By Rhonda Bartle

A branch on the family tree

May Jenkins, nee Mulcock, is Hamilton Batten's great niece. Her grandmother was his eldest sister, May. 

'I'm named after two grannies,' May says proudly.  'My mother's mother and my father's mother, May Anna.'

Though she now lives in Te Puke, May Jenkins was born in Rata Street, Hawera, in a house that still stands, and grew up in Kaponga. 

Christmas was always spent at the Batten homestead.  'We went there quite frequently, right from when I was a little girl,' she says.

'They were very close to us.  Mum's sister never married and Dad was an only child and they were our only relatives and so they were closer to us than if we'd had aunts and uncles, cousins.'

Fond memories flood her whenever she hears the Batten name. 'Uncle Hamilton was a very upright Christian gentleman, a real gentleman,' she says. 

'And he loved to work with his wood lathe.  He made us sets of building blocks - there were long boards and short boards, roof boards and little pieces cut so the roof could be on a slant.'

He also made her two stools; first a tall one and then a shorter one, so as she grew she could sit at her blackboard and still put her legs under it. There was a handcrafted tray, too, for the gift of a tea set to sit on. 

May never thought of Hamilton as eccentric, just a quiet, busy man who was universally liked. 

Paintings, pets, music and shells

Hamilton's mother, Emma Rebecca and sister Ida were both gifted painters.  Despite being crippled by rheumatoid arthritis, Ida played the cello and was a keen amateur photographer with her own darkroom, something May considers a blessing today. 

'I am sure that is why there is such a good collection of farm photos in my keeping,' she says.

She remembers great Aunt Hilda, another unmarried sister that Hamilton lived with all his life, as a 'lovely lady' and someone particularly fond of animals.

'She had pet ducks and at one stage she had about seven dogs as well as numerous cats.  She used to feed them by sitting the dogs down and feeding the cats and the dogs weren't allowed to touch the food until the cats had had theirs.'

Hilda often collected stray cats after they were dumped in a stand of trees on the farm property, near the road.  'We always knew we were getting close to the Batten homestead when we saw those trees.'

Hilda was fun a person whose 'smelly collection' of seashells was housed in a shed outside, who surrounded herself with nick knacks, often bought at the Hawera mart. 

When Hamilton took her into town, he would always leave her as far from the mart as possible, though he knew he'd invariably have to collect her from there and all her purchases as well! 

The Batten Homestead:  Always welcoming to little May Mulcock.

Food and festivities

The Batten's were great gardeners, with an orchard full of plums, apples to be dried and cooked later, and wonderful gooseberry crops - that were sometimes stolen due to proximity to the main road. 

Asparagus grew under the trees and the family dug a square deep into the ground to create a fernery, which became Aunt Hilda's special project.

The women did fine needlework and were skilled at making bread - a dark bread with a nutty flavour - from wheat Hamilton ground himself. 

Hilda made fancy knots as a special treat for visiting children, and handed out water ice blocks from a noisy refrigerator.

At Christmas time, beautiful decorations imported from America, were strung around the house. Some still survive today. 

As May says, 'They've fallen apart a bit but I hate to part with them.'

Christmas bells hung in the dining room and lounge over American made furniture. May has kept a few items, including the family suitcases that were packed with precision for holidays up north.

An innovative man

'They used to go up to Warkworth to fish,' May says.  'First they had a caravan built by a Mr Reid in Stratford. Then later, they wanted to take the boat, so they had a trailer. 

'Uncle Hamilton was very methodical so every suitcase had to fit on the trailer, under the boat. 

'You had to pack everything in that suitcase.  You couldn't take any extras. 

'They used to pitch the tent and Granny always wore this black petticoat because if she had to get out at night to help Uncle Hamilton, she wouldn't look so obvious!'

Amazingly, Hamilton put a gas burner on his Austin car so he didn't need to worry about petrol rationing during the war.

'It was a fairly big Austin and he put this gas burner on it, burnt coke and that was his fuel,' May says.

Hamilton also made spinning machines from old sewing machines and built a replica of one that's held at Puke Ariki. 

'He made it on his lathe,' she says. 'They did have a knitting machine that they brought in but it wasn't satisfactory.  It was meant to make socks but it didn't work.'

He made a machine to make the ply and the family made woollen garments for the boys in the merchant navy. 

'Hamilton's father was the boyhood friend of Dr Barnado so they started sending clothes to Barnado's orphanage in England,' May says. 'I've got photos of all the toys they used to make.'

Hamilton also had one of the first radio receivers in South Taranaki, with a high aerial that rose near the house. 

Once, when repairs were needed, he produced a kite and somehow took the necessary piece of equipment up after sending a nephew up the structure to attach it.

Off we go:  The Battens loaded up and heading to Sandspit camp near Warkworth.  Note the coke burner on the side of Hamilton's car.

A fine coincidence

Though May has steadily been collecting family stories and relics for years, she hasn't been out to the old Batten farm for quite some time, making few visits after Hamilton died in 1954. 

But the last time she came to Taranaki, in May 2005, she met with a strange quirk of fate. 

An article on Hamilton Batten by local historian Arthur Fryer ran in the Hawera Star on the one day she was here. 

She hadn't been in the district for more than 12 years.