Tawa Historical Society Incorporated
The Tawa Historian
Newsletter #11 – March 2005
Dear Members,
We have now had our first meeting for the year, and have a number of encouraging matters about which we ought to inform you.
Tawa Heritage Trails
You will be aware that for some time we have been discussing with the W.C.C. the possibility of placing information boards / maps of a couple of heritage trails through Tawa, in the vicinity of the Tawa Library. At our last meeting two officers of the Council informed us of plans to upgrade the area on the corner of the Main Road and Cambridge Street adjacent to the library. The upgrade includes realignment of kerbing, new seating and lighting, some landscaping, and the building of a tall lit structure which will contain maps and written information about the Heritage Trails we have proposed. The total cost for the upgrade will be in the vicinity of $65,000.
Relationship with Tawa Community Board
Your executive has agreed that we should develop closer relationships with the Tawa Community Board. The Board now has more discretion than previously as to how money should be spent in Tawa. To this end I have established good rapport with the Chair of the Board, Ngaire Best, and she is very positive about the ways in which we believe we can enhance the Tawa district. Further, on 10th March I was invited to brief the Community Board at its meeting. I gave them a short paper outlining our aims, particularly as they relate to the placement of information boards concerning our district’s history in or near :
- The Tawa Cemetery
- Grasslees Reserve
- The site of the original Tawa Railway Station
- The area which was the original “commercial centre” of Tawa near the corner of Main Road and Oxford Street
- The Linden Social Centre
I was very encouraged by the positive response of the Board, and in particular their desire to see our long desired aim of placing brass markers along the line of the Old Porirua Road actually being achieved. They have decided to follow this matter through.
Tawa Historical Society Website
We are delighted to have been able to co-opt Richard Herbert to our executive. He is skilled in the design and construction of websites and has constructed one for us. It is up and running and can be visited at www.tawahistory.wellington.net.nz .
Richard would be very pleased to receive feedback on the website.
Executive Meetings
Your executive will meet at 7.30pm in the Tawa College P.T.A. Centre on 11th April, 16th May, 20th June, 1st August, 5th September, 3rd October, 7th November and 6th December. (All these dates are Mondays except Tuesday 6th December).
AGM
The AGM of the Society will be held at 7.30pm on Monday 1st August 2005, in the TCTPA Centre.
Subscriptions
Your executive has finally received advice from the IRD regarding tax deductibility of your annual contributions to the Society. Currently you pay a subscription of $25. Your executive has decided to restructure its request for your contributions as follows :
An annual subscription of $10 per member will be levied to cover the administration costs of the Society. Additionally we will invite donations to cover the project work of the Society, and recommend that it order for such donations to be tax deductible, that a minimum of $15.00 be included with your subscription.
Your subscription notice is included with this newsletter and in future receipts will always be sent out.
Heritage and Love
The Wellington Regional Heritage and Promotional Council have “Heritage and Love” as their theme for June this year. As part of this, the Tawa Historical Society with the Tawa Union Parish is sponsoring “I Love Theatre – A meeting with Jacob Rajan”. It is described as “A personal experience meeting with a gifted playwright and actor Jacob Rajan of ‘Krishnan’s Dairy’, ‘The Candlestick maker’, ‘The Pickle King’ etc. The man behind the mask”.
This will be held in St Stephen’s Church Lounge, Elena Place, Tawa, on 23rd June 2005, at 10.00 am.
For further information feel free to contact Allan Todd, phone 232 7386.
Porirua Historical Association
The PHS has a number of events from time to time. In order to bring these to you in time to take advantage of them, we are arranging to have the newsletter sent to us electronically so that we can on-forward it to our members.
Conclusion
We came to the end of our first meeting of the year much encouraged. The Council’s plans to develop the area just south of the library, the collaboration with the Community Board and the development of our website are significant steps forward, and we are very pleased with this progress.
Yours sincerely
Bruce Murray
Chairman