It was the day I broke into the Bank of Wells. Took a jemmy, a screwdriver, to the jagged teeth of an almost impenetrable 1960s Post Office Savings Box.

The teeth through which you poked coins for safe keeping. Those teeth only opened one way, and, usually, could only be opened by the all-powerful post master and his master key. That guy held sway in his day – probably more than the mayor.

This novice safe-cracker prised those teeth open and nicked half-a-crown, two shillings and six pence. Nicked? It was my Post Office Savings Box, so I think I was making a withdrawal rather than committing grand larceny.

Half a crown, or 25 cents, had buying power in the 1960s – it would get you the biggest block of Cadbury or maybe a pack of 20 Dunhills. Whichever was your poison.

Different generations will recognise different phones on display in the museum exhibition. Photo: Merle Cave

Ask a millennial what they make of a Post Office Savings Box? Ask a Gen Zer about half a crown and watch the puzzlement. Ask if they’ve ever been into a Post Office to buy a stamp, write an aerogram, or if they have ever dialled a telephone number, or uttered: “Trunk please” to the operator, or cheekily eavesdropped on the neighbours as they chatted on the “party line”.

A focal point

Even Western Bay Museum’s debut collection curator was “astonished” to learn about party lines – that you could be having a phone call and a neighbour could be listening in on the shared line. “Imagine if that happened today?” asked Carly Vevers, who has an Master of Arts in Museum Studies.

The old Post Bank memorabilia. Photo: Merle Cave

That’s why the Western Bay Museum is saluting the role of the Post Office and Telephone Exchange in keeping communities connected in pre-digital times with an exhibition called ‘Echoes of Exchange.’ It’s reconnecting with a lost connection, a conglomeration of old communications gear, some still working and related relics.

“Post Office exhibitions have been done in many museums around the world,” said Vevers. “They have the potential to tell so many stories and social histories because people lived their whole lives through the Post Office.”

The old Post Bank memorabilia. Photo: Merle Cave

A life force

The Post Office was a focal point, people met there when they went to town, people posted their mail there, the private post boxes were there, it was where people deposited their savings, where people got mortgages, registered their births, death, marriages, and cars.

The old Post Bank memorabilia. Photo: Merle Cave

It accepted television and fishing licence fees, enrolled people to vote and paid pensions. It provided weather and temperatures for the weather office and performed marriage ceremonies. Through the 20th Century, the Post Office was New Zealand’s biggest employer.

It was a life force. And now the Western Bay Museum gives us a feel for that force. It’s an eye-opener for younger people. “They’re shocked. And for the older people, a sense of what has been lost,” said Western Bay Museum manager Paula Gaelic.

Pièce de resistance

Nothing tells the story with more clarity than the collection pièce de resistance – the Katikati manual telephone exchange, which was decommissioned only 43 years ago, is now all hooked up and serving five telephones operating in Western Bay Museum’s main exhibition hall.

Isla Cave receives a phone call from her sister via the old Katikati Telephone Exchange. Photo: Merle Cave

“Give the young people a dial phone and they press, not dial. And they’re not sure which end of the receiver to hold to the ear. It’s totally foreign to young people. But they love the discovery.”

Once upon a time, the exchange and the women who operated it could tell some stories.

“They knew everyone and everything that was happening in town.” Gossip central maybe? “They would deny it, but it was true,” said Gaelic.

“If the doctor went out for dinner, he’d let the telephone operators know where in case of an emergency. If there was a fire, the fire truck would drop by the exchange to find out where to go.”

Isla Cave has a turn at being the operator of the old Katikati Telephone Exchange. Photo: Merle Cave

Gaelic suggests the operators were the ‘Google of their time’. Subscribers would ring the operators just to ask the time. Or how long to cook a turkey. Or how to lamb a ewe.

The exhibition, said Gaelic, also highlights some lost social traditions. “Like the pleasure of writing a letter, buying a stamp and posting that letter. Many kids haven’t written or received a letter. So, we give them the chance to write a postcard to themselves.”

Open all summer

Vevers said we know so much about the history of this country through letters and postcards in museums. “I would love for young people to consider what they will leave behind for future generations to learn about their lives.”

Then I spot my orange, circa 1960 Post Office Savings Book in a display case – I’d take it to school on Fridays with two bob, or whatever Mum could afford, and teacher Mrs Hudson would make the entry – date, amount, total. Teacher played banker.

“There was a lot of trust those days,” said Gaelic.

Museum curator Carly Vevers watches on as Eden Cave talks to her sister via the old Katikati Telephone Exchange. Photo: Merle Cave

There’s an old stamp vending machine – put in a thruppence, or sixpence, and it would spit out a stamp. There’s the tellers cash box – a mini wooden Fort Knox. Mint condition.

And the old metal Post Office Savings Box – the one with the shark’s teeth that almost made a felon of me. And Post Office ashtrays – you could smoke in the Post Office. “They were probably branded to stop people stealing them,” said Gaelic.

‘Echoes of Exchange’ – a rich slice of life as it used to be, before digital communication – is a free exhibition open until June 29, 2025, at Western Bay Museum.

The museum is open 10am-4pm Monday-Friday, and 11am-3pm on weekends and public holidays, during the summer holidays. Enjoy the free experience!

- SunLive