Prime Minister Walter Nash opened the Ruawai-Tokatoka War Memorial Hall and Community Centre on 23 August 1958. The main facility was a hall with an auditorium, meeting rooms, rest room and library; there were also a tennis pavilion, tennis courts, playing fields and a grandstand. More football fields and a children’s play area were planned.
The shrine in the hall’s lobby incorporates a roll of honour listing the names of 16 local men who died in the First World War and 17 who died in the Second World War, plus the name of one man who was killed in Malaya (Adrian Thomas). There is also an honours list of Ruawai-Tokatoka servicemen who served overseas on display in the main hall with the names of 98 men who served in the Second World War, 20 in J Force and one each in Malaya and Korea.
See: ‘Ruawai-Tokataka War Memorial’, Northern Advocate, 28/4/1955, p. 14; ‘Ruawai-Tokataka War Memorial: Fitting Tribute to Fallen’, Northern Advocate, 7/5/1955, p. 1; ‘Fine War Memorial at Ruawai Nearly Completed’, Northern Advocate, 11/7/1958, p. 3; ‘Nash to Open Ruawai Hall’, Northern Advocate, 30/7/1958, p. 1.
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