Digging
around in WAI 215 documents and Pae Koroki
can yield some unexpected results, as one might expect from such rich and
eclectic resources.
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Social Studies Resource Book
Cover image provided courtesy of Hamilton Public Library |
It turns
out that the same Frederick Murray Pinfold who compiled the Social Studies
activity book The Maori People = Te
Iwi Maori, published by AH and AW Reed in 1958 with a large print run of
5000 copies
was quoted with approval in an early 21st century Socio-Economic
Impact Report for Nga Potiki . In 1953 he was headmaster of Otepou School in
Papamoa, a school with a long history of inadequate buildings and post-war baby
boom overcrowding. His “pro-active
stance,” as described in the Report, “was challenged by School Inspector
Parsonage, who took it as a personal affront to his integrity in regards to
establishing priorities.”
It turns
out that the same F M Pinfold became, first a writer for, and then Editor of,
the Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society. In 1960 (issue No. 12 of the Journal) he essayed a collection of Maori
Folk-tales of Tauranga District (an item I first stumbled on in early researches
concerning the Te Puna-Wairere Track) .
His contribution and character was
highly esteemed. “… Immediately,” E L
Adams wrote in his obituary,
“his impact in the Society was apparent…. For he was, by inclination, more than
just 'teacher' – in all his Maori school work, mainly in Hawkes Bay and here,
he associated himself with their problems and everyday life… so much so that
the Ngaiterangi Tribal Executive installed him as a kaumatua of the tribe …”
It turns
out that Mr Pinfold is something of a hidden treasure. He seems to have escaped personal media
attention – even the ubiquitous Tauranga Photo News, also now searchable within
Pae Koroki, has (as yet) no captioned image of him. Unfortunately the Papers Past website for the
Bay of Plenty Times, lately extended to 1951, falls short of his floreat period
with our Society: 1960-67.
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| Mr F.M. Pinfold |
This
article is an effort to ‘out’ Mr Pinfold, and incidentally to celebrate the
efforts of the Tauranga City Library to digitise the Society’s Journals –
efforts he would, I am sure, have endorsed.
Three years
after his contribution of Tauranga Folk-tales, he made his first editorial interventions
in Number 16 of the Journal, inserting not only his home address for communications
with the Journal ,
but also some tactful notes here and there, and proposing a charming conceit:
the selection of New Zealand books for the hobby historian’s bookshelf. This was explained in the next issue as “… the shelf on which can be displayed as much
of New Zealand writing as one book-lover can keep track of. ”
Even before the age of the internet, this was
probably a virtual shelf: it would have
been a groaning board in reality. Across
ten issues, between June 1963 and December 1965, a total of 181 publications were
assessed by one ‘F.M.P.’ It did “not profess to be a selection of reviews ”
– these, quite different in tone and usefulness, also occasionally made an
appearance, usually from then-President Ernest E Bush. The Journal’s Bookshelf was, instead, a
survey of New Zealand publishing and writing that was both highly contemporary
and securely based in a sense of New Zealand society that extended well beyond
the colonial past. It showed a
broadminded understanding of the challenges and the resources presenting
themselves to New Zealand history scholars as well as general readers in the
field – and incidentally offers some contradiction to present arguments that
history was a closed, or at best a colonialist, book to late twentieth-century
New Zealanders.
The amount
of ground F.M.P. covered is staggering. In general, he was politely appreciative of most
authorial efforts, but was unafraid to make a wholehearted recommendation:
The writer of these notes admires A.H. Reed’s
wide choice of stories and the literary style and techniques adopted to typify
their own peculiar spirit. This is THE
ONE which has the greatest popular appeal from this quarterly offering.
and the
occasional condemnation:
…the reflection of Markham’s attitude to his
surroundings and. It would appear, to life in general, were to me
repulsive. It is interesting in that it
describes a way of life which is seldom uncovered to the public; it were better
that if had remained so … I place this book on my shelf with very mixed
feelings. Now that it has been produced
I would not like my shelves to be lacking, nevertheless I feel that the
taxpayers’ money could have been used in the production of something more in
keeping with our standards of morality and literary worth .
(which
makes the present writer determined to track down this unfortunate memoir. Was Markham’s merely a disparaging sneer or
actually morally deficient?).
Mr
Pinfold’s post as Editor of the Journal was made explicit in March 1964 and ended in August 1966 . But he had already stated his manifesto in
June 1963 (I am certain that the following anonymous comments are his):
… perhaps in various articles in this “Journal”
are statements to which you can make additions; or which you feel have been
inadequately stated; or of which you have a different version. Write in and discuss it – albeit genteelly –
and let this be a live “Journal" …
It
turns out, in short, that sixty years ago Tauranga was not lacking perceptive, open-minded
and culturally sensitive thinkers about our past. F. M. Pinfold’s work for the Journal shows he
had the grace and courage and scholarship to follow his own line, and the
editorial judgment to accommodate and encourage a range of viewpoints. We can be proud of him; we should acknowledge
his influence; and we must remember, as our local stories and pasts are
re-examined by new scholars, that Mr Pinfold would have applauded this.
References
