Memory boxes
Regular users of the digital newspaper website PapersPast will know that sometimes it pays to experiment with spellings to get the best search results. Such is the case with Maungatautari, which also crops up as Maungatautari in some historic newspaper items.
The Maungatautari Public Hall was opened on August 11, 1911, and 40 couples were reported to have taken the floor, presumably to dance, at the event. A supper both ‘‘dainty and bountiful’’ was provided by the women of the district and the opening was said to have been long-awaited after considerable delays.
Earlier, in April 1910, the Maungatautari Racing Club had contributed £80 towards the cost of the hall. Fourteen years after its opening, a Roll of Honour was installed in the hall, bearing the names of the 10 local men who died serving in World War I and 16 others who managed to return home.
Although Cambridge builder Fred Potts relaid the floor of the schoolroom at Maungatautari a month before the hall was opened, accounts of the latter’s genesis make no mention of the contractor involved. Persistent problems with the quality of the construction may explain why no one was credited with the hall’s design and execution.
The hall stands to the north of the former Maungatautari School near the Hicks Road intersection and close by the northern flank of the eponymous maunga. Further to the north is Luck at Last Road, whose name relates to the area’s gold-mining history that dates to the late 1880s.
As is often the case, even in the region’s tiniest settlements, Maungatautari’s school (1903), teacher’s house (1905) and public hall form a civic cluster that continues to create a focus for the community over a century after their construction. All three buildings are listed by Heritage New Zealand and scheduled on the Waipa¯ District Plan. After the school closed, the property was returned to Nga¯ ti Korokı¯ Kahu¯ kura as part of the iwi’s Treaty settlement in 2012.
Close by the Maungatautari Marae and the northern access to the Maungatautari Scenic Reserve, the hall and its neighbours are early 20th century-built heritage elements within a rich cultural landscape. The stylish signboard above the entry to the hall demonstrates the modern appreciation of this historic local hall.