Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 445
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[Page 445]
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member without payment of entry fee, and paying only the annual subscription of six guineas a year.
On a few occasions Madge accompanied me on my business trips, but our idyllic existence, in and around Auckland, lasted only about six months. At the end of the year 1934 I was called to Wellington for a talk with the General Manager, who told me that he was promoting me to a more senior appointment on the technical staff operating immediately under him. I took up this new position forthwith, staying at a city hotel until I found a suitable house to rent in the hilly but attractive suburb of Karori (at No. 42 Messines Rd). In the meantime Madge remained in Auckland until the Railways people moved us back south again.
I was going up remarkably rapidly in the Shell Company's service, with substantial annual salary increases. At the end of another eighteen months I was put in charge of an entirely newly created technical department, handling all London correspondence and submitting replies for the General Manager's signature, and all New Zealand correspondence over my own signature. Also, I had the prospect, in the not too distant future, of a six-month trip to London, accompanied by my wife, to meet my "opposite numbers" there, and to visit the Company's big refineries and technical establishments in Britain, on the Continent, and in the U.S.A. Moreover, I was getting on very well with our Chief in every direction, in and outside the office. I think he was a bit impressed with my grasp of the practical applications of higher mathematics, being a keen mathematician himself.
But the move did not suit Madge. Wellington has a cold climate for most of the year and a reputation for gusty winds. Usually there is a prolonged showery Winter and a short but sunny Summer. It was a bracing climate that suited me alright, but although our house was sheltered from most of the wind, and soon was well heated by a large "Esse" slow-combustion stove, Madge still felt the cold weather, and preferred to go to "Plevna" and Sydney, rather than to stay in Wellington for any more Winters. Consequently, I lived alone in the hosue during the Winters of