Hi there
TYPIST-IN-CHARGE, Education Department Head Office, Ground Floor and 1st floor typing rooms, Government Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand, 1974-1978
The 1st floor typing work was different to work we had completed for officers on the ground floor. This time there was a lot of typing re overseas teachers coming to New Zealand. My readers may remember that there were not enough teachers at Wellington East Girls' College the year I sat School Certificate so I couldn't sit the three subjects that I was good at, and I was given the choice of sitting Art, or not sitting at all. Well, it was the same during my time in the 1st floor typing room: New Zealand teachers were thin on the ground so the department had a recruitment drive for overseas teachers, especially those from Britain. Applicants were offered free travel to NZ, and a job at most any school the govt felt like sending them to. We typed a lot of contracts telling such teachers that if they skipped out on the job, their surety (usually mum and dad or, sometimes even grandma) would be forced by the government to pay all fees associated with the move. Bankruptcy much, I often wondered.
above: my typewriter rubber (if you're American, it's an eraser). In the 70s, Mrs Rowley allowed typists to use Snopake paint on some things (but still no corrections allowed on the typing of mail from the Minister of Education.
If the collation part of the department's sole Gestetner duplicating machine was out of action, or there was a queue to use it, a typing pool would get a call from an officer to help with urgent collating. Lining both sides of every corridor in Government Buildings were white-painted cupboards about chest-high. If an officer needed 100 copies of 15 sheets of already typed and duplicated pages, the pages were lined up in order of pages 1-15 on top of the corridor cabinets. We 'girls' would traverse down the row picking up each page in order. At line end we would staple our 15 pages together, then go back to the beginning again and gather up another 15 pages. And another 15. And so on. Well, it was a change from typing..
School Publications Division was finally ordered to move into Government Buildings, much to the distress of the School Pubs workers. They took up residence in the annex. Prior to their arrival , they'd been a very free-wheeling crowd, not caring much about departmental rules (see an earlier TIC blog). They brought their own typists with them.
NZ Playwright Roger Hall worked in School Pubs. Rumour had it that the room number of the Stores Division in his most famous comedic play "Glide Time" (about a govt dept stores division) was the same as Stores Division's room number at Govt Bldgs; I never did get around to checking up on that.
One morning in 1977, we were all working hard in the pool.
The door was flung open. A man stood there in a rather theatrical pose. Think of Doc Brown in the "Back to the Future" movies and you'll have a pretty good idea who this guy looked and acted like.
All typing stopped. We stared open-mouthed at the entrance.
"Which one of you delightful ladies is Lorraine?" He waved the department's most recent staff newsletter in a grandiose gesture to the front of him, as if conducting an orchestra.
"Um... Me?" Why was I indecisive about my own name?
It turned out that he was the senior editor of the New Zealand School Journal, working out of School Publications.
He tapped at the newsletter. "You write plays? It says here that you wrote a 6-part radio sitcom series for Radio New Zealand?"
I nodded.
"Well, I want you to write for us. Read some School Journals, familiarise yourself with the style of writing and here's my card - send me something. It's good pay."
And ... he left the room in a swirl, and a slam of the door.
We typists just sat there, staring at each other.
"What - What just happened...?" I couldn't get my head around this guy and his request for me to write for something as great as the School Journal. The School Journal went to every child at every school, in every class, in the whole country. Each Journal contained stories, plays, non-fiction, and poems. There were many journals per year, catering for different age groups.
No-nonsense Maureen said, "You'll take up the offer of course...."
"Well, I will have to try and write something. And study the market. And - And -"
Newbie Helen squealed. Oooh, you can do it!" She sounded positive. I wished I were as positive.
But... Somehow I did write something. That night, actually. In 25 minutes . And my first play for The New Zealand School Journal, "Elephant in the Garden", saw print in 1977.
