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Sea features in local choir’s concert

By Frank Neill

The Khandallah Library will celebrate its 70th anniversary on 24 August, starting at 6pm.

To mark the occasion, Wellington City Libraries’ Historian Gábor Tóth will present a talk about the history of this local institution and how it was established.

The talk will take a particular look at the role played by the Khandallah-based historian Fanny Irvine-Smith in the 1940s to have a purpose-built library constructed in the suburb and the importance she placed on libraries in society.

The Khandallah Library opened on 27 August 1953.

The opening came years after a library for the suburb was ﬁrst mooted.

In 1928 the Wellington City Librarian suggested that further branch libraries be established in some of Wellington’s suburbs. This led to the establishment of the Miramar, Lyall Bay and Wadestown libraries (and a small branch in the Ngaio Town Hall) but then development stopped.

Khandallah, which had been included on the list, missed out, despite consistent lobbying by the Khandallah Progressive Association (KPA).

Wellington City Council voted money for a library in 1936 and investigated suitable sites but a ratepayer loan poll rejected the proposal and it was shelved.

A petition signed by 1,292 Khandallah residents requesting a local library was presented to the council by the KPA in 1943.

In 1944 a poll of ratepayers voted to continue the general library construction work and a loan of £30,000 was raised to fund the building of more libraries, among them Khandallah.

It was some years before construction started, however.

In 1947, after some local agitation, a temporary library opened at 8 Ganges Road in one half of what had been a domestic dwelling. The local Plunket Society occupied the other half. Although the City Engineer designed the building in 1951, construction did not start for a further two years.

A signiﬁcant feature of the library was that, although most of the stock came from the central library, a fund for book purchase was set up in the memory of historian and bibliophile, Fanny Irvine-Smith. She had worked hard to establish the library but died in 1949, before work on the building had even begun.

In 1989 when closure was mooted by the council as a cost-cutting exercise, Khandallah residents presented a large petition to the Mayor, Jim Belich, who promised to retain it.

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