COASTAL CHARACTERS
FROM STUDENT TO MASTER OF THE TRAWL: THE MISA STORY – PART 1
BY BADEN P BY BADEN PASCOE
The Nancy Olive at Blockhouse Bay in 1927 not long after her purchase. Tom Misa is in the for'ard hatch
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very now and then you meet and talk to people in various trades and professions and learn about how they spend their day, weeks, years and sometimes, lifetime. I have met thousands, as I love meeting people who do their part to make the community tick over and to go further; build our little nation.
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But the ones who stand out are the very passionate people who go to great depths to learn things to the "nth" degree about everything associated with what they do. You've heard the old saying, "Enthusiasm is contagious". As most of you know I have a strong affinity with the people who work our coastline. They simply make our place more than very interesting and I have met some amazing people whom I am drawn to and have built close friendships with. Years ago, Paul Marinovich mentioned a retired commercial fisherman living in the Auckland suburb of Balmoral who had an interest in fishing and had started a little commercial fishing museum in one of his garages.
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So, a few weeks ago John Street (who is also one of the above people) and I met this person. Enter Roni Misa. Ron, or Roni, as he is known by his close friends and family, is simply a walking encyclopaedia of his profession and the local history of commercial fishing and he knows all the interesting stuff about his forbearers, Auckland's Dalmatian community. To go further, one has to start at the beginning and explain his family orientation within the vibrant Dalmatian fishing circles who once played a huge part in our local fishing industry. These
54 Professional Skipper January/February 2012
people simply made the place
hum, no matter what, and we have to think how lucky we are that they made and found a home here. Tom Misa emigrated from Dalmatia, now part of Croatia, and arrived in New Zealand in 1912 at the age of 15. He did not come with his parents, I might add. He worked at various places, including Puriri on the Thames coast and Hamilton up until 1925, when he bought into a fish retailing business in Dominion Road with a Mr Mercep, another young Dalmatian immigrant. They ran this business together, retailing wet fish and poultry, for only two years until Tom's brother Karl came to New Zealand in 1925 and bought out Mercep. This business was not going well, due to its location, so they moved to 596 Dominion Road, now known as the Balmoral shopping centre, thus forming the name Misa Bros. Their shop worked well in its new location.
hum no matter what and we have to think
The Comet after her fit-out was a fine- looking little seine boat
