Tawa Historical Society Incorporated

The Tawa Historian

Newsletter #38 – August 2016

Dear Members and Friends,

News from the AGM
At last Monday’s Annual General Meeting the following were elected to the THS Executive:
Chairman: Bruce Murray
Secretary: Ken Woodgate
Treasurer: Bill Hinkley
Deputy Chair: Michael Steer
Members: Phil Harland; Richard Herbert; Lois Mexted: David Parsons; Gil Roper; Elizabeth Sutton.
Kerry Prendergast remains as our Patron.

Guest Speaker following the AGM
Our local livewire City Councillor, Malcolm Sparrow spoke on local matters. Attached to this Newsletter is a copy of Malcolm’s talk. We are grateful to Malcolm for giving his time to bring us up to date with local issues.

The launch of ‘The Tawa Town Hall, 1933-1963’ by Mike Steer
Mike has been quietly working on this publication for some time, and we are pleased to announce that all members, and members of the public, are most welcome to attend the launch of this book on Monday 10 October 2016 at 6.00pm in Tawa’s Mervyn Kemp Library, Main Road, Tawa.
Refreshments will be served, and the book will be available for sale. We are grateful to the staff of the Library for their preparedness to allow this launch to be held in the Library. The WCC has a policy to the effect that they are happy to host an event in connection with any book which is published about Wellington or any part of Wellington. The evening will conclude by 7.30pm.

The Tawa Memorial
We are also pleased to announce that a comprehensive application/request was submitted to the Lottery Grants Commission (Environment & Heritage) by 27 July 2016 for funds to enable the building of the Tawa Memorial. Whether or not we have been successful in being allocated the funds for which we have applied will be known in late October 2016. If our bid is successful, it is our aim to have the Memorial built and in place in time for ANZAC Day, 2017.
The cost of the Memorial, including GST, is $167,000. We currently have funds available totalling some $85,000, so we are asking for about $82,000 from the Commission. We are very grateful to the following donors:
The Linden Tennis Club (1936-2016) $50,000.00
The Tawa RSA Poppy Fund $10,000.00
Gordon Mygind (a WW2 soldier) $10,000.00
The Mana Community Grants Foundation* $10,000.00
* Some $5,000 of the MCGF monies (given in 2014) has been spent already on architect’s fees, consent costs, preparatory work and the like.
Another community group has been in consultation with us regarding a contribution they would like to make towards this project, and we expect to receive the results of their deliberations in the next few days.

Chairman’s Annual Report
Attached to this newsletter is a copy of this report which was tabled and formally received at the AGM.

Future Publications
Apart from the launch of Mike Steer’s The Tawa Town Hall on 10 October, there are a number of other books “in the pipeline”, as follows:
David Parsons will be writing a short history of the Linden Tennis Club 1936-2016. As part of the discussions we had with the Club regarding their generous offer of $50,000 towards the construction of a Tawa Memorial, we have agreed to produce and print a history of the Club, which the Club will finance.
Bruce Murray and David Parsons will produce a book on Willowbank Reserve and its environs, probably in 2017. It will cover topics such as the origin of the name ‘takapu’; McCoy’s Stockade; William and Elizabeth Earp; the Earp orchard; the Bucket Tree; James and Rachel Taylor; the railway lines of 1885 and 1937; Francis and Agnes Greer; and Arohata.
Gil Mexted is working on Tawa: the tree, the community and the native bush reserves. Gil wrote his M.Sc. thesis on the tawa tree, and is also a member of the Friends of Tawa Bush Reserves.
Bruce Murray is collecting material for a book on The Mexteds of Pluckley and Tawa Flat. It will focus on the reasons as to why the Mexteds and numerous other well established families from Kent emigrated to New Zealand.
Mike Steer is beginning to collect material on Takapu Valley with a view writing a short history on the Valley.

Kind regards,