1908: Runanga Miners Hall
December 2, 2023
By AHNZ
Runanga Miners’ Hall, West Coast, emblazoned with socialist slogans, was opened on 2 December, 1908. Arson claimed it in the 1930s but it was soon rebuilt. One of the places where the New Zealand Socialist Party got going though they later changed their name to the Labour Party.
From the mid-2010s to 2020s the hall has been worth more dead than alive. It was shut down with many other heritage buildings when the great Earthquake Pandemic struck. It has attracted Lottery Grants, Heritage New Zealand category 1 status, and is now looking for World Heritage Status. The project received $400,000 from the Labour 6.0 Ministsry as part of the New Zealand First coalition joining fee (aka Provincial Growth Fund.)
An institution that works, that stands on its own feet, is loved and maintained, does not need to be put on welfare. A ‘dead’ entity, on the other hand, is worth much more in the Crapitalist Economy of government hand-outs. This creates a Perverse Incentive to keep New Zealand heritage entities as exaggeratedly dead as possible so they can attract the maximum amount of stolen money from The State. It also prologues the process because if the work were ever to be completed it would spell then end of the Gravy Train.
Bureaucracy expands to keep up with the needs of an expanding bureaucracy. Whoever is riding the Rununga Hall as their money train will only quit it when it is either a written off wreck or when they can find a better ‘project’ to leap-frog into. Itinerant carpet-bagging bureaucrats make a career out of things like this. Their specialty isn’t history or restoration but filling out forms with the right Politically Correct check-boxes and lobbying their political networks.
Apparently the roof and walls of the Hall are stronger than before but the hall is still not in use and looks uglier than when the money started flowing.
“The Hall was paid for by donations from Greymouth businesses and money from both the State- as the employer- and the Union. It was the first community hall in New Zealand built with such co-operation from business, state and union.” – display panel, Runanga
“…what ever happened to the money for the Labour 6.0 Provincial Growth Fund?…Ref. Auditor-General says Provincial Growth Fund investments not properly scrutinized” – Anarchist Explains Foreign Aid, AHNZ
“Some invest their hopes in a false external savior called Labour 6.0’s Provincial Growth Fund which is really just a pocket money allowance for New Zealand First to bribe its way to re-election with. If a community wants to survive it needs to be autonomous, not be on life-support from the taxed wealth of others.” – 2010s: Local Papers Die, AHNZ
“The current work is costing $425,000 on top of the $1.5 million spent so far. It was estimated a further $3 to $5m was needed to complete the job…” – Greymouth Star 25/9/23
“The Runanga Miners’ Hall is part of a UNESCO serial nomination of ‘Workers Halls’ across the World to be considered for World Heritage status! The serial nomination is being promoted by Arbejermuseet – The Workers Museum located in Copenhagen, Denmark. Jo Hart and Russell Deyell who are leading the nomination project for the Runanga Miners’ Hall Trust had the chance to visit the museum on Tuesday (20 September) to talk more about the Runanga Hall and its merit for nomination face to face with the Arbejermuseet team!” – Runanga Miners’ Hall Project – ‘Restoring the Hall, Restoring the Community, Facebook (2022)
“Funding so far has included $465,000 in insurance money from the Grey District Council, $683,000 from Lotteries and $408,000 from the Provincial Growth Fund. ” – Grey Star (2024)
Some of the grant money that could have been spent on paint and repairs was spent on flying some of the Runanga Comrades all the way to Denmark!?¹ Only there could they make their pitch to the United Nations for yet more money and influence to get more paint and repairs! Lefty Logic.
I wish they would stick to their roots and be a living hall funded by workers, employers, and business. Instead, it’s a welfare project. Such is the labour movement today.
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1 Update 2024: Comrade Jo Hart (government education bureaucrat) comments below that the trip to Denmark was at her own expense (as she was in the area anyway) and not paid for by restoration project. Likewise, Jo was able to drop in and visit Helen Clark at the UN on her own dime as she was attending a socialism conference in Chicago. Ref. Labour History Project Bulletin 64 (2015)
Note: The Zealand First coalition joining fee has been paid again in 2023 but this time by National 6.0. Instead of being called the Provincial Growth Slush Fund it’s to be known as The Regional Infrastructure Fund. Call it by a different name and New Zealander’s wont suspect a thing! Ref. NZ First’s new provincial fund won’t be a ‘slush fund’ this time – Chris Bishop, RNZ (November, 2023)
Image ref. Hall, 2009. Steve Reekie
Image ref. Hall, AHNZ Archives (2022)
See also: 2016: The Rotorua Museum Scam, AHNZ
See also: 1967: Opepe Canoe Rescue, AHNZ
See also: 1876: Minerva Rises, AHNZ
6 thoughts on "1908: Runanga Miners Hall"
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It’s OK that the hall is being restored, but it is not OK that it is a part of the gradual takeover of individual and community freedoms.
Let us all be aware that we should make our own decisions and take responsibility for them.
No one has the right to tell us what we can and cannot do.
Yes. Rununga thinks it can use big Government (including UN) more than it will be used in turn. Don’t know about that!
But they are an impressive community from what I hear. Doing for themselves when the Grey Council take but don’t give back.
Hello there,
Really enjoyed reading through your site. I love the irreverent tone you take towards other people’s efforts to preserve their heritage. I am Jo Hart and my husband is Russell Deyell. We would greatly appreciate if you would correct some factual errors in your post. The Runanga Miners’ Hall Trust was nominated by ICOMOS New Zealand to be part of a serial nomination of great workers’ Halls of the world. At no time did the RMHT approach the Workers’ Museum in Copenhagen seeking UNESCO status. Such an approach is not even a remote possibility. On the contrary, sites have to be invited based on the recommendation of heritage experts through an international body called ICOMOS. Such nominations are rare. For example, New Zealand has no UNESCO listed buildings, so for the small community group such as the Runanga Miners’ Hall trust to be invited was a huge accolade of significance to the whole of New Zealand.
Given our professional backgrounds, my husband and I were asked to liaise on behalf of the Runanga Miners’ Hall Trust with the Danish government in response to their invitation, and we accepted their invitation to lead this exciting part of their project. It did not require travelling to Denmark. Most of the engagement was done via the internet as you would expect. Fortunately, Russell and I live in London for much of the year, where we have a home, and the trip to Denmark was incorporated into our seasonal sojourn in Europe (paid for by us).
Nonetheless, I did grow up in Runanga, so from wherever I am in the world, I am happy to contribute to local projects I deem worthy. We have never received any money for doing this, but from time to time we have made substantial contributions. By all accounts from what I know of the funding of this initiative, it is by private benefactors, the Runanga diaspora if you like (people like myself), so hardly on any government gravy train. However, where there is government funding on offer, the RMHT has, on behalf of the community it serves, sought to attract such funding into the project. Much of this to date has been lotteries funding, which funnily enough is funded by New Zealanders for the direct purpose of funding community projects.
We accept that you may not be strong on factual understanding of our project; however, we would sincerely appreciate you taking down the comments referring to us, especially the defamatory ones.
Thank you very much for your informed comments. I have added a “?” to the post and a footnote to take into account the new information. You will find me very receptive to corrections and yours are welcome. The Runanga Diaspora concept is cool and good on you for finding a way to have confluence between your life and your home roots.
The convoluted courting of UN favor via globe-trotting and hob-nobbing is still just solicitation with extra steps. The Anarchist position is that our heritage should not be *preserved* at all. You’re making the Hall a multi-million dollar jar of pickles or a pinned butterfly under glass. A sickness beneficiary, a bludger on welfare living at other people’s expense. The Hall ought to be a living, *organic*, part of the community that is sustained by it endogenously rather than funded like some Pacific Islands backwater that is financed by remittance money from exiles abroad. Or, for that matter, the lost money of failed gamblers.
UNESCO status would be the ultimate in making the Hall ornamental rather than functional. That is, of course, was the agenda of Helen Clark. Her Labour 5.0 Ministry took away the West Coast’s productive industry and exchanged it for a $99 million Development West Coast (2001) compensation package. It leaves Coasters with the shadow of their home without substance such as industry, pride, employment, discipline, work ethic. Likewise, you’ll wind up with an expensive and well-painted, well-preserved, White Elephant in Runanga with UN ticks up the walls. It will then belong more to tourists coming to gawk more than it does those it once belonged it. And, it will be an organ not of Runanga but of the outsiders it depends upon to keep it from deteriorating again.
It is by such well-meaning interference that Coasters are being sealed off and turned into the Appalachian Hillbillies of New Zealand. Runanga Miners Hall thus becomes a captured symbol of the very Managerialism it was created to resist! There are still community meetings and community debates (like the one we’re having here) to be had that this hall would be useful for rather than as a pretty tombstone to an era where those outcomes were not already pre-destined and pre-paid for.
Hi Rick, curiously, you might find yourself on the same page as UNESCO and myself when it comes our heritage listing. We could not get a UNESCO listing unless there is strong community use of the Hall and a management plan with the aim of sustainability.
The Hall was frequently used by the community before being red-stickered due to the new building code which came out after the Christchurch earthquakes, even though it had survived numerous earthquakes of the 20th Century. A core requirement to get the UNESCO tick in this instance, is that the Hall remains a functional community centre, serving the needs of the community as it always has, and with an excellent management plan. The Hall was regularly used up until the time when so many New Zealand buildings were taken out of use due to the requirement of earthquake strengthening. Just a few of the Hall users were as follows: the Grey Valley Gymnastics club, the Taekwondo Club, the Women’s Institute, the Indoor Skating club, and Tai chi for the elderly. All used to operate from the Hall. As well, the Hall was used for many festive occasions; weddings, funerals, ecumenical church services, reunions of many sorts (The Runanga School Centennial and Rugby League functions etc). Furthermore, we have a local theatre group who wish to use it as their home theatre. We have at least one business which would like to run its office from the Hall and the local residents’ association want to use as their headquarters, once it is finished. As the council have recently defunded the Council administration Centre and Post Office, it is also a place where such activities might be offered to the Public. A community group also saved the library which the Council pulled funding from. The books have been temporarily housed until such time as the Hall is up and running again. The local school also used it for their indoor physical education, which was especially valuable in rainy weather. We are confident of attracting such Hall users back. So, the restored Miners’ Hall will be anything but “an expensive and well-painted, well-preserved, White Elephant”.
As an aside, Grey Council also pulled the funding from our local swimming pool, which was built and paid for by the community, gifted to the Council, run into the ground by them and given back to the community to run, or be closed down. Our community rose to this challenge as well, improving the facility on many counts.
We are a very resilient rural town, buoyed by energetic volunteers invested in their local community.
While I personally welcome comment from Comrades across the country, your evaluations regarding what is wrong with our part of the country, in this instance, miss the mark.
I suppose this is why West Coasters can become especially exasperated when Aucklanders try to tell us how to organise ourselves.
If you would like to make a donation to our project, please get in touch.
“We are a very resilient rural town, buoyed by energetic volunteers invested in their local community.”
Seen that and been very impressed at how Runanga has shown up the Grey Council. Perhaps you can see my point through the story of the pool? Would Runanga be fooled again into the easy solution of letting government run the pool or library and expect a different result? Helen’s (Aucklander) millions would be better spent making the West Coast a rates-free zone rather than setting up a Sugar Daddy showering bling on suck-ups. Seeking money and approval from governments (foreign and domestic) is how energetic volunteers are corrupted into domesticated tax livestock.
I’ll be watching with interest.