Baikie’s Bread Deliveries

By guest author Brooke McCann

Tom Baikie standing next to his delivery truck outside one of his earlier stores – The Strand, Tauranga, 1930
Photo: R.J. Rendell

In the early days, my great-grandfather Tom Baikie would travel the rough country roads surrounding Te Puke - delivering the daily bread from his bakery. Eventually the rural mail car took over, providing a service to deliver food parcels along with the post. Mike Bayliss, a Te Puke resident, remembers:

“Today it’s amazing to think that we had Tom’s bread delivered by the rural mail man when we lived only 2km away from the bakery. If it was a half barracuda, picking the end out and eating it on the way from the mailbox was delicious— but I once got in big trouble when not much more than the crust was left.”

Local Peter Muir was just a young boy when he’d help his grandfather Graham Barrow deliver goods in his truck. They’d load up large bags of flour from the rail goods shed to drop at Baikie’s.  Te Puke had the aptly named tradesmen Mr Baikie the baker, Mr Butcher the butcher, Mr Barrow the carrier and Mr Washer’s garage.

One of the jobs as the baker’s eldest daughter, was to make catering deliveries in the company van. As soon as my Nana June was old enough, she sat the exam for her driver’s license.  In the mid-forties a full driver’s license was available at 15, and this was the age a lot of people left school to work.

Tom Baikie with daughter June

June spent many hours preparing, with lessons from Tom. The local policeman conducted the exam, and the driving test route was well known among Te Puke teenagers. June had it down pat. She’d memorised which streets she would be asked to park, when to do a three-point turn, and where to perform a hill start. After months of practice, June executed the course beautifully, with no mistakes. On return to the station, as she sat in the driver’s seat, the policeman turned to speak. He told her that she’d done brilliantly on her driver’s test, however he had not yet asked her to start the vehicle, yet alone given her any instructions on where to drive!