'Borough boy' is still going strong

ON THE JOB: Rangi Apiata this week clocked up a 50-year association with Masterton District Council and its predecessor. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

Half a century has passed since young Rangi Apiata first went to work for Masterton Borough Council and now, all these years on he is still on the job with no plans to quit.

Okay, the job has changed from the days when he was a labourer, working at keeping the streets clean and tidy, and Rangi, 71, was signed off for a brief while but his association with the borough which morphed into Masterton District Council carries on.

These days Rangi is a parking warden, on-call, employed by council contractors First Security and looks back fondly on his long association with the local body, especially in the days when he was one of the "borough boys".

In his wallet he still carries the card that, had he not had it, his job would have disappeared.

That card was to show he was a member of the Central Amalgamated Workers Union - without union membership which was compulsory back then he would not have been employed.

Rangi was originally from Waimana, a tiny settlement sandwiched between Whakatane and Opotiki and left home at 19 to "make my own way in life" .

He arrived in Masterton in 1965 after a stint in the territorial army and started work for the borough when Masterton's mayor was Norm Tankersley and the borough engineer was Tony Wilson,working out of premises in Hope St where the Masterton Fire Station now stands.

Rangi credits his step-father Edward Morris who lived in a little cottage in Sussex St, with getting him the job.

Two years later the depot shifted to the Bentley St gasworks site and many years later, when the borough and Masterton County Council were forced to amalgamate to become the district council, to Te Ore Ore.

In 1999 restructuring meant Rangi's job was lost but he was not out for long soon being back at work with Armourguard - contracted to the district council - and continuing on when that work shifted to Chubb and finally to First Security.

He readily concedes parking wardens are sometimes not looked on with favour and some people get hostile when they have vehicles ticketed.

"But most people are pretty reasonable and those who get hostile often come back a day or two later to apologise."

Rangi said some of those ticketed have tried to get off the hop by all manner of means.

"They will say oh, come on bro, or come on cuzz. I tell them I am not their brother or their cousin."

The Apiata name is a well known one, especially through the achievements of whanau member Willie Apiata VC, but also locally through Rangi and his younger brother John, now retired but who was actually Rangi's boss for a time and who chalked up 40 years with Masterton borough and district council.

Rangi said he loves Masterton - " it's my town"- and said he had a stack of fun with the " borough boys" and as officer in charge of the Legion of Frontiersmen when the Masterton unit was in full swing, but which is now defunct.

Retirement is not a serious consideration as Rangi is on-call these days and still gets plenty of time to pursue his other loves in life, which includes spending time with his wife Margaret, his four adult children and " heaps of grandkids.".