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When Bill, a paraplegic confined to a wheelchair, and Peggy Jones moved in 1974 to their new house just south of Balclutha, New Zealand, Bill's friends built him a small workshop so he could continue creating leather goods. Little did Bill and Peggy realize then that less than 15 years later that small workshop would have blossomed into a million-dollar business selling leather goods, sheepskins, and souvenirs to tourists and local people, (One New Zealand dollar equals $0.60 "USD) Tourists are the mainstay of Peggydale's business, so fluctuations in the New Zealand tourism industry are reflected in the company's bottom line. The years 1988 and 1989 were not good tourist seasons, and Peggydale's revenues declined in those years, Bill and Peggy are trying to devise ways of making their business less dependent on tourism.
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BILL JONES: FROM LABORER TO PARAPLEGIC TO ENTREPRENEUR
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William Jones was born in Invercargill, New Zealand, March 31, 1927. After school, Bill joined the army and was sent to Italy during World War ll. He rose to the rank of sergeant with 10 Platoon, B Company, the 5th Reinforcements. When Bill returned to New Zealand, he left the army, married Peggy, and took the Kaitangata coal mines near Balclutha, where he might have spent his working except for a crippling accident in 1951. It was January 31. 1951 when a broken beam in the ceiling of caught shoulder and threw him back on stack of boxes. Bill was permanently paralyzed from the waist down and was left with little except his own resources and those of his wife, Peg article in the local paper, the Southland Times, recounted Bill's army service and ended with the following words of encouragement for his future
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when the fall occurred in the mine it pinned him down and his spine. lt broke is not hard to believe that only his unconquerable spirit prevented him from succumbing to his injuries. But he is still in hospital and he is still smiling
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his future, his livelihood, is uncertain. But no one who knows Jonesy can doubt for a moment that he will not triumph over every blow that life can deal him. It was plain in Italy, it is crystal clear here, now in New Zealand.
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The accolades and expressions of sympathy lifted Bill's spirits, but they could not shorten his lengthy period of rehabilitation in the Dunedin Hospital. Bill's rehabilitation was aided by another patient who taught him leather- working. Recounting his experience, Bill recalled:
Twenty-six years ago I couldn't darn a sock. After my accident was in Ward 5 at Dunedin Hospital. A man there had been transferred from Waipiata-he'd been there some years-for surgery on a collapsed lung ย่อหน้า
He was a crackerjack at saddleworking. There he was, strung up in a plaster cast, blocks and tackles everywhere, doing bits of work on his bed. When started taking notice, I'd have them push my bed down to his cubicle. I'd watch him and talk to him for half a day at a time. Occasionally I'd get a loan of his gear.
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When I got home I bought myself a set of tools and started getting leather from "Disabled Soldiers." It was a while before I could get it from tanneries so I worked through "Disabled Soldiers Rehabilitation League as it is now. They used to let me have my pick of what they could offer, at cost.
Bill learned a skill which occupied his idle hours and aided his rehabilitation, but he was still without an occupation.
After more than two years and a week-long Supreme Court case, Bill received compensation from the mining company for his acciderit. Bill and Peggy decided to use the money to buy a small farm, even though neither knew anything about farming. The Joneses continued to live in Kaitangata while a married couple ran the farm on a day-to-day basis. Eventually, the married couple was replaced by a single man, and the Joneses moved onto their property (named Peggydale, after Peggy Jones, whose maiden name was Dale).
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Since Bill was confined to a wheelchair, Peggy was responsible for most of the farm chores, which she referred to as "jolly hard work," adding that "One year I raised 200 calves by bucket." It was a family joke that each Christmas Bill's gift to Peggy was a new pair of gumboots, an overall, and a mallet. Peggy noted that, looking back, I don't think I could have done anything without Bill. He's always ahead of everyone and is a perfectionist too. Talk about women's lib I'd be useless if I was left to my own devices." While Peggy was doing most of the farm work, Bill was not simply idling away the hours.
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When the Joneses moved from the city to their farm, two friends and their son Mervyn built Bill a workshop on the end of the farm shed. Bill used a life insurance policy as collateral for a loan to buy his first sewing machine. Bill observed that, we had it paid off in a year-three or four hundred dollars. It would cost a couple of thousand to replace." To enable B to work with both hands free, a friend ma