It’s hard to exaggerate Cliff’s respect for his father.
John Baugh, or Jack as he was generally called, was an expert tunneller. At the time Cliff was working down the mine, Jack was working mainly on the main drive, the tunnel leading down to the coal face.
He watched his Dad drive a section of tunnel through soft mud. In a situation like that the sets had to be much closer together than normal, and timber slabs driven ahead of the miner to reach the next set.
“I’ve seen Dad working like that, with the suction end of a pump under his feet pumping gallons of water as he used a pneumatic drill on solid lime rock, with water pouring down from above and from the muddy parts of the tunnel between each rock face.”
John Baugh died in 1980, and Cliff made sure that the Northern Advocate ran his Dad’s obituary — the last of an era, “a quiet and assuming man with great strength of character and unbending on matters of principle”.
Those principles were socialist. He was a worker — he never wanted to be a boss. That became something’ of an issue between Cliff and his Dad when Cliff became a boss and active in National Party politics.
His obituary read:
Era dies with miner
The recent death of 83-year-old John Baugh signals the end of the coal mining era.
The Hikurangi man was one of the few remaining coal miners and had worked in mines for over 40 years, in both New Zealand and his place of origin, England. His last job before leaving England in 1923 was hewing coal, on contract, for a minimum equivalent wage of about 63 cents a day. The coal face, about 45 cm high, he worked by lying on his side and picking coal out to the main tunnel. He worked at the Hikurangi mine until it closed, and then at the Kamo mine until it also closed. He then worked for the Ministry of Works until his retirement in 1958.
In his later years in the mines Mr Baugh dealt with all the difficulties that arose, such as repairing fallen-in areas and other jobs requiring his experience and skill.
Mr Baugh, his wife Annie and their family lived in Hikurangi in a house he built himself.
As a young man he was a great soccer fan and played for the Waro Wanderers team which won the Bromwich and Campbell cup in 1927.
He loved birds, particularly pigeons, which he raced as a member of the Hikurangi Pigeon Club.
He was never a churchgoer but he and his wife lived by strict Christian principles and saw that their children went to Sunday School and were well schooled in the differences between right and wrong.
Mr Baugh was described by his son Clifford as “a quiet and unassuming man with great strength of character and unbending on matters of principle. He will be remembered with great love and respect by all who knew him.”
Mr Baugh’s funeral was held on Tuesday. He is survived by a son, daughter, six grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.