Reefton old-timer Esma Mulligan’s love of music has led her into countless productions and even some strange responsibilities over the years. More recently her family’s mining history gave her the honour of firing the first shot at the newly re-opened Globe Progress gold mine. She shares some of these memories .

Esma Mulligan was born in 1920 at Nurse Crawley’s house in Reefton.

“Everyone sort of went to nurses homes in those days to give birth.” she said.

Her father, Jessie Bartlett, was a Globe Progress miner before and after World War One. After 1926 he worked in a gold mine at Waiuta.

Esma would be hauled out of bed at 6am on winter mornings to practise music with a stone hot water bottle at her feet and a rug around her shoulders to keep away the chill. Practise would go for two hours and then it was time for school.

It was Esma’s music that led to her becoming the responsible- (although she did not realise it at the time)- carrier of all the pays for workers in the Waiuta mines. She was 14, which she said wasn’t considered too young then, and was a pupil  of the Reefton Convent of Mercy, learning piano forte.

Esma’s Aunt, Jessie Ord (nee Banks), lived in Waiuta and was a music teacher. Aunt Jessie was taught by the well-known Sister Mary Anthony in Greymouth, and it was thought that if Esma spent every weekend with her aunt it would be beneficial for her piano studies.

The young Esma caught the 3.20pm train to Ikamatua after school on Fridays, carrying her weekend case and music case.

“Uncle Harold was the secretary in the mines office at Waiuta. He thought it would be an excellent idea for me to take the pay in the music case. I don’t know how everyone agreed to it, but they did.”

She was given instructions to not talk to anyone she didn’t know, but remembers one occasion in which she didn’t pay attention.

In Ikamatua, she would wait an hour and a half for the train from Greymouth to arrive, and then passengers from Reefton and Greymouth would take the bus up to Waiuta. One day a man came along to the Ikamatua statiion in a horse and cart. It was the middle of winter and Esma was sitting there by herself.

The man questioned her as to why she was there on her own and asked her where she was going . Esma said she was going to Waiuta. The man, who gave his name as Mr Burns, said to come back to his house where his wife would make her a drink.

“ I wasn’t aware of the amount of pay  and I wasn’t worried about it. And that was how  the pay got to Waiuta for a long time. It was never discussed,  never talked about anywhere. “

Before the pay was carried in Esma’s music case it used to be taken down in a car by the police who would carry revolvers  for protection.

Esma was also taught by Sister Mary Anthony.‘’You were very fortunate if you got her to teach you.

Every Thursday, the Reefton youngster would travel down to Greymouth in the railcar for lessons. I wouldn’t want to be late for the train back to Reefton so I would look at the clock, but then she would say; “oh so you don’t want to do music’” Then I would be too frightened to look at the clock and she would say “Oh so you want to stay, you’re not looking at the clock”. She was a character, you couldn’t win”.

At age 15, Esma was awarded with herAssociate Trinity College of London certificate, and the next year she went to boarding school at Villa Maria, in Christchurch.

After finishing school three years later she stayed in Christchurch a while longer, later moving back to Reefton, where she began teaching piano to others.

She has taught at Inangahua College and Inangahua Junction Primary School, as well as privately.

During exam time teaching would start at 7am. “I wouldn’t go back to doing it like that,” she said.

Esma went to Nelson to marry local Reefton boy Jack Mulligan, who, like her father, was involved in the mining industry. They had three children, and she now has 10 grandchildren and nine great grandchildren - (so far at least!)

The family were all regular church-goers and Esma played the organ for the Sunday church services.

“The organist for the Knox church taught three of us the organ. I played in other churches too when they haven’t had anyone”

Social lives were at church too with socials, concerts and meetings keeping everyone busy.” We had good social lives; a lot of it was fun as well as educational.”

She remembered one year where the combined choirs - Catholic, Anglican and Methodist - put on Stainers Crucifixion, a musical play about the crucifixion of Christ.

“We had the organ and piano tuned tothe same pitch and soloists from Greymouth.”

Combined missions were held regularly in the old Criterion Theatre, where the pianists had 12 foot grand pianos to play.

“They used to be great.”

The missions incorporated music, dancing  and speaking on different religious subjects.

“We had a blind man, a speaker and singer from Christchurch leading the music. He would ask if you had been saved and just about everyone would stand up and be saved. I don’t know if they meant it or not”!

As a teenager she remembers attending annual operettas put on in the Criterion Theatre by local nuns as well. They were produced by Sister Mary Bernard, who also taught the dancing.

”She was a very modern sister.”

The Criterion was a “beautiful building, beautifully carpeted, big mirrors, and had a 12 foot grand piano.” It closed on April 26, 1973, with a screening of ‘The Godfather’.

Esma took her piano-playing skills to the annual primary school choirs, involving the schools at Ikamatua, Maruia, Inangahua Junction and Reefton.

Fred Balthorp, who was the principal fo Reefton Primary School, was the conductor and Esma would accompany on piano.

Together, they worked out a programme and would travel to each school for practice.

A final practice would be held with all the schools in Reefton and then the recital itself would be held at the Reefton Community Centre.

The concerts were big events, with all of the community involved.

Stan Whitehead, who later became an MP, was the main actor in all the concerts, and Esma taught two of his daughters the piano.

Even at 86, Esma Mulligan is still managing to be in the spotlight. In October the honour fell to her to press the button to fire the first shot at the newly reopened Globe Progress mine.

“People in Reefton for years and years tried to get the mine open.”

The community had been working on the idea for more than 25 years, she said,including her husband.

“I didn’t really go to the meetings, but if  we ever talked about it I’d always say that I’d love to fire the first shot.”

Esma said she remembered going to a church recital where she met the mines production manager. She told him about how the Reefton community had worked for years to get the mine started and how she would love to fire the first shot.

“I’d seen him now and again after that, and  then one day he said he has been working on getting me the first shot.”

The first shot fired was fired on October 11, and Esma wore her Crusaders rugby scarf and socks specially for the occasion.

Away from the piano she is a keen tramper. As kids, she and her friends walked and explored everywhere. Over the years she has walked all the tracks in the Reefton area and several around the country including the Milton and Heaphy tracks.

“ I’ve had a good life. I look back and think it was pretty good.”

“Reefton To The Core.”

                           By Nicole Mathewson,Greymouth Star

From Globe Hill, 3rd July 2007–The Globe processing plant

at what once was Cornishtown

Left: Esma Mulligan beside an old steam engine

boiler, one of the ‘treasures’ recovered after being

buried for decades on the mine site. Perhaps her

father, Roy Bartlett, operated it during his time there.