school and my father said I was starting work as an apprentice next day at Maxwell's.

"Charley was a hard man, but he did a great job and trained us well. We all became A grade mechanics. He was prone to moods. You could tell by the look on his face what mood he was in as he arrived for work, and what kind of day it would be."

Any repairs, modifications or machinery maintenance work was brought to Maxwells. The area was 100-acre dairy farms and had seven dairy factories, except on Wiremu Rd which was still cutover and burnt bush.

"Some people were still using bullocks and horses, although there were plenty of tractors and trucks," says Ashley Heydon.

He left school at 16 and asked Charley for a job at the garage. "He said: 'Right, do what you're told when you're told and no sulking.' My pay was 14 shillings a week. The apprenticeship was five years.

"Charley milked Jersey cows on his small dairy farm and we were sent over to dig holes for dead cows. I helped him build a front-end loader for a local contractor, operated by cables from a rear-mounted winch, long before we had hydraulics."

He still owns the Oakura Garage and still works there. "I'm just a mechanic. I'm doing two weeks there currently while the other guy has a holiday. I do a 12-hour day. My eyes are still good. I can get down to 12 thousandths of an inch, setting points. I've never stopped working. I'm addicted to it."

Ray Rook was paid the same as the others. "But I always had money in my pocket, because I had a paper run as well."

He thinks Charley was a demanding employer "because he'd had a very tough engineering boss himself, Henry Vosseler in Stratford, where he served his time.

"We built the prototypes at Okato. He patented them world-wide and got them made by McEwans and Swanson Engineering. "He worked a lot at night at home. He'd often come in with a bright idea. But he could be very impatient and bad-tempered when things didn't go as he wanted.

"The haysweep was a sweep to gather up mown hay and take it to the stack; there was no baling then. You could fit it to any kind of vehicle and it would follow the ground contour without digging in," he says.

"Charley also built a milk meter. He took it to Sweden and it was made there and sold worldwide. It didn't get a chance here because the Dairy Board were building their own one, called a bodkin. Charley's was far superior.

"His wife told me later the meter patent had just run out and she was still getting royalties when she shifted to Australia. That was a long time after Charley's death in 1986.

"He also made an improved teapot washer for cafeterias. You put the pot upside on a tap and it opened a valve to let water squirt up.

"Push lawnmower sharpening was a specialty at the garage. It was done with grinding paste, on a mechanical winder that held the blades in a jig. They had to cut a cigarette paper cleanly; Charley would walk past and test them like that."

When War War II was declared and Kiwis began volunteering, Charley was going to join the army and started selling up bits of gear when something fell and broke his leg. As a result, he didn't pass the medical then, but he was later rejected because he was providing an essential service to the community.

Some of Charley Maxwell's surviving inventions can be seen at Puke Ariki Museum, Tawhiti Museum and the Taranaki Aviation, Transport and Technology Museum.

- © Fairfax NZ News