Tawa Historical Society Incorporated

The Tawa Historian

Newsletter #23 – May 2010

Dear members and friends of the THS,

There are a number of matters to report to you to keep you up to date with Society matters

Subscriptions.
Thank you very much to all of you who have paid your 2009/10 subscriptions. As this newsletter is written we have 45 paid up members. Thank you also to those who added a donation to your subscription. The Society has benefitted by $260 from your generosity.

Tawa History Week – Tuesday 8 to Friday 11 June 2010.
As you know we are not a Society which, like many, has monthly meetings featuring a meal and a speaker. We prefer to focus our energies on producing books and booklets recording Tawa’s history. Once a year however we host a ‘Tawa History Week’, held with the cooperation and support of the staff of the Tawa Library in the Library. Our third such week will proceed on the dates above, commencing with tea/coffee each day at 10.00am. We would value the support of any of our members at each of those meetings. The programme will be:
Tuesday – Bruce Murray – The English forebears of A H (Arthur) Carman.
Wednesday – Philip Harland – Updated information on the Ammunition Bunker and Railway line in the Takapu vicinity.
Thursday – David Wood – Arthur Carman’s politics.
Friday – Bruce Murray – Arthur Carman’s father.

Publications for 2010 – progress.
Our major book of the year, Best of Tawa Vol 3, should be available soon. Its final editing is all that is required.
Michael Steer’s booklet on the Bartlett House will also be ready for publication shortly. Michael has done a fine job on this project.
We are gathering information on the Tawa Town Hall (on the current site of the Salvation Army shop opposite Mexted Motors) which was in place from the late 1930s for 20 or so years. Please contact Pat Waite (232-8137) or Phil Harland (232-8157) if you have information which would help.
Our major book for 2010 is about A H (Arthur) Carman, and is progressing well. Six chapters have been written, and four of those have been sent to Arthur’s children for their thoughts. Arthur was a well known Tawa identity from the early 1930s till his death in 1982. He played a huge role in community service for most of those years, and led a most interesting and at times controversial life. His book, Tawa Flat and the Old Porirua Road, is of inestimable value to anyone interested in Tawa’s history. Members with any information on Arthur should contact the authors, Bruce Murray (232 5374) or David Wood (232 4088).

AGM.
Our AGM will be held at 7.30pm on Monday 6 September 2010. Please mark this date and time in your diary now.

Tawa Lookout Historic Walk.
Your Society is working with the Tawa Rotary Club support a community walk from the Tawa Library to the Tawa Lookout. We have written a brochure, which will be available to all walkers, that points out items of historical interest along the route. We will pay half the costs of its printing. We will provide guides / commentators for the walk. No date is yet set for the walk, but ‘watch this space!’.

Tawa Railway Station.
Your executive is giving thought to “doing something with the Tawa Railway Station”. We have noted that at the Plimmerton and Paekakariki stations activities of an historic nature have been permitted. Anyone with thoughts on this matter could contact David Parsons (232 6339) or Bruce Murray.

Tawa Cemetery.
As a result of our approach to the Wellington City Council, Council officers have now had a bench seat placed in the Cemetery. This has been at no cost to the Society. We are very pleased with the level of support and cooperation we receive from the City Council and its officers.

Conclusion.
We continue to be grateful for the support we receive from our members, expressed not only in comments to the executive, but in the practical matter of paying your subscriptions. This enables us to help bring Tawa’s history before the public, and to make our suburb more interesting and attractive.

Kind regards,