I can clearly see it now, on one side of the table sat my father and older brother Edwin. I sat on the other side on my mother's knee. "Where do babies come from?" I asked. An instant frozen silence followed. I could see tension and embarrassment on my father's face as he hesitated and looked intently at my mother. "Well, babies cost a lot of money. We went to town to get you," she said. "Have they got a shop there for babies?" "Well, there is a special place where we got you". I was not quite five years old and did not have an adult's understanding or words, yet I could read their faces and knew that something was wrong. They were most embarrassed and withholding.

We had been carefully groomed never to tell lies. Mother had said she always knew when her boys were telling lies. Now I understood what she meant. That was the first lesson I can remember learning about the evasion of truth. Not long after that Edwin told me that babies grew in mummy's tummy. I found it easy to accept this information. In 1919 anything to do with sex or birth was not considered suitable to small children. Our parents reacted according to what they thought was right. They were good and loving people who provided warmth and security for their two boys and we loved them for it.

My earliest years were spent in the country. Where we lived there was no electricity; no indoor flush toilets;

no town supply of water or hot running water; no telephones or radios, much less T.Vs; no cake mixers, microwaves, washing machines, vacuum cleaners or any of the dozens of home devices we all take for granted today. We certainly should have more leisure time now but I wonder if people are any happier. I cannot recall being bored, unhappy or lonely. We learned to think more creatively and make our own toys such as kites. If we wanted something we had to devise a way around the problems. We were much more independent of ready made goods. I am sure that was good for us.

Some of the history of the family prior to 1870 is recorded in a small book "A Brief Memoir of the late Daniel Cooper with some account of His Life Work". Daniel was the founder in 1853 and principal executive for the rest of his life of the "Society for the Rescue of Young Women and Children", Needy people in those days had no means of support other than charities. There were no Government payments to guarantee freedom from extreme poverty or even starvation. Daniel responded to this need and established ten or eleven homes to provide temporary care and training for young women who were outcasts or in danger of becoming involved in prostitution. The president of the society was The Right Hon. the Earl of Shaftesbury K.C. A few other distinguished men of that time became committee members and officers of the society During the thirty years of Daniel's work he rescued no less than 3,804 girls, taking them from the streets of London and placing them into one of his homes,

Daniel was born at Hanford , near Stoke on Trent , on August 22nd, 1827 . His father, John Cooper, was an earthenware manufacturer. His mother was the daughter of Daniel Greatbach whose father was intimately associated with the celebrated pottery manufacturer, Josiah Wedgwood. The Cooper family name is traceable in church registers and upon tombstones back to the fourteenth century, Daniel's health was failing in 1883. The doctors advised a sea voyage to visit his oldest son in New Zealand as a means of regaining his strength. He died here on the 19th of November at the age of 56 and was buried in Papakura, I am the great grandchild of Daniel Cooper

Like most lads, I was interested in the history of my ancestors and pestered my father Frank for information. He had been born in Papakura , New Zealand , and had never met his London forbears. He could therefore tell me only what he remembered his father telling him. Father did mention that Daniel had a small book written about his life. He told us lhat Daniel had the secretaryship of a London rescue society. For years I understood it was something to do with sea rescue. He was too embarrassed to tell me that the rescue was of women from prostitution. It was not until 1977 that I was able to borrow and photocopy the little volume about Daniel Cooper.

This enticed Charles to go tree felling somewhere in the Auckland district.

In the area where he worked there were a number of families but no school to educate the many children.

Having had a good English Public School education paid for by his father, Charles was appointed to be school master. The community contributed to his support. Later, about 1877, the school, together with its master, was taken over by the newly formed New Zealand Education Department.

My grandfather Charles married his cousin Constance Wallis who, I believe, came out to N.Z. for that express purpose. The Wallis family was closely related to the founders of the Church of Christ . It follows that my paternal grandparents were keen Church of Christ members. They produced 5 sons and 2 daughters. One son died while an infant and is buried in the family plot at Papakura. The names of the others were Margaret, Charles, Lucy, my father Frank, Herbert and Leonard. All eventually married except Margaret who, at the age of about 90, was awarded an M.B.E. in the Queen's Birthday honours list for her work in visiting hospitals in Auckland . Margaret, Lucy and Leonard lived well into their 90s.

All members of the family became school teachers with the exception of my father and his youngest brother Leonard. On returning from serving in the First World War, Leonard became the Town Clerk for Papakura. He continued in that position all his

working life. At one time he was the youngest Town Clerk in New Zealand .

My father Frank Everard Cooper was born in Papakura on the 9th of October, 1887 . He went to Auckland Grammar School for his secondary education.

The school was then located in Symonds Street where some of the University buildings now stand. In those days, the city transport was horse drawn tramcars. He and his fellow students were let out of school to witness the running of the first electric tramcar. Years later I saw teams of Clydesdale horses drawing Winstone's wagons full of imports or exports moving about the Auckland sea front. Winstone's horse stables were located at Parnell Road . Eventually they were destroyed by fire. Auckland was a much smaller city when we were boys than it is now.

By the time my father was five years old and ready for school, grandfather Charles had become the headmaster of Opotiki Primary School . Years later I called at the old school on business, I persuaded the headmaster to look up the old school register for me, There I saw my grandfather's beautiful copperplate handwriting recording the entry of his family to the school.

During his long service with the Department of Education, grandfather and family moved to several locations. He ended his career as headmaster of Papakura District High School where he had previously taught. Grandfather Charles took his retirement and died there at the age of 76. He was buried in the Papakura cemetery, 58 years after arriving in N.Z, His wife died and was buried beside him three months later. I do not think he ever returned to visit his homeland, England .

My personal recollections of my grandparents relate to the time we visited them when I was about 7 or 8 years old. They lived in a small house on their own farm a few miles west of Papakura. Grandfather took us out into the garden and showed us his method of grafting fruit trees- He also showed us a special shrub which he used to make gramophone needles. He cut the long grained fibrous wood to certain V shapes and fitted them to his machine, Charles considered the sound of the music was mellowed thereby. To me, grandfather seemed somewhat awesome. One of his hobbies was the Greek language. He was a retired headmaster and I was never quite able to detach him from my own experience of austere, godlike headmasters whom I had to address as "Sir" and who could wield the cane with impunity. Besides, 1 feared he might ask awkward questions about my school work.

Grandmother, as I recall, was a dumpy woman, keen to overfeed my brother and me on home made cakes and home grown lemon drinks. Later I regretted that we lived so far away from them as a consequence 1 never really got to know them for myself I liked my uncles and aunts and thought of them as very respectable, slightly religious but tolerant and caring people. They were honourable and solid New Zealand citizens. Grandfather owned a little island in the upper reaches of the Manukau Harbour near Papakura. It has since been joined by a causeway to the mainland. During school holidays he loved to row across to a little cottage he had built there so that he could be completely alone. For many years, the island continued to be owned by my Uncle Len, but was eventually sold, I recall many happy times my brother Edwin and I spent with Uncle Len and Auntie Ann for at least part of our school holidays.

Leonard's land came down to the edge of the bay. When the tide was in we swam, when it was out we built sand castles, retaining walls to hold water or bravely ran over the mud in bare feet among the small crabs- On one occasion we emptied the wooden half barrel of water meant for the cows and used it as a boat. Of course we forgot to return the barrel to the paddock. That was the only time I remember our uncle growling at us. We never got tired of the sea, I remember walking out to the island at low tide with Edwin. We found some fishermen camped there and said, "What are you doing on our uncle's island^" We were then presented with a fine snapper which we proudly took back to our aunt for supper.

Unlike most of the members of his family, my father determined not to be a teacher but a farmer. Borrowing $600 from his father for three years at no interest he bought a herd of cows and went share milking near Paeroa. The system still operates in N.Z, where the owner provides the farm and amenities, the share-milker provides the stock and does all the work. The cream cheque is then divided equally between them.

During those years Frank must have worked hard and saved well. He was able to repay his father and buy 100 acres of undeveloped land for himself at $34 an acre. The property was about 10 miles south of Te Aroha. It was undrained semi-swamp, former forest land but very fertile. Burnt stumps littered the almost flat landscape. For two years he lived in a little shed on a small rise on the property. From daylight to dark he was digging drains, blasting out tree stumps for burning and generally turning the sodden land into rich grassland. As the land became productive father bought young stock which would be ready for milking the following year. Land improvement continued for some years.

On Sundays my father was visiting the Ward family whose daughter had caught his eye. They had come by sailing ship from Devonshire , England , about the turn of the century. Mr. and Mrs, Ward had eight sons and only one beautiful daughter who became my mother. Their names were, William, James, John, Mary, Henry, Stanley, George, Fred and Edwin. They had taken up land at Manawaru not far away from my father's farm. James Ward Sen. was a very keen Bible student and local leader in the Open Brethren movement. I have no idea how or when he had become converted to that faith. My father was persuaded to forsake his formal church upbringing and became a life long follower and propagator of Open Brethren literalistic doctrines. James Ward Sen. gave a comer of his farm and Frank Cooper joined the Ward brothers in erecting a building which became known as the Manawaru Gospel Hall. Later the name was changed to Gospel Chapel, As a child I was to spend many hours at Sunday school and other religious services in that Hall.

On the 26th November, 1913 , Frank married his sweetheart Mary Elizabeth Ward in a double wedding when her brother Jack Ward married Lena Peterson. A horse drawn gig was their bridal vehicle. It was preserved in the Clydesdale Museum at Matamata which was owned and operated by my first cousin Peter Ward. The museum displayed the photos of my grandfather and grandmother Ward besides other family relics and photos. My brother also appears in one of those photos as a very small boy sitting on my grandmother's knee next to a horse-drawn dray full of small children. The Museum has since been sold to the Hamilton City Council and is now located at Mystery Creek. Family photos were not sold with the museum.

After a few years the 1914-1918 World War was at its height. All the fit single men had been conscripted into the army, followed by married men with no children; then those with one child and finally two children. My father was conscripted and was about to go into camp when the Armistice was signed. He had completely avoided military service.

My brother Edwin John was bom on the 21st of September 1914 , and 1 fifteen months later on the 10th of December, 1915 . My mother was very ill with septicaemia when I was born. She had to stay in hospital for about three months so 1 was sent, when only a few days old, to be cared for by my Aunt Lena and Uncle Jack. Their son, my cousin Robin, was three months old. I am sure we were loved and looked after like twins. I am also sure that I formed a strong bond with my Aunt. I certainly had a special love for her ever afterwards.