Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 447
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[Page 447]
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1936 and 1937, though Madge had arranged for a daily housemaid to come early in the mornings, for a couple of hours, to get my breakfast and tidy the house.
On first arriving in Wellington I had become a member of the Hutt Golf Club; the second oldest in New Zealand, with four scratch players. It was thirteen miles away from Karori, so I was not a regular weekend player, particularly when Madge was at home. But the Labour Government which had come to power in 1935 had immediately instituted a universal five-day and forty-hour week, which enabled me to play, in good company, nearly every Saturday and Sunday while she was away. This not only improved my golf, it delivered me from the loneliness of being all day in an empty house, if I was not invited out.
In the middle of 1937, on the eve of her sailing for Sydney to avoid the worst of the Winter, my wife announced that she was pregnant. This was after five years of our married life, and long after we both had given up hope of having any children; Madge and I both being now in our early forties. Of course I was v ery delighted to hear this good news, but nevertheless found it hard to believe until it was confirmed by an eminent lady gynaecologist in Wellington. Madge resented my early doubts, and I'm afraid she never really forgave me for them.
Naturally, this time, Madge did not return after the end of the Winter, but remained on in Australia for her accouchement in a private maternity home at the bottom of Macleay St., Pots Point, where she came under the care of an old friend of hers, Doctor Ida Saunders. Near the end of March 1938, I received a short cable from her mother worded, "fine son both well". It was thrilling news, which I immediately spread excitedly among my colleagues in the office, and telephoned to friends outside.
In anticipation of this momentous and happy event, I had long been deferring the taking of my annual leave, and the General Manager now graciously allowed me five weeks' leave of absence, being a fortnight extra. Within the week I was in Sydney holding my newborn son in my arms, in the suite of rooms in St James's