Masterton Savage Club seeks members

A very old club which has been entertaining Wairarapa people for over 100 years proved last Sunday that it still has pulling power, but it needs fresh blood.

Masterton Savage Club staged a variety concert for a $5 entry fee and packed out its hall in Albert St, having to close the doors and turn some people away.

President Roy Merriman said the club had not really expected such a huge response and the concert had been a great success.

A few chinks appeared though - not in any of the performances but in access to the venue. Because the Savage Club Hall is one of the older-type buildings it has no wheelchair access and an elderly man who had been looking forward to the concert was unable to attend.

Mr Merriman said the club apologised for this but wheelchairs could only get off the road into the lobby. To get into the auditorium it is necessary to negotiate two flights of stairs.

Mr Merriman said the savage club members of yesteryear had probably never even thought about wheelchair access and with the club being in a pretty small way putting in a lift was not now financially possible.

The Albert St venue was bought in the 1970s and had at one-time been an auto arts business owned by the late Stan Lane.

Mr Merriman said "savagery was starting to wane" as far as membership is concerned and the Masterton club needed new members.

He said men or women who loved to sing, dance or who could play an instrument were welcome to come along and join.

The club meets once a week for rehearsals, being each Friday from 9am to noon and members "have a lot of fun".

For more than a century the club has either staged concerts or taken part in concerts organised by others, usually for fundraising for town amenities, in any of the Wairarapa towns.

One of the best remembered performers was Henry McLaughlan, who sang country and western - dressed to fit the role - and yodelled. He was the club's president for a year and is remembered especially for his signature tune Shearer's jamboree which he almost inevitably sang at concerts.