Dr Milan Kalous talks about the commissioning of the city council of the history of the area. There was a need to have all types of historical information of the local people, houses, localities, and families. In 1982 after a few months of collecting of all these historical resources of the basic written sources, tapes of interviews of the old residents. Written oral sources in the library 1983. Dr Kalous was asked to write a new history of Papatoetoe, and second stage one was written in 1962 which was excellent work that now seems outdated, it is a list of facts rather than the history of Papatoetoe. Dr Kalous said that the work is halfway completed with three months left to complete.
Early settlement by the Europeans in the 1850s farming conditions of swamps, tiny creeks were drained. Once this work was done the soil proved extremely fertile and the work here became extremely profitable, by 1890 Papatoetoe was outstanding. Prime Minister Massey always admitted he had learned the skill of public speaking here in the debating society of Papatoetoe. The farming community is highly intelligent the people have highly sophisticated community spirit. It is obvious with the number of clubs and societies and the general friendliness which prevails in the community. In 1900 the community was classified as having just one religion, Presbyterian which arrived in 1850 clearly indicating that they were the descendants of the first small group of settlers that arrived in 1850. In 1900 there was more diversity, land was transferred from farming to residential. By the second world war most areas were underpopulated. In 1945-1960 there was a post war baby boom, the population expanded. The population went from 4,000 in 1948 to 20,000 in 1960. Papatoetoe always has had high standards of housing. Slums were emerging within the Manukau County, and were kept out of Papatoetoe, with the emergence of problems like in Ōtara. They would take advantage of the shopping, big city complexes. In 1965 Papatoetoe emerged as a city surrounded by a city, entirely different from places like Manurewa, Ōtara. The Papatoetoe of 1900 has now had influences coming from the neighbouring territories and have changed the basic fabric of Papatoetoe.
Dr Kalous talks about how local history is necessary and essential. General history cannot be done without studying Wellington archives, an understanding of families and community of 1950. In three weeks, Dr Kalous will be going back to West Germany, he is the chair of African Studies at the University of Bayreuth in Germany. It will be completed there and sent back to New Zealand to be published. As an outsider his research field is older history of West Africa. He has learned much more about the New Zealand spirit, the human beings in studying the history of a small city in New Zealand.