Click on image to view extracts from the newsletter.
Each year in late February Orientation Week marks the return of students to The University of Auckland after their long summer break. During Orientation Week the many clubs and societies associated with the University set up information booths around campus and tout for new members. According to the AUSA website there are currently some 120 clubs for students to join ranging from the Dessert Club to the Classical Society.
Founded in 1932 the Auckland University Tramping Club (AUTC) is one of the oldest clubs still in existence and has its own tramping hut in the Waitakere ranges. Opened in August 1944 Ōngāruankuku, or O'nuku for short, was originally an old camp cookhouse known as Simla hut. Papers, including this newsletter from March 1944, relating to the decision to lease the hut from the Auckland City Council and to its initial restoration can be found among the records of the Club held by Special Collections as MSS & Archives 89/22. The collection also includes minutes, correspondence, and gear lists which document Club activities. During the 1940s and 50s these included an annual Freshers’ Tramp, After-Degree Camp, coffee evenings and regular weekend tramps.
Special Collections also holds an extensive collection of archival material relating to the University Field Club covering the period 1923 to 1994, the minute books of the Auckland University College Dramatic Club and the Auckland University College Literary Club from the 1930s and 40s. Clubs are welcome to donate their old records to Special Collections or add to existing collections.
Katherine Pawley, Special Collections
References
Auckland University Tramping Club records. MSS & Archives 89/22, box 1,
folder 2.