Gerry Kavanah

Gerry was the District office clerk and he welder more power than he actually had! Most similar to the TV series 'Yes Minister'!
Mind you Gerry did keep us on the straight and narrow and I recall that he would check that the ballpoint pen was empty before he would issue another. Likewise the flat files we used to sharpen our slashers. He would rub a finger down it to make sure there was no cut left!

I think he mellowed a bit after a Stores Officer was appointed to take the load off him - but he kept checking.
I'm left handed and found it difficult to press firmly enough on the quadruple forms I was required to fill in - oh it didn't help that there was no colour left - so I was given a second hand typewriter; more like one that otherwise would have been tossed out! I sprayed the mechanism with CRC and still strained my digits pushing the keys down. Lining up 4 copies was mission as well.!
But what about the Facit adding machine? Noah used it to tally up how many animals were on the Ark! A box with a handle and keys with a metal read out - adding one way with the handle, subtracting the other. Multiplying by the number of times you turned the thing, and dividing by turning backwards until the bell rand and then one the other way. When Gerry handed these over, it was as if he was giving a gold clock!

Gerry had a military background and did command respect and he knew a lot of people - the bosses listened to him and took his advice - just live that TV programme.
He used to bring up the wages each fortnight. He drove up in a Public Service car (they had a pool of them) I think he could have used a NZFS car, but nobody would loan theirs because he was a hopeless driver! Give him credit though, each time he would stop at the Palmerston bakery and buy some flash cakes to shout for us at afternoon tea - his stories lasted well beyond the allotted time!

He was firm in his belief that it was not wise to marry a nurse of a school teacher - somehow he had the notion they do not work hard enough. I do not share that philosophy!
On marriage - when I became engaged to be married, he told me that before long I would be a statistic! And after I was married, each time he would ask the question, 'Are you a statistic yet?'
I guess his faith in human nature was not there.

There were all sorts of rules - I used to think made up as we went along. One time I wrote something or other in green ink. Probably because no other pen was working. Abruptly the report came back with a terse note 'Green is the colour exclusively for auditors - redo!' I redid.