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The Puhoi Historical Society is joining with the Puhoi/ Warkworth Parish to celebrate Sts Peter and Paul's Feastday on 26th June 2011, this year, starting with Mass at 11am, and moving across to the hall after that for a shared meal and the usual afternoon of chat, reminiscing, Bohemian music and folk dancing, update on Puhoi Church Restoration and Fundraising. Everybody is welcome.
Please bring a plate for the shared luncheon. Soup provided.
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I am proud to report that your Society has had another successful year, both financially and in regard to activities undertaken and general progress made.
Our most public activity over the winter months of last year was a series of six lectures which illustrated the very early history of this community. Attendance varied but was somewhat disappointing overall, a fact which may be the result of many of our potential audience spending the winter months away from the village.
The records
As I have remarked repeatedly we are proud of our record keeping and this has been further improved with the acquisition of specialist archiving materials which have enabled Jenny Schollum to index all the original items in our care.
The museum
There is hardly a museum, gallery or stately home overseas that doesn’t offer its visitors an audio guide. These are gadgets similar to but slightly larger than a mobile phone. Items of interest throughout the exhibit are numbered. The visitor enters one of those numbers on the keypad of the audio guide and can then listen to a description by holding the gadget to his or her ear. Each visitor gets a complete guided tour of the museum but can also choose not to listen to explanations which seem of lesser interest. Explanations are usually brief and to the point but there is also a “Learn More” facility for each numbered item, which supplies additional information and background stories for those who want them. We have ordered ten of these guides from a firm in Luxembourg and they should be on their way as I speak.
Another important improvement to the museum is the installation of an Honours Board. Over the years a large and diverse number of people have worked exceedingly hard to make our society the thriving enterprise it is today. Most, if not all, of these people have since quietly faded from memory. For a society, whose purpose it is to keep history alive, this is quite intolerable. So, not before time, the committee has decided to publicly display our own history. To this end the newly installed Honours’ Board will call to mind the Founding Members, the Past Presidents and all those Members Who Have Made a Significant Contribution.
When you pass through the museum you may also notice a recent addition to the exhibits: a glass cabinet which displays various Priests’ and Altar Boys’ vestments and also gives protection to the Schollum Bible.
We are having some trouble with borer infestations both of the wooden plough and in the musical instruments’ cabinet. Norm Golding has made a considerable effort to combat the pests and we hope that the problem is now solved.
The museum frontage
You will have noticed that the enormous rose hedge, which used to hide the museum from the road, has disappeared and been replaced by a picket fence. The result is a far smarter appearance from the road and the odd Puhoi resident might even notice that we exist.
As a welcoming gesture, we also intend to fly the flags of our most frequent visitors: our own New Zealanders, of course, but also lots of tourists from Germany and the Czech Republic who have been enticed here by our website.
The Titford family was one of the founding families of Puhoi and, once the Puhoi Historical Society had been established, Jesse and Doug Titford were prominent and very active members for many years. They worked on the committee, raised funds and did everything they possibly could to promote the memory of the early settlers. Finally, health problems prevented them from further participation but Doug remained our patron until the day he died.
We will establish a small garden in front of the Records Room with a bench and a stone bearing a plaque with the words “Jessie and Doug Titford, In recognition of their generosity and hard work for the Puhoi Historical Society”. A second plaque will be affixed to the Records Room with the inscription: “This building was erected with funds raised by Jessie and Doug Titford and by the New Zealand Lotteries Board”.
In further changes to the museum courtyard the pew, which we now hold in storage, will become a seat for visitors and the bank behind the picket fence will be covered with a rock garden. A small rosemary hedge has also been planted along the front of the museum.
Signage
A brown “tourist” sign advertising our museum is now in place on the entrance road to the village. The present sign on the museum will be replaced by a more attractive one which merely gives our name: “Bohemian Settlers Museum”. The sign on the road outside the property will be replaced by one which advertises what we do: “Museum, History of the village, Historic photos, Interesting Artifacts, Family Records etc.”.
150th Anniversary
It is quite astounding that nearly 150 years have passed since Capt. Martin Krippner caused the Bohemian settlers to come here, yet that over all this time no one has felt impelled to commemorate this fact. The committee feels quite strongly that the lack of visible recognition of Puhoi’s founder must end and that he needs to be commemorated at some prominent spot within the village. After careful deliberation, it was decided that the best solution would be the addition of a commemorative plaque to the stone at the landing site.
The Committee further resolved that this would be a good opportunity to also record the names of all the original settler families at the landing site as well as reminding visitors and residents alike that Te Hemara and his whanau did much to help the pioneers survive their first year. Suitable plaques will be affixed to the stone and the whole is to be unveiled as part of the 150th Anniversary celebrations.
Further items of business throughout the year
- Two newsletters have been published this year.
- A submission was made advocating full access from Puhoi village to the proposed motorway extension.
- The Society made donations to the Church Restoration Fund and to the Wharf project, both of which were considered of historical value by the committee.
- In an effort to draw in more support from the village the last Christmas party was changed from its usual format into a “fun party”.
- 50 copies of the Schmidt Thesis have now been sold and further copies have been printed. Also reprinted were the “Bohemia to Puhoi” and the Centennial booklets.
Finally
I wish to sincerely thank the members of our committee who, in a variety of ways, have worked as hard and achieved as much as ever. In view of the fact that there are only five members doing all the work, the year’s progress has been more than satisfactory. Keeping the museum manned is a perennial problem, so a special vote of thanks must go to Norm Golding who has worked tirelessly to keep the visitors coming through the door and to Sue Tisdall who organised it all – and more. Jenny Schollum, as ever, has been the committee’s backbone. Not only does she serve as both Treasurer and Secretary but it is she who looks after our famous records and manages the genealogy files. And without the considerable monetary donations regularly made by Sheryll Titford and her family, this society would not be in the comfortable financial situation it is in today.
Well done all!
Werner Fischer (Chairman)
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Ruth SCHMIDT in 1934 was still able to talk to and mingle with quite a number of the very original settlers who, although young when they arrived in 1863/6, had lived through it all and could vividly remember and speak at first hand. Neither later Historians nor ourselves had this privilege and advantage.