Fond farewell for long-time Ohakune resident

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 614, 28 November 1995, Page 14

Fond farewell for long-time Ohakune resident

A well-known and well-liked Ohakune resident who has spent most of his 67 years in and around the Waimarino was given a great sendoff when his friends at the Ohakune Club farewelled him recently. Len Wensor is leaving to live in Napier. Len was born in Rangataua in 1928 but received his first schooling at Owhango to which his family had moved for a couple of years before returning to Ohakune where he attended school until the age of 15. On leaving school in those wartime years he had a variety of jobs. He started a butcher's apprenticeship with Allen's butcher shop, in Goldfmch Street next to the Kings Theatre, at 1 3 shillings and sixpence a week. Deciding there was no future in butchery he soon joined a local branch of SVP (Services Vegetable Production) which was a WWII scheme to produce food for the armed forces. His wages increased to over £6 a week. This was followed by jobs at Bennett and Punch's sawmill in Dreadnought Road, then consumers Co-op Store (a general store where Berry's Bookshop is now) and then as a truck driver with local builders Lord, Walsh and Cox.

Len stayed with his next employer, New Zealand Railways, for 14 years. He joined the 200 or so other railway workers who were then based in Ohakune and worked initially in the plumbing shop. After six years he moved over to -track weed spraying and, for the next three to

four years got to know all the railway track between Marton and TeKoura (north of Taumarunui) and between Okahakura and Tangarakau on the Stratford line. He then 'graduated' to track maintenance and covered much the same territory tamping, ballasting and aligning the track. After 14 years he left NZR in 1970 and moved to Napier to work with a newly-estab-lished family toy-making business. He returned to Ohakune after three years to work for the MSD Spiers mill at Tangiwai where he stayed until he retired in 1988. Retirement gave Len a chance to use his seemingly endless energy in the service of the Ohakune Club. Over the next seven years he became the Club's unofficial groundsman, general handyman, vege gardener, field-drain layer, gaming machine technician, firewood provider — the proverbial 'chief cook and bottle washer'. All this work was undertaken voluntarily and, earlier this year at the club' s AGM, he was nominated for life membership in recognition of his contribution towards the upkeep, appearance and smooth-running of the Club.