Study Centre

Te Ao Hou, December 1966, Page 17

Study Centre During 1965, Punga-haruru was made available to secondary school students as a study centre “Wanganui Chronicie” photo Wilson Huwyler and Neddy Ihaka helping to set up the Punga-haruru library on three nights a week. Coaching was given by Mrs E. McRae, a member of the Federation of University Women. This year Mrs McRae has continued her expert help to our secondary students, beginning in the first term. A reference collection has been built up for the use of these pupils and others, and it is now small but first-rate. All the books are new and up-to-date. Its main lack is a copy of the Descriptive Atlas of New Zealand, which the Advancement Committee would dearly love to obtain. Donations of books continued to arrive and by the end of 1965 more than 1,200 had passed through the hands of the volunteer librarians. The pressing problem was where to house the ones selected for use. The children's books were put on some second-hand kitchen shelves, and some shop shelving was donated by the local store. At one stage seventeen cartons of adult books and reference books were stacked in the front porch of Punga-haruru. Mr and Mrs Waitere cleared out the store-

room at the end of the hall and painted it, and now this little room, 11′ × 10′, serves as our library. Shelving has been made from 40lb apple boxes nailed together, fixed to the walls and painted. Half inch rounded moulding covers the joins, and attractive shelf signs in engraved formica indicate the various sections of the book stock. Wooden bookends which we hope will eventually be carved, have meantime been covered in waxed paper with rafter pattern designs. Two large panels of gibraltar board await an artist to design murals. Members of the Advancement Committee from Ratana Pa asked for advice and assistance, and went off to find a spare room they could use as a library. They found an army hut, and shifted it to a more central position in the pa. From this time onwards, most of the books donated were sent on to Ratana where Miss M. Widdowson, a member of the Advancement Committee and Librarian in Charge of the School Library Service at Wanganui, has prepared them for use as soon as the hut is repaired and painted. Visitors to the Library at Punga-haruru have included delegations from the Hawera Educational Advancement Committee and the Waverly-Patea Educational Advancement Committee; Mr John Grace, a trustee of the Maori Education Foundation, Mrs I. R. Ratana, M.P., and Mr Harré, a new Officer for Maori Education.