Doug Whitaker worked at Caccia Birch House for 35 years. He also enjoyed buying lottery and raffle tickets. Photo / Supplied
Doug Whitaker worked at Caccia Birch House for 35 years. He also enjoyed buying lottery and raffle tickets. Photo / Supplied
The identity of the Caccia Birch House wallpaperer mystery was hiding in plain sight.
It was long-serving gardener Doug Whitaker and most likely his fellow gardener Alf Jolly. The colleagues had a standing order for lottery tickets.
One of the Tattersall’s tickets has Whitaker’s name on it, though spelt withtwo tts.
A Tattersall's ticket with Mr "Whittaker" written on it.
His daughter, Janice Whitaker, got in touch with the Manawatū Guardian after seeing last month’s article seeking information on the two walls of the coach house lounge in Hokowhitu that have old lottery and raffle tickets on them.
Janice, who lives in Palmerston North, says her father didn’t tell his family why he put the losing tickets on the wall but they knew about his unusual wallpapering habit.
Part of the lottery wallpaper at Caccia Birch House. This section is predominately Golden Kiwi tickets.
Visiting Caccia Birch House last week with Janice were her brother Graeme and sister-in-law Ariel from Whanganui.
Graeme jokes his father didn’t believe in littering. He doesn’t remember his father having any big collects.
Graeme’s two sons remember looking in the newspaper to find winning numbers.
Janice remembers buying Golden Kiwi tickets for Doug from a shop in Fitzherbert Ave.
Janice confirmed the Tattersall’s ticket with “New Arrival” written on it from 1961 refers to her birth. Tickets were often named with a nom de plume.
One of the raffle tickets is for Palmerston North Technical Old Boys Rugby Football Club fundraising for improvement to its clubrooms. Graeme played as a prop and hooker for the club.
One ticket has “Royal Frolic”, the name of a horse, written on it but the Whitakers say it is not Doug’s handwriting.
Two of the tote tickets on a wall in the coach house.
Some of the tickets were tote tickets. Janice spoke to a former neighbour of the Whitakers. The 96-year-old says the late Frank Tritt had 1000 tickets printed. They were stapled in half so you couldn’t see the number you bought.
The tickets were placed in the bathtub to mix them up, then done up in bundles of 10.
They were mostly sold to barmen at hotels, but some were sold separately, the neighbour told Janice.
The top prize went to the ticket with the last three numbers of the TAB’s turnover for the stated race meeting.
Former Caccia Birch House gardener Doug Whitaker's children, Graeme and Janice. Photo / Judith Lacy
The Whitakers had seen the ticket wallpaper before. They remember the two walls being covered and say some of the tickets were ripped off by vandals.
When Caccia Birch House moved from hospital to university care Graeme and his parents lived there for a while. This was before Janice was born.
Another reminder of Doug’s 35 years tending the gardens is a door in the coach house with handwriting on it. His children noted the five-digit phone number for Robbs, a fruit packing place in Pioneer Highway where their mother Betty worked.
Doug retired in 1981. He died in 1994, aged 77, and had lived in Palmerston North all his life.
He had a great garden at his home in Paisley St.
“All his flowers stood like little soldiers, everything was a in row,” daughter-in-law Ariel says.
Janice remembers Doug supplying neighbours and friends with flowers and vegetables.
