Be Our Guest entry: Letter, Neville Minto
Maker
Minto, Mary
Production date
2003
Object detail
Brief Description
Letter to Be Our Guest competition by Neville Minto. He writes about his memories of the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake. The copy of Neville's story is signed by Mary Minto and includes a colour photocopy of a photograph of the Minto family and notes about the Minto family. The photograph was taken in Tin Town a few months after the earthquake.
Neville was fourteen years old, and at Napier Boys' High School in Te Awa Avenue. He was with his classmates after a full school assembly and military drills. They were standing at ease in their form classes when the earthquake struck. Neville remembers a noise like a thunder storm starting under his feet. The boys were told to run away from the buildings towards Te Awa Avenue. He later biked home to Fitzroy Road via Marine Parade because it was too dangerous to go through Napier South.
Neville remembered an eerie silence in the city. The four outside walls of the Masonic Hotel had collapsed outwards. A fire had already started in the top floor of a building on the south side of the Hastings and Browning Streets intersection, opposite St John's Cathedral. The Minto family were Catholic, and Neville's mother Nell (nee Falvey) had been at Mass at Saint Patrick's on Munroe Street when the quake struck. Neville had a younger sister Bernadette, and two younger brothers Pat and Tom. His father Jim Minto arrived home, but went back to the city almost immediately to help the injured. All the chimneys were down on their house and the hot water tank was leaking. The roof, beds, and floorboards were smashed in a verandah bedroom. Men from the city came to say not to sleep in the houses that night, and that no one was to use their toilet. Neville's family slept on the roadway at the intersection of Lincoln and Fitzroy Roads. Many of the neighbours slept in their cars on the roads. The night was warm and the moonlight was beautiful.
Neville was initially too scared to go and see the city, but he and his friend Buster Piercy went to have a look around. Shakespeare Road was completely blocked by rubble, so they had to walk down to Marine Parade. They saw the dead bodies at the morgue, and saw a woman's severed leg. On Thursday a party of men arrived at the house to tell the residents that they must evacuate and report with their belongings to Nelson Park, in Napier South. Neville's family were evacuated to Palmerston North by car, and met up with extended family from Ahuriri, at the Palmerston North showgrounds. They were then evacuated by train to Ohura, where they stayed with their Auntie Kit and Uncle George Bousfield for a month or two. Neville went to school at Silverstream Catholic College in Wellington. He returned home in May 1931. Neville said that during an aftershock on 5 May 1931, Dr Moore's Hospital building had fallen flat on its back, with no casualties.
Neville was fourteen years old, and at Napier Boys' High School in Te Awa Avenue. He was with his classmates after a full school assembly and military drills. They were standing at ease in their form classes when the earthquake struck. Neville remembers a noise like a thunder storm starting under his feet. The boys were told to run away from the buildings towards Te Awa Avenue. He later biked home to Fitzroy Road via Marine Parade because it was too dangerous to go through Napier South.
Neville remembered an eerie silence in the city. The four outside walls of the Masonic Hotel had collapsed outwards. A fire had already started in the top floor of a building on the south side of the Hastings and Browning Streets intersection, opposite St John's Cathedral. The Minto family were Catholic, and Neville's mother Nell (nee Falvey) had been at Mass at Saint Patrick's on Munroe Street when the quake struck. Neville had a younger sister Bernadette, and two younger brothers Pat and Tom. His father Jim Minto arrived home, but went back to the city almost immediately to help the injured. All the chimneys were down on their house and the hot water tank was leaking. The roof, beds, and floorboards were smashed in a verandah bedroom. Men from the city came to say not to sleep in the houses that night, and that no one was to use their toilet. Neville's family slept on the roadway at the intersection of Lincoln and Fitzroy Roads. Many of the neighbours slept in their cars on the roads. The night was warm and the moonlight was beautiful.
Neville was initially too scared to go and see the city, but he and his friend Buster Piercy went to have a look around. Shakespeare Road was completely blocked by rubble, so they had to walk down to Marine Parade. They saw the dead bodies at the morgue, and saw a woman's severed leg. On Thursday a party of men arrived at the house to tell the residents that they must evacuate and report with their belongings to Nelson Park, in Napier South. Neville's family were evacuated to Palmerston North by car, and met up with extended family from Ahuriri, at the Palmerston North showgrounds. They were then evacuated by train to Ohura, where they stayed with their Auntie Kit and Uncle George Bousfield for a month or two. Neville went to school at Silverstream Catholic College in Wellington. He returned home in May 1931. Neville said that during an aftershock on 5 May 1931, Dr Moore's Hospital building had fallen flat on its back, with no casualties.
Maker
Production date
2003
Production place
Production period
Media/Materials description
A4 photocopied sheets, typed.
Media/Materials
Measurements
In the Be Our Guest Folder No 2.: Height x Width: 298 x 210mm
Classification terms
Subject person
Subject period
Subject date
03 Feb 1931
Credit line
gifted by Mary Minto
Other number(s)
m2006/27/111, 35440
Public comments
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