The 84-year-old's three floors of 'treasure'
There’s been talk floating around that Hubbers Emporium is closing, so The Southland Tribune visited David Hubber to check if that is correct.
From an horrific Otautau accident 60-odd years ago, to the diary David Hubber believes he could now sell for $120,000. Logan Savory caught up with an Invercargill institution and unearthed some intriguing tales of the past.
David Hubber has a fascinating life story to tell.
Most in Invercargill will know Hubber as the 84-year-old owner of Hubbers Emporium in Dee St. An eclectic sort of place.
It’s a three-floor building full of antiques, jewellery, paintings, collectables, and everything in between.
There’s been talk floating around that Hubbers Emporium is closing, so I visited David to check if that is correct.
I found David deep in the shop perched on a seat that may or may not be for sale.
He was clasping his walking stick with both hands, as you would imagine an 84-year-old ready to offer up some wisdom.
Hubber cleared the belongings from a nearby seat and invited me for a chat.
The short answer is Hubber hasn’t yet decided if he will close or not. That decision will be made in March, in line with the end of the financial year.
He is realistic though that it’s probably coming to an end.
“It’s not forever,” he says pointing out his age of 84.
If the decision is made to close, the stock will be sold off - as will the Dee St building he owns.
It won’t be a simple task, given the sheer amount of stuff Hubber has amassed over the years.
He smiles when is asked just how many items there are at that Dee St building.
One shop assistant reckons it would be in the millions, but no one really knows.
Some label it junk, others view Hubbers Emporium as a massive three-floor treasure chest.
Hubber says many things in life come down to the eye of the beholder, and his collection is no different.
With the topic of potential closure quickly sorted, I sat with Hubber for close to an hour talking about Invercargill and his life stories.
He did almost all of the talking. There was the odd pause when a shop assistant wanted to know what he would be prepared to sell an item for.
It included a samurai type display sword which Hubber says he bought off former District Police Commander - and current Environment Southland councillor - Neville Cook some time ago.
Hubber settled on selling it for $295 - even though he reckons he could probably get more for it.
During my chat with Hubber, he went frantically from story to story as if he was flicking through an unorganised box of old photos that each triggered a different memory.
At one point he was telling me how he would ride three miles to school on a horse in 1945 when living in Mill Rd, the next he was talking me through his three Southland high jump titles.
That was before he quickly moved onto telling me that his now Queenstown-based son Craig wrote the music for the World’s Fastest Indian movie.
It’s obvious Hubber is proud of his family.
He made sure I was aware of the business success of his brother Keith and the wealth he had built. Keith owns many fishing companies in the south.
David himself has been deep in the business game throughout his life and has also done alright for himself.
At the peak of his property ownership, he says he owned 14 commercial buildings. The first he bought in Invercargill in 1964 for “75 quid”.
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He once owned a building where Wachner Place is now situated. That hit him in the pocket though, he says.
Hubber recalls the Sunday afternoon he got a phone call to say the building was on fire.
The problem was it was only insured for about $500,000 and the replacement cost sat at about $3m to $4m, Hubber says.
Hubber eventually sold it to Mabel Wachner - the widow of former Invercargill Mayor Abraham Wachner.
Mabel Wachner gifted the land to the Invercargill City Council to develop a public space. It wasn’t quite what Hubber was thinking though.
“I wanted her to leave it as a green patch, otherwise I wouldn’t have sold it. I wanted to have a green patch in the middle of town,” Hubber says.
He is disappointed with what transpired but didn’t get too publicly involved in the matter. He did not want to “cause too much strife”.
On a couple of occasions during our chat he stopped to point out that while he’s done alright for himself financially, he has had to work for every bit of it.
“I’ve got no money from nobody. I like to think I have [worked for it]. If anybody can prove otherwise, I’ll double it.”
That willingness to roll up his sleeves, work hard, and also take some risks is none more evident than what followed a poignant life moment when he was in his early 20s.
He was a carpet layer at the time. Hubber and his brothers had a business called Southland Floorcovering Service in Gore - a business that still operates today under different owners.
Hubber and his apprentice Tom Kitto had finished a job in Otautau when they were involved in a horrific crash.
Kitto was driving the work van and drove into a concrete bridge.
“Dr Elder gave me 10 minutes to live. But I lay in hospital for seven months without getting out of bed,” Hubber says.
His left foot was left six inches shorter than the other following the aftermath of the accident.
Hubber had to go about reinventing himself, employment wise, because of the physical damage caused.
There was no ACC available in that era.
“An old doctor told myself in hospital that I would find something I could do, and I said; ‘Yes, I will’.
“So, I taught myself to sew. I then had another girl sewing beside me, and then I had another girl, then I had about six girls.
“Then I had to find a way to sell all of the stuff.”
That’s when he bought his shop for 75 quid in Invercargill. But that wasn’t enough given he was producing so many lambwool items to be sold.
He then bought a shop in Dunedin, but on his way to do that he saw an empty shop in Gore. So, he purchased a store in Gore as well.
Hubber also ended up with a shop in Christchurch and eventually branched out from his sheepskin offerings to selling jewellery as well.
He had three jeweller shops in Invercargill at one point.
“I was busy. I had a go at lots of things.”
He’s still at it now.
He makes the trip into the Hubbers Emporium shop most days from the farm at Drysdale Rd where he and wife Helen have lived at for 50 years. They’ve been married for over 60 years now.
“I went to an auction one day, and I brought [the Drysdale Rd property]. Then I brought quite a few acres, and I sold 10 acre blocks off.”
For Hubber, at 84-years-old, it’s the people interaction that keeps him showing up to work each day and fuelling the fire to buy stuff from one person and then sell it to another.
As for the most unique item Hubber has bought and sold during his days owning and operating Hubbers Emporium?
He says it’s a diary of the captain of the SY Morning who sailed to Antarctica to pick up Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton in 1903.
Hubber says he got his hands on the diary from “out Otautau way”. He bought it over the telephone for a “few thousand” without getting to see it.
He then sold it for $20,000 some years later.
“If I had it back, I would get $120,000.”
Hubber loves a yarn, that’s not hard to figure out. Although a photo to go with this article he wasn’t so keen on. He suggests he’s not all that photogenic.
He got this reporter at a weak moment. I didn’t attempt to convince him otherwise and get the photo that would have made this piece that bit better.
You’ll just have to pay Hubber a visit in Dee St yourself and see the 84-year-old in his happy place.
Just a comment which you are welcome to remove, Logan. At the beginning of this wonderful story you have written brought instead of bought. You might like to edit those sentences.