Over 100 people attended Kairangi Hall’s celebration and family gathering on Sunday.
When the Kairangi Hall committee got together to discuss something special to celebrate the hall’s 90 years, the Kairangi Hall Summer Festival was initiated.
Alison Hutchins pictured cutting the cake.
Over 100 people attended the celebration and family gathering at the hall southeast of Roto-o-Rangi on Sunday.
“It was great to see so many kids turn up with their parents and spend hours on the bouncy castle that was put up,” Shaun Crofskey told The News.
Live music was played by local Jack Wallis and a dinner and dessert was provided by the committee through business sponsorship
The cake was cut by Alison Hutchins. Her grandparents had purchased a farm in the Kairangi area in 1927.
Rod Cooper and Bill Garland delivered insightful speeches about the hall history and what it meant to them
Cooper said when he was five his parents Ron and Joy purchased the 55 acre (22ha) Bennett property and moved to Kairangi.
Over 100 people attended Kairangi Hall’s celebration and family gathering on Sunday.
Over 100 people attended KairangiHall’s celebration and family gathering on Sunday.
“My parents over the years, purchased additional land and lived all of their lives here, and I have many memories of growing up in this lovely area.
“In fact, my mother as a three year old, came with her parents back in 1933 to be one of the original settlers as part of the DV Bryant Waikato Land Settlement scheme.”
A total of 15 families arrived to break in and farm the 850 acres (343ha) that was named and registered by those original settlers as Kairangi meaning food of heaven.
Rod’s mother grew up on the Griggs family farm, currently owned by George Griggs at the end of Kairangi Road. In 1934 her sister Lois, was the first baby born in the new settlement.
The building of the hall was started in July 1935 and completed that November at a cost of 235 pounds. D V Bryant, the Board Chairman, performed the official opening on November 30, 1935.
Over 100 people attended Kairangi Hall’s celebration and family gathering on Sunday.
As electric power didn’t come to Kairangi until 1940, functions at night involved using kerosene lamps dotted around the hall. The hall became the hub for meetings and social gatherings,
Over those early years, the hall was used for many functions including card games, family picnics, sporting events, and dances. During WWII, the hall was used for working bees. Comfort parcels were made for troops overseas and the ball was also the base for the Home Guard.
The first wedding reception – for Pat Main and Ivan Skinner – was held in the hall in January 1949, though it was only in 2015 that the first wedding was held in the hall.
The hall and grounds have been used for many and significant functions – including the Kairangi Jubilee in 1983, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the original settlers’ arrival to the district and as a base by a film crew for two days as they filmed a TV advert around the district about Anchor milk and butter. Some locals appeared in the advert when it went to air.
In March 2016 a belated 80th celebration of the hall being built was a reunion for former and current residents which attracted just on 150 people. In 2016, the district welcomed home Nikita Howarth after she won gold and bronze at the Rio Paralympic games.
Major improvement work was carried out from 2003 to 2005. The hall floor was sanded and revarnished, and a 22,700 litre water tank and a septic tank system was installed. An extra room was also added to the back and side of the hall and the supper room and toilets were revamped.
To help cover some of the cost, motorbike trail rides were held over farms, as were a number of horse treks.
Rod Cooper recalled many happy memories of my time spent at the Kairangi Hall.
They included going to hall functions and spending most of the night inside the hall with his mother, as all the men would be outside the front door or in the carpark drinking beer.
And the morning after Guy Fawkes’ was always a race by the younger generation, to get back to the hall to find any unused crackers and – “and have a daytime Guy Fawkes time by ourselves”.
Kairangi Hall. Photo: Google
Over 100 people attended Kairangi Hall’s celebration and family gathering on Sunday.
