Newsletter - March/April 2024

Greetings from the President:

Welcome back everyone – with Easter in the middle of this last break it’s been a longer time than usual

since we were together at St Marks but as you will see below, the programme committee have another

very interesting lineup organised for us. Warwick Mottram and Richard McElrea put this one together,

thank you to you both.

Series Two: Early Ōtautahi/Christchurch History

8 April	Margaret Lovell Smith: Christchurch writer	I don’t believe in murder: standing up for peace in WW1 This is the story of the conscientious objectors, peace workers (including several leading women) and the young women who resisted militarism and war before, during and after WW1 in Canterbury.
15 April	Dr Simon D Pollard: Spider biologist, science writer, science communicator and Adjunct Professor of Science Communications,  University of Canterbury.	Christchurch Ghosts: Shaken but not stirred. Dr Pollard is interested in how cemeteries remind us of our biology and mortality. His talk will look at memorial art and the impact of the Christchurch earthquakes on our historic cemeteries.
22 April	Helen Brown: Ngāi Tahu historian and author, Archives Manager Research in the Ngāi Tahu Archive, Chair of the Okains Bay Museum Trust Board.	Unconscionable theft - Ngāi Tahu and land alienation in the Canterbury region. Helen will speak about Māori settlement in Ōtautahi/ Christchurch and the greater Canterbury region. She will discuss the early effects of European settlement on the indigenous people of the area with reference to multiple Ngāi Tahu land sales.
29 April	Paulien Martens: Curator Human History,  Canterbury Museum.	The Canterbury Museum collection of Dr. Alfred Charles Barker and his family. This collection comprises over 4000 letters, photographs and personal artifacts related to the Barker family. It will provide an intimate and engaging insight into the early development of our city and its people.
6 May	Greg Ryan: Professor of History,  Lincoln University	The spiritual home of New Zealand sport?  Leisure, class and community in Christchurch since 1850. Greg has published various books and articles on the social history of sport in New Zealand. With Geoff Watson he co-authored Sport and the New Zealanders: A History which was published in 2018. Greg is a Fellow of the Australian Society for Sports History and is managing editor of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

---

Subscription

Your annual subscription is $60 per person and it is due 31 March. Online payments are preferable (bank

account 03 0830 0467355 000 with your name in the reference field please), but to those for whom this is not possible, please put the cash in an envelope with your name clearly on the outside and hand it

personally to either the Treasurer or the President. Please do not post cash. New members are welcome to attend a couple of meetings first, but we then ask that prospective members pay their subscriptions before attending further meetings.

---

Interest Groups’ Roundup

Visit to the GIB factory:

GIB (‘Gibraltar’) board replaced lath and plaster and is manufactured by sandwiching gypsum paste between two layers of paperboard. The board is derived from screened Australian wastepaper and high-quality gypsum and is sourced from a mine near Adelaide; 25000 tonnes arrive about every two months. Among the variants are higher density boards for reducing noise and damage, a smoother surface type and one that incorporates barium sulphate as a barrier to X-rays for dental surgeries etc. The whole process is highly automated and continues 24/7 with a weekly six-hour maintenance. GIB is a good source of plant nutrients and can be composted after its end-of-life. This factory and another new one in Tauranga, the largest industrial building in Australasia, supplies 95% of board to New Zealand. It is the second biggest user of LPG in the country and uses large quantities of water. We thank our hosts for an excellent tour and free coffees at a cafe afterwards. For more information https://www.gib.co.nz/about-winstone-wallboards/about-winstone-wallboards-2/ Richard Pickering

Art Group Trip to the Cube Art Gallery: The exhibition Jesus on High is an interesting display of copies of many Old Masters’ paintings using stories from The New Testament. Nearly all the ‘paintings’ were computer generated prints on canvas and many of the painters like Rembrandt and Caravaggio had put themselves in the picture. They were all full of symbolism and a special picture was a Colin McCahon painting of Jesus on the cross. Most of the original paintings within the exhibition were painted by Paul Rees, the owner of the gallery. Copyrights typically run out in 50 or 100 years, so, with access to high quality internet photos and a data stick, you too could have a Salvidor Dali painting on your wall! With the black walls, many spotlights and agreeably proportional spaces, this was a surprisingly touching display. It was a not-for-sale, totally not-for-profit exhibition and will be closing around Easter time. Pam Hurst

Art Group trip to Christchurch Art Gallery: Julie Foley (U3A member and Art Gallery volunteer guide) led a group of twenty around a selection of the 50 non commercial, commissioned works of the largest contemporary exhibition ever held at the gallery. It is entitled Springtime is Heart Break: Contemporary Art in Aotearoa. This title is taken from a touching poem by one of NZ’s earliest poets, Ursula Bethell (1874-1945) on the death, in Spring, of her partner Effie Pollen. The title alludes to how the artists portray their search for identity, often as immigrants, through their family histories and the loss (and memory) of their cultures. Interestingly, many of these young artists have used recycled materials and combined several medium viz. video, moving objects, sound effects textiles, sculpture, and digital effects in preference to painting. They are designed to make you think, and to feel. Pam Hurst Now that I know springtime is heart break, Now you have left me to look upon all That is lovely, alone.

Bike trip to Wanaka Our U3A Bike groups along with a few ‘ring-ins’ spent four nights at Wanaka organised by Sandra Caldwell.  The group of 22 enjoyed three days of beautiful sunny, blue-sky weather for our three bike rides around the Wanaka and Hawea area.  A very enjoyable, active, social trip and we even managed to help celebrate an 80th birthday. Ross Nicholas

The Walking Group activity this time was Jellie Park - Hewlings Stream and as you can see by the photo, it looks like everyone was suitably kitted out and enjoying themselves.

---

The film chosen for this session was The Great Escaper and can I remind you of the organ concert from our own John Dodgshun to be held at St Andrews of Rangi Ruru on Friday 19 April at 10.00am. John will give us some background to the building and an explanation of the organ itself.  There will be room for everyone.  John’s talk and playing will take about 1¼ hours but the church has been booked until 12:30PM so people will have time to look around and leave when they are ready. 

The address is: St Andrews Church at Rangi Ruru, 16 Merivale Lane, Christchurch.