Eighty-five years after a group of Rongotai College students helped move thousands of books into Wellington’s old Central Library, today’s students have followed in their footsteps, shifting thousands more into the city’s newly revamped building.
More than 4000 books were carried into the quake-strengthened Te Matapihi Central Library today by 50 students from the school, echoing an effort from 1940 when the same college lent a hand after the council failed to budget for moving costs.
“When the previous library on the corner of Wakefield and Mercer streets closed, the council hadn’t allocated any funding to move the books,” said Wellington City Council’s principal creative producer Kirsten Mason. “So, when Rongotai College offered 500 boys to help, the offer was gratefully accepted.”
The effort made headlines at the time. The Evening Post reported in February 1940 that the boys worked “with infectious hilarity”, rewarded with milk and biscuits halfway through.
Today’s students kept that spirit alive.
“It feels really good to know we’re remembering those boys back then,” said head prefect Leo Powdrell.
“Years from now, we’ll be remembered as the ones who did the same work.”
Some former Rongotai students also joined in, including Henry Whitford Lee, who took half a day off work to be part of what he called “a historical event”, and Matt Eagle, who said he was “delighted to help get the library operational again”.
Te Matapihi – one of Wellington’s most loved public spaces – will reopen in March next year after extensive earthquake strengthening and refurbishment.
Mayor Andrew Little said it would be “an amazing space, not just a place for books, but a hub for digital interaction and community connection”.
With more than 400,000 books soon to be back on its shelves, the library’s reopening will mark a new chapter for the capital, written once again with help from Rongotai boys.
