Neville Wilkes: Grandson Remembers Chew Chong

An old man sits stooped in a wheelchair, chin on chest, jittery hands steadied on arm rests. The index-finger knuckles on both hands are swollen with arthritis. Above grape-purple lips is a moustache that hints of his remarkable origins. The dimming eyes of this 94-year-old man are red-rimmed like his burning memory of distant fires.

This is Neville Wilkes, the grandson of dairy industry founder Chew Chong. There are a number of Chew Chong descendants, but Mr Wilkes stands out from them all for one reason - he remembers his grandfather.

Mr Wilkes was born on 6 February 1909. Chew Chong died on 7 October 1920, aged 92. From his home at Tainui Village in New Plymouth, Mr Wilkes shares his clear memories of the inventive businessman who had a huge impact on Taranaki's dairy industry.

When he was a boy, Mr Wilkes and his schoolteacher mother, Amy, lived in the Chong household in Vogeltown. Amy was one of the 11 children born to Chew Chong and his wife, Elizabeth (nee Whatton).

Mr Wilkes describes his grandfather as an active man, who sometimes walked from the three-acre farmlet on Tarahura Road into central New Plymouth. "He used to do this running shuffle" says Mr Wilkes, moving his feet on the step of his wheelchair to show how. "In the old days there was no asphalt and there would be a certain amount of dust coming away from his feet. You always knew it was grandpa because he was the only one who seemed to walk that way."

Another firm memory is of his grandfather cooking rice, which was a staple food in the Chong household. "When he had the pot on the stove, he used to lift the lid off and he would smell the rice. I can see him now doing it. He would just get the steam from the pot and he would sniff it. He knew as soon as it was getting dry or getting burnt. He was a champion at it."

Sifting through his memory, Mr Wilkes finds another vision of Chew Chong. "I used to watch him sometimes. He had a pocket knife and he had a reddish-coloured piece of bark and it was very hard and he used to get his knife and pull this stuff off and put a few pieces in a glass of water." Mr Wilkes has no idea what the red bark was, but he says his grandfather would weigh it on small scales, and put tiny pieces in the water. "I presume he drank the water" he says.

He did grow grapes. "Great big purple things," Mr Wilkes says. "He had a big green house full of grape vines and he used to take a trap [two-wheeled carriage] to town to sell them to friends and other people." Other times, the Chong family would travel into central New Plymouth in a phaeton [light, open, four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage]. That was a bit like the one you see the Queen in."

But the most enduring memory Mr Wilkes has of those early years is not regal, but red. "I remember so many years ago, when the farmers were breaking their farms in for habitation and whatever" he says, talking about how the native bush was cleared to make way for farmland. "The air was smoky blue in the early mornings. I can remember the fires that were burning the bush because of the red glow at night and these logs used to burn for days sometimes. Even now when I look back, I think I see the fires still burning ..."

Neville Wilkes died on 24 July 2003, aged 94.