Ngati Poneke Honours Service Club Leader

Te Ao Hou, June 1975, Page 35

Ngati Poneke Honours Service Club Leader by Margaret Kelly Miss Gwendoline Ryan, the retiring president of the Altrusa Club of Wellington, received an unexpected honour at a hangi dinner held by the club on Saturday 15 June, when the Rev. Canon Hohepa Taepa bestowed on her a traditional kaitaka in recognition of the support given to the Ngati Poneke Building Fund Appeal by the Altrusa Club. Two years ago the club undertook to raise $3,500 for the building fund. $2,000 was presented to Mt Duff Daysh, Chairman of the Appeal Executive Committee, in December 1972 and the balance of $1,500 was presented to Canon Taepa at the hangi dinner. Miss Ryan, who is Senior Mistress at Mana College, Porirua, became President of the Altrusa Club of Wellington in June 1972. Among the various projects programmed by the club for the period covering her term of office, was support for the Ngati Poneke Building Fund, a project which Miss Ryan was particularly anxious to promote as a form of service to this important section of the Wellington community. The Altrusa Club of Wellington is one of thirteen such clubs in New Zealand, which are all part of Altrusa International, a service organisation for executive women which was founded in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.A. in 1917. There are now Altrusa Clubs in thirteen countries of the world and members of these clubs are women holding executive positions in professions or in the business community. Invitations to membership are governed by classifications available and the various clubs operate by drawing on the leadership abilities of its members in seeking out and attempting to meet the needs of the community. In the Wellington Club there are 35 members and because Wellington is the centre of Government, a number of these are in executive positions in the Civil Service. The Altrusa Club of Wellington has achieved a great deal since it was established in 1966. As well as supporting a number of smaller projects the club has made major grants from time to time. In 1969 it made a grant of $3,500 towards the building of the Waitangirua Kindergarten in Porirua East, and in 1971 the club raised $1,300 for cancer research. Then came the undertaking to raise $3,500 for the proposed new marae for Ngati Poneke. Over the past two years, as well as honouring its promise to Ngati Poneke, other worthwhile projects have been completed. One of these was the bringing to New Zealand of a Solomon Island Nursing Sister—Sister Veronica—who had suffered the amputation of a leg. She was in need of a properly fitted light-weight leg which would enable her to give to her own people the service for which she had been trained. With the co-operation of the Melanesian Mission, the Altrusa Club of Wellington brought Sister Veronica to New Zealand for eight weeks. Here she was fitted with the new limb and visited hospitals and institutions for further nursing experience. Another project was the purchasing of a movie projector for the League for the Hard of Hearing, to assist with the teaching of lip reading. The club also provided a tea and coffee dispenser for the Intensive Care Unit of the Wellington Public Hospital. Other work in the community has included assistance to Youthline, Birthright, Medical Aid Abroad and the Crippled Children's Society. The raising of funds for its various projects is done by holding special functions and by

Canon Hohepa Taepa of the Wellington Anglican Maori Pastorate places the cloak given by Ngati Poneke round Miss Ryan's shoulders. individual members using their own talents for raising funds. As well as raising money to support community projects, club members are involved in giving time, thought and care for others who need the support of human sympathy and aid. Funds raised for the Ngati Poneke project have come from Music Hall evenings organised by the club and from the very successful hangi-dinner held in the Ngati Poneke Hall just before Miss Ryan retired from her presidency of the club, in June. The latter was an all-out effort by club members and helpers from Ngati Poneke to cater for a total of 250 and the success of the evening exceeded all expectations. The dinner also represented the annual birthday celebration of the Altrusa Club. It is a tradition for the club to make a special gift each year at the time of its birthday dinner. In 1972 the club presented a deep freeze unit to the Newtown Presbyterian Social Services Association and the previous year hand resuscitators were given to the Wellington Free Ambulance Service. Last year an automatic dishwashing machine was presented to the Sisters of Compassion for their new creche in Suffolk Street. This year it was decided that the eighth birthday of the club would be celebrated by holding a combined hangi and birthday dinner at the Ngati Poneke Hall and that the gift this year would be the promised cheque for the Ngati Poneke Building Fund Appeal. The original intention was that the $3,500 which the club undertook to donate to the fund, would be for the building of a small kitchen in the new marae. The hangi-birthday dinner combined the serving of food prepared in the traditional hangi style with the serving of party ‘extras’, prepared by members of Altrusa. The tables in the hall were attractively decorated and presented a really festive air. During the dinner there was first rate entertainment by members of the Ngati Poneke Young Maori Club. Don Selwyn acted as Master of Ceremonies and also contributed a bracket of solo items. The traditional Ngati Poneke motifs in the hall, were joined by the large circular blue and white symbol of Altrusa International and a pennant with the message ‘TURN CONCERN INTO ACTION’ which was the world-wide Altrusa theme in 1972, when the Altrusa Club of Wellington undertook to support the Ngati Poneke Building Fund Appeal. In putting the kaitaka on Miss Ryan, following her handing over of the cheque at the dinner, Canon Taepa referred to this theme of TURN CONCERN INTO ACTION as it applied to the club's concern for the providing of a new home for Ngati Poneke. Among those who attended the hangi dinner were the Minister of Maori Affairs, Mr Matiu Rata, and Mrs Rata; the Chief Justice,

Canon Taepa and Miss Ryan with Mrs Vera Morgan, President of the Poneke branch of the Maori Women's Welfare League and also a member of Altrusa. Sir Richard Wild, and Lady Wild; the Mayor of Wellington, Sir Francis Kitts, and Lady Kitts. Mr Rata spoke at the dinner and said he expected to be in a position soon, to advise that additional land under consideration for the new marae had been made available. It had been anticipated that the building of the new marae would start in June and many Wellington citizens, particularly the Chairman of the Building Fund Appeal, Mr Duff Daysh, have expressed their disappointment that this has been postponed. Mr Daysh was unable to attend the dinner but in sending his apology said that he was concerned about the delay. The Altrusa Club of Wellington is one of many organisations which have made tremendous efforts to raise funds for the new marae, which is to be built at the Northern entrance to the city, on Thorndon Quay. These organisations include many Maori groups and there is also a long list of private citizens who have made donations to the appeal fund. The land for the proposed marae is just below Old St Paul's, an historic area of Wellington which is of considerable significance to the Maori people. Cabinet has now approved a land transfer adding 2 roods 6.5 perches to the existing site of 1 rood 2.3 perches already held by the club, and this should enable the building to be started. We are all concerned that Ngati Poneke should have its new home in the very near future.