Before the advent of cellphones, the internet and even television, the day to day life of a farmer was very different, compared to today. There were dozens of stock and station agents competing for your work, now there are only two or three. Most country towns had up to five different banks and it would be 60 years before internet banking was invented. Some of these towns had two picture theatres and most had their own very busy railway station.
So much has changed since the 1930’s and yet in the Central Hawke’s Bay town of Waipawa, there is a business which is hasn’t changed much at all, apart from getting bigger.
S.J.E. Stephenson Transport Limited was founded in 1936 by Sep Stephenson and in 2016, the company still owned by the same family with management soon to become the responsibility of the third generation.
We are now called Stephenson Transport Limited and the business is owned and managed by Sep’s son Bruce Stephenson and his grandson Todd.