Stories That Talk To Us

Courtesy of Lindsey Dawson.

I love delving into old newspapers to find ancestor stories. Motivated largely by that old saying, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, I’m digging up tales from yesterday that still speak to us today.

Reason: I love talking to crowds and it’s great to find real, entertaining stories about the real people who’ve gone before us.

Their DNA is inside us, after all. Well, not actual DNA, unless we’re their flesh-and-blood descendants, but story DNA… the tales that tell us how things got done.

All around us are the things our forbears put together – roads, buildings, artworks, hospitals, houses and all the rest. We rarely think about the battlers whose sweat made the communities we live in today, even though our own efforts are also building places and ideas that new generations will take on.

But if we keep our ears pricked we can learn from things they did that might inspire us – and teach us useful lessons.

Lately, I’ve been intrigued by Ewen and Alex Alison, brothers who started ferry services on Auckland harbour back in 1881 when they were young and ambitious and the city was desperate for decent public transport.

Mm, where have we heard that before?

Ewen was the boss. He fought off the effects of a worldwide recession and beat off stiff competition to reign supreme with a fleet of paddle steamers. He ran his company for 53 years (!), became the first mayor of Takapuna and set aside reserves and parklands we’re still enjoying all these years later.  

I’ve put together this little movie about my love for old stories. It’s mainly about Auckland, at a time when only 30,000 people lived there. Halfway through it, you'll spot one of Ewen's elegant steamers, named the Britannia. It carried 800 passengers and could run at 12 knots.

What a fine ride it must have been on the Queen Street to Devonport route. The lowest return fare Ewen ever set was two pennies or ‘tuppence’ as they said then. It was set in a price war with his rival, one George Quick. George went belly up.

The moral of the story: don’t ever go into a price war without first ensuring you have the biggest war chest. Just think how many airlines have learnt that to their cost in recent years!

PS The man who wrote the quote about how we doom ourselves to repeat history was George Santayana, a Spanish-born American author of the late 19th/early 20th centuries. He put it in a book called Life of Reason. Clever chap. Probably never thought what he wrote would be remembered in the 21st century.

PPS If you’d like me to come give a lively speech at your business, club or community event, feel free to call or text me on 021 159 9309, or see www.lindseydawson.com.

By Lindsey Dawson