Quote Originally Posted by Peter Laidlericon View Post
When I was in NZ (and Aust to a slightly lesser extent) in the 60's I noticed that these two nations had blokes with bags of nous. They could pretty-well fix anything. The word I'm looking for is versatility. I asked my friend Robbie Robertson how come they were so good and versatile and he told me that in NZ at the time, it was pretty well impossible to import new things or even some spare parts without what was known at the time as 'overseas funds' As a result, they had a good home based industry making parts and the ability to do everything for themselves including the manufacture of parts for the Sunderland flying boat engines

He also said to me that this was the reason why all (?) of the desert LRDG and SAS teams had New Zealanders or Australians as their fitters. Simply because they were so adaptable and able to get you home when the muck hit the fan.

I was paid in UKicon-Sterling or Aust £ (I could choose) while I was in NZ and I was always asked if I would give the blokes my UK ££'s in exchange for NZ£ instead of going to the bank. I seem to recall that the Aust and NZ £ changed to $ while I was there.

Yep...... Very versatile people
Quite so Peter! I was 21 and in Australiaicon when I saw my first brand new car for sale in a showroom. At that stage in NZ you had to have 'overseas funds' to buy a new car and the 2 year old trade-ins sold for more than the new price. When I started out in business as a gunsmith in 1969 I had to make written application to our Minister of Customs with valid reasons why I should be able to buy a new lathe. We all cut our teeth on keeping our old pre-war cars on the road (US and English although I was always a Chev man). Strangely there was no restriction of the importation of sporting firearms although anything other than .22 and .308 attracted another 5% duty. Happily that all changed in the 1970's.