William ernest Lowe

1876-1955

 

 

Born at Meadowbank,[1]Oamaru, New Zealand, third child of John Henry and Charlotte Lowe. J.H. Lowe was at the time employed as District Engineer with the Public Works Department on the construction of the railway from Waitaki to Palmerston.

Sister Charlotte Amy Lowe was then nearly 5 years old, brothers John Kennaway Lowe, 3 and Charles Edward Lowe, 1½ years old.

 

Early in the year the family moved to Christchurch when J.H. Lowe took up duties as Resident Engineer for Constructed Railways, Canterbury. Resident at Hereford Street West.

 

Brother Robert Manley Lowe born at Christchurch. He died the following year aged 4 months.

 

Early in the year the family moved to Dunedin when J.H. Lowe took up duties as Engineer for Working Railways Amberley to Kingston. Resident in Alva Street.[2]

 

Brother Edward Cronin Lowe born at Alva Street, Dunedin.

 

Brother Frank Augustus Lowe born at Dunedin.

 

On Ernest's 7th birthday, his father presented him with the book Robinson Crusoe.[3]

 

Brother Eugene Manley Lowe born at Dunedin.

 

Ernest attended Lower Moutere school as a boarder. Headmaster, James George Deck. In a letter dated 16 January 1946 to brother Charles on hearing of his wife Maggie’s death he recalled;

To this day I carry the clearest memory of her (Maggie Deck) in my first days at the Lower Moutere as a small boy, overcome by home-sickness, she heard me crying in bed and came into that room and kissed me! She was the only one of that household that ever showed me any kindliness.

A photo of the Lower Moutere school pupils taken in 1886 shows Ernest and Charles Lowe.

 

Family moved residence to Dowling Street, Dunedin.[4] This, or their previous home in Alva Street, was called Clairmont.[5]

Mrs Lyall of Dunedin presented Ernest with an album.[6]

 

On this day, Ernest's 11th birthday, his father presented him with the book The Cruise of the Snowbird.[7]

 

The family moved to Wellington early in the year when J. H. Lowe took up duties as Chief Engineer for Working Railways. Resident Golders Hill Street.[8]

“Ernest was a backward and rebellious student, possibly suffering from dyslexia. He was expelled from two schools. At one school he was locked in a shed on detention and he got out by taking the door off its hinges.”[9]

 

The Girls' High School has re-opened this week with a very satisfactory attendance-roll, showing a slight increase upon last year's number of scholars. We are requested to publish the following list of those High School girls who recently passed either the Junior University Scholarships or Matriculation Examinations, some of the names having been mutilated in telegraphing:— … Amy Lowe, …

 

Parents and sister Amy sailed for Lyttleton to catch the ship Aorangi for London via Rio de Janiero.[10]

Possibly it was this year that Ernest was put to work on a dairy farm where he was employed for a year or more. There he decided that there must be a better life than milking cows night and morning.[11]

Ernest went back to secondary school after his stint at farming.[12]

 

On February 22, his parents and Amy returned from England via Capetown and Hobart on the Rimutaka.[13]

Family resident at Woodmancote, Khandallah.[14]

 

KHANDALLAH. The distribution of prizes took place on Thursday. Mr. Jenkins, the headmaster, gave a short review of the progress of the school since its opening in January last, which was considered by those present to be highly satisfactory. The prizes were then presented by the Rev. A Burnett, as follows: — … Mrs Lowe's prize for recitation … Mr. Lowe's prize for best recitation … arithmetic, F. Lowe (standard 3) …Std. II.—Industry, M. Lowe … Mrs. Lowe’s prize for best reading …

 

The public hall at Khandallah was filled last evening with an enthusiastic gathering, the attraction being a magic lantern entertainment and Christmas tree provided for the children of the district by the residents. Two magic lanterns, under the management of the Messrs. Lowe, were a source of delight to both old and young. The Christmas tree was beautifully ornamented with flags and candles, and was loaded with presents, which wore distributed by "Father Christmas" himself, to the evident delight of the youngsters, who were afterwards regaled with light refreshments. The hall was tastefully decorated, and the general arrangements were such as to reflect credit on those who took the affair in hand.

 

The following are the latest additions to the Telephone Exchange:— J. H. Lowe, private residence, Khandallah; …

 

KHANDALLAH. Mrs. R. Hannah presented the prizes yesterday. The following is the prize-list:—Annual examination: … St. VI.—E. Lowe, 1; V. Moore, 2. … St. III.—J. Radcliffe, 1 ; F. Lowe, 2. General proficiency: St. VII , E. Lowe; … Drawing: K. Lowe, model; … Nine prizes were given for good attendance—six to Khandallah children and three to pupils from Crofton. A. Kells, who did not miss one attendance, although living at Crofton, won tho first prize The others in order of merit were:— M. Lowe, F. Moore, V. Clark, E. Moore, T. Rowe, E. Lowe. P. Radcliffe, and J. Radcliffe. Mr. Jenkins, the master, was presented with a very handsome silver teapot given by the children.

 

SERIOUS ACCIDENT

A LADY FALLS OFF A TRAIN

      Miss Mary Pridham, of New Plymouth, a guest of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Lowe, at Khandallah, met with a serious accident on the Manawatu line this morning. She fell from the platform of a crowded train on the Johnsonville side of the viaduct, and it is feared that concussion of the brain has been sustained. Miss Pridham was taken back to Mrs. Lowe's residence, where she now lies.

      Later particulars show that Miss Pridham was standing on the platform with Mr. Ernest Lowe, and while the morning through train was going down the incline past Johnsonville, the young lady fell off. Mr. Lowe jumped off to her assistance directly the train slackened off the incline, and went back, and with the assistance of some of the company's officials took her to Khandallah. On hearing of the accident Mr. J. E. Falton, the company's manager, went up to Khandallah, taking with him Dr. Collins, who found that the lady was in a state of semi-consciousness. It is hoped that she will be conscious to-morrow, and will suffer no ill effects from her dangerous accident, which should prove a warning against the practice of standing on train platforms. There was plenty of room, as it happened, in the carriage. The company's officials have had great difficulty in keeping the platforms clear all day, but intend now to strictly enforce the rule.

In 1941, Ernest wrote of the accident:

Years ago in New Zealand I was accompanying a friend who fell off a train, but in this case the train was travelling rapidly. I jumped out the train and found the young lady unconscious having suffered a severe concussion of the brain, as well as many cuts and bruises and teeth knocked out! She however recovered and is the mother of several sons and so far as I know still alive today.[15]

 

JUNIOR CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATION. The following are the Wellington candidates who passed in the recent Junior Civil Service Examination:—…, William Ernest Lowe, …

 

About this time he commenced an apprenticeship (three-year) in dentistry with Mr Arthur Hoby of Willis Street, Wellington.

In December, a photograph was taken of Miss Mary Pridham and her father Mr Ernest Pridham,[16] headmaster of NewPlymouthHigh School. There is nothing to indicate whether the photograph was taken when the Pridhams were on a visit to the Lowe family or when Ernest Lowe visited the Pridhams in New Plymouth.

Ernest became engaged to Mary Pridham,[17] but this was broken off in July 1900.[18] When he left for England, Mrs Pridham expected that he would marry Mary on his return.[19] His album, Dedicated to be a Writing and Remembrance Album, Khandallah 1897[20] has a photograph of Mary, mounted with a floral cutout and dated June, 1897, and another photograph with a poem dated July, 1897 (Khandallah).[21]

 

The pupils of Miss Kennaugh were entertained at a picnic on Saturday at Mrs. Lowe's grounds, Khandallah, the children greatly enjoying the outing.

 

KHANDALLAHSCHOOL. The annual distribution of prizes in connection with the KhandallahStateSchool took place list night, at the Khandallah Public Hall. An entertainment was first given, the children being regaled with a plentiful supply of delicacies, provided by Miss Vickers and Mesdames M'Cartney and Meadowcroft. An exhibition of callisthenics was given by the scholars, under Mr. Jenkins, the head teacher. The Rev. J. Paterson, a member of the Education Board, presided at the distribution of the prizes, which were handed over by Mrs Vickers to the following:— … Attendance.—St. 111.—Manley Lowe, 1; … Educational prizes.—St. 111. — Manley Lowe, 1; …

 

KHANDALLAH. SCHOOL.

The Public Hall at Khandallah was filled last evening on the occasion of the annual distribution of school prizes. During the evening the children went through various kinds of drill, and sang a number of songs very tastefully, … IV., Manley Lowe; …

 

The matron of the AlexandraHome acknowledges with thanks gifts from the Newtown School Committee and from Mrs. Lowe, Hanson-street.

 

Either later this year or early in 1898 the family moved to Hansen Street, Newtown.[22] Photo of Ernest on a bicycle outside the house.

 

In early March, Ernest sailed with brother Ted for England, Ernest to study dentistry and Ted to study to be a doctor at GuysHospital, London.

 

On board SS Oonah

Tho as we cross the Ocean wide

So badly rolls from side to side

And gived us pain in our inside?

"The Oonah"

What ? the brain within our head

And turns our food to lumps of lead

And makes us wish that we were dead?

"The Oonah"

And as along the decks we pick

Our weary way to learn the trick

What makes us all so very sick!

"The Oonah"

What makes the skipper look so proud

Amongst the sickly mottley crowd

Who greet him all with curses loud.

"The Oonah"

Why flirts he with the girls all day

Gives Alice & himself away

Yet never found his ship will stay

"The Oonah"

Just let us get again on shore

The rolling seas we'll fear no more

But think of all the fun on board

"The Oonah"

 

The ship passed through the Suez Canal.[23]

While in London, Ernest would often visit his uncle, Dr. Eugene Cronin at the Old Manor House, OldTown, Clapham. Uncle Eugene was very keen on the Salvation Army and would often wear their red jersey under his medical coat.

At the boarding house where Ernest lived there was a sign outside which read, Young men taken and done for, their vitals cooked.

 

Ernest's parents, sister Amy, and his two youngest brothers Manley and Frank, left New Zealand for Poona, India, where J. H. Lowe planned to assist with missionary work.

 

Brother Eugene Manley Lowe died in India aged 14 years.

 

In this month Ernest's engagement with Mary Pridham was broken off. He spent some time travelling around the Continent.[24]

 

Brother Manley died of cholera in India.

Later in the year, the parents and Frank left India and settled at 23 Alderbrook Road, Balham, London. They were at this address in April 1901. Amy stayed on in India at the mission.

 

Ernest spent Easter at Mr Seymour's, the father of Geraldine Seymour who the family knew in Dunedin.[25]

 

Joined the Bygrove Tennis Club and met Miss Edith Pheysey.[26]

 

In May he sat his final exam, and planned to set up a practice.

 

The Pheysey family went on a boating trip.[27] Was Ernest there?

 

About this time Ernest travelled from Liverpool on the S.S. Westerland to Philadelphia, USA. He landed as an immigrant to avoid paying £40 customs duty on his dental implements.

 

Started course of study for a doctorate in dental surgery at Dental Hall, University of Pennsylvania. He gained considerable concessions for having obtained a qualification from the Royal College of Surgeons.[28]

 

With Friend Dorrell, Ernest travelled by train to Buffalo, and then to Niagara where they inspected the Falls. On to Toronto, and a 24 hour journey from there to Bruce Mines, arriving Christmas eve.[29]

Bruce Mines was a logging camp where he and Dorrell practiced dentistry to earn some money.

 

Ernest arrived back in Philadelphia, and because he missed three weeks of the course, he had to appear before the dean to get permission to continue with the course.[30] He graduated Doctor of Dental Surgery.

 

He worked his passage back to England. On the trip he was caught napping in the bow of the ship while on duty and was put onto some task that resulted in him getting splinters in his hands. Edith Pheysey while visiting the Lowe house for bible readings helped get the splinters out of his hand and from this time a romance started.[31]

 

Ernest had received an offer of a position from Arthur Hoby in Wellington which made it possible for him to offer Edith a proposal of marriage. He wrote to Edith on this date reviewing the advantages and disadvantages of going to New Zealand and of staying in England.

 

The marriage of William Ernest Lowe, aged 26, and Florence Edith Pheysey, aged 33, was solemnized at St. James's Church in the Parish of Clapham, in the County of Surrey, according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Established Church, by W. T. Hollins, vicar.[32]

The Pheysey family lived in nearby Elms Road (No.3). Edith's father, William Thomas Pheysey was a successful wine merchant. The family had lived in Cadiz, Spain, until Edith was about 14 years old, when they returned to England for the children's education. The eldest son, Herbert, remained in the wine business in Portugal, and another son, Charles, was a banker in Cairo. Edith spoke fluent Spanish.

For their wedding, Ernest and Edith were presented with an album inscribed, To Edith and Ernest from their loving brother Ted, September 6th 1902.

Very soon after the wedding, Ernest and Edith travelled to New Zealand via Paris, Marseilles, Suez, and India (Khandallah).[33]

They stopped off in Sydney and contacted Dr John Deck. Edith twice had premonitions of a shipping disaster. She dreamed that she was trying to escape from her cabin but the sea kept pushing her back down the companionway. The dreams were so vivid she was alarmed at the prospect of sailing on to New Zealand and she managed to convince Ernest to stay on in Sydney and have an operation on a fistula that was bothering him.[34] As a result they did not sail on the Elingamite which was wrecked on the WestIsland  of the Three Kings Group on the morning of 9th November, 1902.

The steamer left Sydney on November 5 bound for Auckland. The ship struck the island in fog and sank in twenty minutes. Seventeen members of the crew and twenty eight passengers were lost by drowning or exposure out of a total compliment of 194 persons.[35]

On Saturday 13 December 1902, the weekly Freelance magazine published the following article

After finishing his dental studies with Mr Hoby, Mr Ernest Lowe went to England, where he graduated into full honours as a dentist, and hung out his own shingle. In the course of not very long time he assumed further responsibilities, for he took unto himself as wife an Englishwoman. Then came an excellent offer to return to Wellington to rejoin Mr Hoby's staff, and it was accepted.

Mr Lowe and his bride came out via America,[36] and thereby hangs the incident concerning this tale - and an incident to which Mr and Mrs Lowe think they owe their lives. Whilst journeying through America, Mr Lowe met an American who had a brother who had settled in Australia. The American asked the New Zealander to "keep an eye open" for his brother, and give him his brotherly regards. It appeared that the brother in Australia bore a striking resemblance to the one in the United States.

The Lowes reached Sydney in due course, and took their passages for New Zealand by the Elingamite, and when Mr Lowe was overlooking his luggage on the wharf prior to embarking, he observed a gentleman standing near, who was the replica of the American with the lost brother. Approaching the stranger the Wellingtonian addressed him by the name of the American brother - and it was the very same long -lost relative. The Austral-American insisted upon Mr and Mrs Lowe going out to his "place" in the country - and that is how it came about that Mr and Mrs Lowe came on to Wellington by the steamer which left Sydney two weeks after the ill-fated Elingamite.

When Ernest's mother heard of the Elingamite disaster, she said not to worry, Ernest and Edith were not on that ship.

 

Doctor and M^rs Lowe arrived in Wellington on the s.s.Takapuna from Onehunga and New Plymouth.[37] On December 8^th the Evening Post reported;

Dr. William Ernest Lowe, son of Mr. John Henry Lowe, formerly Engineer-in-Chief of New Zealand Railways, has returned from Great Britain for the practice of his profession. He has spent the past four years in the study and practice of dental surgery in London and American schools, taking qualifications both at Home and abroad, and has now joined Mr. Hoby in his dental practice in Willis-street.

 

 

Dr. WILLIAM ERNEST LOWE, Doctor Dental Surgery, University Pennsylvania; Licentiate in Dental Surgery, Royal College Surgeons, England, Has commenced Dental Practice in conjunction with Mr. Hoby, 104, Willis-street.

 

Alice Edith Lowe was born at 32 Hopper Street.[38]

 

At Christmas the family presumably holidaying with brother Charles Lowe at Riwaka. A postcard was on 29 December re-addressed to c/o Wharf, Motueka.

 

It was probably in this year that they moved residence to 37 Bidwell Street. Ernest hated the name of Hopper Street. Edith came to hate the climb up the steep hill in Bidwell Street. She had two miscarriages while living there.[39]

 

Ernest appeared before and presented submissions to a parliamentary committee appointed to consider the Dentists Bill. At this time he had eight students in dentistry.[40] The classes were at first held in his home.[41]

 

Ernest wrote a card to brother Charles from Port Nelson informing Charles that he had been on a trip, and had received Charles' wire (about the birth of Charlotte Nancy Lowe?) at Murchison, and that he had hurt his leg.

 

The inaugural meeting of the Wellington Dental Association was held. President, H P Rawson; Hon Sec, Mr A Hoby; General Committee, Drs Lowe, Glendinning, etc. The only important work discussed was the arrangements for the first dental conference, to be held in Wellington in June. The larger bulk of the arrangements would fall upon the shoulders of Messrs Hoby, Glendinning and Lowe.[42]

 

At the dental conference a discussion was held on the dental curriculum drawn up by the university of New Zealand. Ernest said

I have been working on this myself for some months past, and I drew up a curriculum upon which I consulted with Mr Newell, but have come to the conclusion that his has eclipsed mine, in that he has made his fall in with the course prescribed by the University.[43]

The conference passed a motion to set up a committee consisting of Dr Lowe, Dr Cox, and Messrs Hoby, Newell, and Armstrong to formulate a syllabus and report to the next annual conference.

In a programme of practical demonstrations at the conference, on Wednesday 7 June W E Lowe presented Facing of Richmond Crown Repair (Dr Bryant's method)

The conference considered publishing a dental journal and Dr Lowe consented to be editor for 12 months. The first issue of The New Zealand Dental Journal was published in July, 1905.

The N.Z. Dental Journal for January 1906 referred to an essay, on the care of teeth, that had recently been printed in The New Zealand Times. This article had possibly been written by Ernest Lowe.  [See also Evening Post, June 5 and 8, 1905]

[8^th] Dr. Ernest Lowe (Wellington) expressed the opinion that civilisation contributed in a small way only to the teeth troubles of to-day, for it was only within the past fifty years that the diseases of the teeth had developed, meat and deteriorated bread, carbo-hydrates and lactic acid from fermentation—these things were the basic causes. Heredity also had something to contribute to it, and so had constitutional weaknesses. But if children were given sensible food which they had to chew the coming race would be the better for it.

 

fire in walter street.

several persons severely burned.

      A fire in a four-roomed, two-storied cottage at No. 16, Walter-street, about 11.20 last night, was attended with rather serious consequences, inasmuch as Mr. John Weston and his wife were severely burned about the hands, and face, and two of their children severely burned about the hands and body.

      Mrs. Weston, it appeared, was upstairs seeing the children to bed. One child occupied a front room and two others a back room on the first floor. Hearing her baby crying downstairs she rushed away to attend it, leaving behind a lighted candle near the window of the front, room. She was only downstairs a few minutes when she heard the children crying, and then discovered that the place was on fire. She rushed into the front room upstairs, secured her two-year-old daughter, and carried her downstairs. Her husband went to the rear room and lifted an eleven-year-old son out of a window on to a lean-to. Meanwhile, the third child, a girl eight years of age, ran downstairs and escaped uninjured, but all the others suffered from burns. Dr. Mackin attended the sufferers, and directed some of them to be removed to the hospital.

      The brigade received the call from Veitch and Allan's fire-alarm box, and in a remarkably quick time were at the blaze playing a good pressure of water on the house which, being lined with scrim and paper, offered every facility for the spread of the flames. When the brigades men had finished their work, it was discovered that the roof and two bedrooms with contents on the first floor had been damaged by fire, and the lower portion of the house by water.

      The house is owned by Dr. Lowe, dentist, and is insured for £220 in the New Zealand Fire Insurance office and the Standard office, but the furniture is uninsured.

      The Hospital authorities this afternoon reported that the boy and Mr. Weston were slightly better, but the little girl was still in the same serious condition as when she was admitted to the institution last night.

 

Start of a trip to Queenstown. (see Edith's diary)

 

The second dental conference was held in Dunedin early in January. On Wednesday 3 January at 10 a.m. Ernest presented a paper on Preparation of Roots and Fittings of Banded Crowns. He was appointed to the Executive Committee of the N.Z. Dental Association.[44]

The dental journal for January published an article by Ernest entitled Practical Application of Comparative Anatomy. In this he says

At the present day when such heartburnings occur over the acceptation or rejection of the Darwinian theories of the origin of species, before putting his pen to any treatise connected with such a subject, the writer must be prepared to evoke the choler of the adherents to the one or other view.  ...

The great thought to be borne in mind in the study of biology is the uniform harmony of creation.  ...  One plan has been devised, upon which every living creature has been fashioned, and from that plan no deviation can be tolerated. Modifications abound on every hand, but these again as the result of implicit obedience to immutable governing laws.

Mr. Huxley classifies these "agencies" at work in modelling the animal and vegetable kingdom as-

1. Natural Selection ...
2. Sexual Selection ...
3. Correlation of Growth. The relation that exists between organs developed from the same foetal tissue. Eg.: The skin, enamel, and nervous system all being developed from the same foetal tissue (epiblast), frequently bear a marked relation in quality, according as this tissue is strong or weak. Thus neurotic subjects frequently present bad complexions and shocking dentures, while the phlegmatic temperament is comparatively free from dental lesions.
4. Concomitant Variation. The development of one organ coincident with the suppression or disappearance of another applicable to a similar use.

 

In the early part of the year Mr. Didsbury joined Ernest's School of Dental Theory. The dental journal considered the coalition and the extension of the school in the declining days of the Act augured well for the vitality of the UniversityDentalSchool.[45]

A full page advertisement for the Wellington School of Dental Theory appears in The New Zealand Dental Journal of July 1906:

           Dr. Wm. Ernest Lowe

           Mr. W. H. Didsbury.

The course of tuition is so arranged that Students receive thorough instruction in all the syllabus subjects.

Each subject receives its own course of lectures, and a test examinations held at the conclusion of the course. The Sessions commence in January and July.

Students in country districts, who cannot spare time for the full course, can take the earlier portion by correspondence.

Further particulars of Classes and Fees forwarded on application.

The next session (July - December, 1906) commences on Thursday, 26th July.

           Address:

           c/o. Arthur Hoby, Esq., L.D.S.

                       104, Willis Street,

                                  Wellington.

An advertisement in the Journal for April 1907 includes a picture of Ernest and his students posing in the classroom with several skulls on the bench in the foreground.

In October, an advertisement appeared in the dental journal inviting applications for the position of Director of the University of Otago Dental School, the Director to take office in Dunedin by 1 May, 1907.

 

A MAYORAL LUNCHEON.

MR. BUDGE, OF MONTREAL, THE GUEST. THE Y.M.C.A. MOVEMENT. The Mayor of Wellington, the Hon. T. W. Hislop, entertained Mr. D. A. Budge, of Montreal, at a luncheon to-day in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall. Mr. Godber provided the repast. The following is the list of gentlemen who accepted th» Mayor's invitation'' to meet Mr. Budge at the luncheon : — … … A. Hoby, … … C. M. Luke, J. Pearce Luke, Dr. Lowe, … … INTRODUCING THE. GUEST. After the health, of the King had, been honoured, the Mayor referred in complimentary terms to the guest of the afternoon. Mr. Hislop said he had been delighted to take advantage of an opportunity to bring the businessmen of Wellington into direct touch with Mr. Budge, who was recognised as a leader in one of the great movements of the day. Mr. Budge was a Scotch Canadian, and a gentleman whom it was good to meet. He represented an association, which sought to catch youth, when it was young, for the purpose of training it into the best that could be made of manhood. The guest of the day was a man of catholic tastes, and one who was here for Wellington's good. The Mayor's remarks were very brief, because, as he explained, he desired to hear Mr. Budge's rather than his own voice. He had, therefore, much pleasure in introducing to them a gentleman who represented the best spirit of modern times.

      MR. BUDGE'S ADDRESS. Mr. Budge was received with enthusiastic applause on rising to reply. He was, he said, proud to bring them the greetings of the sister colony of Canada. They thought … … …

 

The dental conference was held in Christchurch. On Wednesday 13that 2 p.m. W.E. Lowe was programmed to speak on Dentistry of Today. This paper was published in the July dental journal.

 

At the Annual General Meeting of the Wellington Dental Association, Lowe was not one of the officers elected.

 

Dr. Pickerell, an Englishman, was appointed Director of the DentalSchool. The school was due to be opened in the following month.

 

The Wellington Trades Agency (on behalf of Arthur Hoby and Dr. Lowe, dentists) claimed from John Thomas Levelt £7 for dental work done for defendant's daughter. A sum of £3 6s was paid into court. Judgment was given for plaintiff for the balance of the amount claimed, with costs, £1 16s.

 

Robert William Lowe was born.

 

Dr. Pickerell and his family passed through Wellington.[46] He commented,

...allow me to congratulate the New Zealand dental Association on the possession of so enthusiastic an editor of their journal. Dr. Lowe evidently scented "copy" from afar, and before the good ship Corinthic had fairly got into port was aboard seeking to entrap the unfortunate writer of these notes. Such enthusiasm was somewhat overwhelming, and I fear at first met with such a cold refusal, but like a wise editor, he made me his debtor, and I am now trying to discharge it ...[47]

 

Edith and the children stayed with Charles and Maggie Lowe at Hui hui, Riwaka. There was a terrible row and Edith took off with the children to the Motueka Hotel and wired for Ernest to come and pick her up.[48]

 

Dr. W. E. Lowe, who has been connected with Mr A. Hoby's dental surgery for the past five years, intends to take up his residence in England. He will leave Wellington for the Old Country in March.

 

The Fourth Annual Conference of the N.Z. Dental Association was held in Auckland. Ernest read a paper entitled, The Future of Dentistry in New Zealand.[49] A presentation was made to him by Dr. Cox on behalf of the Association of a silver inkstand[50] as a souvenir of the happy says they had spent together, during the existence of the association. Dr. Cox said it was a small token of a very great esteem  they felt for the man who had been such a strong worker in the interests of the profession ever since he had returned to New Zealand.

Ernest replied that the presentation came as a complete surprise, and he was the more grateful. The hour had come when he had to bid farewell to the brethren of the Association with whom he had so long and so happily been associated, and he regretted it very much. He had grown up as it were with the Association, to which he was proud to belong, and from which he had learnt so much. Its members were men who in the main were self-trained and self-educated, and not so fortunate as he had chanced to be through the generosity of his father; men who had accomplished as much with the odds against them as when trained in the Old Country with the best of facilities.

He said that he was very loath to leave New Zealand, but he felt his work in life lay in the cause of education. He was going away from the land of his birth to find the place his desire sought, and he regretted that it was not in New Zealand but in England that he had found the place and his opportunity. He was glad, however, he would have the handsome souvenir always before him to remind him of the men amongst whom it had been so great a pleasure to him to live and to work.

Dr. Cox said that it would emphasise the good will of the Association had for Dr. Lowe if the members made him an honorary life member, and this was carried with great applause. Ernest acknowledged the compliment as the greatest honour they could confer on him. Three cheers were then given with great vigour.[51]

The Wellington Dental Association reported on the departure of Dr. Lowe and that he had shown himself a keen and untiring member of the Association. As an editor and practitioner, he had earned a deserved reputation; as a debater at the conferences his arguments were always solid,and some of his reforms he endeavoured to bring about concerning the government of dental practice deserved better support than they obtained when brought forward upon various occasions in the past. He would leave behind him a splendid monument of his work in the files of the Dental Journal.[52]

Ernest had a brown terrier dog called Paddy which would travel on the tram with him to work. Before leaving New Zealand he gave the dog to his brother Ken. One time when Ken was in Ohakune, the dog disappeared. It was found on the train that travelled from Auckland to Wellington, and was taken off at Marton from where Ken claimed it.

 

Ernest and family left for England by the Arawa. He was farewelled by several members of the Dental Association at the steamer's side. Mr. A. Hubert Hoby, who had recently returned to New Zealand, took up Ernest's duties.[53]

According to the family, Ernest left New Zealand because he was not appointed Director of the DentalSchool as he had expected or been led to expect.

The Arawa called at Montevideo. Ernest left the ship and went to Buenos Aires, sending Edith and the children on to England alone. It caused a lot of consternation in the Pheysey family when Edith arrived alone with the children and no husband.

In Buenos Aires, Ernest contacted a Dr. Arthur Webster who had a dental practice at Esmeralda 314. Dr. Webster offered Ernest a partnership in the business (as he was looking towards retirement?) and gave him three months to think about it.

Ernest went on to England and looked at three possible positions teaching dentistry, but decided the best prospects were in Buenos Aires.

 

The family travelled to Buenos Aires. At first they lived for about eight months in a boarding house at Quilmes in the city. Bob learned to walk in the Plaza de Mayo.

They then shared a house with Dr. Hamilton,[54] a New Zealand missionary, at 441 Calle San Vicente, San Martine, where they lived until they moved to their own house in San Martine on the corner of Calle Puerrydon y Cochabamba (about 1911?)[55]

 

In this year Ernest revalidated his dental qualifications in Argentina.[56]

 

Edith went to England with the children, so that she could have an operation at the hospital at Southport where her brother-in-law Ted Lowe was employed. Alice stayed with her grandmother Pheysey at 3 Elms Road, Clapham and went to a school on the corner of that road. Bob, only three years old, had not been christened, and on this account was not accepted by grandmother Pheysey and he stayed with a nurse in the country.

While Bob was at his grandfather's house at 23 Alderbrook Road, he was given glasses to wear. As soon as he put them on he fell down the stairs and broke them.

At weekends, Alice stayed with her Lowe grandparents at nearby 23 Alderbrook Road. She remembered her grandmother well, lying on a couch doing crocheting. She had different crochet work for every day of the week. She was in a lot of pain, but bore it very bravely. Aunt Amy Lowe was still in India at this time, but she was called back to help look after her mother later.

About this time, Ernest bought out Dr.Webster's dental practice in Esmeralda 314. He was able to get some finance from the maid and cook (Ann and Mary) of his Uncle Eugene Cronin. Some months after they had loaned the money to Ernest, the bank in which they had previously deposited their savings went bankrupt.

Ernest continued his dental practice until 1933 when his eyesight started to fail him. In that time he had the honour of attending five of the presidents of the Republic.[57] One was Vice-President Frederica de la Placa who became president when President Roca died. He attended many of the British community and for many years was the honorary dental surgeon to the British hospital in Buenos Aires. He had a large clinic with several assistants. One, Dr. Tidball, was an American who revalidated his qualifications and then set up on his own.

 

Ernest's mother died.

 

Ernest graduated Doctor of Dental Surgery with Honours from the University of Buenos Aires.[58] His thesis was on the harmful effects of children brushing their teeth at an early age because it removed the natural protection.[59] His thesis was republished 50 years later because it was still very applicable to the time.

 

Father, John Henry Lowe, and sister Amy Lowe stayed on their return from a trip to New Zealand. They sailed from New Zealand in the Ruahine on Thursday 3rd April and arrived at Motevideo on 22 April.[60] They departed for England on 24 May.

Later in the year, Alice went with Mrs. Bulmer to England. Alice went to school in Yeovil, and didn't return home until 1919.

 

Alice travelled to England with Mrs. Bulmer and went to boarding school at Greystones, Yeovil. This was a Brethren school run by elderly ladies. Alice ended up the last pupil, and she studied some subjects in the Government school. In the summer holidays she stayed for a month with grandfather Lowe and Aunt Amy at 23 Alderbrook Road, Clapham, London.

Aunt Amy took Alice to lots of places. Alice remembered going to Kew, Hampton Court, and the Royal Horse Show where the horses danced to music.

On one holiday, she hired a bicycle and Alice learned how to ride it by holding on to a wall and falling off. When she had learned to ride, Aunt Amy suggested they could cycle to see Uncle William in Wimbledon and have tea with him. As they came near to Wimbledon, they had to go down a hill with a busy crossing at the bottom. Alice's bike had poor brakes and she couldn't slow down the bike so she called out to Aunt Amy asking what she should do. Amy replied to jump, which she did and as a result her white sailor suit became covered in black tar. And so they proceeded to Uncle Williams.

Uncle William had a scraggy beard. he was looked after by a niece of his late wife, Agnes Mary Maynard, who was an organiser for the Girl Guide movement in England and U.S.A. and was subsequently decorated by King George V. In the dining room there was a huge mahogany table covered with bundles of letters about 50 cm high. At one corner, an ordinary piece of wood had been nailed on to the table and had a leg, and on that Uncle William wrote his letters. He corresponded with church groups in many countries.

They had tea in the garden on a glorietta, and then rode home again.

Often Alice visited her great uncle Doctor Eugene Cronin who lived in the Old Manor House, OldTown, Clapham. She would walk across Clapham Common and perhaps stay to lunch. First she would have to ask Jane (Weingärtner). Uncle Eugene nearly always had some little gift in his pocket to give her. He was quite a character. He would often attend his patients on a bicycle, wearing a top hat, coat tails over his red Salvation Army jersey, the tails flying as he rode along.

Aunt Em was a very sweet person. She had a sister Aunt Min and a cousin Jemima. She (Aunt Em?) helped to care for grandmother Lowe until Amy returned from India.

On one holiday, Alice saw a Zeppelin raid and heard bombs dropping.

 

Bob attended the English school in Buenos Aires. He became a keen sportsman, especially in football and athletics. He won numerous prizes in athletics.

 

In the spring, Ernest was in England.[61]

 

 

Ernest's brother Frank Augustus Lowe was killed at Gallipoli.

 

Alice visited the Ted Lowe relations in Southport and both Joy Lowe and Helena Cronin Lowe did paintings in her autograph book.

 

Alice returned to Argentina. As she had not obtained any school attainments, her father sent her for special tuition to Miss Brightman O.B.E. who was a great influence. Miss Brightman developed the NorthlandsSchool, which became the best English school in South America.[62]

 

The family moved into their new house, Villa Wairoa, at Olivos.

 

Soon after her return to Buenos Aires, Alice became friendly with Mrs. Engwald through the Brethren Assembly. Mrs. Engwald was the wife of the accountant to the Eldorado Company which was formed to develop the area around Eldorado in the province of Misiones in the far northwest of Argentina between Paraguay and Brazil.

Alice was helping with the refreshments at a Brethren conference, and at the end of the day was sitting by herself tucking into her sandwiches when she was approached by a couple who looked like newly weds. They started talking and found they all lived in Olivos. They ended up good friends and Alice was invited to the Engwald's home.

Alice reciprocated and invited the Engwald's to her parent's home for supper. After the meal Mr Engwald asked if they were going to have a mate. Up until then Ernest had never taken yerba and had never allowed the family to take it. Some mate was prepared for the assembled company. Ernest took to mate like a duck to water.

Ernest became friendly with Mr. Engwald. Mr Engwald had invested in a property at Eldorado and had started developing it, but ran out of capital for further development. In 1924 Ernest went into a partnership with him, forming Engwald y Lowe, to continue the development of the land which was called Petie-Cue. A Mr. Falbo was employed to develop and manage the property.

 

San Juan.[63]

 

Father, and sister Amy, visited from England.[64] They departed from Argentina on the 15th or 16th October 1921, stopped at Rio de Janiero on the 20th October, and the Canary Islands on the 30th October. They arrived back in England on the 4th or 5th of November.[65]

 

Bob developed a knee problem which the chief surgeon at the British Hospital, Sir John O'Connor, diagnosed as tubercular, and confined Bob in hospital for nine or ten months with his leg in splints. But Bob developed a suppurating infection in his toenails. At the time, Ernest was the honorary dentist to the hospital and when he found out about his sons condition, he arranged his rounds so as to meet Sir John O'Connor at Bob's bedside.

Ernest showed Sir John the toenails, and told him the problem resulted from a lack of cleanliness in the hospital. Sir John reacted angrily, with the result that Ernest resigned his position as dentist with the hospital, and took Bob home. A verandah was glassed in to make a bedroom with plenty of fresh air. Dr. Petti was consulted, and he removed the splints. A photo of Bob with his leg in splints, dated 1 January 1923, is inscribed His first day up.

 

Mr. Engwald interested Ernest in buying land at Eldorado which was at a good price. Ernest bought 600 hectares from a plan without inspecting the land, which was called Las Mercedes.

Some years previously Ernest had assisted Sr. Enrique Torral, a Spaniard, set up business as a dental supply salesman. Before this, all dentists requirements had to be imported direct from England. Sr. Torral decided he wanted to go back to Spain and paid off Ernest. With this money Ernest bought the land at Las Mercedes.

About this time the house at Olivos, Wairoa, was rented to an American family by the name of Hastings.[66]

 

The family sailed to England on SS Herschel. Dr. Ted Lowe was consulted over Bob's knee, and he was referred to a specialist, who considered there was nothing wrong with the knee, and prescribed gentle exercise to build up muscle tone.

They travelled around England by car, an Austin 20 they named Queen Bess. On April 26 they visited father John Henry Lowe at Whitstone House, Shepton Mallet.[67] They visited Wells and Glastonbury, two sisters who lived at Red Hall, Broome,[68] Kidderminster, Andover, and Tewkesbury.

Bob was admitted to FriarSchool, Bangor, Wales. He was given dispensation from vigorous sports, but was advised to cycle as much as possible for exercise. He was able to cycle around and see much of North Wales and Anglesey. On one holiday he cycled to London and stayed with the Arundel family at Highgate where sister Alice was living, and then to Bristol to stay with Pheysey relatives (mother's sister).

On another holiday Bob visited his grandfather, John Henry Lowe at Whitstone House, Shepton Mallet. Bob got on well with him, and found him a gentle saintly man whom he couldn't help but love. One piece of advice given by his grandfather was useful in later years and that was with regards to labour relations – never get a man into a tight fix when reproving him, always give him a way of escape so he can save face, unless he is so bad you have to get rid of him. Most of the labour Bob subsequently employed at Mercedes were Paraguayan natives who were very sensitive to their image and didn't like to be humiliated.

Grandfather Lowe told Bob how when he was in New Zealand in the early days, he would always rather share a tent with a Maori than a European because the Maoris were cleaner and more considerate. Bob later found he preferred to share a tent with a Paraguayan than a European peasant because the Paraguayan were very clean.

After Bob was settled at Friar's School, the rest of the family toured Scotland, taking Violet Jellicoe with them.

At some time they visited Edith's cousin Hubert Pheysey at Luton and spent a day with his family. He had 8 children, in the order 1 boy, three girls, 1 boy, three girls. They were treated to a five course dinner, and there were five glasses for the drinks, one for each course.

In Scotland, Alice and her parents attended the St. Andrews Convention.

 

Again visited grandfather Lowe at Whitstone House, Shepton Mallet. Edith wrote An Ode to Our Austin Car in Alice's autograph book. Ernest made a note in her book in London on October 15. On the same day, he wrote a poem to Alice, prior to his departure overseas, for October 27th, 1923.

Ernest and Edith sailed on the SS Princessa, arriving in Motevideo on November 15.[69]

Alice remained in London and trained at a chiropody school for six months. She boarded with the Arundel family in Highgate and travelled by bus to the school for the classes which were held in the evening. As part of the training she had to practice on charwomen, the wives of policemen, with the most appalling feet. The women were passed on their husbands old boots to wear out.

 

Edith wrote to Alice and Bob from the Phoenix Hotel in Buenos Aires where they were staying because Wairoa was still occupied by tenants. News on getting through customs and on the poor state of the city and government economy.

 

Edith wrote to Alice and Bob, having just moved back into Wairoa, about the servants and previous tenants, and plans to live in town.

 

Bob wrote a letter to his parents from Plas Menai.

 

Ernest was operated on for a tumour on his neck. Edith suffering from tonsilitis. (Edith letter to “Alice & Bobbie”, 10-03-1924)

 

At the beginning of April Ernest and Edith were on week’s holiday at Atlantida. On the 9th April Edith wrote to Bob from the British Hospital where she was in for assessment of the leg pains she had been increasingly suffering. She was home again on the 15th.

 

Alice turned 21 years of age.

At ?[70] Alice met a gentleman who had two stores in London, one in Regent Street and one in Oxford Street, hairdressers and beauty salons. Alice asked if she could get a job. As it happened, the lady chiropodist was going on holiday shortly afterwards, and Alice was given the position. So for a month she worked in Oxford Street and earned her first pounds, the only money she ever earned. With her earnings she bought her mother a crystal salad bowl.

 

Ernest and Edith made their first trip to Misiones to inspect the property of which they were part owners. They were accompanied by Mr Engwald. See Edith’s detailed account to Alice and Bob.

 

In the August summer holidays Alice and Bob met up with Aunt Lena and travelled with her and two of her girls in their four-seater Austin car to visit the Kennaway home of Escot House. Lena and Bob sat in the front and Alice, Joy and Arlie in the back. On the way the car broke down. A steam roller came along, and the driver seeing a lady with children stranded offered to give them a tow. He put a wire around the front and off they went. Somehow the wire tangled in the steering and the car started veering from left to right. Aunt Lena got very worried and tried to get the attention of the steam-roller driver by tooting and waving but without success. They were going uphill and travelling quite slowly, so Lena jumped out, leaving Bob at the wheel, and tried to run ahead to catch up with the steam roller. In the end someone ahead saw the predicament and managed to get the driver to stop.

 

Edith wrote to Bob from Calle Pina 3147, Belgrano just a fortnight after leaving Wairoa. “... a far better house ... Wairoa very expensive to live in and impossible to economise ... not imposing like Wairoa but inside most spacious ...”

“Poor old Bess Secundus (car) has not yet been restored to full health, the bad smash she had was very difficult to put right ...”

 

Hugh Arundel wrote Ode to Alice in Alice's autograph book. She returned to Buenos Aires shortly afterwards on the Almanzora, arriving B.A. October 22.[71]

Alice set up her own business in Buenos Aires. She had a room in the Consultorio. Her parents would allow patients only by appointment, and few people came. The practice was short lived because Alice met Sherbourne Kennedy and he didn't like her doing the work.

 

Edith went to England to bring Bob back from school, expecting to return at the end of May.[72] She and Bob stayed with her sisters in Bristol while Bob received tutoring for the London Matriculation examination, which he passed.

During the year Alice went with her father to Eldorado, travelling by train to Posadas, a trip of about 30 hours. Ernest had got to know people on the railway and he was surprised when they stopped at the stations that people wouldn't talk to him. They would say hello and then go on their way. Nearing Posadas, he asked someone why nobody would speak to him, and was told it was because he had a new lady with him. From then on he introduced Alice to everyone so they knew she was his daughter.

On this trip Alice fell into a pit for trapping animals.

 

Ernest wrote on notepaper headed “Welcome” 2060 Conde (Belgrano);

A man is formed by his reaction to his environment, and his worth is the co-relation between God’s purpose for him and that reaction.

A man can give out as much truth as he has assimilated, but his spiritual value in ministry, will be limited to his experience of God in that assimilation. W.E.L.

 

On October 12 Uncle Ted Lowe wrote to Bob acknowledged having received a postcard from him with his exam passes. Edith and Bob returned to Buenos Aires. Alice and her father went to Montevideo to meet them.[73]

In Buenos Aires Bob started work with a firm of auditors, but did not enjoy the job. He decided he wanted to go to Cambridge University and study history and literature, but his parents were not keen on this idea. One day on the way home to Belgrano from the city, his father talked about Misiones where he had bought land and compared it with early days in New Zealand. He suggested that Bob should go to Misiones and see the land and visit the Iguazú Falls before going to England.

 

 

Holiday at Atlantida, and secured a site there for a holiday whare.[74]

 

Bob travelled by boat from Buenos Aires up the Parana River to Eldorado, a trip taking about a week. He stayed with Señor Falbo, an Italian married to a Danish woman, who managed the property at Petie-Cue for the company Engwald y Lowe. The property was 9 kilometres from the port and a road had been developed to it.

About 10 hectares of forest had been cleared and planted in yerba tea. Some of the plantation was 4-5 years old and ready for its first harvest. Bob helped with the clearing and burning of another ten hectares of forest for more yerba planting. He enjoyed the work.

 

Edith wrote to Bob from Calle Conde 2060, Belgrano to where they must have recently moved. She and Alice were doing up the house.

 

Edith and Alice travelled by steamer to Misiones. They went on one ship as far as Corrientes where they stopped for the day. Alice met Charles Sherbourne Kennedy on the boat and she went ashore with him at Corrientes. They took a tram to the race track and back again.

Charles Kennedy was travelling with a dentist friend who was an acquaintance of Ernest. They were going to see the Iguazú  Falls before Charles returned home to the U.S.A. He had set up an ice-cream factory in Buenos Aires. Previously there was only Italian ice cream made in Argentina.

From Corrientes they took a smaller boat to travel further up the Parana. At Posadas they met up with Ernest who had travelled on ahead.

Alice took up a German Shepherd dog for Bob, and she would walk it around the decks at night when there were no passengers around. At meal times she would gather up the scraps for the dog. Charles Kennedy told the company that Alice was hungry and was taking the food to eat in her cabin!

Other passengers on the boat were ex-president Hardy and his wife and daughter.

Ernest, Edith and Alice arrived at Petie-Cue to see the first harvest of yerba. They stayed at Falbo's house. After the harvest, his father asked Bob what he thought about the life in Misiones, and that he would like to develop the 600 hectare property of Las Mercedes, not as Engwald y Lowe, but as Lowe and Son. Bob agreed to stay one and develop Mercedes.

 

Juan Weber and Santo Gonzalez were sent to start work on Las Mercedes. The first clearing for the homestead and nursery is to be made on the southern boundary of Lot 193, on an area of 5 ha. This area was chosen because it has plenty of water and black earth.[76]

 

R. W. Lowe paid the Tigre Boat Club $230 entrance fee.[77]

 

“The brunt of the trail is finished, the first 5 ha almost cleared, and soon be ready to burn.”[78]

First, Bob cleared a survey line from the start of the property to the river Piraj-Guazú which had become grown over. This line dissected the property, and was developed into the road through the property to the river. The place where Bob first found the Piray-Guazú he named Eureka Point.

He set up camp in a tent by a stream, and with the help of a two men, cleared about five hectares of the forest. The trees were chopped down, left for two to three weeks, and then burned and the logs cleared.

He obtained yerba seed and sowed them in a covered seedbed. He found he had raised enough plants to plant out twenty hectares, so he cleared more land to accommodate them and planted them all out. Weeds were a major problem in the young plantings, especially in summer with the heat and almost daily showers of rain.

After about a month of living a tent, Bob built himself a shack in the native style in which he lived for some months. He dug a well to provide a permanent water supply, and then set about and built a toolshed to which was added a kitchen, sitting room and an upstairs bedroom. This building formed the basis for the present homestead at Mercedes.

Bob obtained his provisions weekly from the store at the port run by a Spaniard, Claudio Rodrigo. It was a days trip on horseback to the port and back. An arrangement was made that if Bob needed cash, he would see the storekeeper to provide it, and the store-keeper would telegraph Bob's father for the amount owed.

About a month after C.S Kennedy returned to the U.S.A., he wrote to Alice to say that he had been offered the job of running the ice-cream factory, and that when he returned to Buenos Aires perhaps she would go out with him.

 

Alice wrote to Bob that she had recently met up with Kennedy again. “I had a long lecture from Dad about encouraging worldly young men, etc: & both are very sure he’s serious.” ... “Mum likes him very much & Dad said himself he’s not bad!”

When “Ken” asked Ernest Lowe for Alice's hand in marriage, Ernest made him wait three months for a reply while he obtained references from the United States. Edith was in favour of the match.

 

This month Alice started taking lessons in typing, shorthand and book-keeping.

 

Edith and Alice were due to go on a holiday to Atlantida on this  date, and in March Ernest was due to make a trip up to see Bob.

 

Alice wrote to Bob telling of the latest events. “... welcomed home from a holiday by a huge basket of roses & ferns from my lover. ... following day ... told to choose him 3 ties so he might see what my tastes in ties was ... Next day I went into hospital & had my first dose of ether the following morning, horrid experience. ... I had quite a good time in the Sanatorium, Ken came every evening ... Then I came out & turned into a maid of all work – got a dressmaker in to start making my trousseau ... Last Tuesday Ken brought out my ring! ...” She thought it would be the last letter from that address – impending move to the Consultorio at 39 Maipu.

 

Edith wrote to Bob from Maipu 39, Piso 5^th. “Up to date we are still full of workmen, and the end is not yet. However in the domestic world I lack nothing ...” “... our wonderful fireplace smokes, we have not yet any curtains so the sitting rooms are chilly.” “... 13th the anniversary of your going to Misiones.” “... Sherbourne ... found the ideal house. A Flat in Montes de Oca.

 

The Camona building in Calle Maipú was inaugurated. Ernest had gone into a partnership, Bulmer, Hessé y Lowe, in the building and in a retail office supply firm which occupied the lower floors.

Ernest moved his practice to the fifth floor of the building. His consultorio was in the front of the building and at the back was an apartment into which the family moved from Conde 2060, Belgrano.

The consulting rooms had a marble floor and was lined with wood. It was well appointed. The following article appeared in an English Buenos Aires newspaper.

 

 

Alice and Charles Sherbourne Kennedy were married in a civil ceremony, and the following day in a church ceremony.

C. S. Kennedy, called Ken in the family and Carlos in the Church and by the Argentinians, was born 25 October, 1898, a son of Samuel Ridgway Kennedy and Alphonsine Dube Kennedy, of Philadelphia, U.S.A.

In World War I he had served in the infantry of the U.S. Army. While on duty in Europe he received officer training  and held the rank of Second Lieutenant.

After the war, he went to university and took a degree in dairy chemistry. He obtained employment in the technical control laboratory of Abbots Dairies, Ice Cream Division, in Philadelphia. This training prepared him for a position with San Hermanos, a chocolate manufacturer in Buenos Aires to set up an ice cream factory, and then to manage their newly organised ice cream division.

The church wedding was very long. It was attended only by those in fellowship at the church which cut out nearly everyone that Alice knew who was young.

The next morning the couple caught a steamer to Rio de Janiero, travelling first class, the only time Alice travelled first class. It was on this trip that she got to know Sherbourne, previously her parents were always about, and they were never allowed to be alone together. They stayed in Rio about a month. There they saw the Christ statue under construction.

On their return, all the wedding presents had been packed up, and the accompanying cards had become all mixed up so that Alice had no idea who had given what. She was unable to thank people for the presents.

 

Edith wrote to Bob from the Palace Hotel in Posadas about their recent visit and problems with yerba plantings. “Father has gone off with Beltrame and Mr. Engwald and I are to follow out to S. Ana to pick him up on our way out to the ruins of S. Ignacio.

 

Edith wrote to Bob that on the day they had returned home Alice had suffered a miscarriage and she had been nursing her. “Uncle William Lowe has died and left all his money to Grandfather ... The Ancestral portrait is for Ernest ...” “... the taxidermist in Posadas ... Any birds or beasts he would do very inexpensively ... a collection would be interesting, many of these lovely birds will die out in time.”

 

Edith wrote to Bob that Alice was settled back in her flat and that wedding presents never cease coming in. “Today is Grandfather’s 86th birthday ... Amy writes that he seems weaker in body and mind ...”

 

“A bomb broke up the Boston City Bank, quite near us. We saw the ruins afterwards, only one person was killed,fortunately.”[79]

 

Grandfather John Henry Lowe died at Whitstone House, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England.

 

Ernest and Edith travelled on the SS Highland Piper to England. They were delayed in Montevideo until the 12th while a cargo of meat was loaded.

 

Bob’s 21st birthday. Edith & Ernest sent him a radio message from the ship early in the morning.

 

The ship reached Liverpool early in the morning where they were met by Amy and Ted. They stayed with Ted at Southport.

 

Amy announced that she had been asked in marriage by widower Alfred Fisher. He to stay at Shepton Mallet next week when the formal announcement will be made.

 

Travelled to Shepton Mallet with Ted and Lena, who remained for five days, staying with Amy at Whitstone House.

 

Edith Lowe wrote to Alice from Whitstone House;

“... his [Ernest’s] latest project to honour his father’s memory. You know how bad the entrance is of the Hall, well the brother who has owned the Hall, is quite willing to put it into the Stewards’ company, and then Dad & Ted will bear the expense of taking out the floor, and levelling it, and erecting a nice Porch on to the road, and dedicate it to the memory of dear Grandfather.”

The same day she wrote to Bob;

As a memorial to dear Grandfather’s memory we are disembowelling the present Hall, (gospel one) and will build a Porch in memory of him, sure that the added appearance and comfort will attract men & women to come.

This is truly worthy of the one who had the truth so much at heart, and was such a witness to His power. Dad’s ministry is attracting full attendance, and causing quite a revival with his fresh voice & matter. In English his voice is very modulated and his subject not hampered by the foreign tongue.

On July 1^st she wrote to Alice and Bob from Whitstone House;

Your father has done great work here in the little Assembly, healing up trouble, rousing interest, and today the Hall was used for the last time, as tomorrow it will be disembowelled and completely rearranged, we have a beautiful little plan for it, and it will be just a dear little Hall, with Porch, prayer room, bycicle (sic) shed, and necessary conveniences. It will cost $2000, half of which is already collected, and the building fund is open for general contributions.

 

Ernest presented the bride at the marriage of Amy Lowe to Alfred Fisher. Edith was ill with a fever and after shaking hands with the guests retired to bed. Mrs Pridham had imposed herself on Amy and she been very unpleasant about Ernest’s past relationship with her daughter causing much upset to Ernest.

 

On this day Edith received a letter from Sherbourne giving details of their holiday in Misiones. On this day Bob wrote his mother that he had “the other day” received her letters that Alice had forwarded on from B.A. on her return from Misiones. They must have then been back in B.A. over a week, and so the holiday would have been from about mid-June to Mid-July.

Alice and Bob later recalled the holiday:

They [Ken and Alice] went to Eldorado for a month's holiday, staying with Bob at Mercedes. There were only two days when it didn't rain.

Bob had an inflatable rubber canoe which seated two, but Bob had converted it so it would seat three. If it turned over, Alice, who sat in the middle, had to undo a clasp so Ken could get out.

They took the canoe, packed into two sacks, on the boat up to Puerto Iguazú. When the captain saw Bob and Ken making up the canoe on the deck of the boat, he wanted to charge freight on it.

They spent a day paddling up the Iguazú River to the Iguazú Falls, but after all the rain the current was too strong to make the falls.

In the evening they camped on the shore within hearing of the falls. At about 4 o'clock in the morning it started to rain heavily and they got wet. Bob fried eggs for breakfast while Alice held one of the men's white tropical hats over the frying pan to keep out the rain.

They then paddled all the way back to Eldorado, taking two days. At night the shadow of the forest against the sky guided them along.

At the port there was a man who had a small eating place and was able to give them a small room in which to sleep. Bob slept on the iron bedstead, while Alice and Ken shared the single matress on the floor. Alice had a need to go outside, and sat on an ant's nest. She came in covered in ants. She managed to get her clothes off under a blanket and deal with the ants.

When they returned, Philipe? was very worried about them and thought they had had a serious mishap.

Another trip they made in the canoe was down the Piraj Guazu River and shoot the rapids down to the Parana while there was a lot of water in the river. They hit a rock and holed the boat and had to walk home.

 

A postcard from Mercedes on this date shows a photograph of the employees and families on the property – about 55 people. It is enscribed on the back;

All these live at Mercedes occupying about 20 houses and huts, (ranchos). They were assembled for gospel meetings each Sunday afternoon.

Edie is seen sitting on the left & Bob standing on the right. I am standing on Edie’s left.  W.E.L.

 

Joanna Alice Kennedy born.

 

In the autumn[?] the Kennedy family were staying in Misiones. [Photo album with photos of baby Joanna]

 

Florence Margaret Kennedy born.

 

The Kennedy family travelled to Europe on the ship MV Monte Sarmiento. It called at Rio de Janiero and Lisbon and arrived at Hamburg on 4 May.[80] They travelled through Saxony and to Bonn before reaching London.

In England they stayed with Aunt Amy and Alfred Fisher. They then sailed on the SS Majestic of the White Star Line to New York and from there travelled to Philadelphia and the Niagara Falls. They returned to England on the SS Laurentic and toured to Bristol, Cheddar, Wells, Sherborne Abbey, Exeter, and London. The return to Argentina was on the Monte Sarmiento from Lisbon via Rio de Janiero.

 

Mary Rosalind Kennedy born. Alice suffered a sever asthma attack and nearly died. She was advised not to have any more children.

 

Ernest Lowe retired from his dental practice because his eyesight had started to fail. The practice was carried on by a son of the Doctor Webster from whom Ernest had originally bought it. The son had qualified as a dentist but had married a wealthy girl and wasn't interested in practicing his profession. He became a playboy and spent much of his time playing polo until his fortune ran out.

Around 1932,[81] young Webster called on Ernest and explained that he had to start work, that he was qualified as a dentist but completely out of practice, and could Ernest help. Ernest was pleased to take him on and renew the relationship with the Webster family after losing contact for many years.

Ernest moved to Misiones and built a house at Petie-Cue.[82] Bob became a naturalised Argentinian in this year.??

In this year, Mr. McKinnon, the manager of the yerba factory in Buenos Aires, interested Ernest in a property owned by a company in Paraguay and for which he, McKinnon was a mortgagee. The company was being run by the Ayala family.

Ernest, Edith and Bob made a trip to see the property of 10,000 hectares at Puerto Palmas 180 kilometres north on the Alto Parana and to meet the Ayala family. They were entertained and shown around the property. Bob and his mother were not interested in the property, but Ernest was entranced.

Bob and Edith returned to Eldorado, travelling by canoe to Puerto Iguazú and then by steamer to Eldorado, and leaving Ernest with instructions not to get involved in the business – but he did. Ernest took up 51% shares in the company, which was named Ayala, Lowe S.A., and he was made managing director.

 

Cousin Clement Hedman, of 20, Villa Saïd, Paris-XVI wrote to Ernest, c/- Mrs Fisher, Kempsey Hotel, Bath Road, Bournemouth;

I cannot imagine what has happened to your letter containing your address in Berkdale or Southport. Hence I am sending you this letter in Amy’s care at Bournemouth.

I returned home yesterday from the Riviera and found a letter awaiting me from Amy, saying that she was sitting beside Aunt Nina [Cronin] who was deathly ill from pneumonia. I sent her a telegram saying that I would telephone her that evening, which I did. I was glad to hear that Aunt Nina was much better but still very ill. I have therefore decided to go and see her and shall be in London on Monday evening at the Ritz Hotel, and intend to go to Bournemouth the following day. If Aunt Nina is better, I shall return the following day to London, where I shall remain until the latter part of the week, having some business matter to attend to. Any chance of seeing you or your son whilst there? Or either of you on my return to Paris?

If the latter is the case, our guest-room will be free for a night or two prior to the arrival of an English friend coming to stay with us for a few days. Any how, drop me a line to the Ritz any day next week.  Your affectionate cousin,  Clement

 

Ernest and Bob were on a trip to San Pedro about 144 kilometres to the east when they heard of a property with wild yerba. They found out who was the owner, and obtained a concession to harvest it. There was a house with an office and canteen, and about 20 local people were employed with the harvest.

The harvested yerba was processed in the forest to control the enzyme fermentation. The leaf was first passed through a mesh revolving drum over a fire to singe the leaf. It was then placed on a frame, made of woven split bamboo and shaped like an inverted basket, under which hot air from a fire was released from a conducting trench. After the leaf was dried, it was placed on a mat and beaten with flails to break it up. It was then packed into rawhide bags, each holding between fifty and eighty kilograms.

The yerba was brought out by mule train in six stages. Each mule carried two bags, one slung on each side. A troupe of fifteen mules with two men and a boy in charge would travel each stage of 24 kilometres. (or should it be 5 days at 20 km a day?) The mules were unloaded at the Piraj Guazú river, loaded onto a raft and pulled across the river, and then loaded onto the 1928 Ford truck and taken to Las Mercedes for storage until shipped down the river.

 

In this year, Bob became involved in a dealership with the Ford Company. One day when he was on the tractor cultivating yerba, he was stopped by Mr. Bradford, a Ford Company representative, who was passing by and asked Bob if he would be interested in becoming the local dealer for his company. Bob had no ideas on the matter, but Bradford insisted and said, Just give me an order for a car and a truck and we'll name you as representative. Bob agreed and so started up with two vehicles.

Bob started up the Ford dealership with assistance from his father.

 

Bob was given interests in Las Mercedes and Alice was given Wairoa. The Kennedy family moved into Wairoa.

 

The first of several fires in the drying kilns occurred at Las Mercedes. A three-storey building had been constructed, and machinery imported to blow hot air from a log furnace into the shed. The fans were supposed to have been constructed so they would filter out any sparks, but sparks got through and set the yerba and sheds alight resulting in a major conflagration.

 

The building for the Ford Agency was completed. Bob had decided that if he was going to work a dealership, he needed a depot. So he had rented a small area near the river at Kilometre 2, because all the traffic from the port would come past. He then organised the services of a carpenter and a bricklayer to construct a building, for which he would make a payment with a vehicle.

About this time, Bob first met Maud Melvin, daughter of Dr. Melvin of Porterville, California. Maud was teaching at a church school in Buenos Aires and had been friendly with Alice Kennedy for some years. She travelled to Eldorado with the Kennedy family and there met Bob.

 

Patricia Joy Kennedy born.

 

In 1938 a cyclone caused considerable devastation in the San Pedro forests and blocked the trails, so it was decided to abandon the scheme.

Early in the year, Bob spent about six weeks in Buenos Aires "living it up". On considering the prospect of returning to Eldorado, he could not see any future living on his own as there was little social contact amongst the settlers, most of whom were German or Italian. On the spur of the moment he sent a cable to Maud Melvin, who had returned to California, and asked her to marry him. After a few days he received a reply to say “Yes”. He telegraphed his father in Eldorado and got a blistering reply back. Not only was Bob flaunting convention, but he would be away for the yerba harvest. (In early years this was carried out from about the end of March but later was carried out in July and August. It was found that if the yerba was harvested in June, new growth would be stimulated that would then be frosted and growth would be slow in the spring.)

After this time in Buenos Aires Bob didn't have much money left so he went to the Bank of London, with whom the Ford Agency had dealings for credit to buy cars, and asked for a personal loan of 10,000 pesos. After intensive questioning the loan was granted. He then caught a Japanese ship to San Diego, California, travelling immigrant class. A few days later, on 25 June, Bob and Maud were married.

Bob bought the latest in Ford cars with all the extras including white tyres, and he and Maud toured the west coast for about a month. There was no ship travelling from the west coast to Buenos Aires and so they drove to New York to catch a ship from there. In New York, Bob sold the car for a good price and bought first-class tickets on a ship to Buenos Aires.

When Bob and Maud arrived in Eldorado, they found that Ernest had moved into Las Mercedes which he liked much better though Edith preferred Petie-Cue. Bob and Maud moved into the Petie-Cue house but as it was not to Bob's satisfaction, he enlarged and renovated the house next to the Ford Agency in which an employee had been living.

It was on Bob's return from that he heard of the cyclone in the San Pedro forests and the decision was made to cease harvesting the wild yerba. Bob fell out with his father at this time - he was “still in the pullet stage, finding his spurs and feeling cocky.”

Bob swapped his shares in Las Mercedes with his father's shares in the Ford Agency, and for the next few years Bob was full time in the agency.

 

Elizabeth Irene Kennedy born.

 

Ernest’s sister Amy Fisher came to Eldorado and lived with Ernest and Edith at Las Mercedes. Alice and Ken at Wairoa, and later with Bob and Maud at Las Palmas. She stayed for about seven years.

 

Alice Antoinette Lowe –Toni, was born.

 

Ernest took Edith, Amy, and the Kennedy family to a YMCA Camp at Piriapolis, Uruguay for five weeks.[84]

 

Ernest wrote to Ken about the transfer of Pohler from Maipú to Mercedes, and reported the fourth frost for the month. The lemon fruits had been burnt and were dropping in many parts from the frosts. Plantations on the high lands suffered the most, and so far Petie-Cue had escaped with little damage.[85]

During the war years, Alice had numerous missionaries from Africa to stay. They would travel on the neutral Argentinian boats, and sometimes whole families would end up staying 6-8 weeks

 

Edith Dorothea Lowe – Edie, was born.

 

Mary Kennedy was staying with her grandparents at Mercedes, and Joanna and Florence were at Cordoba.

 

Ernest wrote to Ken about alterations to the sun room and the new bathroom at Wairoa, that Robert was definitely contemplating the abandonment of his plan to go to the war, and referred to Mary staying with them and Joanna and Florence being in Cordoba.

 

In another letter to Ken, Ernest wrote of having had to draft all the working plans for both the new drying plant buildings and the modification of the old. The brickwork was quite elaborate. He was glad to hear how Beatrix Airth was managing at Maipú.[86]

 

Charles William Kennedy born.

 

The Ayala-Lowe company in Paraguay had fallen on hard times with the slump in yerba prices during the 1930's. The company had built up a large bank overdraft and was unable to pay the interest on its mortgages.

Ernest explained his problems to Bob and because his name was attached to the company, he felt a moral obligation to pay off the debts. Ernest asked Bob if he would make arrangements with the bank and mortgagees and take over management of the Las Palmas property. Bob was not keen, but felt a duty to help out his father who had done so much for him. He agreed to the proposal, but on the condition that the Ayalas leave.

Bob went to the bank and the creditors and told them the situation. He asked for three years without interest and he would manage the property. They agreed, knowing Bob's background and ability. (Bob took over his father's share of the company and all the debts so that creditors would have no call on the Ford Agency which was doing well and had some capital.??) The Ford Agency was left with a manager.

Bob bought a boat named Swastika and went up the Parana to Las Palmas. He lived on the boat, and built a house high above the river to which Maud and family subsequently moved. The house was two-storied with a large drawing room in which there was a billiard table. The doors and windows for the house came from an old hotel at the Eldorado port. There were 365 steps from the river to the house. Two boxer dogs were put on a combined leash to help Maud up the steps.

The ships travelled up the river as far as the Mendez-Guira Falls. The Average speed against the current was about 8-10 km/hr. In a flood the river could rise as high as 30 metres. Wharves and loading ramps along the river were built at different levels to accommodate the ships at different flood levels. By 1959 Route 59 had been opened as far as Iguazú and the boat was taken from there to Palmas.

Ayala agreed to Bob taking over management but he refused to move away. He thwarted Bob's management by turning the labour against him and many of them boycotted the first harvest. Bob was able to get other labour to do the work. In the first year he was able to get credits from the Bank of London in Ascuncion to pay for the harvest and storage of the crop until there was sufficient to charter a ship to carry it to Buenos Aires. The bales of yerba were slid down a chute from beside the house down to the river.

Beside cultivating yerba he harvested wild yerba growing in the forest for which there was a good demand for blending because it was of a higher quality than the cultivated yerba. Bob felled timber and ran zebu (Brahman) cattle. In time, he paid off the overdrafts and mortgages, and he negotiated the sale of Ayala's shares so that he became the sole owner.

The timber was felled and dragged to the river where it was made up into rafts of 200 logs, with one hardwood log between three softwood logs for flotation. The logs were wired together and the rafts ....?

 

This morning we celebrated the Lord's Supper for the first time in Eldorado.[87]

 

Robert recommended Mr. Alexander Harris from Victoria. He and his wife drove over ... stayed. Edie and I feel that Harris combines the attributes I require. I shall have to build him a home and I am disposing of the tennis court as the site. Edith has had another malarial attack.[88]

 

Frances Charlotte Lowe – Paquita, was born.

 

Today we commenced the 1943 (yerba) harvest beginning at Petie-Cue. The drought is still upon us, last month only 35.5 mm – total 386 mm since August; 48 mm a month instead of 200 mm. I hope the whole Kennedy clan will come to Mercedes for the winter holidays at my invitation and expense. Thursday is the best train to connect with the river steamer Cruz de Malta on Saturday morning. No other train connects arrival and departure from Posadas on the same day.[89]

He refers to Mary's appendicitis.

 

 

Edith wrote a poem called Goodbye in Alice's autograph book to express Bob's thoughts on leaving The Bungalow.

 

Ernest on board Cruz de Malta, travelling from Posadas to Palmas.[90]

 

In this year Ernest requested Bob's help with the management of Las Mercedes, and from then Bob spent his time between the two properties. His boat at this time was the Avance.

 

John Robert Lowe was born in the U.S.A.

Maud had gone to California when she was seven months pregnant because her father was ill. She promised to be back for John's birth so John would be born an Argentine citizen because there were difficulties with foreigners owning land, especially in the border areas.

There was only one boat on which Maud could return from California and that was from Los Angeles, through the Panama Canal and down the coast to Buenos Aires. Maud had to wait and see if the ship's doctor would agree to her travelling on the ship at such an advanced stage of pregnancy. She received a phone call to say “No” and so John was born in the U.S.A. and he became a citizen of that country. The ship was wrecked on the voyage and the passengers lost all their luggage.

The news of John's birth was cabled to the family in Buenos Aires, transcribed and sent to Eldorado. An arrangement had been made with the ship that when there was news, the ship would give blasts on its whistle and a message in a bottle would be dropped for Bob to row out and pick up. Maud's mother sent a message that a 10 pound yank had arrived. Bob wasn't sure whether a yank meant a boy, or could be a girl.

Maud subsequently caught a boat from New Orleans. Aboard was King Karol of Rumania with his girlfriend, Mme Lupescoe, and survivors of the shipwreck. King Karol was in charge of the Crossing the Line ceremony and as John was the youngest passenger the King made a great fuss of him and gave him a memento of the occasion.

 

Ernest took Edith, Alice and her family for a holiday at the YMCA camp at Piriapolis, Uruguay  on the opposite coast of the Rio de la Plata.[91]

 

Sister Amy Fisher returned to England.[92]

 

In letters to Edie, Ernest wrote on the 1st of the month about the flight on the float plane from Buenos Aires to Posadas. On the 4th, he wrote that Mr. Harris was shutting up his house and was expected to sail on Sunday 8th. The houses at Petie-Cue were progressing well, and that the repairs to the tung drier were to commence the following day.

On the 6th, he wrote,

The bell does not ring until 6.30 and as I rise about 5.30 I am ready to be out in the plaza when the men roll up to sign the book. I started off by ruling a line under the last signature at 6.40 the first morning, an innovation which caused quite a little cackling on the part of the late birds but the next morning I ruled the line at 6.35 and there was no more heard.

On Sunday 9th, he reported that after the meeting he had 1½ hours in the Clinica. On the following day, Bob, Maud and family arrived, and they planned to leave on Sunday for Palmas with Oberdil's launch. Ernest aimed to start the yerba harvest at Mercedes on 24th March.

Ernest had received a letter from his brother Charles (in New Zealand), and reported, Poor old chap, he seems to miss his Mag greatly.[93]

 

The meeting on Sunday 16th was attended by Mrs. Melvin, Maud and family. Bob and Maud were then not expected to leave before Thursday.

On the 22nd, Bob and Maud cast off 10.45, too late to make Palmas the same day and they contemplated sleeping on board. The ninth of the building programme of ten new houses for Mercedes was now roofed and only one more had to be constructed at Petie-Cue. On the following day he wrote asking after Patsy's throat operation and hoping she was back at Wairoa.

On the 24th, the fires were lighted in the furnace, and cutting was to commence the following day with 40 registered cutters. He started the season by giving the workers a lesson on the value of money - work is the basis of prosperity. If man will not work neither shall he eat.

 

A new Post Office at Km 9, Eldorado was opened. Ernest donated over half of the cost ($45,000 of $87,000)[94] and the other locals the remainder. Previously the only post office was at the port.

Ernest also donated a park to the town, but it wasn't accepted and so he had to maintain it himself. It was later taken over by the local authority. (In 1979, the army had whitewashed the bases of all the tree trunks.)

 

One day the steamer tooted to indicate it had a passenger to go ashore, and a canoe was sent out to pick up the person. Ernest had arrived and wanted Bob to return to Las Mercedes. Ernest was feeling his age, now 72, and Edith was pining for the family in Buenos Aires. He also was not happy with Mr. Harris who had been employed at Las Mercedes since 1943 to help Ernest with the management and books. Ernest proposed to turn all his estates over to Bob and Alice if Bob would manage them, to which Bob agreed.

Bob moved to Mercedes and lived in the house that had been built in 1943 for Mr. Harris. He bought a Piper Club plane and learned to fly it so he could commute between Las Mercedes and Las Palmas, a trip of 60 minutes flying time and about 20 minutes customs clearance. Maud had trained to be a pilot in California but she never flew Bob's planes. She was the 65th woman pilot in the U.S.A.

From end November 1948 to March 1949, Bob and family expected to stay at Las Palmas,[95] but were later expected to return at the end of January. Bob had taken over the main work at Las Mercedes leaving Ernest relatively free.[96]

 

In a letter to brother Charles from Las Mercedes, Ernest reported the Edith was back home after a serious illness [appendicitis and pneumonia], though very weak and confined to bed. He himself was still pretty shaky but on the whole pretty well. He replied to Charles's proposition of a visit to Argentina.

 

A letter to Charles from Maipú, Buenos Aires, Ernest reported that he was in his town office on business until the end of the month.

 

At Las Mercedes, Edith fully recovered from her illness and almost as active as before. The harvest was finished and all under shelter in barns awaiting shipment to B.A. Robert had carried out the responsibility to his satisfaction and was preparing to return to his own place in Paraguay as soon as the school closed at the end of November.

 

At Las Mercedes, having just returned from a visit to the Kennedy family at Wairoa, Olivos over the Christmas and New Year season.

Both Edie and I are wonderfully well - both of us had rather poor health during 1947-48. We find the life at Mercedes most suitable to our somewhat advanced age and really prefer Eldorado to Buenos Aires. The lack of spiritual fellowship is a great loss.

Bob and family have returned to Paraguay but I expect him back by the end of the month. He has taken over the main work here leaving me relatively free.

There are further references to Charles coming to visit in the autumn.

 

In a letter to Charles from Las Mercedes;

Edith and I returned from B.A. three days ago making the journey very comfortably by rail, and our own car from Posadas (railhead). Next month we expect a visit from Alice and 3 youngest children during July. Alice's health does not prosper in B.A. during the winter months and suffers greatly from bronchial asthma, whereas the climate of Misiones suits her admirably.

I now have Robert administrator here.. I would like to visit New Zealand again and Edith would accompany me ... her health is greatly improved since her serious illness following the removal of her appendix last year. My proposition is to fly to South Africa, visit the Cronin cousins in the Transvaal, and then either return to Capetown and take a boat to Australia and New Zealand, or carry on across the Indian Ocean to Ceylon and from there to Australia and N.Z. ... wondering why I had not heard from you again  ... you had referred to your proposed visit very definitely.

Alice suffered bad asthma. In the winter she would go up to Mercedes with the children. They would catch the train to Posadas and then the boat to Eldorado.

 

Plans for the whole Kennedy family to go to the U.S.A. for about six months didn't eventuate because the peso devalued dramatically. Joanna went on her own.

 

Ernest wrote to brother Charles from Las Mercedes;

From early December 1949 Edith was far from well ... took her to Alice at Wairoa, Olivos - until 10 May, 1950 ... she returned with me by boat ... six days travel up the Parana and Alto Parana rivers.

Robert is temporarily in Ascencion, capital of Paraguay, and his family at his place Palmas on the Alto Parana, 180 km further up the river from Eldorado. Robert divides his time between the two establishments ... made possible by a small plane, a Piper Cruiser. ... 60 minutes flying time but plus some 20 minutes delay from customs clearing.

 

Ernest wrote to brother Charles from Las Mercedes;

Next month we hope to have a visit from Ken and Alice - he takes his holidays in winter on account of his ice cream industry. Ken has not been here some five or six years.[97]

Ernest built an annex on to the ground floor of Wairoa for himself and Edith because they found the stairs beyond their strength. It consisted of a bedroom and a bathroom adjoining a room to be used as sitting room.[98]

 

Bob temporarily in Ascuncion and the family at Las Palmas.[99]

 

In November, Bob flew to Buenos Aires to bring his father back to Las Mercedes after accompanying Edith to Wairoa to live with the Kennedy family.

After a week or so at Las Mercedes they flew up to Las Palmas to be with Bob's family over Christmas and New Year.[100]

 

Bob flew Maud, family and his father to Las Mercedes. Two days previously Bob and his father had made an inventory of the zebu cattle on the Las Palmas property.

 

Bob went to California with the idea of buying another plane, and to bring back Maud, Toni and Edie who had been staying with Maud's parents for about three months. Ernest stayed at Las Mercedes while he was away.[101]

It was on this trip that Bob bought a plane and was flying it solo over Mexico when it stalled. He was able to land on a farm, but he had to wait some weeks before the previous owner and a mechanic flew in to make repairs. The plane was fixed sufficiently for Bob to take off and fly to Mexico City where he landed on a street. There he found that the plane was worn out, so he sold it for what money he could get and returned to Argentina.

 

At Las Mercedes temporarily, accompanied by Mary, because Bob in California. Flying back to B.A. on Monday 17th, a journey of some 1000 km in about 6½ hours instead of almost as many days.

I am very conscious of decreased powers, both mentally and physically. ... the consciousness of the approaching senility hampers me greatly in the participation of the Ministry of God. ... I trust I Won't become as Uncle William became before the Lord took him, but this condition causes me much distress.

 

Ernest returned to Villa Wairoa from Mercedes by car, which he had sent up to Bob to have it overhauled in his repair shop, and brought back two grandchildren - a distance of 1400 kilometres.

 

Joanna nursing at the British Hospital, Florence enters the fifth year of medicine, and Mary studying at the University of Cordoba preparing as a teacher of languages.All the younger children at secondary school and doing well.[102]

Ken is very interested in evangelical work with radio transmissions having with others developed a wonderful Gospel testimony connecting up all the Spanish speaking countries of the world with programmes which are highly appreciated. Letters come from all parts. How our father would delight to see what is being done by his grandchildren and their progeny.[103]

When we came to this country in 1908 there were only five assemblies spirit taught, gathered to the NAME, and now we have been spared to see two hundred such gatherings. Alice's family and home are entirely given to the ministry of hospitality of the Lord's people and the garden is a great gathering place for young people, many of them greatly gifted. 150-200 frequently gather and it is wonderful to see Alice's five girls, all baptised and in fellowship, entertaining the visitors.[104]

 

Ernest wrote to Charles that he had had rather a breakdown and was confined to bed.

 

Bob drove Toni to school in Buenos Aires and brought his father back to Las Mercedes, with the expectation of flying him back early in May.

Ernest was under homeopathic treatment  for parcicis which affected all his left side, and the muscles of his face and throat.

 

Florence Margaret Kennedy married Melchor Suàrez Prada.

 

William Ernest Lowe died at the British Hospital, Buenos Aires, at the age of 78. The funeral was held the following day at three o'clock in the afternoon. A few days later, Edith wrote to her brother-in-law Charles Lowe,

...dear Ernest is no longer here, but is with the Lord. He passed away ... at the British Hospital. ...during April, and recovered so much strength that we were almost startled to see him walking in the garden, and on Sunday 1 May he attended the morning meeting. Alice and I were so glad to hear him decide to go to the hospital. His only infirmity at the last being an intestinal obstruction ... last Thursday at 4 a.m. he passed away painlessly. He had had a heart attack. ... there was a beautiful meeting at the Cemetery Chapel, attended by a very great number of people, both of the world and brethren. The speakers were four. One an Englishman, one Scotsman, one Argentine, one Australian. All spoke in Spanish. I wish you could have seen our huge crowd at the cemetery, and the marvellous big wreaths which covered the grave before we left it.

Ken carried on the management of the Camona business, but there were problems with the sons of the other partners and business declined.

 

Mary Rosalind Kennedy married Flavio Barbieri.

 

Bob and Alice divided their interests in their father's estate. They had held the properties as a company. Alice had brought up the question, because of divided interests and a growing family and thought it would be better to split. Bob worked out a formula, Bob taking over Las Mercedes and an undeveloped block of land at Forestal, and Alice taking the 100 hectare block of land at Eldorado that had formed part of Petie-Cue, and the Wairoa house. The suburban land of Petie-Cue had already started to be cut up into residential sections.

 

Bob gave up flying because of political problems in Paraguay. There had been a revolution and trigger-happy soldiers were liable to shoot at any planes flying past. Also, the Argentinian government prohibited flying close to the border. Bob's eyesight wasn't the best for flying anyway.

 

Florence Edith Lowe died at the age of 92.

 

Land at Forestal was cleared and 400 hectares planted in pines, Pinus taedia, P.elliotii and Araucaria angustifolia. They were planted at 2m X 2m and thinned out at ten years to about half the number, the thinnings going to a paper factory. The trees are millable after 15 years.

There was a lot of interest in reafforestation, and the government had brought out a plan to promote forestry. The government would loan 80% of the estimated investment at 2% interest and with five years grace. Bob applied for a loan to plant 1000 hectares at the rate of 200 ha a year, which was approved. Planting started, but inflation started to spiral and costs increased. The loan was not inflation adjusted, and the government would not give more money, but allowed a reduction in the area to be planted - 200 ha reduced to 160 ha equated to inflation. After five years the original 1000 ha had reduced to 400 ha.

 

Charles William Kennedy married Annie Koppen.

 

The Eldorado district experienced 24 frosts over the winter.

 

Elizabeth Irene Kennedy - Betty, married Adolfo Puricelli.

 

C.S. Kennedy retired. He bought a trailer and for eight years he and Alice would travel around the country visiting assemblies. They would call on every church, no matter what denomination. Sometimes he would throw out tracts and gospels on the road in the hope that they might be picked up.

Many years later, Bill Kennedy met up with a Mitako Indian who had picked up a St. Luke's Gospel and ..? (become converted?)

 

John Lowe married Nora Moser, daughter of Fritz and ? Moser who ran a dairy farm in the neighbourhood.

 

Edith Florence Lowe married Christofer Gründler in a ceremony held at 11 a.m. in the garden at Mercedes with her uncle C. Sherbourne Kennedy officiating. It was followed by a huge asado in one of the old yerba storage sheds.

 

Bob built a (or bought an old adobe) house at Cordoba, which is situated in the hills and has a cool, dry climate. Maud had been suffering from asthma which seemed to be worsening and they were concerned it would develop into emphasima. She had previously stayed at Cordoba to see if the change of climate would help and she found it gave relief. The following summer they rented a house in Cordoba and Maud's asthma disappeared so then Bob bought a house.

Maud lived at Cordoba until about 1981 when she found she could live in Misiones without the problem recurring. Bob lived between Las Mercedes and Cordoba. They kept the house and continue to spend time there in summer.

 

On a trip to Cordoba, Bob saw a chicken farm and realised that he had the buildings, electricity plant, and water supply needed for such a venture. So he gutted the now unused yerba drying sheds of their equipment and set them up with chickens. When he started there were five other chicken breeders in the area, but they gradually fell by the wayside and by 1979 Bob was the only one remaining. Without competition, he was able to set his price and keep up with inflation by raising prices at the same rate as the costs.

Bob ran up to twenty thousand chickens. Young chickens were bought in from a raiser with an automatic egg incubator about one hundred kilometres away. They were raised entirely on prepared feed which was bought in. Enough feed had to be kept on hand in case there were delays with deliveries. The chickens suffered problems with diseases and pests. They commonly suffered from a bronchial infection because of the damp climate.

The chickens were marketed when about 60-70 days old, first being slaughtered and dressed on the premises. The staff would start at 3 a.m. and prepare about 500 birds ready by 7 a.m. for delivery to groceries, supermarkets and restaurants in the area. Although chilled chicken was freighted in from the south, only the fresh chicken was suitable for rotissary cooking and so it brought a better price. The dwellings on the property made it possible to attract staff suitable for the work.

Another venture Bob set up at Mercedes was a dairy unit. He started off with enthusiasm and put in a chiller and machine for packing milk in sachets. Because of the small scale of the operation it was not feasible to pasteurise the milk. He ran about 24 Holstein cows, each of which would produce about 10 litres of milk.

The milking started at 4 a.m., and by 7 a.m. the truck would be out making deliveries. At first, the morning milking was sold in bulk direct to the homes and the afternoon milking packaged for sale through retail outlets. The packaging operation became too complicated. The cost of the sachets kept increasing, and the equipment for packaging was too expensive to replace. Sometimes the seal on the sachets were faulty which resulted in messes in vehicles and supermarkets.

Bob decided it wasn't worthwhile doing the packaging of the afternoon milk and changed to milking only once a day in the morning. To adjust the cows to the change, he started by putting the calves in with the cows in the afternoon. He closed down the whole operation in 198?.

Those damned cows, for 365 days of the year, twice a day, we are slaves to their udders - its not worth it.

 

Charles Sherbourne Kennedy died.

 

Alice moved from Wairoa to Avenido Cabildo 1259. Wairoa was sold to the Scottish school and formed the administration centre with other buildings surrounding it. The Headmistress? would not allow the administrators to demolish the building, but it was pulled down when she retired in 1986?

 

Alice and daughter Mary travelled to New Zealand, visiting relatives and friends, and toured by coach around the South Island.

 

Alice moved from her apartment at Avenido Cabildo to live with her daughters, Florence in Eldorado and Patsy in Puerto Esperanza.

 

Bob and Maud moved from Las Mercedes to the house next to the Ford Agency where they had started their married life.

 

Bob was opening up new forestry developments at Santa Theresa. The forest cleared in blocks and planted in Eucalyptus grandis.

 

 

Notes on Ernest Lowe

Ernest always wanted to be a doctor and resented being a dentist. He had helped Ted to become a doctor, then when Ted was to help Ernest to do the study, Ernest decided to marry and return to New Zealand.

Through the help of the Pridhams Ernest was able to go to England and study  to be a dentist. Ernest wanted to be a doctor of medicine but finance would not allow him to take the longer course. Ernest helped put Ted through Guys.

Ernest liked to be called El Señor Doktor. He would ride into town to the bank in a carriage drawn by two black and two white horses and with coachmen. He would be dressed in a coat and spats and carry a cane. He would always dress for table with a tie and coat.

When on holiday with his grandchildren, he would give them two hours of bible study (a day?).

When the family would go out on a picnic everything would be done properly. All the tables, chairs and food would be sent on well in advance so that when everybody arrived, all was set up and ready.

At one time Ernest employed 120 people at Eldorado. Alice once jokingly told her father that he looked like Simon Legris(?) because he dressed the part with his hat, boots and whip. A bell was rung for work in the morning and to break off at night.

Every Sunday morning he would hold a gospel meeting for the workers, ringing a bell at 9 a.m. to call them to worship, giving them half an hour to get ready. One of the outbuildings was a store for the workers. Above it was a room where they all met for the Sunday meetings. In Paraguay people set up their own church based on the teachings of Ernest.

After the meeting he would hold a clinic for anyone needing medical attention. When his sister Amy lived with them (1939-46), she loved to help him, and would dress the part as a nurse.

Ernest did some spectacular cures. On one occasion there was a woman who had an infected tooth and suffered lockjaw. He made a tool so he could extract the tooth with the jaw shut. Once the poison in the tooth was gone, the woman recovered. Another time Alice helped him sew up the wrist of a man who had cut it when he fell onto a hoe. Ernest used an ordinary needle and thread. Another woman came 40 km by truck to Ernest because she had dislocated her jaw while eating an apple. He managed to fix it.

Edith

Edith had the ability to make a happy home. She was always able to get help in the house.

Ernest was always very friendly, but Edith chose her friends very carefully. There were certain people she would never receive at the house. You could never tell how she would react when she met someone for the first time.

Edith was very jealous of Amy because Amy loved to fuss over Ernest - she would go and get his slippers or get him a drink. Any little thing would trigger off Edith's displeasure and there would be a row. Amy would pack her bags and go and stay with Alice or Bob.

Ernest loved red or auburn hair. If he commented about having had a patient with red hair, or there had been a beautiful woman in his consulting room, Edith would clam up and not speak to him all evening.

When Edith visited Lena, they were mostly at loggerheads. However, they wrote to each other right to the end.

Ernest and Edith were always squabbling. He would make an issue over the number of letters that Edith had written to him while he was away. He would ring from the airport about it before they had even met.

Edith was an avid reader of the newspapers. She would often write to the newpapers on matters that concerned her.

Family Anecdotes

On the birth of one of the children during the Peron regime, someone sent a telegram to the effect that three and a half kilograms of dynamite had arrived. The police called to the house wanting to know who had the dynamite and what it was to be used for. They had a lot of difficulty explaining the situation.

Another telegram was worded, Everybody fine, how are the remains?, meaning the remainder of thefamily. The remains became translated into restos meaning mortal remains.

Granny Lowe was always trying to marry off Alice's five daughters. When there were young men to dinner, she would preside at table and try and sell off each daughter, starting on one man and if no response on to the next. One night they had a married man to dinner, but Edith didn't know he was married and she tried to sell off Florence to him. Flo was at the other end of the table, and in the end had to call out to Edith, But Granny, Mr. So-and so is married.

One of the elders in the church was sitting the kitchen after a party and told Alice that she was very worried about Alice and her girls and that Alice would never get them married. She advised Alice that if she didn't want them to marry locals, she should get them out of the country straight away. The girls were quite keen to stay in the country and marry the locals because they liked them.

Alice recalled that at one of the weddings the house was decorated with beautiful blue hortensias (hydrangeas). After the wedding one of the guests was heard to say, I don't know how Mrs. Kennedy will get those girls married, look at all the hortensias. Hortensias were considered an omen for spinsterhood, and nobody would plant them if they had daughters.

After Florence's wedding, a Bolivian friend was going home on the same train as some other very straight-laced "tight" Brethren friends (Ritchies) who said in front of the Bolivian how dreadful it was this interracial marriage, Florence marrying a Spaniard. The Bolivian replied, On the contrary, you English people should be honoured that we care to marry your daughters!

Alice once wrote to Maud who had three daughters, I don't know what has got into my girls, here's the fourth one going to marry a Latin, after all the good English education we've given them. For goodness sake, educate your girls as Latins and perhaps they will marry Englishmen. They married Germans instead.

Edith was good at finding reasons why the girls should marry Latins and not Englishmen. One was that if they married an Englishman, they would have to stay at home all day on Saturday while their husband played cricket.

At first it shocked Flo's parents that she wanted to marry a Latin. Flo expected her mother to be upset, but not her father because he had accepted the Argentinians. For a while it haunted him, then he reasoned it out and he accepted it. Once over the shock, they accepted that the children were far more Latin than they had thought. The family home life and interests in the home had always been very English, and so it came as a jolt to think that the children were Argentinians in Argentina.

In Bill's third year at high school, he failed Spanish. His parents suddenly realised that their only son, who was going to have to earn his living in Argentina, couldn't speak the language properly. They took him out of the English school and put him into an Argentinian school as a boarder.

Alice offered to have Bob's girls so they could go to the English School in Buenos Aires, but Bob was afraid of their religion. He always felt that children were too influenced by their parents and should have the liberty to choose for themselves.

Edith and Ernest would often come from Eldorado to Wairoa for the summer when it was very hot in Eldorado. Alice had to be a daughter which didn't always agree with being a wife or mother, and so for her it was a bit of a strain at times keeping an even keel between everyone. Ken would say that Alice changed from the time she received a letter from her parents to say that they were coming. Edith would shed tears when it came time to return to Eldorado.

When Ernest and Edith stayed with the family there were lots of rows because of the three generations. The children learned a lot from their grandparents too, and learned an appreciation for older people.

The children had an unusual family life. Their father came from a family of seven boys and four girls, and he always knew lots of things to do to keep everyone amused. One favourite was to have a dress-up party in which the grandparents would join. Once Edith dressed up as a rake going to the races. The children gained a greater respect for the older people who would join in and do crazy things with them, it would show they were human and could meet on common ground.

Ernest would sometimes take the family for an excursion and meet the bill. It was exciting for him. On one occasion they went quite a long way south to a big YMCA camping ground. Edith was troubled with her hip and she went by rail in a sleeper accompanied by Mary. Alice and Ernest each took a carload. Halfway there the luggage, loaded onto a carrier, fell off, and they had various other excitements. Alice arrived in one town on the way, and remembered finding a place to stay with a lovely bathroom and hot water. It was always her ambition to find a place with plenty of hot water and a big tub.

The administration at the camp had heard in advance that a family of 17 was arriving! Bob and Maud were there with their three small children, and there were two friends of Alice, so a big crowd. They slept in tents. The day after they arrived Edith said to Alice, Father packed his bags and left out all his underpants. He will have to go to bed for today so I can wash his underpants.

Sometimes Ernest would have a serious bible discussion at the dinner table with a piece of noodle hanging from his beard. The children would listen with straight faces, hardly able to contain themselves.

Edith finally came to live with the family at Wairoa. When she became ill and could no longer come to the table, she lived in her little sitting room and would ring a bell when she wanted something. Ken would put his hand on Alice and tell her to sit still. Each of the children would go to Edith, but she only wanted Alice. Ken hated anyone to get up from the table, so Alice was in the habit of keeping a wagon at the meal table.

Florence's son William called both Edith and Alice Granny. He remembered them as one Granny that was in bed and the other the Granny that read to the Granny in bed.

Edith became like the old lady in the Polyanna books. She would suddenly say, I want some semolina pudding, so Alice would go and make semolina pudding. When Alice took it to Edith, she would decide she didn't want semolina pudding now. This happened very often. Semolina pudding as always William's favourite, and he became wise to Granny's whim. When he heard Granny ask for semolina pudding, he would go to her bed, and when she turned it down he would say that he wanted it. This upset Granny because it wasn't wasted. Alice always thought it worthwhile making the semolina pudding because if Edith didn't eat it, William would.

Looking back, Alice felt that life at Wairoa was one of perpetually receiving guests or saying goodbye. The children brought all their friends home, and everyone was made very welcome. Mary would come down from Bolivia with her one or two or three as the family grew.

Aunt Amy

When Aunt Amy went off to visit Bob in Paraguay she would take the paddle steamer from Port Eldorado. The trip up the river took two days. She would travel by herself at over seventy years of age and take all her bits and pieces with her. The boat would drop her on the rocks on the Brazilian side of the river and she would wait there until somebody from Bob's came over and picked her up.

Aunt Amy kept all her things in numerous boxes in her room, carefully stacked with the biggest on the bottom. She always knew what was in each and where to find something. She had grandfather Lowe's model of the Tabernacle with all its different pieces, and she taught the children how to put it up. It was a favourite pastime on a Sunday afternoon while their father had a siesta.

It took about two hours to set up the tabernacle. It covered an area larger than the large dining room table, and was surrounded by a fence about 3cm high. The temple covered an area of about 30 X 20 cm and was about 10 cm high with seven coverings. In the courtyard were a laver and brazen altar. There were the twelve tribes and their tents. The tents of Moses and Aaron were larger than the rest.

Aunt Amy was a Mother Confessor to the Kennedy children. She helped them get out of lots of scrapes, and gave them good counselling.

Aunt Amy grew violets under the big tree at the back door of Mercedes.

ELDORADO

 

Eldorado was founded by a German, Adolf Schwelm, in 1919. He went to Europe and encouraged immigrants to come and settle in the district. He brought in Danes, Swedes, Swiss, Germans and Poles, all except Latins.

Ernest had a running battle with Schwelm over the site of the settlement. Schwelm wanted it sited at the river, Ernest away from the river because the river was often covered in mist.

Labourers came over from Paraguay and were very good. It wasn't until government agencies, such as the post office and schools, were established that Latin Argentinians moved in.

To travel from Las Mercedes to travel to Buenos Aires, you had to set off for Port Eldorado at 4 a.m. in the mist and dark to make sure you got to the port by 9 a.m. There was no set schedule, and it could depend on the mist as to when the boat might arrive from upstream. Sometimes if it were a clear moonlight night the boat might have gone during the night and so you would have to wait until the next day. You always to took food to eat in case there were delays - chicken, bread, and oranges. There was no wharf at the port and you had to wait on the sand and when the boat arrived you were rowed out to it. On one occasion a salesman arrived with a pile of suitcases of goods to sell. When he climbed out of the row boat to get ashore he tipped the boat and some of his cases fell into the water. The trip down to B.A. took four days.

At the port there was a chute for sending the bales of yerba down the steep riverbank to the beach for transhipping out to the boat. A proper wharf wasn't built until much later times, not long before road transport replaced the ships.

Oil and kerosine for fuel was brought in by boat in drums. The settlers would bring down their empty drums and stack them on the beach and if the river rose, as it often did, the drums would be swept away.

Early food of the settlers was manihot which was peeled round and round to remove several millimetres of skin and then cooked like potato. Sweet potato was grown also and both the roots and leaves eaten. The leaves taste like spinach. The only meat available was sundried and salted.

The average summer maximum temperature is 370 C. and the rainfall 2000 mm. It is unusual to have two weeks without rain. The high temperatures and ample moisture give rapid growth. Elephant grass will grow 5-7 cm a day.

In a few years frosts have occurred from April until the end of September. In 1964 there were 24 frosts. Mists usually prevent frosts occurring near the river. Although many of the tropical plants are cut back by frost in winter, they shoot away again in the warm weather.

Twice in the 24 years prior to 1979 there were terrific hailstorms, with hailstones the size of a fist. One could be heard several kilometres away. It stripped and killed all the vegetation in its path. Branches were broken off the trees, and the bark stripped off the trunks. In 1975 a snowstorm killed many plants.

 

VICTORIA

This was an English settlement just to the north of Eldorado, and settled later. The settlers were white collar people who concentrated on building themselves good houses before planting yerba and as a result they missed out on the yerba boom. The European settlers who had earlier settled in Eldorado first built themselves hovels to live in and planted yerba. They made money and built themselves good houses and used their hovels as pigsties.

 

YERBA

In 1926 there was a big demand for yerba mate and a good price was paid for it, which motivated the big investment in the industry. But the big bonanza didn't last long. Because many others decided to get in on the boom, by 1934 there was overproduction. With no marketing organisation, the growers were at the mercy of the millers.

By 1936 the growers realised that if they didn't do anything it would be the end for them. They organised themselves into a lobby to influence Congress senators and deputies, with the result that laws were passed prohibiting further yerba plantings, and limiting the harvest by establishing quotas. The growers consigned their crop to a national marketing scheme which facilitated credit and gave a guaranteed price.

The quota for the 1937 harvest was 40% of the previous year. As a result, everybody sat back. Much of the land was untended and quickly reverted back to forest, and production generally was inefficient.

By 1964, the Government found there was not enough yerba to meet the demand, so it freed up on the restriction on new plantings - with the same results that had occurred in the 1930's - everybody planted, and by 1968 there was too much yerba and restrictions were reimposed.

Bob got fed up with yerba, it seemed a hopeless situation. In their heyday they had harvested 800 000 kg per year, and then with the quota they were limited to 300 000 kg, so a large area was idle. Bob had drying plant sufficient for the whole crop, but with the introduction of quotas and higher labour costs it became more economic to send the crop to a co-operative drying plant. The abandoned drying sheds started to fall into decay.

Another factor in the decision to give up yerba was the upheaval in labour relations caused by the Peronist regime. The cost of labour became very high, and the government set the sale price which didn't compensate for the costs. After forty years as a yerbatero, Bob decided to get out. He even gave up drinking yerba mate.

At the factory the yerba is unloaded from the trucks and forked onto an elevator that drops it into a heated revolving drum to give it a quick drying. It must not be burnt. It is then carried on a conveyor to an oven for a slow drying for 21/2 hours and then to another for 3 hours. The sticks are separated from the leaves and used as fuel. The leaves are milled and sieved to remove more sticks - only 7-8% sticks are allowed. The treated leaf is packed into sacks and sent to a refinery in Buenos Aires. The furnace is log fired. The factory visited at Puerto Esperanza in 1979 produced 70 tonnes in 24 hours. (The machinery had many unprotected belts and pulleys

 

Cattle

Bob put an area into pasture for fattening cattle. He would buy young steers in Corientes, bring them to Mercedes to fatten. They would increase in weight by 1 kg a day just feeding on the grass.

He also bred a herd of zebu cattle. The zebu are resistant to a type of tick that burrows under the skin of cattle. The zebus sweat and shake their skin which gets rid of the tick. Bob crossed the zebu with the Holstein and bred a more hardy strain of milking cow.

Internal parasites are a big problem with all the animals, and

for humans as well.

 

TUNG

An area was planted in tung for its oil.

 

HORSES

 

Bob bred horses for a number of years as a hobby. He had a stallion and a brood of mar s, renewing the stock continually. The stallion was kept under cover, but the mares and offspring ran free outdoors. In 1986 two foals died after being bitten by snakes. Bob's horses had quite a reputation. Buyer's didn't like the horses being branded with RL because when they were raced, it made it difficult to find people to place bets against them. Horse racing was not a traditional sport. It usually consisted of racing a pair of horses over 300-400 metres.

 

CITRUS

 

William ernest Lowe

1876-1955

 

 

Born at Meadowbank,[1]Oamaru, New Zealand, third child of John Henry and Charlotte Lowe. J.H. Lowe was at the time employed as District Engineer with the Public Works Department on the construction of the railway from Waitaki to Palmerston.

Sister Charlotte Amy Lowe was then nearly 5 years old, brothers John Kennaway Lowe, 3 and Charles Edward Lowe, 1½ years old.

 

Early in the year the family moved to Christchurch when J.H. Lowe took up duties as Resident Engineer for Constructed Railways, Canterbury. Resident at Hereford Street West.

 

Brother Robert Manley Lowe born at Christchurch. He died the following year aged 4 months.

 

Early in the year the family moved to Dunedin when J.H. Lowe took up duties as Engineer for Working Railways Amberley to Kingston. Resident in Alva Street.[2]

 

Brother Edward Cronin Lowe born at Alva Street, Dunedin.

 

Brother Frank Augustus Lowe born at Dunedin.

 

On Ernest's 7th birthday, his father presented him with the book Robinson Crusoe.[3]

 

Brother Eugene Manley Lowe born at Dunedin.

 

Ernest attended Lower Moutere school as a boarder. Headmaster, James George Deck. In a letter dated 16 January 1946 to brother Charles on hearing of his wife Maggie’s death he recalled;

To this day I carry the clearest memory of her (Maggie Deck) in my first days at the Lower Moutere as a small boy, overcome by home-sickness, she heard me crying in bed and came into that room and kissed me! She was the only one of that household that ever showed me any kindliness.

A photo of the Lower Moutere school pupils taken in 1886 shows Ernest and Charles Lowe.

 

Family moved residence to Dowling Street, Dunedin.[4] This, or their previous home in Alva Street, was called Clairmont.[5]

Mrs Lyall of Dunedin presented Ernest with an album.[6]

 

On this day, Ernest's 11th birthday, his father presented him with the book The Cruise of the Snowbird.[7]

 

The family moved to Wellington early in the year when J. H. Lowe took up duties as Chief Engineer for Working Railways. Resident Golders Hill Street.[8]

“Ernest was a backward and rebellious student, possibly suffering from dyslexia. He was expelled from two schools. At one school he was locked in a shed on detention and he got out by taking the door off its hinges.”[9]

 

The Girls' High School has re-opened this week with a very satisfactory attendance-roll, showing a slight increase upon last year's number of scholars. We are requested to publish the following list of those High School girls who recently passed either the Junior University Scholarships or Matriculation Examinations, some of the names having been mutilated in telegraphing:— … Amy Lowe, …

 

Parents and sister Amy sailed for Lyttleton to catch the ship Aorangi for London via Rio de Janiero.[10]

Possibly it was this year that Ernest was put to work on a dairy farm where he was employed for a year or more. There he decided that there must be a better life than milking cows night and morning.[11]

Ernest went back to secondary school after his stint at farming.[12]

 

On February 22, his parents and Amy returned from England via Capetown and Hobart on the Rimutaka.[13]

Family resident at Woodmancote, Khandallah.[14]

 

KHANDALLAH. The distribution of prizes took place on Thursday. Mr. Jenkins, the headmaster, gave a short review of the progress of the school since its opening in January last, which was considered by those present to be highly satisfactory. The prizes were then presented by the Rev. A Burnett, as follows: — … Mrs Lowe's prize for recitation … Mr. Lowe's prize for best recitation … arithmetic, F. Lowe (standard 3) …Std. II.—Industry, M. Lowe … Mrs. Lowe’s prize for best reading …

 

The public hall at Khandallah was filled last evening with an enthusiastic gathering, the attraction being a magic lantern entertainment and Christmas tree provided for the children of the district by the residents. Two magic lanterns, under the management of the Messrs. Lowe, were a source of delight to both old and young. The Christmas tree was beautifully ornamented with flags and candles, and was loaded with presents, which wore distributed by "Father Christmas" himself, to the evident delight of the youngsters, who were afterwards regaled with light refreshments. The hall was tastefully decorated, and the general arrangements were such as to reflect credit on those who took the affair in hand.

 

The following are the latest additions to the Telephone Exchange:— J. H. Lowe, private residence, Khandallah; …

 

KHANDALLAH. Mrs. R. Hannah presented the prizes yesterday. The following is the prize-list:—Annual examination: … St. VI.—E. Lowe, 1; V. Moore, 2. … St. III.—J. Radcliffe, 1 ; F. Lowe, 2. General proficiency: St. VII , E. Lowe; … Drawing: K. Lowe, model; … Nine prizes were given for good attendance—six to Khandallah children and three to pupils from Crofton. A. Kells, who did not miss one attendance, although living at Crofton, won tho first prize The others in order of merit were:— M. Lowe, F. Moore, V. Clark, E. Moore, T. Rowe, E. Lowe. P. Radcliffe, and J. Radcliffe. Mr. Jenkins, the master, was presented with a very handsome silver teapot given by the children.

 

SERIOUS ACCIDENT

A LADY FALLS OFF A TRAIN

      Miss Mary Pridham, of New Plymouth, a guest of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Lowe, at Khandallah, met with a serious accident on the Manawatu line this morning. She fell from the platform of a crowded train on the Johnsonville side of the viaduct, and it is feared that concussion of the brain has been sustained. Miss Pridham was taken back to Mrs. Lowe's residence, where she now lies.

      Later particulars show that Miss Pridham was standing on the platform with Mr. Ernest Lowe, and while the morning through train was going down the incline past Johnsonville, the young lady fell off. Mr. Lowe jumped off to her assistance directly the train slackened off the incline, and went back, and with the assistance of some of the company's officials took her to Khandallah. On hearing of the accident Mr. J. E. Falton, the company's manager, went up to Khandallah, taking with him Dr. Collins, who found that the lady was in a state of semi-consciousness. It is hoped that she will be conscious to-morrow, and will suffer no ill effects from her dangerous accident, which should prove a warning against the practice of standing on train platforms. There was plenty of room, as it happened, in the carriage. The company's officials have had great difficulty in keeping the platforms clear all day, but intend now to strictly enforce the rule.

In 1941, Ernest wrote of the accident:

Years ago in New Zealand I was accompanying a friend who fell off a train, but in this case the train was travelling rapidly. I jumped out the train and found the young lady unconscious having suffered a severe concussion of the brain, as well as many cuts and bruises and teeth knocked out! She however recovered and is the mother of several sons and so far as I know still alive today.[15]

 

JUNIOR CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATION. The following are the Wellington candidates who passed in the recent Junior Civil Service Examination:—…, William Ernest Lowe, …

 

About this time he commenced an apprenticeship (three-year) in dentistry with Mr Arthur Hoby of Willis Street, Wellington.

In December, a photograph was taken of Miss Mary Pridham and her father Mr Ernest Pridham,[16] headmaster of NewPlymouthHigh School. There is nothing to indicate whether the photograph was taken when the Pridhams were on a visit to the Lowe family or when Ernest Lowe visited the Pridhams in New Plymouth.

Ernest became engaged to Mary Pridham,[17] but this was broken off in July 1900.[18] When he left for England, Mrs Pridham expected that he would marry Mary on his return.[19] His album, Dedicated to be a Writing and Remembrance Album, Khandallah 1897[20] has a photograph of Mary, mounted with a floral cutout and dated June, 1897, and another photograph with a poem dated July, 1897 (Khandallah).[21]

 

The pupils of Miss Kennaugh were entertained at a picnic on Saturday at Mrs. Lowe's grounds, Khandallah, the children greatly enjoying the outing.

 

KHANDALLAHSCHOOL. The annual distribution of prizes in connection with the KhandallahStateSchool took place list night, at the Khandallah Public Hall. An entertainment was first given, the children being regaled with a plentiful supply of delicacies, provided by Miss Vickers and Mesdames M'Cartney and Meadowcroft. An exhibition of callisthenics was given by the scholars, under Mr. Jenkins, the head teacher. The Rev. J. Paterson, a member of the Education Board, presided at the distribution of the prizes, which were handed over by Mrs Vickers to the following:— … Attendance.—St. 111.—Manley Lowe, 1; … Educational prizes.—St. 111. — Manley Lowe, 1; …

 

KHANDALLAH. SCHOOL.

The Public Hall at Khandallah was filled last evening on the occasion of the annual distribution of school prizes. During the evening the children went through various kinds of drill, and sang a number of songs very tastefully, … IV., Manley Lowe; …

 

The matron of the AlexandraHome acknowledges with thanks gifts from the Newtown School Committee and from Mrs. Lowe, Hanson-street.

 

Either later this year or early in 1898 the family moved to Hansen Street, Newtown.[22] Photo of Ernest on a bicycle outside the house.

 

In early March, Ernest sailed with brother Ted for England, Ernest to study dentistry and Ted to study to be a doctor at GuysHospital, London.

 

On board SS Oonah

Tho as we cross the Ocean wide

So badly rolls from side to side

And gived us pain in our inside?

"The Oonah"

What ? the brain within our head

And turns our food to lumps of lead

And makes us wish that we were dead?

"The Oonah"

And as along the decks we pick

Our weary way to learn the trick

What makes us all so very sick!

"The Oonah"

What makes the skipper look so proud

Amongst the sickly mottley crowd

Who greet him all with curses loud.

"The Oonah"

Why flirts he with the girls all day

Gives Alice & himself away

Yet never found his ship will stay

"The Oonah"

Just let us get again on shore

The rolling seas we'll fear no more

But think of all the fun on board

"The Oonah"

 

The ship passed through the Suez Canal.[23]

While in London, Ernest would often visit his uncle, Dr. Eugene Cronin at the Old Manor House, OldTown, Clapham. Uncle Eugene was very keen on the Salvation Army and would often wear their red jersey under his medical coat.

At the boarding house where Ernest lived there was a sign outside which read, Young men taken and done for, their vitals cooked.

 

Ernest's parents, sister Amy, and his two youngest brothers Manley and Frank, left New Zealand for Poona, India, where J. H. Lowe planned to assist with missionary work.

 

Brother Eugene Manley Lowe died in India aged 14 years.

 

In this month Ernest's engagement with Mary Pridham was broken off. He spent some time travelling around the Continent.[24]

 

Brother Manley died of cholera in India.

Later in the year, the parents and Frank left India and settled at 23 Alderbrook Road, Balham, London. They were at this address in April 1901. Amy stayed on in India at the mission.

 

Ernest spent Easter at Mr Seymour's, the father of Geraldine Seymour who the family knew in Dunedin.[25]

 

Joined the Bygrove Tennis Club and met Miss Edith Pheysey.[26]

 

In May he sat his final exam, and planned to set up a practice.

 

The Pheysey family went on a boating trip.[27] Was Ernest there?

 

About this time Ernest travelled from Liverpool on the S.S. Westerland to Philadelphia, USA. He landed as an immigrant to avoid paying £40 customs duty on his dental implements.

 

Started course of study for a doctorate in dental surgery at Dental Hall, University of Pennsylvania. He gained considerable concessions for having obtained a qualification from the Royal College of Surgeons.[28]

 

With Friend Dorrell, Ernest travelled by train to Buffalo, and then to Niagara where they inspected the Falls. On to Toronto, and a 24 hour journey from there to Bruce Mines, arriving Christmas eve.[29]

Bruce Mines was a logging camp where he and Dorrell practiced dentistry to earn some money.

 

Ernest arrived back in Philadelphia, and because he missed three weeks of the course, he had to appear before the dean to get permission to continue with the course.[30] He graduated Doctor of Dental Surgery.

 

He worked his passage back to England. On the trip he was caught napping in the bow of the ship while on duty and was put onto some task that resulted in him getting splinters in his hands. Edith Pheysey while visiting the Lowe house for bible readings helped get the splinters out of his hand and from this time a romance started.[31]

 

Ernest had received an offer of a position from Arthur Hoby in Wellington which made it possible for him to offer Edith a proposal of marriage. He wrote to Edith on this date reviewing the advantages and disadvantages of going to New Zealand and of staying in England.

 

The marriage of William Ernest Lowe, aged 26, and Florence Edith Pheysey, aged 33, was solemnized at St. James's Church in the Parish of Clapham, in the County of Surrey, according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Established Church, by W. T. Hollins, vicar.[32]

The Pheysey family lived in nearby Elms Road (No.3). Edith's father, William Thomas Pheysey was a successful wine merchant. The family had lived in Cadiz, Spain, until Edith was about 14 years old, when they returned to England for the children's education. The eldest son, Herbert, remained in the wine business in Portugal, and another son, Charles, was a banker in Cairo. Edith spoke fluent Spanish.

For their wedding, Ernest and Edith were presented with an album inscribed, To Edith and Ernest from their loving brother Ted, September 6th 1902.

Very soon after the wedding, Ernest and Edith travelled to New Zealand via Paris, Marseilles, Suez, and India (Khandallah).[33]

They stopped off in Sydney and contacted Dr John Deck. Edith twice had premonitions of a shipping disaster. She dreamed that she was trying to escape from her cabin but the sea kept pushing her back down the companionway. The dreams were so vivid she was alarmed at the prospect of sailing on to New Zealand and she managed to convince Ernest to stay on in Sydney and have an operation on a fistula that was bothering him.[34] As a result they did not sail on the Elingamite which was wrecked on the WestIsland  of the Three Kings Group on the morning of 9th November, 1902.

The steamer left Sydney on November 5 bound for Auckland. The ship struck the island in fog and sank in twenty minutes. Seventeen members of the crew and twenty eight passengers were lost by drowning or exposure out of a total compliment of 194 persons.[35]

On Saturday 13 December 1902, the weekly Freelance magazine published the following article

After finishing his dental studies with Mr Hoby, Mr Ernest Lowe went to England, where he graduated into full honours as a dentist, and hung out his own shingle. In the course of not very long time he assumed further responsibilities, for he took unto himself as wife an Englishwoman. Then came an excellent offer to return to Wellington to rejoin Mr Hoby's staff, and it was accepted.

Mr Lowe and his bride came out via America,[36] and thereby hangs the incident concerning this tale - and an incident to which Mr and Mrs Lowe think they owe their lives. Whilst journeying through America, Mr Lowe met an American who had a brother who had settled in Australia. The American asked the New Zealander to "keep an eye open" for his brother, and give him his brotherly regards. It appeared that the brother in Australia bore a striking resemblance to the one in the United States.

The Lowes reached Sydney in due course, and took their passages for New Zealand by the Elingamite, and when Mr Lowe was overlooking his luggage on the wharf prior to embarking, he observed a gentleman standing near, who was the replica of the American with the lost brother. Approaching the stranger the Wellingtonian addressed him by the name of the American brother - and it was the very same long -lost relative. The Austral-American insisted upon Mr and Mrs Lowe going out to his "place" in the country - and that is how it came about that Mr and Mrs Lowe came on to Wellington by the steamer which left Sydney two weeks after the ill-fated Elingamite.

When Ernest's mother heard of the Elingamite disaster, she said not to worry, Ernest and Edith were not on that ship.

 

Doctor and M^rs Lowe arrived in Wellington on the s.s.Takapuna from Onehunga and New Plymouth.[37] On December 8^th the Evening Post reported;

Dr. William Ernest Lowe, son of Mr. John Henry Lowe, formerly Engineer-in-Chief of New Zealand Railways, has returned from Great Britain for the practice of his profession. He has spent the past four years in the study and practice of dental surgery in London and American schools, taking qualifications both at Home and abroad, and has now joined Mr. Hoby in his dental practice in Willis-street.

 

 

Dr. WILLIAM ERNEST LOWE, Doctor Dental Surgery, University Pennsylvania; Licentiate in Dental Surgery, Royal College Surgeons, England, Has commenced Dental Practice in conjunction with Mr. Hoby, 104, Willis-street.

 

Alice Edith Lowe was born at 32 Hopper Street.[38]

 

At Christmas the family presumably holidaying with brother Charles Lowe at Riwaka. A postcard was on 29 December re-addressed to c/o Wharf, Motueka.

 

It was probably in this year that they moved residence to 37 Bidwell Street. Ernest hated the name of Hopper Street. Edith came to hate the climb up the steep hill in Bidwell Street. She had two miscarriages while living there.[39]

 

Ernest appeared before and presented submissions to a parliamentary committee appointed to consider the Dentists Bill. At this time he had eight students in dentistry.[40] The classes were at first held in his home.[41]

 

Ernest wrote a card to brother Charles from Port Nelson informing Charles that he had been on a trip, and had received Charles' wire (about the birth of Charlotte Nancy Lowe?) at Murchison, and that he had hurt his leg.

 

The inaugural meeting of the Wellington Dental Association was held. President, H P Rawson; Hon Sec, Mr A Hoby; General Committee, Drs Lowe, Glendinning, etc. The only important work discussed was the arrangements for the first dental conference, to be held in Wellington in June. The larger bulk of the arrangements would fall upon the shoulders of Messrs Hoby, Glendinning and Lowe.[42]

 

At the dental conference a discussion was held on the dental curriculum drawn up by the university of New Zealand. Ernest said

I have been working on this myself for some months past, and I drew up a curriculum upon which I consulted with Mr Newell, but have come to the conclusion that his has eclipsed mine, in that he has made his fall in with the course prescribed by the University.[43]

The conference passed a motion to set up a committee consisting of Dr Lowe, Dr Cox, and Messrs Hoby, Newell, and Armstrong to formulate a syllabus and report to the next annual conference.

In a programme of practical demonstrations at the conference, on Wednesday 7 June W E Lowe presented Facing of Richmond Crown Repair (Dr Bryant's method)

The conference considered publishing a dental journal and Dr Lowe consented to be editor for 12 months. The first issue of The New Zealand Dental Journal was published in July, 1905.

The N.Z. Dental Journal for January 1906 referred to an essay, on the care of teeth, that had recently been printed in The New Zealand Times. This article had possibly been written by Ernest Lowe.  [See also Evening Post, June 5 and 8, 1905]

[8^th] Dr. Ernest Lowe (Wellington) expressed the opinion that civilisation contributed in a small way only to the teeth troubles of to-day, for it was only within the past fifty years that the diseases of the teeth had developed, meat and deteriorated bread, carbo-hydrates and lactic acid from fermentation—these things were the basic causes. Heredity also had something to contribute to it, and so had constitutional weaknesses. But if children were given sensible food which they had to chew the coming race would be the better for it.

 

fire in walter street.

several persons severely burned.

      A fire in a four-roomed, two-storied cottage at No. 16, Walter-street, about 11.20 last night, was attended with rather serious consequences, inasmuch as Mr. John Weston and his wife were severely burned about the hands, and face, and two of their children severely burned about the hands and body.

      Mrs. Weston, it appeared, was upstairs seeing the children to bed. One child occupied a front room and two others a back room on the first floor. Hearing her baby crying downstairs she rushed away to attend it, leaving behind a lighted candle near the window of the front, room. She was only downstairs a few minutes when she heard the children crying, and then discovered that the place was on fire. She rushed into the front room upstairs, secured her two-year-old daughter, and carried her downstairs. Her husband went to the rear room and lifted an eleven-year-old son out of a window on to a lean-to. Meanwhile, the third child, a girl eight years of age, ran downstairs and escaped uninjured, but all the others suffered from burns. Dr. Mackin attended the sufferers, and directed some of them to be removed to the hospital.

      The brigade received the call from Veitch and Allan's fire-alarm box, and in a remarkably quick time were at the blaze playing a good pressure of water on the house which, being lined with scrim and paper, offered every facility for the spread of the flames. When the brigades men had finished their work, it was discovered that the roof and two bedrooms with contents on the first floor had been damaged by fire, and the lower portion of the house by water.

      The house is owned by Dr. Lowe, dentist, and is insured for £220 in the New Zealand Fire Insurance office and the Standard office, but the furniture is uninsured.

      The Hospital authorities this afternoon reported that the boy and Mr. Weston were slightly better, but the little girl was still in the same serious condition as when she was admitted to the institution last night.

 

Start of a trip to Queenstown. (see Edith's diary)

 

The second dental conference was held in Dunedin early in January. On Wednesday 3 January at 10 a.m. Ernest presented a paper on Preparation of Roots and Fittings of Banded Crowns. He was appointed to the Executive Committee of the N.Z. Dental Association.[44]

The dental journal for January published an article by Ernest entitled Practical Application of Comparative Anatomy. In this he says

At the present day when such heartburnings occur over the acceptation or rejection of the Darwinian theories of the origin of species, before putting his pen to any treatise connected with such a subject, the writer must be prepared to evoke the choler of the adherents to the one or other view.  ...

The great thought to be borne in mind in the study of biology is the uniform harmony of creation.  ...  One plan has been devised, upon which every living creature has been fashioned, and from that plan no deviation can be tolerated. Modifications abound on every hand, but these again as the result of implicit obedience to immutable governing laws.

Mr. Huxley classifies these "agencies" at work in modelling the animal and vegetable kingdom as-

1. Natural Selection ...
2. Sexual Selection ...
3. Correlation of Growth. The relation that exists between organs developed from the same foetal tissue. Eg.: The skin, enamel, and nervous system all being developed from the same foetal tissue (epiblast), frequently bear a marked relation in quality, according as this tissue is strong or weak. Thus neurotic subjects frequently present bad complexions and shocking dentures, while the phlegmatic temperament is comparatively free from dental lesions.
4. Concomitant Variation. The development of one organ coincident with the suppression or disappearance of another applicable to a similar use.

 

In the early part of the year Mr. Didsbury joined Ernest's School of Dental Theory. The dental journal considered the coalition and the extension of the school in the declining days of the Act augured well for the vitality of the UniversityDentalSchool.[45]

A full page advertisement for the Wellington School of Dental Theory appears in The New Zealand Dental Journal of July 1906:

           Dr. Wm. Ernest Lowe

           Mr. W. H. Didsbury.

The course of tuition is so arranged that Students receive thorough instruction in all the syllabus subjects.

Each subject receives its own course of lectures, and a test examinations held at the conclusion of the course. The Sessions commence in January and July.

Students in country districts, who cannot spare time for the full course, can take the earlier portion by correspondence.

Further particulars of Classes and Fees forwarded on application.

The next session (July - December, 1906) commences on Thursday, 26th July.

           Address:

           c/o. Arthur Hoby, Esq., L.D.S.

                       104, Willis Street,

                                  Wellington.

An advertisement in the Journal for April 1907 includes a picture of Ernest and his students posing in the classroom with several skulls on the bench in the foreground.

In October, an advertisement appeared in the dental journal inviting applications for the position of Director of the University of Otago Dental School, the Director to take office in Dunedin by 1 May, 1907.

 

A MAYORAL LUNCHEON.

MR. BUDGE, OF MONTREAL, THE GUEST. THE Y.M.C.A. MOVEMENT. The Mayor of Wellington, the Hon. T. W. Hislop, entertained Mr. D. A. Budge, of Montreal, at a luncheon to-day in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall. Mr. Godber provided the repast. The following is the list of gentlemen who accepted th» Mayor's invitation'' to meet Mr. Budge at the luncheon : — … … A. Hoby, … … C. M. Luke, J. Pearce Luke, Dr. Lowe, … … INTRODUCING THE. GUEST. After the health, of the King had, been honoured, the Mayor referred in complimentary terms to the guest of the afternoon. Mr. Hislop said he had been delighted to take advantage of an opportunity to bring the businessmen of Wellington into direct touch with Mr. Budge, who was recognised as a leader in one of the great movements of the day. Mr. Budge was a Scotch Canadian, and a gentleman whom it was good to meet. He represented an association, which sought to catch youth, when it was young, for the purpose of training it into the best that could be made of manhood. The guest of the day was a man of catholic tastes, and one who was here for Wellington's good. The Mayor's remarks were very brief, because, as he explained, he desired to hear Mr. Budge's rather than his own voice. He had, therefore, much pleasure in introducing to them a gentleman who represented the best spirit of modern times.

      MR. BUDGE'S ADDRESS. Mr. Budge was received with enthusiastic applause on rising to reply. He was, he said, proud to bring them the greetings of the sister colony of Canada. They thought … … …

 

The dental conference was held in Christchurch. On Wednesday 13that 2 p.m. W.E. Lowe was programmed to speak on Dentistry of Today. This paper was published in the July dental journal.

 

At the Annual General Meeting of the Wellington Dental Association, Lowe was not one of the officers elected.

 

Dr. Pickerell, an Englishman, was appointed Director of the DentalSchool. The school was due to be opened in the following month.

 

The Wellington Trades Agency (on behalf of Arthur Hoby and Dr. Lowe, dentists) claimed from John Thomas Levelt £7 for dental work done for defendant's daughter. A sum of £3 6s was paid into court. Judgment was given for plaintiff for the balance of the amount claimed, with costs, £1 16s.

 

Robert William Lowe was born.

 

Dr. Pickerell and his family passed through Wellington.[46] He commented,

...allow me to congratulate the New Zealand dental Association on the possession of so enthusiastic an editor of their journal. Dr. Lowe evidently scented "copy" from afar, and before the good ship Corinthic had fairly got into port was aboard seeking to entrap the unfortunate writer of these notes. Such enthusiasm was somewhat overwhelming, and I fear at first met with such a cold refusal, but like a wise editor, he made me his debtor, and I am now trying to discharge it ...[47]

 

Edith and the children stayed with Charles and Maggie Lowe at Hui hui, Riwaka. There was a terrible row and Edith took off with the children to the Motueka Hotel and wired for Ernest to come and pick her up.[48]

 

Dr. W. E. Lowe, who has been connected with Mr A. Hoby's dental surgery for the past five years, intends to take up his residence in England. He will leave Wellington for the Old Country in March.

 

The Fourth Annual Conference of the N.Z. Dental Association was held in Auckland. Ernest read a paper entitled, The Future of Dentistry in New Zealand.[49] A presentation was made to him by Dr. Cox on behalf of the Association of a silver inkstand[50] as a souvenir of the happy says they had spent together, during the existence of the association. Dr. Cox said it was a small token of a very great esteem  they felt for the man who had been such a strong worker in the interests of the profession ever since he had returned to New Zealand.

Ernest replied that the presentation came as a complete surprise, and he was the more grateful. The hour had come when he had to bid farewell to the brethren of the Association with whom he had so long and so happily been associated, and he regretted it very much. He had grown up as it were with the Association, to which he was proud to belong, and from which he had learnt so much. Its members were men who in the main were self-trained and self-educated, and not so fortunate as he had chanced to be through the generosity of his father; men who had accomplished as much with the odds against them as when trained in the Old Country with the best of facilities.

He said that he was very loath to leave New Zealand, but he felt his work in life lay in the cause of education. He was going away from the land of his birth to find the place his desire sought, and he regretted that it was not in New Zealand but in England that he had found the place and his opportunity. He was glad, however, he would have the handsome souvenir always before him to remind him of the men amongst whom it had been so great a pleasure to him to live and to work.

Dr. Cox said that it would emphasise the good will of the Association had for Dr. Lowe if the members made him an honorary life member, and this was carried with great applause. Ernest acknowledged the compliment as the greatest honour they could confer on him. Three cheers were then given with great vigour.[51]

The Wellington Dental Association reported on the departure of Dr. Lowe and that he had shown himself a keen and untiring member of the Association. As an editor and practitioner, he had earned a deserved reputation; as a debater at the conferences his arguments were always solid,and some of his reforms he endeavoured to bring about concerning the government of dental practice deserved better support than they obtained when brought forward upon various occasions in the past. He would leave behind him a splendid monument of his work in the files of the Dental Journal.[52]

Ernest had a brown terrier dog called Paddy which would travel on the tram with him to work. Before leaving New Zealand he gave the dog to his brother Ken. One time when Ken was in Ohakune, the dog disappeared. It was found on the train that travelled from Auckland to Wellington, and was taken off at Marton from where Ken claimed it.

 

Ernest and family left for England by the Arawa. He was farewelled by several members of the Dental Association at the steamer's side. Mr. A. Hubert Hoby, who had recently returned to New Zealand, took up Ernest's duties.[53]

According to the family, Ernest left New Zealand because he was not appointed Director of the DentalSchool as he had expected or been led to expect.

The Arawa called at Montevideo. Ernest left the ship and went to Buenos Aires, sending Edith and the children on to England alone. It caused a lot of consternation in the Pheysey family when Edith arrived alone with the children and no husband.

In Buenos Aires, Ernest contacted a Dr. Arthur Webster who had a dental practice at Esmeralda 314. Dr. Webster offered Ernest a partnership in the business (as he was looking towards retirement?) and gave him three months to think about it.

Ernest went on to England and looked at three possible positions teaching dentistry, but decided the best prospects were in Buenos Aires.

 

The family travelled to Buenos Aires. At first they lived for about eight months in a boarding house at Quilmes in the city. Bob learned to walk in the Plaza de Mayo.

They then shared a house with Dr. Hamilton,[54] a New Zealand missionary, at 441 Calle San Vicente, San Martine, where they lived until they moved to their own house in San Martine on the corner of Calle Puerrydon y Cochabamba (about 1911?)[55]

 

In this year Ernest revalidated his dental qualifications in Argentina.[56]

 

Edith went to England with the children, so that she could have an operation at the hospital at Southport where her brother-in-law Ted Lowe was employed. Alice stayed with her grandmother Pheysey at 3 Elms Road, Clapham and went to a school on the corner of that road. Bob, only three years old, had not been christened, and on this account was not accepted by grandmother Pheysey and he stayed with a nurse in the country.

While Bob was at his grandfather's house at 23 Alderbrook Road, he was given glasses to wear. As soon as he put them on he fell down the stairs and broke them.

At weekends, Alice stayed with her Lowe grandparents at nearby 23 Alderbrook Road. She remembered her grandmother well, lying on a couch doing crocheting. She had different crochet work for every day of the week. She was in a lot of pain, but bore it very bravely. Aunt Amy Lowe was still in India at this time, but she was called back to help look after her mother later.

About this time, Ernest bought out Dr.Webster's dental practice in Esmeralda 314. He was able to get some finance from the maid and cook (Ann and Mary) of his Uncle Eugene Cronin. Some months after they had loaned the money to Ernest, the bank in which they had previously deposited their savings went bankrupt.

Ernest continued his dental practice until 1933 when his eyesight started to fail him. In that time he had the honour of attending five of the presidents of the Republic.[57] One was Vice-President Frederica de la Placa who became president when President Roca died. He attended many of the British community and for many years was the honorary dental surgeon to the British hospital in Buenos Aires. He had a large clinic with several assistants. One, Dr. Tidball, was an American who revalidated his qualifications and then set up on his own.

 

Ernest's mother died.

 

Ernest graduated Doctor of Dental Surgery with Honours from the University of Buenos Aires.[58] His thesis was on the harmful effects of children brushing their teeth at an early age because it removed the natural protection.[59] His thesis was republished 50 years later because it was still very applicable to the time.

 

Father, John Henry Lowe, and sister Amy Lowe stayed on their return from a trip to New Zealand. They sailed from New Zealand in the Ruahine on Thursday 3rd April and arrived at Motevideo on 22 April.[60] They departed for England on 24 May.

Later in the year, Alice went with Mrs. Bulmer to England. Alice went to school in Yeovil, and didn't return home until 1919.

 

Alice travelled to England with Mrs. Bulmer and went to boarding school at Greystones, Yeovil. This was a Brethren school run by elderly ladies. Alice ended up the last pupil, and she studied some subjects in the Government school. In the summer holidays she stayed for a month with grandfather Lowe and Aunt Amy at 23 Alderbrook Road, Clapham, London.

Aunt Amy took Alice to lots of places. Alice remembered going to Kew, Hampton Court, and the Royal Horse Show where the horses danced to music.

On one holiday, she hired a bicycle and Alice learned how to ride it by holding on to a wall and falling off. When she had learned to ride, Aunt Amy suggested they could cycle to see Uncle William in Wimbledon and have tea with him. As they came near to Wimbledon, they had to go down a hill with a busy crossing at the bottom. Alice's bike had poor brakes and she couldn't slow down the bike so she called out to Aunt Amy asking what she should do. Amy replied to jump, which she did and as a result her white sailor suit became covered in black tar. And so they proceeded to Uncle Williams.

Uncle William had a scraggy beard. he was looked after by a niece of his late wife, Agnes Mary Maynard, who was an organiser for the Girl Guide movement in England and U.S.A. and was subsequently decorated by King George V. In the dining room there was a huge mahogany table covered with bundles of letters about 50 cm high. At one corner, an ordinary piece of wood had been nailed on to the table and had a leg, and on that Uncle William wrote his letters. He corresponded with church groups in many countries.

They had tea in the garden on a glorietta, and then rode home again.

Often Alice visited her great uncle Doctor Eugene Cronin who lived in the Old Manor House, OldTown, Clapham. She would walk across Clapham Common and perhaps stay to lunch. First she would have to ask Jane (Weingärtner). Uncle Eugene nearly always had some little gift in his pocket to give her. He was quite a character. He would often attend his patients on a bicycle, wearing a top hat, coat tails over his red Salvation Army jersey, the tails flying as he rode along.

Aunt Em was a very sweet person. She had a sister Aunt Min and a cousin Jemima. She (Aunt Em?) helped to care for grandmother Lowe until Amy returned from India.

On one holiday, Alice saw a Zeppelin raid and heard bombs dropping.

 

Bob attended the English school in Buenos Aires. He became a keen sportsman, especially in football and athletics. He won numerous prizes in athletics.

 

In the spring, Ernest was in England.[61]

 

 

Ernest's brother Frank Augustus Lowe was killed at Gallipoli.

 

Alice visited the Ted Lowe relations in Southport and both Joy Lowe and Helena Cronin Lowe did paintings in her autograph book.

 

Alice returned to Argentina. As she had not obtained any school attainments, her father sent her for special tuition to Miss Brightman O.B.E. who was a great influence. Miss Brightman developed the NorthlandsSchool, which became the best English school in South America.[62]

 

The family moved into their new house, Villa Wairoa, at Olivos.

 

Soon after her return to Buenos Aires, Alice became friendly with Mrs. Engwald through the Brethren Assembly. Mrs. Engwald was the wife of the accountant to the Eldorado Company which was formed to develop the area around Eldorado in the province of Misiones in the far northwest of Argentina between Paraguay and Brazil.

Alice was helping with the refreshments at a Brethren conference, and at the end of the day was sitting by herself tucking into her sandwiches when she was approached by a couple who looked like newly weds. They started talking and found they all lived in Olivos. They ended up good friends and Alice was invited to the Engwald's home.

Alice reciprocated and invited the Engwald's to her parent's home for supper. After the meal Mr Engwald asked if they were going to have a mate. Up until then Ernest had never taken yerba and had never allowed the family to take it. Some mate was prepared for the assembled company. Ernest took to mate like a duck to water.

Ernest became friendly with Mr. Engwald. Mr Engwald had invested in a property at Eldorado and had started developing it, but ran out of capital for further development. In 1924 Ernest went into a partnership with him, forming Engwald y Lowe, to continue the development of the land which was called Petie-Cue. A Mr. Falbo was employed to develop and manage the property.

 

San Juan.[63]

 

Father, and sister Amy, visited from England.[64] They departed from Argentina on the 15th or 16th October 1921, stopped at Rio de Janiero on the 20th October, and the Canary Islands on the 30th October. They arrived back in England on the 4th or 5th of November.[65]

 

Bob developed a knee problem which the chief surgeon at the British Hospital, Sir John O'Connor, diagnosed as tubercular, and confined Bob in hospital for nine or ten months with his leg in splints. But Bob developed a suppurating infection in his toenails. At the time, Ernest was the honorary dentist to the hospital and when he found out about his sons condition, he arranged his rounds so as to meet Sir John O'Connor at Bob's bedside.

Ernest showed Sir John the toenails, and told him the problem resulted from a lack of cleanliness in the hospital. Sir John reacted angrily, with the result that Ernest resigned his position as dentist with the hospital, and took Bob home. A verandah was glassed in to make a bedroom with plenty of fresh air. Dr. Petti was consulted, and he removed the splints. A photo of Bob with his leg in splints, dated 1 January 1923, is inscribed His first day up.

 

Mr. Engwald interested Ernest in buying land at Eldorado which was at a good price. Ernest bought 600 hectares from a plan without inspecting the land, which was called Las Mercedes.

Some years previously Ernest had assisted Sr. Enrique Torral, a Spaniard, set up business as a dental supply salesman. Before this, all dentists requirements had to be imported direct from England. Sr. Torral decided he wanted to go back to Spain and paid off Ernest. With this money Ernest bought the land at Las Mercedes.

About this time the house at Olivos, Wairoa, was rented to an American family by the name of Hastings.[66]

 

The family sailed to England on SS Herschel. Dr. Ted Lowe was consulted over Bob's knee, and he was referred to a specialist, who considered there was nothing wrong with the knee, and prescribed gentle exercise to build up muscle tone.

They travelled around England by car, an Austin 20 they named Queen Bess. On April 26 they visited father John Henry Lowe at Whitstone House, Shepton Mallet.[67] They visited Wells and Glastonbury, two sisters who lived at Red Hall, Broome,[68] Kidderminster, Andover, and Tewkesbury.

Bob was admitted to FriarSchool, Bangor, Wales. He was given dispensation from vigorous sports, but was advised to cycle as much as possible for exercise. He was able to cycle around and see much of North Wales and Anglesey. On one holiday he cycled to London and stayed with the Arundel family at Highgate where sister Alice was living, and then to Bristol to stay with Pheysey relatives (mother's sister).

On another holiday Bob visited his grandfather, John Henry Lowe at Whitstone House, Shepton Mallet. Bob got on well with him, and found him a gentle saintly man whom he couldn't help but love. One piece of advice given by his grandfather was useful in later years and that was with regards to labour relations – never get a man into a tight fix when reproving him, always give him a way of escape so he can save face, unless he is so bad you have to get rid of him. Most of the labour Bob subsequently employed at Mercedes were Paraguayan natives who were very sensitive to their image and didn't like to be humiliated.

Grandfather Lowe told Bob how when he was in New Zealand in the early days, he would always rather share a tent with a Maori than a European because the Maoris were cleaner and more considerate. Bob later found he preferred to share a tent with a Paraguayan than a European peasant because the Paraguayan were very clean.

After Bob was settled at Friar's School, the rest of the family toured Scotland, taking Violet Jellicoe with them.

At some time they visited Edith's cousin Hubert Pheysey at Luton and spent a day with his family. He had 8 children, in the order 1 boy, three girls, 1 boy, three girls. They were treated to a five course dinner, and there were five glasses for the drinks, one for each course.

In Scotland, Alice and her parents attended the St. Andrews Convention.

 

Again visited grandfather Lowe at Whitstone House, Shepton Mallet. Edith wrote An Ode to Our Austin Car in Alice's autograph book. Ernest made a note in her book in London on October 15. On the same day, he wrote a poem to Alice, prior to his departure overseas, for October 27th, 1923.

Ernest and Edith sailed on the SS Princessa, arriving in Motevideo on November 15.[69]

Alice remained in London and trained at a chiropody school for six months. She boarded with the Arundel family in Highgate and travelled by bus to the school for the classes which were held in the evening. As part of the training she had to practice on charwomen, the wives of policemen, with the most appalling feet. The women were passed on their husbands old boots to wear out.

 

Edith wrote to Alice and Bob from the Phoenix Hotel in Buenos Aires where they were staying because Wairoa was still occupied by tenants. News on getting through customs and on the poor state of the city and government economy.

 

Edith wrote to Alice and Bob, having just moved back into Wairoa, about the servants and previous tenants, and plans to live in town.

 

Bob wrote a letter to his parents from Plas Menai.

 

Ernest was operated on for a tumour on his neck. Edith suffering from tonsilitis. (Edith letter to “Alice & Bobbie”, 10-03-1924)

 

At the beginning of April Ernest and Edith were on week’s holiday at Atlantida. On the 9th April Edith wrote to Bob from the British Hospital where she was in for assessment of the leg pains she had been increasingly suffering. She was home again on the 15th.

 

Alice turned 21 years of age.

At ?[70] Alice met a gentleman who had two stores in London, one in Regent Street and one in Oxford Street, hairdressers and beauty salons. Alice asked if she could get a job. As it happened, the lady chiropodist was going on holiday shortly afterwards, and Alice was given the position. So for a month she worked in Oxford Street and earned her first pounds, the only money she ever earned. With her earnings she bought her mother a crystal salad bowl.

 

Ernest and Edith made their first trip to Misiones to inspect the property of which they were part owners. They were accompanied by Mr Engwald. See Edith’s detailed account to Alice and Bob.

 

In the August summer holidays Alice and Bob met up with Aunt Lena and travelled with her and two of her girls in their four-seater Austin car to visit the Kennaway home of Escot House. Lena and Bob sat in the front and Alice, Joy and Arlie in the back. On the way the car broke down. A steam roller came along, and the driver seeing a lady with children stranded offered to give them a tow. He put a wire around the front and off they went. Somehow the wire tangled in the steering and the car started veering from left to right. Aunt Lena got very worried and tried to get the attention of the steam-roller driver by tooting and waving but without success. They were going uphill and travelling quite slowly, so Lena jumped out, leaving Bob at the wheel, and tried to run ahead to catch up with the steam roller. In the end someone ahead saw the predicament and managed to get the driver to stop.

 

Edith wrote to Bob from Calle Pina 3147, Belgrano just a fortnight after leaving Wairoa. “... a far better house ... Wairoa very expensive to live in and impossible to economise ... not imposing like Wairoa but inside most spacious ...”

“Poor old Bess Secundus (car) has not yet been restored to full health, the bad smash she had was very difficult to put right ...”

 

Hugh Arundel wrote Ode to Alice in Alice's autograph book. She returned to Buenos Aires shortly afterwards on the Almanzora, arriving B.A. October 22.[71]

Alice set up her own business in Buenos Aires. She had a room in the Consultorio. Her parents would allow patients only by appointment, and few people came. The practice was short lived because Alice met Sherbourne Kennedy and he didn't like her doing the work.

 

Edith went to England to bring Bob back from school, expecting to return at the end of May.[72] She and Bob stayed with her sisters in Bristol while Bob received tutoring for the London Matriculation examination, which he passed.

During the year Alice went with her father to Eldorado, travelling by train to Posadas, a trip of about 30 hours. Ernest had got to know people on the railway and he was surprised when they stopped at the stations that people wouldn't talk to him. They would say hello and then go on their way. Nearing Posadas, he asked someone why nobody would speak to him, and was told it was because he had a new lady with him. From then on he introduced Alice to everyone so they knew she was his daughter.

On this trip Alice fell into a pit for trapping animals.

 

Ernest wrote on notepaper headed “Welcome” 2060 Conde (Belgrano);

A man is formed by his reaction to his environment, and his worth is the co-relation between God’s purpose for him and that reaction.

A man can give out as much truth as he has assimilated, but his spiritual value in ministry, will be limited to his experience of God in that assimilation. W.E.L.

 

On October 12 Uncle Ted Lowe wrote to Bob acknowledged having received a postcard from him with his exam passes. Edith and Bob returned to Buenos Aires. Alice and her father went to Montevideo to meet them.[73]

In Buenos Aires Bob started work with a firm of auditors, but did not enjoy the job. He decided he wanted to go to Cambridge University and study history and literature, but his parents were not keen on this idea. One day on the way home to Belgrano from the city, his father talked about Misiones where he had bought land and compared it with early days in New Zealand. He suggested that Bob should go to Misiones and see the land and visit the Iguazú Falls before going to England.

 

 

Holiday at Atlantida, and secured a site there for a holiday whare.[74]

 

Bob travelled by boat from Buenos Aires up the Parana River to Eldorado, a trip taking about a week. He stayed with Señor Falbo, an Italian married to a Danish woman, who managed the property at Petie-Cue for the company Engwald y Lowe. The property was 9 kilometres from the port and a road had been developed to it.

About 10 hectares of forest had been cleared and planted in yerba tea. Some of the plantation was 4-5 years old and ready for its first harvest. Bob helped with the clearing and burning of another ten hectares of forest for more yerba planting. He enjoyed the work.

 

Edith wrote to Bob from Calle Conde 2060, Belgrano to where they must have recently moved. She and Alice were doing up the house.

 

Edith and Alice travelled by steamer to Misiones. They went on one ship as far as Corrientes where they stopped for the day. Alice met Charles Sherbourne Kennedy on the boat and she went ashore with him at Corrientes. They took a tram to the race track and back again.

Charles Kennedy was travelling with a dentist friend who was an acquaintance of Ernest. They were going to see the Iguazú  Falls before Charles returned home to the U.S.A. He had set up an ice-cream factory in Buenos Aires. Previously there was only Italian ice cream made in Argentina.

From Corrientes they took a smaller boat to travel further up the Parana. At Posadas they met up with Ernest who had travelled on ahead.

Alice took up a German Shepherd dog for Bob, and she would walk it around the decks at night when there were no passengers around. At meal times she would gather up the scraps for the dog. Charles Kennedy told the company that Alice was hungry and was taking the food to eat in her cabin!

Other passengers on the boat were ex-president Hardy and his wife and daughter.

Ernest, Edith and Alice arrived at Petie-Cue to see the first harvest of yerba. They stayed at Falbo's house. After the harvest, his father asked Bob what he thought about the life in Misiones, and that he would like to develop the 600 hectare property of Las Mercedes, not as Engwald y Lowe, but as Lowe and Son. Bob agreed to stay one and develop Mercedes.

 

Juan Weber and Santo Gonzalez were sent to start work on Las Mercedes. The first clearing for the homestead and nursery is to be made on the southern boundary of Lot 193, on an area of 5 ha. This area was chosen because it has plenty of water and black earth.[76]

 

R. W. Lowe paid the Tigre Boat Club $230 entrance fee.[77]

 

“The brunt of the trail is finished, the first 5 ha almost cleared, and soon be ready to burn.”[78]

First, Bob cleared a survey line from the start of the property to the river Piraj-Guazú which had become grown over. This line dissected the property, and was developed into the road through the property to the river. The place where Bob first found the Piray-Guazú he named Eureka Point.

He set up camp in a tent by a stream, and with the help of a two men, cleared about five hectares of the forest. The trees were chopped down, left for two to three weeks, and then burned and the logs cleared.

He obtained yerba seed and sowed them in a covered seedbed. He found he had raised enough plants to plant out twenty hectares, so he cleared more land to accommodate them and planted them all out. Weeds were a major problem in the young plantings, especially in summer with the heat and almost daily showers of rain.

After about a month of living a tent, Bob built himself a shack in the native style in which he lived for some months. He dug a well to provide a permanent water supply, and then set about and built a toolshed to which was added a kitchen, sitting room and an upstairs bedroom. This building formed the basis for the present homestead at Mercedes.

Bob obtained his provisions weekly from the store at the port run by a Spaniard, Claudio Rodrigo. It was a days trip on horseback to the port and back. An arrangement was made that if Bob needed cash, he would see the storekeeper to provide it, and the store-keeper would telegraph Bob's father for the amount owed.

About a month after C.S Kennedy returned to the U.S.A., he wrote to Alice to say that he had been offered the job of running the ice-cream factory, and that when he returned to Buenos Aires perhaps she would go out with him.

 

Alice wrote to Bob that she had recently met up with Kennedy again. “I had a long lecture from Dad about encouraging worldly young men, etc: & both are very sure he’s serious.” ... “Mum likes him very much & Dad said himself he’s not bad!”

When “Ken” asked Ernest Lowe for Alice's hand in marriage, Ernest made him wait three months for a reply while he obtained references from the United States. Edith was in favour of the match.

 

This month Alice started taking lessons in typing, shorthand and book-keeping.

 

Edith and Alice were due to go on a holiday to Atlantida on this  date, and in March Ernest was due to make a trip up to see Bob.

 

Alice wrote to Bob telling of the latest events. “... welcomed home from a holiday by a huge basket of roses & ferns from my lover. ... following day ... told to choose him 3 ties so he might see what my tastes in ties was ... Next day I went into hospital & had my first dose of ether the following morning, horrid experience. ... I had quite a good time in the Sanatorium, Ken came every evening ... Then I came out & turned into a maid of all work – got a dressmaker in to start making my trousseau ... Last Tuesday Ken brought out my ring! ...” She thought it would be the last letter from that address – impending move to the Consultorio at 39 Maipu.

 

Edith wrote to Bob from Maipu 39, Piso 5^th. “Up to date we are still full of workmen, and the end is not yet. However in the domestic world I lack nothing ...” “... our wonderful fireplace smokes, we have not yet any curtains so the sitting rooms are chilly.” “... 13th the anniversary of your going to Misiones.” “... Sherbourne ... found the ideal house. A Flat in Montes de Oca.

 

The Camona building in Calle Maipú was inaugurated. Ernest had gone into a partnership, Bulmer, Hessé y Lowe, in the building and in a retail office supply firm which occupied the lower floors.

Ernest moved his practice to the fifth floor of the building. His consultorio was in the front of the building and at the back was an apartment into which the family moved from Conde 2060, Belgrano.

The consulting rooms had a marble floor and was lined with wood. It was well appointed. The following article appeared in an English Buenos Aires newspaper.

 

 

Alice and Charles Sherbourne Kennedy were married in a civil ceremony, and the following day in a church ceremony.

C. S. Kennedy, called Ken in the family and Carlos in the Church and by the Argentinians, was born 25 October, 1898, a son of Samuel Ridgway Kennedy and Alphonsine Dube Kennedy, of Philadelphia, U.S.A.

In World War I he had served in the infantry of the U.S. Army. While on duty in Europe he received officer training  and held the rank of Second Lieutenant.

After the war, he went to university and took a degree in dairy chemistry. He obtained employment in the technical control laboratory of Abbots Dairies, Ice Cream Division, in Philadelphia. This training prepared him for a position with San Hermanos, a chocolate manufacturer in Buenos Aires to set up an ice cream factory, and then to manage their newly organised ice cream division.

The church wedding was very long. It was attended only by those in fellowship at the church which cut out nearly everyone that Alice knew who was young.

The next morning the couple caught a steamer to Rio de Janiero, travelling first class, the only time Alice travelled first class. It was on this trip that she got to know Sherbourne, previously her parents were always about, and they were never allowed to be alone together. They stayed in Rio about a month. There they saw the Christ statue under construction.

On their return, all the wedding presents had been packed up, and the accompanying cards had become all mixed up so that Alice had no idea who had given what. She was unable to thank people for the presents.

 

Edith wrote to Bob from the Palace Hotel in Posadas about their recent visit and problems with yerba plantings. “Father has gone off with Beltrame and Mr. Engwald and I are to follow out to S. Ana to pick him up on our way out to the ruins of S. Ignacio.

 

Edith wrote to Bob that on the day they had returned home Alice had suffered a miscarriage and she had been nursing her. “Uncle William Lowe has died and left all his money to Grandfather ... The Ancestral portrait is for Ernest ...” “... the taxidermist in Posadas ... Any birds or beasts he would do very inexpensively ... a collection would be interesting, many of these lovely birds will die out in time.”

 

Edith wrote to Bob that Alice was settled back in her flat and that wedding presents never cease coming in. “Today is Grandfather’s 86th birthday ... Amy writes that he seems weaker in body and mind ...”

 

“A bomb broke up the Boston City Bank, quite near us. We saw the ruins afterwards, only one person was killed,fortunately.”[79]

 

Grandfather John Henry Lowe died at Whitstone House, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England.

 

Ernest and Edith travelled on the SS Highland Piper to England. They were delayed in Montevideo until the 12th while a cargo of meat was loaded.

 

Bob’s 21st birthday. Edith & Ernest sent him a radio message from the ship early in the morning.

 

The ship reached Liverpool early in the morning where they were met by Amy and Ted. They stayed with Ted at Southport.

 

Amy announced that she had been asked in marriage by widower Alfred Fisher. He to stay at Shepton Mallet next week when the formal announcement will be made.

 

Travelled to Shepton Mallet with Ted and Lena, who remained for five days, staying with Amy at Whitstone House.

 

Edith Lowe wrote to Alice from Whitstone House;

“... his [Ernest’s] latest project to honour his father’s memory. You know how bad the entrance is of the Hall, well the brother who has owned the Hall, is quite willing to put it into the Stewards’ company, and then Dad & Ted will bear the expense of taking out the floor, and levelling it, and erecting a nice Porch on to the road, and dedicate it to the memory of dear Grandfather.”

The same day she wrote to Bob;

As a memorial to dear Grandfather’s memory we are disembowelling the present Hall, (gospel one) and will build a Porch in memory of him, sure that the added appearance and comfort will attract men & women to come.

This is truly worthy of the one who had the truth so much at heart, and was such a witness to His power. Dad’s ministry is attracting full attendance, and causing quite a revival with his fresh voice & matter. In English his voice is very modulated and his subject not hampered by the foreign tongue.

On July 1^st she wrote to Alice and Bob from Whitstone House;

Your father has done great work here in the little Assembly, healing up trouble, rousing interest, and today the Hall was used for the last time, as tomorrow it will be disembowelled and completely rearranged, we have a beautiful little plan for it, and it will be just a dear little Hall, with Porch, prayer room, bycicle (sic) shed, and necessary conveniences. It will cost $2000, half of which is already collected, and the building fund is open for general contributions.

 

Ernest presented the bride at the marriage of Amy Lowe to Alfred Fisher. Edith was ill with a fever and after shaking hands with the guests retired to bed. Mrs Pridham had imposed herself on Amy and she been very unpleasant about Ernest’s past relationship with her daughter causing much upset to Ernest.

 

On this day Edith received a letter from Sherbourne giving details of their holiday in Misiones. On this day Bob wrote his mother that he had “the other day” received her letters that Alice had forwarded on from B.A. on her return from Misiones. They must have then been back in B.A. over a week, and so the holiday would have been from about mid-June to Mid-July.

Alice and Bob later recalled the holiday:

They [Ken and Alice] went to Eldorado for a month's holiday, staying with Bob at Mercedes. There were only two days when it didn't rain.

Bob had an inflatable rubber canoe which seated two, but Bob had converted it so it would seat three. If it turned over, Alice, who sat in the middle, had to undo a clasp so Ken could get out.

They took the canoe, packed into two sacks, on the boat up to Puerto Iguazú. When the captain saw Bob and Ken making up the canoe on the deck of the boat, he wanted to charge freight on it.

They spent a day paddling up the Iguazú River to the Iguazú Falls, but after all the rain the current was too strong to make the falls.

In the evening they camped on the shore within hearing of the falls. At about 4 o'clock in the morning it started to rain heavily and they got wet. Bob fried eggs for breakfast while Alice held one of the men's white tropical hats over the frying pan to keep out the rain.

They then paddled all the way back to Eldorado, taking two days. At night the shadow of the forest against the sky guided them along.

At the port there was a man who had a small eating place and was able to give them a small room in which to sleep. Bob slept on the iron bedstead, while Alice and Ken shared the single matress on the floor. Alice had a need to go outside, and sat on an ant's nest. She came in covered in ants. She managed to get her clothes off under a blanket and deal with the ants.

When they returned, Philipe? was very worried about them and thought they had had a serious mishap.

Another trip they made in the canoe was down the Piraj Guazu River and shoot the rapids down to the Parana while there was a lot of water in the river. They hit a rock and holed the boat and had to walk home.

 

A postcard from Mercedes on this date shows a photograph of the employees and families on the property – about 55 people. It is enscribed on the back;

All these live at Mercedes occupying about 20 houses and huts, (ranchos). They were assembled for gospel meetings each Sunday afternoon.

Edie is seen sitting on the left & Bob standing on the right. I am standing on Edie’s left.  W.E.L.

 

Joanna Alice Kennedy born.

 

In the autumn[?] the Kennedy family were staying in Misiones. [Photo album with photos of baby Joanna]

 

Florence Margaret Kennedy born.

 

The Kennedy family travelled to Europe on the ship MV Monte Sarmiento. It called at Rio de Janiero and Lisbon and arrived at Hamburg on 4 May.[80] They travelled through Saxony and to Bonn before reaching London.

In England they stayed with Aunt Amy and Alfred Fisher. They then sailed on the SS Majestic of the White Star Line to New York and from there travelled to Philadelphia and the Niagara Falls. They returned to England on the SS Laurentic and toured to Bristol, Cheddar, Wells, Sherborne Abbey, Exeter, and London. The return to Argentina was on the Monte Sarmiento from Lisbon via Rio de Janiero.

 

Mary Rosalind Kennedy born. Alice suffered a sever asthma attack and nearly died. She was advised not to have any more children.

 

Ernest Lowe retired from his dental practice because his eyesight had started to fail. The practice was carried on by a son of the Doctor Webster from whom Ernest had originally bought it. The son had qualified as a dentist but had married a wealthy girl and wasn't interested in practicing his profession. He became a playboy and spent much of his time playing polo until his fortune ran out.

Around 1932,[81] young Webster called on Ernest and explained that he had to start work, that he was qualified as a dentist but completely out of practice, and could Ernest help. Ernest was pleased to take him on and renew the relationship with the Webster family after losing contact for many years.

Ernest moved to Misiones and built a house at Petie-Cue.[82] Bob became a naturalised Argentinian in this year.??

In this year, Mr. McKinnon, the manager of the yerba factory in Buenos Aires, interested Ernest in a property owned by a company in Paraguay and for which he, McKinnon was a mortgagee. The company was being run by the Ayala family.

Ernest, Edith and Bob made a trip to see the property of 10,000 hectares at Puerto Palmas 180 kilometres north on the Alto Parana and to meet the Ayala family. They were entertained and shown around the property. Bob and his mother were not interested in the property, but Ernest was entranced.

Bob and Edith returned to Eldorado, travelling by canoe to Puerto Iguazú and then by steamer to Eldorado, and leaving Ernest with instructions not to get involved in the business – but he did. Ernest took up 51% shares in the company, which was named Ayala, Lowe S.A., and he was made managing director.

 

Cousin Clement Hedman, of 20, Villa Saïd, Paris-XVI wrote to Ernest, c/- Mrs Fisher, Kempsey Hotel, Bath Road, Bournemouth;

I cannot imagine what has happened to your letter containing your address in Berkdale or Southport. Hence I am sending you this letter in Amy’s care at Bournemouth.

I returned home yesterday from the Riviera and found a letter awaiting me from Amy, saying that she was sitting beside Aunt Nina [Cronin] who was deathly ill from pneumonia. I sent her a telegram saying that I would telephone her that evening, which I did. I was glad to hear that Aunt Nina was much better but still very ill. I have therefore decided to go and see her and shall be in London on Monday evening at the Ritz Hotel, and intend to go to Bournemouth the following day. If Aunt Nina is better, I shall return the following day to London, where I shall remain until the latter part of the week, having some business matter to attend to. Any chance of seeing you or your son whilst there? Or either of you on my return to Paris?

If the latter is the case, our guest-room will be free for a night or two prior to the arrival of an English friend coming to stay with us for a few days. Any how, drop me a line to the Ritz any day next week.  Your affectionate cousin,  Clement

 

Ernest and Bob were on a trip to San Pedro about 144 kilometres to the east when they heard of a property with wild yerba. They found out who was the owner, and obtained a concession to harvest it. There was a house with an office and canteen, and about 20 local people were employed with the harvest.

The harvested yerba was processed in the forest to control the enzyme fermentation. The leaf was first passed through a mesh revolving drum over a fire to singe the leaf. It was then placed on a frame, made of woven split bamboo and shaped like an inverted basket, under which hot air from a fire was released from a conducting trench. After the leaf was dried, it was placed on a mat and beaten with flails to break it up. It was then packed into rawhide bags, each holding between fifty and eighty kilograms.

The yerba was brought out by mule train in six stages. Each mule carried two bags, one slung on each side. A troupe of fifteen mules with two men and a boy in charge would travel each stage of 24 kilometres. (or should it be 5 days at 20 km a day?) The mules were unloaded at the Piraj Guazú river, loaded onto a raft and pulled across the river, and then loaded onto the 1928 Ford truck and taken to Las Mercedes for storage until shipped down the river.

 

In this year, Bob became involved in a dealership with the Ford Company. One day when he was on the tractor cultivating yerba, he was stopped by Mr. Bradford, a Ford Company representative, who was passing by and asked Bob if he would be interested in becoming the local dealer for his company. Bob had no ideas on the matter, but Bradford insisted and said, Just give me an order for a car and a truck and we'll name you as representative. Bob agreed and so started up with two vehicles.

Bob started up the Ford dealership with assistance from his father.

 

Bob was given interests in Las Mercedes and Alice was given Wairoa. The Kennedy family moved into Wairoa.

 

The first of several fires in the drying kilns occurred at Las Mercedes. A three-storey building had been constructed, and machinery imported to blow hot air from a log furnace into the shed. The fans were supposed to have been constructed so they would filter out any sparks, but sparks got through and set the yerba and sheds alight resulting in a major conflagration.

 

The building for the Ford Agency was completed. Bob had decided that if he was going to work a dealership, he needed a depot. So he had rented a small area near the river at Kilometre 2, because all the traffic from the port would come past. He then organised the services of a carpenter and a bricklayer to construct a building, for which he would make a payment with a vehicle.

About this time, Bob first met Maud Melvin, daughter of Dr. Melvin of Porterville, California. Maud was teaching at a church school in Buenos Aires and had been friendly with Alice Kennedy for some years. She travelled to Eldorado with the Kennedy family and there met Bob.

 

Patricia Joy Kennedy born.

 

In 1938 a cyclone caused considerable devastation in the San Pedro forests and blocked the trails, so it was decided to abandon the scheme.

Early in the year, Bob spent about six weeks in Buenos Aires "living it up". On considering the prospect of returning to Eldorado, he could not see any future living on his own as there was little social contact amongst the settlers, most of whom were German or Italian. On the spur of the moment he sent a cable to Maud Melvin, who had returned to California, and asked her to marry him. After a few days he received a reply to say “Yes”. He telegraphed his father in Eldorado and got a blistering reply back. Not only was Bob flaunting convention, but he would be away for the yerba harvest. (In early years this was carried out from about the end of March but later was carried out in July and August. It was found that if the yerba was harvested in June, new growth would be stimulated that would then be frosted and growth would be slow in the spring.)

After this time in Buenos Aires Bob didn't have much money left so he went to the Bank of London, with whom the Ford Agency had dealings for credit to buy cars, and asked for a personal loan of 10,000 pesos. After intensive questioning the loan was granted. He then caught a Japanese ship to San Diego, California, travelling immigrant class. A few days later, on 25 June, Bob and Maud were married.

Bob bought the latest in Ford cars with all the extras including white tyres, and he and Maud toured the west coast for about a month. There was no ship travelling from the west coast to Buenos Aires and so they drove to New York to catch a ship from there. In New York, Bob sold the car for a good price and bought first-class tickets on a ship to Buenos Aires.

When Bob and Maud arrived in Eldorado, they found that Ernest had moved into Las Mercedes which he liked much better though Edith preferred Petie-Cue. Bob and Maud moved into the Petie-Cue house but as it was not to Bob's satisfaction, he enlarged and renovated the house next to the Ford Agency in which an employee had been living.

It was on Bob's return from that he heard of the cyclone in the San Pedro forests and the decision was made to cease harvesting the wild yerba. Bob fell out with his father at this time - he was “still in the pullet stage, finding his spurs and feeling cocky.”

Bob swapped his shares in Las Mercedes with his father's shares in the Ford Agency, and for the next few years Bob was full time in the agency.

 

Elizabeth Irene Kennedy born.

 

Ernest’s sister Amy Fisher came to Eldorado and lived with Ernest and Edith at Las Mercedes. Alice and Ken at Wairoa, and later with Bob and Maud at Las Palmas. She stayed for about seven years.

 

Alice Antoinette Lowe –Toni, was born.

 

Ernest took Edith, Amy, and the Kennedy family to a YMCA Camp at Piriapolis, Uruguay for five weeks.[84]

 

Ernest wrote to Ken about the transfer of Pohler from Maipú to Mercedes, and reported the fourth frost for the month. The lemon fruits had been burnt and were dropping in many parts from the frosts. Plantations on the high lands suffered the most, and so far Petie-Cue had escaped with little damage.[85]

During the war years, Alice had numerous missionaries from Africa to stay. They would travel on the neutral Argentinian boats, and sometimes whole families would end up staying 6-8 weeks

 

Edith Dorothea Lowe – Edie, was born.

 

Mary Kennedy was staying with her grandparents at Mercedes, and Joanna and Florence were at Cordoba.

 

Ernest wrote to Ken about alterations to the sun room and the new bathroom at Wairoa, that Robert was definitely contemplating the abandonment of his plan to go to the war, and referred to Mary staying with them and Joanna and Florence being in Cordoba.

 

In another letter to Ken, Ernest wrote of having had to draft all the working plans for both the new drying plant buildings and the modification of the old. The brickwork was quite elaborate. He was glad to hear how Beatrix Airth was managing at Maipú.[86]

 

Charles William Kennedy born.

 

The Ayala-Lowe company in Paraguay had fallen on hard times with the slump in yerba prices during the 1930's. The company had built up a large bank overdraft and was unable to pay the interest on its mortgages.

Ernest explained his problems to Bob and because his name was attached to the company, he felt a moral obligation to pay off the debts. Ernest asked Bob if he would make arrangements with the bank and mortgagees and take over management of the Las Palmas property. Bob was not keen, but felt a duty to help out his father who had done so much for him. He agreed to the proposal, but on the condition that the Ayalas leave.

Bob went to the bank and the creditors and told them the situation. He asked for three years without interest and he would manage the property. They agreed, knowing Bob's background and ability. (Bob took over his father's share of the company and all the debts so that creditors would have no call on the Ford Agency which was doing well and had some capital.??) The Ford Agency was left with a manager.

Bob bought a boat named Swastika and went up the Parana to Las Palmas. He lived on the boat, and built a house high above the river to which Maud and family subsequently moved. The house was two-storied with a large drawing room in which there was a billiard table. The doors and windows for the house came from an old hotel at the Eldorado port. There were 365 steps from the river to the house. Two boxer dogs were put on a combined leash to help Maud up the steps.

The ships travelled up the river as far as the Mendez-Guira Falls. The Average speed against the current was about 8-10 km/hr. In a flood the river could rise as high as 30 metres. Wharves and loading ramps along the river were built at different levels to accommodate the ships at different flood levels. By 1959 Route 59 had been opened as far as Iguazú and the boat was taken from there to Palmas.

Ayala agreed to Bob taking over management but he refused to move away. He thwarted Bob's management by turning the labour against him and many of them boycotted the first harvest. Bob was able to get other labour to do the work. In the first year he was able to get credits from the Bank of London in Ascuncion to pay for the harvest and storage of the crop until there was sufficient to charter a ship to carry it to Buenos Aires. The bales of yerba were slid down a chute from beside the house down to the river.

Beside cultivating yerba he harvested wild yerba growing in the forest for which there was a good demand for blending because it was of a higher quality than the cultivated yerba. Bob felled timber and ran zebu (Brahman) cattle. In time, he paid off the overdrafts and mortgages, and he negotiated the sale of Ayala's shares so that he became the sole owner.

The timber was felled and dragged to the river where it was made up into rafts of 200 logs, with one hardwood log between three softwood logs for flotation. The logs were wired together and the rafts ....?

 

This morning we celebrated the Lord's Supper for the first time in Eldorado.[87]

 

Robert recommended Mr. Alexander Harris from Victoria. He and his wife drove over ... stayed. Edie and I feel that Harris combines the attributes I require. I shall have to build him a home and I am disposing of the tennis court as the site. Edith has had another malarial attack.[88]

 

Frances Charlotte Lowe – Paquita, was born.

 

Today we commenced the 1943 (yerba) harvest beginning at Petie-Cue. The drought is still upon us, last month only 35.5 mm – total 386 mm since August; 48 mm a month instead of 200 mm. I hope the whole Kennedy clan will come to Mercedes for the winter holidays at my invitation and expense. Thursday is the best train to connect with the river steamer Cruz de Malta on Saturday morning. No other train connects arrival and departure from Posadas on the same day.[89]

He refers to Mary's appendicitis.

 

 

Edith wrote a poem called Goodbye in Alice's autograph book to express Bob's thoughts on leaving The Bungalow.

 

Ernest on board Cruz de Malta, travelling from Posadas to Palmas.[90]

 

In this year Ernest requested Bob's help with the management of Las Mercedes, and from then Bob spent his time between the two properties. His boat at this time was the Avance.

 

John Robert Lowe was born in the U.S.A.

Maud had gone to California when she was seven months pregnant because her father was ill. She promised to be back for John's birth so John would be born an Argentine citizen because there were difficulties with foreigners owning land, especially in the border areas.

There was only one boat on which Maud could return from California and that was from Los Angeles, through the Panama Canal and down the coast to Buenos Aires. Maud had to wait and see if the ship's doctor would agree to her travelling on the ship at such an advanced stage of pregnancy. She received a phone call to say “No” and so John was born in the U.S.A. and he became a citizen of that country. The ship was wrecked on the voyage and the passengers lost all their luggage.

The news of John's birth was cabled to the family in Buenos Aires, transcribed and sent to Eldorado. An arrangement had been made with the ship that when there was news, the ship would give blasts on its whistle and a message in a bottle would be dropped for Bob to row out and pick up. Maud's mother sent a message that a 10 pound yank had arrived. Bob wasn't sure whether a yank meant a boy, or could be a girl.

Maud subsequently caught a boat from New Orleans. Aboard was King Karol of Rumania with his girlfriend, Mme Lupescoe, and survivors of the shipwreck. King Karol was in charge of the Crossing the Line ceremony and as John was the youngest passenger the King made a great fuss of him and gave him a memento of the occasion.

 

Ernest took Edith, Alice and her family for a holiday at the YMCA camp at Piriapolis, Uruguay  on the opposite coast of the Rio de la Plata.[91]

 

Sister Amy Fisher returned to England.[92]

 

In letters to Edie, Ernest wrote on the 1st of the month about the flight on the float plane from Buenos Aires to Posadas. On the 4th, he wrote that Mr. Harris was shutting up his house and was expected to sail on Sunday 8th. The houses at Petie-Cue were progressing well, and that the repairs to the tung drier were to commence the following day.

On the 6th, he wrote,

The bell does not ring until 6.30 and as I rise about 5.30 I am ready to be out in the plaza when the men roll up to sign the book. I started off by ruling a line under the last signature at 6.40 the first morning, an innovation which caused quite a little cackling on the part of the late birds but the next morning I ruled the line at 6.35 and there was no more heard.

On Sunday 9th, he reported that after the meeting he had 1½ hours in the Clinica. On the following day, Bob, Maud and family arrived, and they planned to leave on Sunday for Palmas with Oberdil's launch. Ernest aimed to start the yerba harvest at Mercedes on 24th March.

Ernest had received a letter from his brother Charles (in New Zealand), and reported, Poor old chap, he seems to miss his Mag greatly.[93]

 

The meeting on Sunday 16th was attended by Mrs. Melvin, Maud and family. Bob and Maud were then not expected to leave before Thursday.

On the 22nd, Bob and Maud cast off 10.45, too late to make Palmas the same day and they contemplated sleeping on board. The ninth of the building programme of ten new houses for Mercedes was now roofed and only one more had to be constructed at Petie-Cue. On the following day he wrote asking after Patsy's throat operation and hoping she was back at Wairoa.

On the 24th, the fires were lighted in the furnace, and cutting was to commence the following day with 40 registered cutters. He started the season by giving the workers a lesson on the value of money - work is the basis of prosperity. If man will not work neither shall he eat.

 

A new Post Office at Km 9, Eldorado was opened. Ernest donated over half of the cost ($45,000 of $87,000)[94] and the other locals the remainder. Previously the only post office was at the port.

Ernest also donated a park to the town, but it wasn't accepted and so he had to maintain it himself. It was later taken over by the local authority. (In 1979, the army had whitewashed the bases of all the tree trunks.)

 

One day the steamer tooted to indicate it had a passenger to go ashore, and a canoe was sent out to pick up the person. Ernest had arrived and wanted Bob to return to Las Mercedes. Ernest was feeling his age, now 72, and Edith was pining for the family in Buenos Aires. He also was not happy with Mr. Harris who had been employed at Las Mercedes since 1943 to help Ernest with the management and books. Ernest proposed to turn all his estates over to Bob and Alice if Bob would manage them, to which Bob agreed.

Bob moved to Mercedes and lived in the house that had been built in 1943 for Mr. Harris. He bought a Piper Club plane and learned to fly it so he could commute between Las Mercedes and Las Palmas, a trip of 60 minutes flying time and about 20 minutes customs clearance. Maud had trained to be a pilot in California but she never flew Bob's planes. She was the 65th woman pilot in the U.S.A.

From end November 1948 to March 1949, Bob and family expected to stay at Las Palmas,[95] but were later expected to return at the end of January. Bob had taken over the main work at Las Mercedes leaving Ernest relatively free.[96]

 

In a letter to brother Charles from Las Mercedes, Ernest reported the Edith was back home after a serious illness [appendicitis and pneumonia], though very weak and confined to bed. He himself was still pretty shaky but on the whole pretty well. He replied to Charles's proposition of a visit to Argentina.

 

A letter to Charles from Maipú, Buenos Aires, Ernest reported that he was in his town office on business until the end of the month.

 

At Las Mercedes, Edith fully recovered from her illness and almost as active as before. The harvest was finished and all under shelter in barns awaiting shipment to B.A. Robert had carried out the responsibility to his satisfaction and was preparing to return to his own place in Paraguay as soon as the school closed at the end of November.

 

At Las Mercedes, having just returned from a visit to the Kennedy family at Wairoa, Olivos over the Christmas and New Year season.

Both Edie and I are wonderfully well - both of us had rather poor health during 1947-48. We find the life at Mercedes most suitable to our somewhat advanced age and really prefer Eldorado to Buenos Aires. The lack of spiritual fellowship is a great loss.

Bob and family have returned to Paraguay but I expect him back by the end of the month. He has taken over the main work here leaving me relatively free.

There are further references to Charles coming to visit in the autumn.

 

In a letter to Charles from Las Mercedes;

Edith and I returned from B.A. three days ago making the journey very comfortably by rail, and our own car from Posadas (railhead). Next month we expect a visit from Alice and 3 youngest children during July. Alice's health does not prosper in B.A. during the winter months and suffers greatly from bronchial asthma, whereas the climate of Misiones suits her admirably.

I now have Robert administrator here.. I would like to visit New Zealand again and Edith would accompany me ... her health is greatly improved since her serious illness following the removal of her appendix last year. My proposition is to fly to South Africa, visit the Cronin cousins in the Transvaal, and then either return to Capetown and take a boat to Australia and New Zealand, or carry on across the Indian Ocean to Ceylon and from there to Australia and N.Z. ... wondering why I had not heard from you again  ... you had referred to your proposed visit very definitely.

Alice suffered bad asthma. In the winter she would go up to Mercedes with the children. They would catch the train to Posadas and then the boat to Eldorado.

 

Plans for the whole Kennedy family to go to the U.S.A. for about six months didn't eventuate because the peso devalued dramatically. Joanna went on her own.

 

Ernest wrote to brother Charles from Las Mercedes;

From early December 1949 Edith was far from well ... took her to Alice at Wairoa, Olivos - until 10 May, 1950 ... she returned with me by boat ... six days travel up the Parana and Alto Parana rivers.

Robert is temporarily in Ascencion, capital of Paraguay, and his family at his place Palmas on the Alto Parana, 180 km further up the river from Eldorado. Robert divides his time between the two establishments ... made possible by a small plane, a Piper Cruiser. ... 60 minutes flying time but plus some 20 minutes delay from customs clearing.

 

Ernest wrote to brother Charles from Las Mercedes;

Next month we hope to have a visit from Ken and Alice - he takes his holidays in winter on account of his ice cream industry. Ken has not been here some five or six years.[97]

Ernest built an annex on to the ground floor of Wairoa for himself and Edith because they found the stairs beyond their strength. It consisted of a bedroom and a bathroom adjoining a room to be used as sitting room.[98]

 

Bob temporarily in Ascuncion and the family at Las Palmas.[99]

 

In November, Bob flew to Buenos Aires to bring his father back to Las Mercedes after accompanying Edith to Wairoa to live with the Kennedy family.

After a week or so at Las Mercedes they flew up to Las Palmas to be with Bob's family over Christmas and New Year.[100]

 

Bob flew Maud, family and his father to Las Mercedes. Two days previously Bob and his father had made an inventory of the zebu cattle on the Las Palmas property.

 

Bob went to California with the idea of buying another plane, and to bring back Maud, Toni and Edie who had been staying with Maud's parents for about three months. Ernest stayed at Las Mercedes while he was away.[101]

It was on this trip that Bob bought a plane and was flying it solo over Mexico when it stalled. He was able to land on a farm, but he had to wait some weeks before the previous owner and a mechanic flew in to make repairs. The plane was fixed sufficiently for Bob to take off and fly to Mexico City where he landed on a street. There he found that the plane was worn out, so he sold it for what money he could get and returned to Argentina.

 

At Las Mercedes temporarily, accompanied by Mary, because Bob in California. Flying back to B.A. on Monday 17th, a journey of some 1000 km in about 6½ hours instead of almost as many days.

I am very conscious of decreased powers, both mentally and physically. ... the consciousness of the approaching senility hampers me greatly in the participation of the Ministry of God. ... I trust I Won't become as Uncle William became before the Lord took him, but this condition causes me much distress.

 

Ernest returned to Villa Wairoa from Mercedes by car, which he had sent up to Bob to have it overhauled in his repair shop, and brought back two grandchildren - a distance of 1400 kilometres.

 

Joanna nursing at the British Hospital, Florence enters the fifth year of medicine, and Mary studying at the University of Cordoba preparing as a teacher of languages.All the younger children at secondary school and doing well.[102]

Ken is very interested in evangelical work with radio transmissions having with others developed a wonderful Gospel testimony connecting up all the Spanish speaking countries of the world with programmes which are highly appreciated. Letters come from all parts. How our father would delight to see what is being done by his grandchildren and their progeny.[103]

When we came to this country in 1908 there were only five assemblies spirit taught, gathered to the NAME, and now we have been spared to see two hundred such gatherings. Alice's family and home are entirely given to the ministry of hospitality of the Lord's people and the garden is a great gathering place for young people, many of them greatly gifted. 150-200 frequently gather and it is wonderful to see Alice's five girls, all baptised and in fellowship, entertaining the visitors.[104]

 

Ernest wrote to Charles that he had had rather a breakdown and was confined to bed.

 

Bob drove Toni to school in Buenos Aires and brought his father back to Las Mercedes, with the expectation of flying him back early in May.

Ernest was under homeopathic treatment  for parcicis which affected all his left side, and the muscles of his face and throat.

 

Florence Margaret Kennedy married Melchor Suàrez Prada.

 

William Ernest Lowe died at the British Hospital, Buenos Aires, at the age of 78. The funeral was held the following day at three o'clock in the afternoon. A few days later, Edith wrote to her brother-in-law Charles Lowe,

...dear Ernest is no longer here, but is with the Lord. He passed away ... at the British Hospital. ...during April, and recovered so much strength that we were almost startled to see him walking in the garden, and on Sunday 1 May he attended the morning meeting. Alice and I were so glad to hear him decide to go to the hospital. His only infirmity at the last being an intestinal obstruction ... last Thursday at 4 a.m. he passed away painlessly. He had had a heart attack. ... there was a beautiful meeting at the Cemetery Chapel, attended by a very great number of people, both of the world and brethren. The speakers were four. One an Englishman, one Scotsman, one Argentine, one Australian. All spoke in Spanish. I wish you could have seen our huge crowd at the cemetery, and the marvellous big wreaths which covered the grave before we left it.

Ken carried on the management of the Camona business, but there were problems with the sons of the other partners and business declined.

 

Mary Rosalind Kennedy married Flavio Barbieri.

 

Bob and Alice divided their interests in their father's estate. They had held the properties as a company. Alice had brought up the question, because of divided interests and a growing family and thought it would be better to split. Bob worked out a formula, Bob taking over Las Mercedes and an undeveloped block of land at Forestal, and Alice taking the 100 hectare block of land at Eldorado that had formed part of Petie-Cue, and the Wairoa house. The suburban land of Petie-Cue had already started to be cut up into residential sections.

 

Bob gave up flying because of political problems in Paraguay. There had been a revolution and trigger-happy soldiers were liable to shoot at any planes flying past. Also, the Argentinian government prohibited flying close to the border. Bob's eyesight wasn't the best for flying anyway.

 

Florence Edith Lowe died at the age of 92.

 

Land at Forestal was cleared and 400 hectares planted in pines, Pinus taedia, P.elliotii and Araucaria angustifolia. They were planted at 2m X 2m and thinned out at ten years to about half the number, the thinnings going to a paper factory. The trees are millable after 15 years.

There was a lot of interest in reafforestation, and the government had brought out a plan to promote forestry. The government would loan 80% of the estimated investment at 2% interest and with five years grace. Bob applied for a loan to plant 1000 hectares at the rate of 200 ha a year, which was approved. Planting started, but inflation started to spiral and costs increased. The loan was not inflation adjusted, and the government would not give more money, but allowed a reduction in the area to be planted - 200 ha reduced to 160 ha equated to inflation. After five years the original 1000 ha had reduced to 400 ha.

 

Charles William Kennedy married Annie Koppen.

 

The Eldorado district experienced 24 frosts over the winter.

 

Elizabeth Irene Kennedy - Betty, married Adolfo Puricelli.

 

C.S. Kennedy retired. He bought a trailer and for eight years he and Alice would travel around the country visiting assemblies. They would call on every church, no matter what denomination. Sometimes he would throw out tracts and gospels on the road in the hope that they might be picked up.

Many years later, Bill Kennedy met up with a Mitako Indian who had picked up a St. Luke's Gospel and ..? (become converted?)

 

John Lowe married Nora Moser, daughter of Fritz and ? Moser who ran a dairy farm in the neighbourhood.

 

Edith Florence Lowe married Christofer Gründler in a ceremony held at 11 a.m. in the garden at Mercedes with her uncle C. Sherbourne Kennedy officiating. It was followed by a huge asado in one of the old yerba storage sheds.

 

Bob built a (or bought an old adobe) house at Cordoba, which is situated in the hills and has a cool, dry climate. Maud had been suffering from asthma which seemed to be worsening and they were concerned it would develop into emphasima. She had previously stayed at Cordoba to see if the change of climate would help and she found it gave relief. The following summer they rented a house in Cordoba and Maud's asthma disappeared so then Bob bought a house.

Maud lived at Cordoba until about 1981 when she found she could live in Misiones without the problem recurring. Bob lived between Las Mercedes and Cordoba. They kept the house and continue to spend time there in summer.

 

On a trip to Cordoba, Bob saw a chicken farm and realised that he had the buildings, electricity plant, and water supply needed for such a venture. So he gutted the now unused yerba drying sheds of their equipment and set them up with chickens. When he started there were five other chicken breeders in the area, but they gradually fell by the wayside and by 1979 Bob was the only one remaining. Without competition, he was able to set his price and keep up with inflation by raising prices at the same rate as the costs.

Bob ran up to twenty thousand chickens. Young chickens were bought in from a raiser with an automatic egg incubator about one hundred kilometres away. They were raised entirely on prepared feed which was bought in. Enough feed had to be kept on hand in case there were delays with deliveries. The chickens suffered problems with diseases and pests. They commonly suffered from a bronchial infection because of the damp climate.

The chickens were marketed when about 60-70 days old, first being slaughtered and dressed on the premises. The staff would start at 3 a.m. and prepare about 500 birds ready by 7 a.m. for delivery to groceries, supermarkets and restaurants in the area. Although chilled chicken was freighted in from the south, only the fresh chicken was suitable for rotissary cooking and so it brought a better price. The dwellings on the property made it possible to attract staff suitable for the work.

Another venture Bob set up at Mercedes was a dairy unit. He started off with enthusiasm and put in a chiller and machine for packing milk in sachets. Because of the small scale of the operation it was not feasible to pasteurise the milk. He ran about 24 Holstein cows, each of which would produce about 10 litres of milk.

The milking started at 4 a.m., and by 7 a.m. the truck would be out making deliveries. At first, the morning milking was sold in bulk direct to the homes and the afternoon milking packaged for sale through retail outlets. The packaging operation became too complicated. The cost of the sachets kept increasing, and the equipment for packaging was too expensive to replace. Sometimes the seal on the sachets were faulty which resulted in messes in vehicles and supermarkets.

Bob decided it wasn't worthwhile doing the packaging of the afternoon milk and changed to milking only once a day in the morning. To adjust the cows to the change, he started by putting the calves in with the cows in the afternoon. He closed down the whole operation in 198?.

Those damned cows, for 365 days of the year, twice a day, we are slaves to their udders - its not worth it.

 

Charles Sherbourne Kennedy died.

 

Alice moved from Wairoa to Avenido Cabildo 1259. Wairoa was sold to the Scottish school and formed the administration centre with other buildings surrounding it. The Headmistress? would not allow the administrators to demolish the building, but it was pulled down when she retired in 1986?

 

Alice and daughter Mary travelled to New Zealand, visiting relatives and friends, and toured by coach around the South Island.

 

Alice moved from her apartment at Avenido Cabildo to live with her daughters, Florence in Eldorado and Patsy in Puerto Esperanza.

 

Bob and Maud moved from Las Mercedes to the house next to the Ford Agency where they had started their married life.

 

Bob was opening up new forestry developments at Santa Theresa. The forest cleared in blocks and planted in Eucalyptus grandis.

 

 

Notes on Ernest Lowe

Ernest always wanted to be a doctor and resented being a dentist. He had helped Ted to become a doctor, then when Ted was to help Ernest to do the study, Ernest decided to marry and return to New Zealand.

Through the help of the Pridhams Ernest was able to go to England and study  to be a dentist. Ernest wanted to be a doctor of medicine but finance would not allow him to take the longer course. Ernest helped put Ted through Guys.

Ernest liked to be called El Señor Doktor. He would ride into town to the bank in a carriage drawn by two black and two white horses and with coachmen. He would be dressed in a coat and spats and carry a cane. He would always dress for table with a tie and coat.

When on holiday with his grandchildren, he would give them two hours of bible study (a day?).

When the family would go out on a picnic everything would be done properly. All the tables, chairs and food would be sent on well in advance so that when everybody arrived, all was set up and ready.

At one time Ernest employed 120 people at Eldorado. Alice once jokingly told her father that he looked like Simon Legris(?) because he dressed the part with his hat, boots and whip. A bell was rung for work in the morning and to break off at night.

Every Sunday morning he would hold a gospel meeting for the workers, ringing a bell at 9 a.m. to call them to worship, giving them half an hour to get ready. One of the outbuildings was a store for the workers. Above it was a room where they all met for the Sunday meetings. In Paraguay people set up their own church based on the teachings of Ernest.

After the meeting he would hold a clinic for anyone needing medical attention. When his sister Amy lived with them (1939-46), she loved to help him, and would dress the part as a nurse.

Ernest did some spectacular cures. On one occasion there was a woman who had an infected tooth and suffered lockjaw. He made a tool so he could extract the tooth with the jaw shut. Once the poison in the tooth was gone, the woman recovered. Another time Alice helped him sew up the wrist of a man who had cut it when he fell onto a hoe. Ernest used an ordinary needle and thread. Another woman came 40 km by truck to Ernest because she had dislocated her jaw while eating an apple. He managed to fix it.

Edith

Edith had the ability to make a happy home. She was always able to get help in the house.

Ernest was always very friendly, but Edith chose her friends very carefully. There were certain people she would never receive at the house. You could never tell how she would react when she met someone for the first time.

Edith was very jealous of Amy because Amy loved to fuss over Ernest - she would go and get his slippers or get him a drink. Any little thing would trigger off Edith's displeasure and there would be a row. Amy would pack her bags and go and stay with Alice or Bob.

Ernest loved red or auburn hair. If he commented about having had a patient with red hair, or there had been a beautiful woman in his consulting room, Edith would clam up and not speak to him all evening.

When Edith visited Lena, they were mostly at loggerheads. However, they wrote to each other right to the end.

Ernest and Edith were always squabbling. He would make an issue over the number of letters that Edith had written to him while he was away. He would ring from the airport about it before they had even met.

Edith was an avid reader of the newspapers. She would often write to the newpapers on matters that concerned her.

Family Anecdotes

On the birth of one of the children during the Peron regime, someone sent a telegram to the effect that three and a half kilograms of dynamite had arrived. The police called to the house wanting to know who had the dynamite and what it was to be used for. They had a lot of difficulty explaining the situation.

Another telegram was worded, Everybody fine, how are the remains?, meaning the remainder of thefamily. The remains became translated into restos meaning mortal remains.

Granny Lowe was always trying to marry off Alice's five daughters. When there were young men to dinner, she would preside at table and try and sell off each daughter, starting on one man and if no response on to the next. One night they had a married man to dinner, but Edith didn't know he was married and she tried to sell off Florence to him. Flo was at the other end of the table, and in the end had to call out to Edith, But Granny, Mr. So-and so is married.

One of the elders in the church was sitting the kitchen after a party and told Alice that she was very worried about Alice and her girls and that Alice would never get them married. She advised Alice that if she didn't want them to marry locals, she should get them out of the country straight away. The girls were quite keen to stay in the country and marry the locals because they liked them.

Alice recalled that at one of the weddings the house was decorated with beautiful blue hortensias (hydrangeas). After the wedding one of the guests was heard to say, I don't know how Mrs. Kennedy will get those girls married, look at all the hortensias. Hortensias were considered an omen for spinsterhood, and nobody would plant them if they had daughters.

After Florence's wedding, a Bolivian friend was going home on the same train as some other very straight-laced "tight" Brethren friends (Ritchies) who said in front of the Bolivian how dreadful it was this interracial marriage, Florence marrying a Spaniard. The Bolivian replied, On the contrary, you English people should be honoured that we care to marry your daughters!

Alice once wrote to Maud who had three daughters, I don't know what has got into my girls, here's the fourth one going to marry a Latin, after all the good English education we've given them. For goodness sake, educate your girls as Latins and perhaps they will marry Englishmen. They married Germans instead.

Edith was good at finding reasons why the girls should marry Latins and not Englishmen. One was that if they married an Englishman, they would have to stay at home all day on Saturday while their husband played cricket.

At first it shocked Flo's parents that she wanted to marry a Latin. Flo expected her mother to be upset, but not her father because he had accepted the Argentinians. For a while it haunted him, then he reasoned it out and he accepted it. Once over the shock, they accepted that the children were far more Latin than they had thought. The family home life and interests in the home had always been very English, and so it came as a jolt to think that the children were Argentinians in Argentina.

In Bill's third year at high school, he failed Spanish. His parents suddenly realised that their only son, who was going to have to earn his living in Argentina, couldn't speak the language properly. They took him out of the English school and put him into an Argentinian school as a boarder.

Alice offered to have Bob's girls so they could go to the English School in Buenos Aires, but Bob was afraid of their religion. He always felt that children were too influenced by their parents and should have the liberty to choose for themselves.

Edith and Ernest would often come from Eldorado to Wairoa for the summer when it was very hot in Eldorado. Alice had to be a daughter which didn't always agree with being a wife or mother, and so for her it was a bit of a strain at times keeping an even keel between everyone. Ken would say that Alice changed from the time she received a letter from her parents to say that they were coming. Edith would shed tears when it came time to return to Eldorado.

When Ernest and Edith stayed with the family there were lots of rows because of the three generations. The children learned a lot from their grandparents too, and learned an appreciation for older people.

The children had an unusual family life. Their father came from a family of seven boys and four girls, and he always knew lots of things to do to keep everyone amused. One favourite was to have a dress-up party in which the grandparents would join. Once Edith dressed up as a rake going to the races. The children gained a greater respect for the older people who would join in and do crazy things with them, it would show they were human and could meet on common ground.

Ernest would sometimes take the family for an excursion and meet the bill. It was exciting for him. On one occasion they went quite a long way south to a big YMCA camping ground. Edith was troubled with her hip and she went by rail in a sleeper accompanied by Mary. Alice and Ernest each took a carload. Halfway there the luggage, loaded onto a carrier, fell off, and they had various other excitements. Alice arrived in one town on the way, and remembered finding a place to stay with a lovely bathroom and hot water. It was always her ambition to find a place with plenty of hot water and a big tub.

The administration at the camp had heard in advance that a family of 17 was arriving! Bob and Maud were there with their three small children, and there were two friends of Alice, so a big crowd. They slept in tents. The day after they arrived Edith said to Alice, Father packed his bags and left out all his underpants. He will have to go to bed for today so I can wash his underpants.

Sometimes Ernest would have a serious bible discussion at the dinner table with a piece of noodle hanging from his beard. The children would listen with straight faces, hardly able to contain themselves.

Edith finally came to live with the family at Wairoa. When she became ill and could no longer come to the table, she lived in her little sitting room and would ring a bell when she wanted something. Ken would put his hand on Alice and tell her to sit still. Each of the children would go to Edith, but she only wanted Alice. Ken hated anyone to get up from the table, so Alice was in the habit of keeping a wagon at the meal table.

Florence's son William called both Edith and Alice Granny. He remembered them as one Granny that was in bed and the other the Granny that read to the Granny in bed.

Edith became like the old lady in the Polyanna books. She would suddenly say, I want some semolina pudding, so Alice would go and make semolina pudding. When Alice took it to Edith, she would decide she didn't want semolina pudding now. This happened very often. Semolina pudding as always William's favourite, and he became wise to Granny's whim. When he heard Granny ask for semolina pudding, he would go to her bed, and when she turned it down he would say that he wanted it. This upset Granny because it wasn't wasted. Alice always thought it worthwhile making the semolina pudding because if Edith didn't eat it, William would.

Looking back, Alice felt that life at Wairoa was one of perpetually receiving guests or saying goodbye. The children brought all their friends home, and everyone was made very welcome. Mary would come down from Bolivia with her one or two or three as the family grew.

Aunt Amy

When Aunt Amy went off to visit Bob in Paraguay she would take the paddle steamer from Port Eldorado. The trip up the river took two days. She would travel by herself at over seventy years of age and take all her bits and pieces with her. The boat would drop her on the rocks on the Brazilian side of the river and she would wait there until somebody from Bob's came over and picked her up.

Aunt Amy kept all her things in numerous boxes in her room, carefully stacked with the biggest on the bottom. She always knew what was in each and where to find something. She had grandfather Lowe's model of the Tabernacle with all its different pieces, and she taught the children how to put it up. It was a favourite pastime on a Sunday afternoon while their father had a siesta.

It took about two hours to set up the tabernacle. It covered an area larger than the large dining room table, and was surrounded by a fence about 3cm high. The temple covered an area of about 30 X 20 cm and was about 10 cm high with seven coverings. In the courtyard were a laver and brazen altar. There were the twelve tribes and their tents. The tents of Moses and Aaron were larger than the rest.

Aunt Amy was a Mother Confessor to the Kennedy children. She helped them get out of lots of scrapes, and gave them good counselling.

Aunt Amy grew violets under the big tree at the back door of Mercedes.

ELDORADO

 

Eldorado was founded by a German, Adolf Schwelm, in 1919. He went to Europe and encouraged immigrants to come and settle in the district. He brought in Danes, Swedes, Swiss, Germans and Poles, all except Latins.

Ernest had a running battle with Schwelm over the site of the settlement. Schwelm wanted it sited at the river, Ernest away from the river because the river was often covered in mist.

Labourers came over from Paraguay and were very good. It wasn't until government agencies, such as the post office and schools, were established that Latin Argentinians moved in.

To travel from Las Mercedes to travel to Buenos Aires, you had to set off for Port Eldorado at 4 a.m. in the mist and dark to make sure you got to the port by 9 a.m. There was no set schedule, and it could depend on the mist as to when the boat might arrive from upstream. Sometimes if it were a clear moonlight night the boat might have gone during the night and so you would have to wait until the next day. You always to took food to eat in case there were delays - chicken, bread, and oranges. There was no wharf at the port and you had to wait on the sand and when the boat arrived you were rowed out to it. On one occasion a salesman arrived with a pile of suitcases of goods to sell. When he climbed out of the row boat to get ashore he tipped the boat and some of his cases fell into the water. The trip down to B.A. took four days.

At the port there was a chute for sending the bales of yerba down the steep riverbank to the beach for transhipping out to the boat. A proper wharf wasn't built until much later times, not long before road transport replaced the ships.

Oil and kerosine for fuel was brought in by boat in drums. The settlers would bring down their empty drums and stack them on the beach and if the river rose, as it often did, the drums would be swept away.

Early food of the settlers was manihot which was peeled round and round to remove several millimetres of skin and then cooked like potato. Sweet potato was grown also and both the roots and leaves eaten. The leaves taste like spinach. The only meat available was sundried and salted.

The average summer maximum temperature is 370 C. and the rainfall 2000 mm. It is unusual to have two weeks without rain. The high temperatures and ample moisture give rapid growth. Elephant grass will grow 5-7 cm a day.

In a few years frosts have occurred from April until the end of September. In 1964 there were 24 frosts. Mists usually prevent frosts occurring near the river. Although many of the tropical plants are cut back by frost in winter, they shoot away again in the warm weather.

Twice in the 24 years prior to 1979 there were terrific hailstorms, with hailstones the size of a fist. One could be heard several kilometres away. It stripped and killed all the vegetation in its path. Branches were broken off the trees, and the bark stripped off the trunks. In 1975 a snowstorm killed many plants.

 

VICTORIA

This was an English settlement just to the north of Eldorado, and settled later. The settlers were white collar people who concentrated on building themselves good houses before planting yerba and as a result they missed out on the yerba boom. The European settlers who had earlier settled in Eldorado first built themselves hovels to live in and planted yerba. They made money and built themselves good houses and used their hovels as pigsties.

 

YERBA

In 1926 there was a big demand for yerba mate and a good price was paid for it, which motivated the big investment in the industry. But the big bonanza didn't last long. Because many others decided to get in on the boom, by 1934 there was overproduction. With no marketing organisation, the growers were at the mercy of the millers.

By 1936 the growers realised that if they didn't do anything it would be the end for them. They organised themselves into a lobby to influence Congress senators and deputies, with the result that laws were passed prohibiting further yerba plantings, and limiting the harvest by establishing quotas. The growers consigned their crop to a national marketing scheme which facilitated credit and gave a guaranteed price.

The quota for the 1937 harvest was 40% of the previous year. As a result, everybody sat back. Much of the land was untended and quickly reverted back to forest, and production generally was inefficient.

By 1964, the Government found there was not enough yerba to meet the demand, so it freed up on the restriction on new plantings - with the same results that had occurred in the 1930's - everybody planted, and by 1968 there was too much yerba and restrictions were reimposed.

Bob got fed up with yerba, it seemed a hopeless situation. In their heyday they had harvested 800 000 kg per year, and then with the quota they were limited to 300 000 kg, so a large area was idle. Bob had drying plant sufficient for the whole crop, but with the introduction of quotas and higher labour costs it became more economic to send the crop to a co-operative drying plant. The abandoned drying sheds started to fall into decay.

Another factor in the decision to give up yerba was the upheaval in labour relations caused by the Peronist regime. The cost of labour became very high, and the government set the sale price which didn't compensate for the costs. After forty years as a yerbatero, Bob decided to get out. He even gave up drinking yerba mate.

At the factory the yerba is unloaded from the trucks and forked onto an elevator that drops it into a heated revolving drum to give it a quick drying. It must not be burnt. It is then carried on a conveyor to an oven for a slow drying for 21/2 hours and then to another for 3 hours. The sticks are separated from the leaves and used as fuel. The leaves are milled and sieved to remove more sticks - only 7-8% sticks are allowed. The treated leaf is packed into sacks and sent to a refinery in Buenos Aires. The furnace is log fired. The factory visited at Puerto Esperanza in 1979 produced 70 tonnes in 24 hours. (The machinery had many unprotected belts and pulleys

 

Cattle

Bob put an area into pasture for fattening cattle. He would buy young steers in Corientes, bring them to Mercedes to fatten. They would increase in weight by 1 kg a day just feeding on the grass.

He also bred a herd of zebu cattle. The zebu are resistant to a type of tick that burrows under the skin of cattle. The zebus sweat and shake their skin which gets rid of the tick. Bob crossed the zebu with the Holstein and bred a more hardy strain of milking cow.

Internal parasites are a big problem with all the animals, and

for humans as well.

 

TUNG

An area was planted in tung for its oil.

 

HORSES

 

Bob bred horses for a number of years as a hobby. He had a stallion and a brood of mar s, renewing the stock continually. The stallion was kept under cover, but the mares and offspring ran free outdoors. In 1986 two foals died after being bitten by snakes. Bob's horses had quite a reputation. Buyer's didn't like the horses being branded with RL because when they were raced, it made it difficult to find people to place bets against them. Horse racing was not a traditional sport. It usually consisted of racing a pair of horses over 300-400 metres.

 

CITRUS

 

Mi abuelo Ernest William Lowe  estudio Odontolagía con la familia Kosby, tres años y luego fue a espacisalezarse en Inglaterra año 1902!!!