The old Wiri hall
Bruce Ringer
On 24 April 1922 Prime Minister William Ferguson Massey, on a fleeting visit to his Franklin electorate, opened two halls on the same day. One was at Karaka and the other at Wiri, a tiny rural settlement between Manurewa and Papatoetoe. Mr Massey congratulated the people of Wiri fulsomely on their initiative and endeavour.
This Wiri hall stood among fields on the northern side of Wiri Station Road not far its junction with Great South Road. Although modest in both size and appearance, the hall served the local community well for several decades. Some additions were made to the building during the 1950s. By the 1970s, however, when work began on Manukau City centre nearby, it was in poor condition. It was used as a site office during the construction of the Manukau City Council administration building (formally opened in February 1977).
The future Manukau City Council building under construction at Wiri in February 1976. The old Wiri hall can be seen in the middle foreground. (Larry Purdy)
The old hall was then moved to another location on the northern side of the city centre. There it languished for several years. In 1983 it was reroofed, repaired and relocated to St Paul’s Anglican Church in Chapel Road, East Tamaki, for use as a church office and Sunday school. The building still stands alongside the historic church there today.
In 1977 the Wiri First World War roll of honour, which had originally been located in the hall, but had been in storage for some time, was transferred to St David’s Anglican Church on Great South Road. Along with St David’s Church and the Woodside Methodist cemetery, the Wiri public hall – albeit modified and relocated – is one of the few tangible reminders of Manukau central’s rural past.
The old Wiri hall at St Paul’s Anglican Church, Chapel Road, East Tamaki, 20 June 2005. (Bruce Ringer, Manukau Research Library, digital collections/East Tamaki scenes/019)
For more information: see 
Manukau’s Journey.
Publication record: first published in Connexions, no. 105, December 2009, pp. 10-11. Revised for publication on the Manukau Libraries website in January 2010.
Copyright © Manukau Libraries. This text may be freely used for the purposes of private study or research and for non-commercial publication provided that the author and Manukau Libraries are duly acknowledged.