APOLOGY

I apologise for my absence from this AGM. My husband Bob and I had the opportunity to travel overseas at this time to visit members of his family in Canada and England- I send my greetings to members, and offer my services to you as President for another year, if you so wish.

The space provided by the College of Education library for our collection has proved to be very satisfactory; it is quiet, there is plenty of room and photocopy facilities are readily available. The collection has been well used this year by researchers seeking information for the History of Karori project. As one of the users I have been very impressed yet again, by the amount of information we have available and the professional way it is curated by Jan Heynes and Ruth Graham. These two committee members have responsibility for maintaining and preserving our collection of papers and photographs; our thanks to Ruth and Jan.

Building the new public library has started, once it is finished the collection will be re-housed there.

This year the Society will be losing three committee members: Arthur Olsson, Jim Brodie and Jenny Mawson. However all three will remain members of the Society. Arthur has been a member since 1974 which was just after the Society started, and has been a member of the committee since 1984. He has been responsible in recent years for maintaining information about our membership and for organising the distribution of our magazine "The Stockade". He has also contributed a number of articles to Stockade and is responsible each issue for the section on the Society's Activities. His contribution to committee discussions and decisions has always been made with wisdom and tolerance. He will be greatly missed.

Jim Brodie was an early member of the Society and wrote an article in the first issue of "The Stockade" in 1973 entitled "The Maori inhabitants of Western Wellington". Since then he has contributed numerous articles for our magazine, as well as being its editor for many years. He wrote "Terawhiti and the Goldfields" in 1986 which was published by the Society. When the first printing sold out the Society organised a second printing in 2000. He was also involved in the publication of the Karori Heritage Trail and is currently co-editor of "The History of Karori and its People" project as well as contributing to the text. He has always provided a breadth of vision to our committee debates. Jim's resignation comes after his recent move to Levin to live and we wish him well in his "rural retreat"'.

Jenny Mawson has been a "behind the scenes"' worker for the Society for many years and with a down to earth approach has kept our feet on the ground- Her extensive knowledge of Karori and its people is a very valuable asset. We are very grateful to Arthur, Jun and Jenny for their hard work, enthusiasm and commitment to the aims and objectives of the Society.

Our treasurer, Frances Sutton, continues to ensure the Society's financial affairs are well managed. The Society is very fortunate to have Frances carrying out this role so efficiently for us.

The theme for this year's Heritage Month is "Heritage and Love" and it will be launched on 1st June at the Film Archive. As part of its advertising campaign the Wellington Region Promotion Council's publicity will include information about all the societies involved which will give some exposure to the Society and its activities.

The Society had a stall at this event in February. As a result we have one new member and sold some books. We were encouraged by the interest shown by members of the public about the Society and what it does.

Our current membership is 145. Our thanks to Arthur Olsson, Frances Sutton and Euan Pearce for their work in this area. We have an increasing number of members who live outside Wellington.

The Stout Trust has been advised that because of other commitments the Society is not currently involved with any oral history projects and therefore the unspent balance from its on~ donation would not be uplifted in the meantime.

We apologise for the late delivery of the 2004 issue of our magazine. This has been due to a number of technical problems beyond our control and we deeply regret any inconvenience this may have caused our members.

Work has continued on this project throughout the year and a number of meetings with the researchers have been held. Unfortunately some of the original researchers have had to withdraw but the gaps created have been filled. The publication target is late 2005, but this may not be achievable. However, we know members will be very supportive in promoting the book when it is published.

A "letters to the editor" campaign to major metropolitan and provincial newspapers, plus historical magazines elicited a considerable amount of information about Karori plus some photographs. The editors have now received the first drafts of the majority of the topics and, in some cases, the final drafts: editing is progressing and the selection of photographs will begin shortly.

In June 2004 Deirdre Wogan, a member of the Society, spoke at the AGM of the Community Centre, and the president spoke to the St Mary's Fellowship. In April 2005 the president spoke to the U3A Eastern Bays history group.

The Society paid the seminar fees to enable Jan Heynes and Ruth Graham to attend the LINZ heritage seminar held in Palmerston North in November 2004.

Twenty-five members plus drivers from the Cross Country Vehicle club visited some of the old goldmine sites at Terawhiti in early April. Our thanks to Jim Brodie who was our guide for the day. His historical knowledge provided an added dimension to the enjoyment of the day. Check our website for photographs and comments about this outing.

The website continues to flourish under the guidance of Phil Rogers. We have received an increasing number of inquiries about the Society and Karori since we started the site which is encouraging. The only limitation to including more information is peoples' time to write the contributions. But in the meantime our thanks to Phil for the work he does.

We regret to record the deaths of Hugh Fullarton and Keith Seagar former members of the Society,

This year has been devoted to researching and editing the material for our forthcoming book – "The History of Karori and its People" and I am very grateful to everyone who is involved with the project. In addition, my thanks to all members of the committee who so willingly give of their time and talents in furthering the work of the Society and in supporting me as President.

Finally my special thanks to Arthur, Jim and Jenny for their loyalty and support to me as President and thanks to our Secretary Henry for chairing the meeting.

Judith Burch – President 7 June 2005