Bay Harbour: November 22, 2023

Wednesday November 22 2023 Bay Harbour News
TREASURES FROM THE PAST 23
City of Norwich Lodge friendly society
BEFORE government assistance
for health, accident and
unemployment existed, many
people formed nonprofit friendly
societies to assist each other in
times of need.
Ōhinehou Lyttelton’s first
friendly society lodge had its
roots in Manchester, England. A
few days before Christmas 1851,
a group of 13 men formed the
Loyal City of Norwich Lodge No
4356 of the Manchester Unity Independent
Order of Oddfellows
(MUIOOF).
As the City of Norwich Lodge
grew, it spent £85 in 1855 on a
section in St Davids St with a
small building used for meetings.
Outgrowing that hall, member
Edward Morey was awarded the
£245 contract to replace it.
In 1876 the lodge moved to its
Winchester St site opposite St
John’s Presbyterian Church. A
spacious building, it provided
a top hall for functions, balls,
meetings and shows for many
groups in port. Downstairs was
a supper room and accommodation
for a caretaker.
At the time of the lodge’s
75th anniversary in 1925, funds
had accumulated to a sizeable
£16,560, 18 shillings and 6 pence
(equivalent to over $2 million
today), not including significant
monies already contributed to
sick pay, funeral donations and
relief funds. Donations were also
made to Lyttelton organisations
such as Plunket and St Johns,
which helped fund the first ambulance
in Lyttelton.
Funeral and sickness benefits,
subsidised medical care, widow
and orphan funds, and member-owned
chemist shops made
lodges popular with families.
Oddfellows, Hibernians,
Druids and Foresters lodges
would often join together and
provide a United Friendly
Societies Dispensary. Lyttelton’s
UFS Dispensary, built in 1875
Members of Oddfellows Lodge, 1900-1950, Te Ūaka The Lyttelton Museum ref 8300.1
https://www.teuaka.org.nz/online-collection/1128476
on the site of the Queen’s Hotel
(which was burnt down in the
1870 ‘Great Fire’), was situated
on what is currently an empty
section on the corner of London
and Oxford streets.
Many Oddfellows enjoyed socialising.
Picnics, balls, dinners,
card evenings, church parades,
debates, musical evenings,
Christmas parties, quoits, swimming
carnivals and shooting
matches were popular.
Frequently, Christchurch
lodges arrived by train for social
evenings and Lyttelton members
also often travelled away. A visit
to Loyal Wairewa Lodge in Little
River was always a late night – in
1936, 124 members boarded the
train from Lyttelton, changed
at Christchurch and arrived in
Little River at 7.50pm. The return
trip left at midnight, arriving
back in Lyttelton at 1.30am. The
Lyttelton Oddfellows also shared
social functions with the port’s
Foresters and Buffalo lodges.
City of Norwich Lodge met
every second Tuesday, with the
hall used by the Manchester
Unity Kaia Toa Ladies Lodge
(formed 1925) and the Juvenile
Lodge (formed 1880) on Monday
nights. Meetings were extremely
formal for the first part of the
evening, with the format being
the same in all Manchester Unity
lodges. Members wore a sash or
collar and the presiding chairman,
the Noble Grand, was seated
at the front of the hall with his
supporters on either side. Facing
him was the Vice Grand seated
inside the hall’s main door with
his supporters. Other officers
such as the secretary, past noble
grand, conductors and guardian
had their designated places. Order
of business followed a strict
ritual and some lodges competed
against each other in ritual
competition events. Positions of
responsibility changed frequently
to give younger members experience
in meeting procedure.
At the completion of business,
social events took place, often
until the early hours. Apart from
toasts at formal dinners, most
events were alcohol free.
As friendly societies became
increasingly popular, more
Manchester Unity lodges were
opened on Banks Peninsula –
Akaroa’s Good Intent (1858),
Okains Bay’s Hand of Friendship
(1875), Pigeon Bay’s Hand and
Heart (1876), Little Akaloa’s
Hand in Hand (1878), Little River’s
Dawn of Hope (1878), Barry’s
Bay’s Perseverance (1881) and
Little River’s Wairewa (1897).
The Akaroa lodge Good Intent
demonstrated the financial support
available with the building
of its large hall, now the Gaiety
Theatre.
After WW2, people became
less dependent on lodge benefits
as government welfare increased.
Membership declined and rural
lodges amalgamated or closed –
Lyttelton members affiliated to the
Banks Peninsula Lodge in 1996.
In 2004, a new Friendly
Societies lodge building, built
by volunteer labour from Oddfellows,
Hibernians, Druids and
Foresters Lodges, was opened
in Ferrymead Heritage Park. It
houses some of the furniture,
records and pictures of the Lyttelton
lodges.
As for the large City of
Norwich Lodge hall in
Winchester St, it was sold and
later destroyed by fire in October
1961 while owned by Lichfield
Shirt Factory. Meanwhile, the
Oddfellow values of friendship,
love and truth continue – a
rebranded Manchester Unity
lodge still focuses on families
with subsidised holiday
accommodation, education
scholarships and sponsorship of
local events.
United Friendly Society Dispensary, cnr London and Oxford
sts. Te Ūaka The Lyttelton Museum ref 7867.1
https://www.teuaka.org.nz/online-collection/1128030
The Oddfellows Parade, Lyttelton, September 25, 1932.
Te Ūaka The Lyttelton Museum ref 11970.1
https://www.teuaka.org.nz/online-collection/1132651