Band History Page :   

These pages will cover the history of “The Band” covering the period from its formation up to the time when the Onslow Brass Band changed its name to the Wellington Brass Band.

The following information has been collated by Merv Allison.

Establishment of the Band

1905 is the year that the “Wellington Corporation Tramways Band” appears to have been formed.

 Our evidence for this belief is as follows:

(a)     A contract of employment, for the position of conductor, set out on the Band’s letterhead.  

         This letterhead includes a statement “Founded in 1905”.    

            Reference:  Page 115, Minute Book, Special General Meeting of 14 June 1948 .

(b)     The Annual General Meeting of 3 April 1933 .
Reference:  Page 47, Minute Book. 
Chairman’s opening remarks (extract from Minutes) - “The Chairman opened the meeting with a few brief remarks pointing out the age of the band saying he was very pleased in presiding at the 28th meeting which was taking place.”

(Founding date, say 1905, plus 28 years, equals 1933, the date of the above AGM.)

Chook Henderson discovered the above two items in the Minute Book for 1920 to 1950 and we believe this is good evidence.  Item (b) is vouched for by the Band’s Chairman in 1933, Mr H Tankard.

(c)     Letter from the “Wellington Corporation Tramways Band” dated 7 January 1906 .  This was from the Secretary, Mr D Amos, addressed to the Town Clerk and requested permission to play at Newtown Park (extract) “and to take up a collection in aid of the Band’s Instrument Fund.”

The Town Clerk replied on 12 January 1906 advising (extract) “that permission has been granted to the Wellington Corporation Tramways Band to perform at the Newtown Park on the afternoon of Sunday the 14th. instant, and to take up a collection in aid of their band instrument fund.”

Reference: WCC Archives No. 6/62.

(d)          Letter to Mr J Davies, Secretary, Tramways Band, dated 28 March 1906 .  This was from the Town Clerk and said (extract) “I have to inform you that the Council have decided to grant a subsidy of an equal amount to that given to the other bands for an equal number of performances …….” 

Reference:  WCC Archives No 6/570

Gavin Evans had carried out investigations some years ago to try and establish the date the band was founded.  This was because of a belief in some quarters that this date was prior to 1900 and the band committee did not want to “miss” a “centennial” celebration.  Gavin was the Public Relations Officer at that stage and he went to the local Newspaper and Council archives.  He came across a letter, dated 1906 (addressed to the Council) which requested a grant to assist with the purchase of new instruments.  He also noted that, in the 1890’s, the Council paid a regular “subsidy” to bands who were placed on an annual “list” in return for an agreed number of performances at various city venues.  The “Tramways” band did not appear on these lists up to 1900.

I followed up Gavin Evans’ work with the WCC Archives and discovered the above letters (c) and (d).  My conclusion is that the letter in (d) is evidence that the Tramways Band was being added to the Council “subsidy” list for the first time because it was a newly formed band.  Similarly, the letter in (c) shows the band was active early in 1906 and was raising money for instruments.

I have only worked through the WCC Archives from January to March 1906.  My next project is to look at the period October to December 1905 and then work back through 1905.  I hope to firm up on the exact date of the formation of the “Wellington Corporation Tramways Band”.

After that we hope to determine when the band, which was clearly a “military” combination in 1905, became a “brass” only ensemble.  (Chook Henderson has also found some useful leads on this issue in the minute book.)

Prepared: 28 February 2003 - more will follow in due course.

Additional Evidence of Establishment of the Band in 1905

The Wellington Tramways Union had advised that their early 1900 minutes were thought to be lodged with the Alexander Turnbull Library.  (This seemed to be a good lead as we considered that these minutes would record the actual founding date of the band.)

Although I could not trace a minute book the Alexander Turnbull Library turned up some other useful leads that firmed up 1905 as the founding year of the Band.

These were:

(e)          NZ Listener – October 26, 1956 , page 23

Article headed: “Fifty Years of Band Music”

This stated that the “Wellington Tramways Band” was celebrating its “50th Anniversary this year”, (i.e. in 1956) and was broadcasting “an Anniversary Programme from 2YA on Tuesday October 30 at 8.00 pm .”

Note:  The article states that “many members are tramway employees and that a representative of the Tramways Board serves on the Band’s committee”. 

This confirms “1905” as the founding year.

(f)            Bands of the World (published 1970) by Al G Wright and Stanley Newcomb.

(Al Wright, born in the UK , was Professor and Head of the Department of Bands, Purdue University , Lafayette , USA , and Stanley Newcomb was a Senior Journalist of the NZ Government Tourist and Publicity Department, Editor of the NZ Mouthpiece and a member of the Band of the RNZAF at that time.)

This book has an article and a photograph of the “Onslow Brass Band” on pages 51 and 52.  The article reads:

“It was formed in 1905 as the Wellington Municipal Tramways Band.  Originally a military concert band, it adopted all-brass instrumentation soon after it began to enter contests in 1908.  Two years later it entered its first National Contest and was placed 5th in the B Grade competition at Palmerston North.”

Note:  The “Stanley Newcomb” above is also the “S P Newcomb” who researched and published “Challenging Brass – 100 years of Brass Band Contests in NZ – 1880-1980.  His work is authoritative and I believe we can rely on his research.

This article also confirms “1905” as the founding year.

General “History” Items

Trevor Cudby provided us with some useful information from the “History of Urban Transport in NZ”.  This publication records that 30 June 1904 was the date that the first Wellington electric trams started running.  (I believe this means it would be most unlikely that the band started up in 1904.)

Also recorded is that 2 May 1964 was the day that “ Wellington ’s and New Zealand ’s last tram made a ceremonial journey from Thorndon to Newtown car sheds”.

Above the accompanying photograph is the caption “Auld Lang Syne – the Onslow Silver Band (formerly the Wellington Municipal Tramways Band) playing a final tribute to the last tram to run in New Zealand ”.

 This is a “work-in-progress”.  I hope now that the “actual” day and month of the setting up of the band will  come from ongoing research of the WCC Archives.  Newspaper Archives may be the next possible source if this doesn’t work out.

Prepared:        17 April 2003