Witty doctors' letters and articles about their reluctance to travel out to Hikurangi are among items found showing the St John's presence in Whangarei as far back as the 1890s.
Members of the Whangarei St John Hospitaller Club have sorted through documents and discovered an 1891 Income and Expenses for First Aid Balance Sheet, as well as clippings from the Northern Advocate and entertaining letters dating back to 1891.
``Finding those pieces of paper was amazing. They've lasted all that time,'' says Hospitaller chairwoman and former St John superintendent of the nursing division, Nancy Greenfield.
They were found in a box in the roof of the Western Hills Dr St John building, and must have been moved there when the organisation moved from its old premises in 1978.
``They were just like pages ripped out of an exercise book - it would have be so easy to just screw them up, but then we noticed the writing and then the dates,'' Mrs Greenfield said.
The Whangarei St John Hospitaller Club started working on collating the items for the archives room five years ago. The room - which is nearly finished - includes items such as old mannequins, uniforms, medals, badges and medical supplies.