Charles Wilkinson: The Father of Eltham

After years of fielding late-night calls from irate wives, Charles Anderson Wilkinson pushed for one of New Zealand's most controversial laws - 6 o'clock closing. The Egmont MP, known as the father of Eltham, was sick of seeing the evils of alcohol first-hand in his hometown, so decided to do something about it.

Often, the businessman worked late in the offices of the Wilkinson Bulk Store on Bridge Street, opposite the Railway Hotel. "Which was always a bit of a rough pub" says historian Russell Standish. As Wilkinson toiled into the night, poring over his books, family men would be drinking their wages away over the road.

"The wives used to ring him at work and ask him to go across and drag their husbands out" Russell says. "He observed the hardship that a lot of the families were experiencing with the late closing hours and the father of the home spending their hard-earned money." Also, many women began to lobby Wilkinson for the continuation of the early closing, first introduced in 1917 as a World War One measure.

Following his beliefs, the Reform Party politician was instrumental in getting the amendment to the Liquor Licensing Act passed in 1918. This meant that hotels nationwide had to close their doors at 6pm. "Which was quite a controversial thing that was a referendum issue in a later election, and it was confirmed, so it must have been the right decision" says Standish, who wrote the book Pioneer traders of Taranaki.

In 1919, the man known as Wilkie retired from politics - but he would be back.

Ironically, early-closing advocate had strong roots in the alcohol industry. In the 1840s, his great-uncle Johnson Beswick Wilkinson established the Seven Stars Hotel, which was New Plymouth's first pub. "It was an old raupo whare, really" Russell says.

Later, on that same site, Wilkinson opened his hardware store. The facade of that store remains where it was first built and has been incorporated into the north wing of Puke Ariki. "So, the Wilkinsons have had an association with that site for a long time" he says.

Russell has discovered that Johnson was the brother of Thomas Wilkinson, who arrived in New Plymouth on the ship, Blenheim, on 7 November 1842. With him was his wife, Alice, who had a babe in arms - John William Wilkinson. John later married Elizabeth Paynter and they had three children - Minnie Brenda, Annie Maud, and the famous Charles Anderson, who was born at Ōākura on 19 July 1868. The links to liquor then grew stronger.

The Wilkinson family moved to north Taranaki, where they owned the Urenui Hotel. But when the parents split up, they sold the hotel and young Charles suffered badly. "She [Elizabeth] left and went to Auckland and Charles Wilkinson was just sort of thrown to the mercy of other family members" Russell says.

But that didn't hinder Wilkinson's progress. "He came from a very humble beginning and dragged himself up to being a mercantile giant."

Chew Chong was one of the first people to recognise the talents of the young man, and had so much faith in him, that he enlisted Wilkinson to manage his new Eltham Store in 1884. At the time, Wilkinson was just 16 years old.

Two years later, this single-minded teenager became Eltham's Post Master and is believed to be the youngest in New Zealand to have ever held that role. 

By the time Wilkinson was aged 21 he had his own business. In October 1889, he bought the Ngaere General Store adjoining the sawmill and a month later he opened a cash-basis business in Eltham. His fortunes kept growing and in 1891 he had a dairy factory built at Mangatoki, which was soon bought by Chong.

The following year, Wilkinson married Mary Christina Brown and they had two children. Being a family man didn't slow him down. He continued to commission buildings, expand his trading, and extend himself in business and local body affairs. 

From 1904 to 1906, Wilkinson was on the Eltham Borough Council and at the end of his time he put the town on the map. During a trip to the United States in 1902, he was so impressed by the road-surfacing methods he convinced his fellow councillors to seal a deal for Bridge Street. The result was that in 1906, Eltham became the first town in New Zealand to have a tarred macadam (tar-sealed) street.

In 1909, he built the Wilkinson Bulk Store on that well-sealed street. At the time, the shop was one of the largest retail premises in Taranaki, and also the headquarters of his cocksfoot grass seed industry. Wilkinson's seed dealings can be likened to Chew Chong's fungus business, because they both helped poverty-stricken farmers to earn desperately needed cash. 

He also specialised in selling nails, iron, barbed wire, enamelware, Royal Dalton china and silverware from places like New York, Liverpool and London. These goods were brought into the Eltham store, priced and sent to the C.A. Wilkinson (Merchants) Ltd stores in New Plymouth, Hāwera and Stratford.

"He boasted that he sold a majority of New Zealand-produced goods, but did import a lot from England" Russell says. "He brought a lot of good-quality china out from England; it used to arrive in big steel crates packed with straw."

While most of his retail lines weren't set in concrete, one was. Cement was one of his trading mainstays and he was a shareholder in the Portland Cement Works near Whāngārei. Eltham historian Don Drabble says Wilkinson got a cut from every bag of cement that went through Port Taranaki. "That's why Eltham has got so many concrete buildings." One of those was the Wilkinson Picture Hall, which opened in 1910. This hall included a specially built floor that could be used as a roller-skating rink.

Around the turn of the century, he became involved in the Axemen's Carnival, a major local event, which was held on Boxing Day each year. One year, he commissioned Whanganui photographer Charles F. Newham to make a 1000 foot (300 metre) movie of the carnival, which was shown at the picture hall two weeks later in January 1912.

While his commercial and public life flourished, his home life didn't. In the same month the Axemen's Carnival was filmed in 1911, Charles and Mary were divorced. In 1915, he married Mabel Helen Wilson Duncan and they had three children. At the time, Wilkinson was the MP for Egmont, a seat he held from 1912 to 1919 and from 1928 to 1943.

During his second stint, Wilkinson's major achievement was the introduction of the Coinage Act 1933, which resulted in New Zealand minting its own currency. Since 1840, the British imperial coinage had been the official money of Aotearoa.

Wilkinson also nearly succeeded in becoming Prime Minister. In 1936, he was up against Adam Hamilton to be the leader of the newly formed New Zealand National Party. Wilkinson had secured support from former Prime Minister George Forbes, most of the one-time United MPs, and most of the party's North Island councillors. On the other side, ex-PM Gordon Coates was plugging for Hamilton. Coates and six other national MPs with Reform Party roots threatened to withdraw from the National caucus and re-establish the former party if Hamilton lost the vote. But that didn't happen.

Russell says it had looked favourable for Wilkinson. "But one of his promised supporters let him down at the last moment. It was [William] Polson, the Member of Parliament for Stratford. He reneged on his promise." Hamilton won a straw ballot in caucus by one vote and on a second official ballot he won unanimously to become the first leader of the National Party.

If Wilkinson had been the chosen one, he would have eventually found himself in the top spot. "He would have been leader of the opposition, but National came to power so he would naturally have been Prime Minister then. That was his aspiration in politics" Russell says.

Almost immediately after failing to grab the National Party mantle, Wilkinson went back to being an independent MP, maintaining his stand-alone status until he finally retired from Parliament.

Wilkinson's latter years in Parliament overlapped with his local body ambitions, and he was Eltham's Mayor during World War Two, from 1941 to 1947.

So, what sort of man was Charles Wilkinson, besides someone who got things done? Don Drabble, who wrote The Life and Times of Chew Chong, included a piece about Wilkinson in his book. This included recollections from Hāwera woman Merle Crawford (nee Haycock), who shared her own memories of Wilkie, backed up by the writings of her mother, who interviewed him in 1920.

"Charlie Wilkinson was a lad of seven when he realised he could make money, although it was hard work to earn a shilling from Chew Chong. He walked miles into the bush to find fungus, filled his pack and walked back to Mr Chong, who paid him one shilling (10 cents) for a small bag of this treasured Chinese plant" she says.

"How many shillings were made I know not, but this method of money-making made a great impact on Charlie. He knew he must work if a living was to be eked out of this occupation. He was a boy with a brilliant brain; he was also a determined lad, who knew there was a large world out there to conquer if one had the initiative, spirit and the will to go out and do it. This he did very successfully over his younger years" Mrs Crawford says. His enterprising ways never waned.

Don Drabble says Wilkinson had a hand in everything. "He did so many significant things - that's how remarkable he was. He dedicated all his energies towards commercial, local-body work and Parliament. He was driven."

He also did some surprising things. "He underwrote the Wirth's Circus to get it here for the people. He guaranteed the circus their returns and the circus came here for a number of years because of that. There was no call for him to do these things. He just did what he wanted. He was an autocratic man really" Mr Drabble says. This generosity also stemmed to individuals.

Retired school principal Don Taylor describes how Wilkinson gave him a major break in life. It happened one Saturday morning when Don, then aged 11, returned home from getting the family's meat and bread at the Eltham shops. "I rode my bike around through the gap in the hedge and skidded to a stop on the lawn," he says. "My head was down and I saw two pairs of shoes. And as my eyes came up, one pair of shoes belonged to my father and the other pair belonged to C.A. Wilkinson, who was dressed in a pepper-and-salt suit, which was all the rage in those days. He may have even been wearing his spats."

Don's father, Hec Taylor, did the introductions and Wilkinson asked the boy: "What secondary school are you going to next year?" Don replied: "I don't know, I suppose I'll be going to Stratford." Wilkinson answered: "Oh very good, nice to have met you. Goodbye."

At lunch, Hec Taylor talked to his son: "I've got something rather interesting to tell you. Mr Wilkinson has decided to reward me for what I did as his campaign secretary to get him back into Parliament – he's going to send you to Nelson College and pay for your education." Aged 75 when interviewed, Don Taylor says: "That was the first of two great opportunities in my life."

Don Drabble says Eltham's elder statesman was also greatly respected in the community. 
"Everybody called him 'Wilkie', but when they talked to him it was Mr Wilkinson." He even had servants at his magnificent home on High Street, which was built in 1904. Many people would know this grand place as Ashleigh Lodge, but it is now called Wilkinson House.

While he was a dynamic man in public life, he was an extremely private man. That's one of the reasons he enjoyed time out in his secluded holiday home at Pukearuhe. Wilkinson's Castle was designed by famous architect James Walter Chapman-Taylor and includes an inner courtyard. It is hewn from local stone, has giant timber beams and large fireplaces, but has no turrets or moats.

Just how private Wilkinson was, became obvious when he died on 3 November 1956. Russell says that Wilkie was given a private funeral for family, close friends and staff. Afterwards, following his final wishes, the father of Eltham was driven by hearse through the back streets of the town to be taken to the Whanganui Crematorium. "This was the only crematorium in the region at the time" Russell says. "As he had always held a great attraction for the Urenui/Wai-iti area in spite of a difficult upbringing there, his ashes were scattered on the sea offshore from there."

Don Drabble has always found it sad that Wilkinson slipped out secretly, with the ordinary townspeople unable to bid him farewell. "There was no chance to pay him homage, and yet his dad is buried up here in the Eltham Cemetery."

Despite his desire for a low profile, the Eltham residents have found a way to mark his contribution to the town. In November 2000, they named Eltham's Library area, C.A. Wilkinson Place. His daughter, Elizabeth Joy (known as Jocelyn) Acton-Bond, who lives in Kent, England, believes the honour is appropriate. "I adored my extraordinary father, a marvellous man. I am proud of all he achieved despite his horrendous childhood. My father was gloriously tough, but always fascinating. I am especially fortunate that he encouraged me to read and enjoy books" she says.

Wilkinson has finally booked a place in Eltham's history.

Drabble, D. (1996). The Life and Times of Chew Chong. Eltham: Don Drabble.

Gustafson, B. (1986). The First 50 Years: A History of the New Zealand National Party. Auckland: Reed Methuen.

Standish, R. (2007). Pioneer traders of Taranaki. Tauranga: Russell Standish.