Our People: Alec Wilson

Alec Wilson. Photo/Stephen Parker

Leg caning taught hard man Maori All Black how to put both boots into rugby

It was a Whakarewarewa Native School teacher wielding a big stick who gave Alec Wilson the impetus that carried him into the Maori All Blacks.

"I couldn't kick with my left foot so he'd run beside me hitting that leg with this bamboo cane until I could kick well with both, he was the one who sent me on my merry way," credits the Maori AB of 1954, 56, 57. A broken leg kept him out of the squad of '55, naturally that was a rugby injury.

Alec would have been in the mid '50s All Black tour of South Africa had it not been discovered he had Maori blood.

Apartheid was at its zenith, Ohinemutu boys like Alec Wilson didn't have a show of entering the country where white was might.

"I was actually picked for the All Blacks so I didn't react very kindly, my old man was worse."

He left it to our imagination to fill in what it was his father, Jack Wilson, did say.

Being the hard man that he was it wouldn't have been pretty.

With Alec born at the tail end of the Depression it figures he came from hard man stock.

"My parents had a shop in town, it went bust, Dad got a job planting trees at Kaingaroa, he walked out there every fortnight, walked home again."

In his father's absence he was partially raised by another hard man, Nira McRae.

"He was the papakainga [Ohinemutu housing] carpenter, coffin builder; I can see him plain as day standing me up in a coffin so I wouldn't get into trouble with the saws."

Alec inherited his father's ability to cover distances.

Sent to Whakarewara school at 6 "to connect with our Maori roots" he ran there and back "to save the penny bus fare . . . we'd sit in the hot pools warming our bare feet".

Shoes were a 'special occasion' luxury. "We were lucky to have school pants, a lot of kids went around in flour bag pants."

Much of Alec's growing up years were spent helping out on his whanau's Koutu acreage.

"When Dad finished at Kaingaroa he grew potatoes for the whole tribe out back of Bennetts Rd, there were only about three houses in Koutu then, one at Kawaha Point.

"We all had jobs, killed pigs and sheep but rugby remained his life's dominating factor."

Just as that cane-wielding teacher taught him to kick with both feet, his run to school nurtured Alec's future fleet-footed skills, later honed by ace New Zealand sprinter, Rotorua chemist, Doug Sheaf.

He played his first tournament matches in the primary schools Tai Mitchell Shield, representing Whaka as fullback, captaining the squad in his second year. "We won it both times."

At Rotorua High School he was a natural pick for the 1st XV, moving from fullback to wing. The school regularly wiped out the opposition.

Alec was recently inducted into what's now Boys' High School's Hall of Fame, acknowledging his prowess there and beyond.

Leaving school at 16, he was selected for Rotorua's Prince of Wales Cup team vied for by Maori from various regions. "The Northlanders had named All Black players but we beat them."

The year Alec trialled for the All Blacks he was one of three Rotorua players selected for the Maori team, the others being the late Ray Keepa and Peter Tapsell, later Sir Peter.

The Maori squad took a slow boat to Fiji, lived on five shillings a week "for toothpaste and soap" and swept the opposition into oblivion.

Off-field, Alec worked at the Timberlands Karaka Street plant. "The directors were league men, they tried to get me to switch codes, said I could play for St George in Sydney, I said 'no way'."

He remained loyal to his Old Boys club but with strong whanau links to Waikite switched his allegiance. "I got the message to get back home."

As Waikite seniors' coach he was a hard taskmaster, reprising the concept of his long childhood runs.

"I'd get them out to Tarawera in a truck and make them run back. There was a lot of moaning but I ran with them, I reckoned if I could do it so could they; we ended up with a team of very fit, hard-to-beat players."

When Prime Minister Rob Muldoon was in town Waikite training at the lakefront was a must-see.

"He became matey with some of our guys, when Bill Mutu died he wanted to know why I hadn't told him. I said `I didn't have your address, you should've read the papers'."

Alec kick-started Waikite's JAB rugby. "Detective Sergeant Mike Rayn said to me `what are you guys going to do about the young hooligans running riot in town?' The idea of introducing them to rugby clicked, soon Arawa Park was crazy with kids."

He applied the same dedication to his working life as he did rugby.

From Timberlands he moved into surveying, spending 50 years in Maori Affairs' land utilisation division.

Alec's election to Te Arawa Trust board in the 1970s took him into overseeing PEP (government subsidised project employment) schemes, Maori Affairs Minister Koro Wetere seconded him from his department to oversee the programmes throughout the Waiariki rohe (region).

"We got guys into all sorts of trades; mechanics, plumbing, into orchards and the bush. It was a sad day when they dumped those schemes, they [participants] didn't get the dole, a lot are still in the jobs we trained them for."

When PEP folded Alec returned to Maori Affairs and surveying.

It's a blatant lie to say he's now retired. He's on more trusts than most know exists, is a director-trustee of the Pukeroa Oruawhata group and is up before dawn to work on Ngati Whakaue's Mt Ngongotaha farm.

"Really, I'm just ticking along. I just hope I've achieved everything set out for me by my elders."

ALEC WILSON:

Born: Rotorua, 1933.
Education: Rotorua Primary, Whakarewarewa Native School, Rotorua High School.
Family: Wife Dolly (nee Walker) "We met at high school", three sons (two deceased), two daughters, eight mokopuna, seven moko tuarua.
Interests: Whanau. "Seeing my people get a fair deal and make it properly in business." Rugby (is Waikite club's patron); fishing and diving.
On today's All Blacks: "They can make all the mistakes in the world but they've still got plenty left in the tank at the end of the game, that's the way I coached."
Personal philosophy: "Live and let live."