Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 525
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really a very comfortable and handsome little residence and much admired by our friends and passers by.
But despite the new amenities and roasting log fires in the very efficient fireplace, Madge still dreaded the Winter, and I sensed that she was beginning to feel homesick, though we were now entertaining, and visiting, a score or more of very nice new friends ; and also combining with them, during the warmer months, in very enjoyable picnic excursions to sylvan spots out in the country. I still have happy memories of our visits to a fine swimming pool on one of the streams, which we generally had all to ourselves. Anyhow, Madge suddenly decided to spend part of our second Winter back home at "Plevna", and in Sydney near her older friends, leaving her little daily girl (Iris, who lived in her father's home) to keep the house in order during my absences. While we were at Palmerston North we were visited, first by Madge's mother, just before we moved into the new house, and by her brother Maurice soon after we occupied it.
Shortly after Madge returned from Australia, a new General Manager took over at our Head Office (N.H. Smith). A Cambridge M.A. and a great purist with a fine brain, he soon made several changes in our senior staff. I was transferred to Auckland with an increase in salary and status ; a move that Madge welcomed, more because of the warmer climate, though we were sorry to leave the new house which was barely fifteen months old. In climate and situation Auckland was like a small Sydney, with an easier-going way of life and a more colonial atmosphere that in the south end of the North Island. We were able to rent a fine big house in one of the fashionable suburbs (Alexandretta Road, Mount Eden) at a rental of two pounds a week : it stood in an acre and a half of grounds, mostly grassed. The Company paid the whole cost of removal of our furniture, including packing and unpacking, installing again, and insurance against damage. I think that the N.Z. Railways quoted a price of thirty one pounds for this job.
My travels on the Company's business now included the extreme