Thread: Waiuku Kennels

Just been to the old mans 70th, my sister was going thru boxes of old family photos when she found an envelope with 3 sets of dog pedigrees. We think they all belonged to our grandfather as we recognise 1 name. So the question does anyone know anything about Waiuku Kennels or Tom Cronin of Bowen St Waiuku, this was back in the 60s.
The papers have a full pedigree for each dog, they are headed Waiuku Kennels with no mention of the NZKC ( dont know if NZKC even existed then )

Cheers Andrew

Interesting bit of history there Morgun, hope you find what you are looking for. Imagine if these dogs were bred from and you found a modern ancestor? The same thing happened in my family, ended up researching some '50s and '60s setter pedigrees that we found in a box of my grandfathers belongings when he passed 15 odd years back

what breed of dog MORGUN ???

sorry thought that being in a hunting forum, and really theres only one real breed of hunting dogs, that everyone would know I meant labradors . It seems like many dogs from this kennels were show and feild, I guess the split hadn't occured yet in NZ. My grandmother used to buy finished dogs for my grandfather as he would swear he'd never get another when one died, family legend says she paid around 150 pounds back in 50s and 60s, some serious money for the times.

Shit yes! I think my old man paid 20tho pound for a 4 bedroom house on 3 acres late 60s be worth around 800 tho now

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Shit yes! I think my old man paid 20tho pound for a 4 bedroom house on 3 acres late 60s be worth around 800 tho now

In 1975 I paid $90k for a very good 850 acre farm.

150 pounds for a dog would have been a lot of money for a lab alright.

Originally Posted by morgun

sorry thought that being in a hunting forum, and really theres only one real breed of hunting dogs, that everyone would know I meant labradors . It seems like many dogs from this kennels were show and feild, I guess the split hadn't occured yet in NZ. My grandmother used to buy finished dogs for my grandfather as he would swear he'd never get another when one died, family legend says she paid around 150 pounds back in 50s and 60s, some serious money for the times.

Only Breed isn't it?

150 pounds, must have been a hell of a dog! considering what the average weekly wage back then was

Yeah its a lot of money but they were 18mths to 2 years old fully trained and of course labradors which carries a premium. Seriously though this bloke Cronin was importing or using imports for a lot of his breeding, so probably one of top kennels for the era. He wasn't shy about telling you either, some of the info on the papers is priceless, the sire of one dog lists 16 show titles some including the number of dogs he beat another dam was imported in whelp to Aus at a cost of 500 pounds, so he certainly knew the power of advertising.

I'll make some inquiries and see what I can find out...