Thomas (Tom) James Burford

Ohingaiti

Father to Janet (Jay)
Father to James, Harry, Elaine and Shirley

Tom was Fiercely Independent, a great friend who always kept in contact with people, all you had to do was look at his phone bill there were toll calls all over the country…- a man who loved to talk and loved company, he was a real sociable type of bloke… who came from Ohingaiti, in the Rangitikei District, north of Hunterville

He loved his family and was proud of what each were doing…. He loved his dog Tan… he would turn up at somewhere and tell the dog “right you can Drive” and Tan would jump up into the truck and would place her paws on the steering wheel looking like she was ready to drive it was great entertainment for everyone, also if Tom said to Tan “Right hop in the truck QUICK” she also took off, jumped into the truck & sat waiting patiently ready to go

Tom was a really practical thinker…spreading butter was way too slow… so he used a wide plastering knife… in Winton the ladies golfers were being attacked by magpies, so he built a bird trap and caught around 1100 birds, for the Kaiapoi golf club he improved on the corer scoop when you core the greens… you will see it on the photo…

He was a hard worker from a young age… he drove trucks well before he was allowed. The neighbours who grew potatoes, at harvest time a truck would drive up and down the rows as the two men are needed to pick up the sacks of potatoes…one on the ground the other on the truck… So after coming home from primary school he would pop over and drive the truck…he was only around 10 or 11. He used horses to do the ploughing on the hilly terrain

He rode a horse sitting behind his brother to school, he drove his parents cars and trucks (better than they could he would say) he was a member of the Southland Gliding Club in Invercargill, the Club later moving to 5 Rivers Gliding Club for around 8 years, learning to fly gliders he went solo, taking his daughter Shirley and son Harry up for flights, he drove all sorts of trucks in his business, and in his last few months he enjoyed riding in his electric car to visit Janet his wife at the rest home in Rangiora, he called the electric car “Sparky”

He was keen to learn things and during his schools days he learnt how to plaster by plastering water tanks and build drenching yards, he even built a local school swimming pool..

At the age of 14 or 15 during his time at Wanganui Tech boarding school in Wanganui he got to attend air training corp down in Ohakea, this was during WW2 and got to shoot guns, he also fired a machine gun when he wasn’t supposed to do.

At Wanganui Tech the school’s corrugated water tank was leaking so he helped his mate Batch fix it by plastering the inside they did the work in the weekends as he was a border and little else to so they would be working inside the tank smoking away. One day the Principal’s wife came to invite the boys for afternoon tea, Tom and Batch were sure she could smell their tobacco smoke but didn’t say a thing. Tom always had money from doing odd jobs after school and would buy tobacco, on VE Day his friends came to him saying “Have You Got Any Tobacco” to celebrate with & of course he did. Tom back in those days was known as Butch Burford as his Uncle was a Butcher. He left school at 15 and he started work with Batch & Batch’s father Percy where he made water tanks out of concrete, where Tom learned his trade.

At aged 20 Batch & Tom had a job to plaster the inside of the Kiore tunnel Tom was proud of the fact that he could hammer & plaster equally as well with both hands from that job… as he had to stand on scaffolding and hammer up netting on both sides of the tunnel, on scaffolding that he and Batch built and it allowed vehicles to drive under them as they plastered the roof and walls. Tom said at the Apex of the tunnel you could just fit your head perfectly in.

During this time the work was well noticed and they were well known in the district. One time a local dairy farmer they had got to know came down with a heavy cold and was worried who was going to milk his cows, Tom put his foot down and said “I will & we don’t want to see you in the milking shed”, but sure enough just as they were finishing the milking saw the farmer making his way across the paddock. Word obviously went round the District after that and being thankful of the work that they did on the tunnel the district put on Tom’s 21st birthday party in the local hall. … During the work on the tunnel Batch and Tom lived on the tunnel site for a number of months… and to while away the evenings they would play music…this is where we believe he taught himself how to play the piano accordion

He met Janet Nairn originally from Halcombe, one weekend in Wellington when he was there with friends, a mutual acquaintance introduced them. Some time later they met again in Halcombe at a local Saturday night dance, Tom asked Janet to dance her thinking was “I hope he can dance” and of course he could having had practice with his Mother and being at the local dances in the Rangatiki District. They were married on 15th August 1953 in Feilding but Tom passed away a few days prior to his 68th wedding anniversary.

In March 1958 Tom and Janet and sons James and Harry moved south to Winton. Prior to this move Tom and his brother Dave got to Invercargill on a recki trip, meeting up with their only contact from their home area Norman Jones a school teacher and later a Government MP. That night when staying at the bottom pub in Winton the locals at the pub asked what they were here for, Tom said they were going to make concrete water tanks & if there were any buildings with housing nearby that were empty & a local happened to mention that the Linen Flax Mill was empty to which Dad said ‘where’s that’ and the next day went to visit the disused flax mill in Winton, the rest is history…the cost for the land & buildings was 3000 pounds, which they couldn’t afford to start with so paid a pound a week in rent and after a year they asked to buy the buildings and this time the owners asked for 2000 Pounds and they paid $800 pounds each for two houses on site for him and his brother and their families to live in.
They came down a couple of times to negotiate the deal on the buying of the buildings… one time they asked the owners to meet them on site but the weather was so bad the Invercargill airport was closed plus there was a big booze up the night before but no one was around to sort out the landing of the plane but Tom insisted that a plane was on its way and sure enough a plane arrived it was such a rough ride that a door flew off the plane somewhere over Oamaru and when the plane did land they had to run out and hold onto the plane as it would have flipped over the men doing the negotiations were so distraught from the flight they had a number of stiff drinks and from that Tom and his brother were able to negotiate a very good deal.

When Tom and his brother Dave headed to Winton to set up their concrete water tank business they left the North Island with all their tank equipment, 2 lots of household items, a piano, their trucks weighed a total of approx 7 tonne at the Wellington wharf. They loaded onto a boat named Maori and sailed overnight to Lyttelton. Then made their way to Winton. Once there orders started to come in. One large job was for the then Lands and Survey who were putting in a water scheme in Te Anau and they needed 20 tanks holding 5000 gallons. The factory started with 5 workers then went up to 8 then up to 16 then 18. When Ocean Beach freezing works closed they took workers on. Another large tank job was for the Moa Flat water scheme where 147 5000gal tanks were needed, this water scheme was officially opened by former prime minister Rob Muldoon. Also 25 5000gal tanks went into the Lumsden water scheme.

He was proud of his tank business and so he should be they produced around 17 thousand tanks which are dotted around the Southern Part of the South Island from Otago across to the West Coast down including Stewart Island. He said that he never had a problem with customers or staff, with some staff staying with him for for 25 years +. When he wanted to retire Tom and Dave decided themselves the value of everything and then took the list down to the lawyers and the business transaction was done within minutes…. With the lawyer was amazed as to how easy it was.

Tom delivered tanks, travelling all over Southland and further afield most of these tanks were 5000 gallons. It would take less than 5 minutes to unload a tank onto its site on his own not with huge cranes etc just a winch, steel rollers and wooden jack. No hard hat worn or a fluro jacket was worn back in those days, nor was there a pilot vehicle. To show you were an oversized vehicle a long piece of material rag was hung at the side of the truck with some wire that flapped about.

There are many stories of delivering tanks, one tank was floated down the Shot Over river (just out of Queenstown) to get it to a tricky site across on the other side, another story in particular was floating a string of three 5000-gallon tanks across Lake Wakatipu to Walter peak station was a highlight for him people came to watch the unloading of the tanks into the lake thinking they would sink you can see this video on U-tube the tanks floating across Lake Wakatipu . A total of 5 tanks were floated.
Tanks were delivered in all sorts of weather and during the winter, he would even wear his golf shoes on icy roads. so he wouldn’t slip over
The business diversified with products including pump sheds, dangerous goods, farm killing sheds, and water troughs.

Winton locals always knew who to ask if they had a problem that needed fixing & it was often said “Ask Burfords they’ll help you”. A saying Tom would often say was “How Can I Help You”

Tom was a member of the Winton Masonic Lodge No 108 for over 60 years and was recognised for that incredible length of service with a 60 year jewel, he also received a certificate for all his years as a school trustee at the local Lochiel Primary school.

Tom in his retirement he rebuilt an old Chev truck, also during his spare time if he wasn’t playing golf at the local club he also did wood turning making salt and pepper shakers, hat and coat racks, wooden knife handles

He also hated forgetting things so would carry a little blue notebook and often jot down peoples names and phone numbers and lots of jokes.



Tom had a never ending love of music, playing, he felt so blessed that he could play the piano by air saying “no one can take it away from you”, he had 1 piano & 2 electronic organs & it would seem he would go from one to the other playing tunes and making some up in-between, when a family member or friend had a birthday he would phone them up to play them “Happy Birthday”.

They moved to Kaiapoi to be closer to family on their arrival Tom immediately became a member of the local golf club and was helping with maintenance around the course and he quickly built friendships. The club is where he got his first hole in one.

He hated getting old and after being forced to slow down after breaking his hip he would often say “Don’t fall over and break your bloody hip”

Tom lived a great life without regrets, he loved his family, he loved his friends phoning them all the time he achieved so much if you drive through Southland and South Otago look out for all the water tanks bearing the Burford name. These are concrete memorials, the physical legacy he has left behind from the photos you can tell that Tom lived life to the max and always with a smile.