Today in History

1949 Foundation of IHC

At a meeting in the BMA Rooms, The Terrace, Wellington, an interim committee for the Intellectually Handicapped Children's Parents' Association (IHCPA) - the forerunner to IHC was formed.  

The driving force behind the establishment of this new association were Harold (Hal) and Margaret Anyon of Khandallah, Wellington. Their youngest son Keith had been born with Down syndrome. The common practice of the time was for people with intellectual disabilities to be placed in institutions away from their families and out of sight of the community. The Anyon's refused to consider this for their son.

A notice in The Evening Post of 24 October 1949 invited ‘parents and guardians of backward children in the Wellington district... to attend a meeting... to consider the formation of a parents' association’.  The 22 parents who turned up to the meeting established an interim committee and called for another meeting in late November.

Margaret Anyon busied herself personally typing and distributing letters, minutes, press releases and other relevant documents to raise the profile of the fledgling association. With a general election imminent telegrams were sent to both the Prime Minister Peter Fraser and Minister of Education Terence McCombs highlighting the lack of spending on the ‘education of handicapped children'. It was now time to ‘awaken the country's responsibility to a class of children at present ignored by society, but who could with proper training be adjusted to good citizenship'.

At a second meeting held on the 23 November fifty parents elected Hal Anyon as president with Margaret becoming the associations's first secretary.

A Dominion Conference held in Wellington in April 1950 helped establish branches in other centres. By 1953 the IHCPA had a membership of 1000 nationwide.

The IHCPA condemned the placement of children in larger institutions like Templeton and Kimberley where it was argued that children had ‘deteriorated physically and mentally'. They favoured the purchase of suitable homes around the country to be used as short-stay residences. Each would have their own dining room, separate bedroom for each child and an independent staff of four adults. Initially these were funded by donations as the government was unwilling to commitment to helping fund such initiatives. In 1959 the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association criticised the policy of establishing large institutions for people with intellectual disabilities. The government responded by funding the IHCPA to provide a range of services. Overall government policy changed little and it was not until 1974 that the government imposed a moratorium on the expansion of psychiatric and psychopaedic hospitals.

In 1962 the organisation changed its name to the Intellectually Handicapped Children's Society and in 1975 to the New Zealand Society for the Intellectually Handicapped. IHC New Zealand Inc. was adopted in 1994. The initials no longer stand for Intellectually Handicapped Children but have been retained because historically the name is well-known.

IHC advocates for the rights, inclusion and welfare of all people with an intellectual disability and supports them to live satisfying lives in the community.  Terms such as ‘backward' or ‘handicapped' are no longer used. Further evidence of this shift in attitude was the closure of Levin's Kimberley Hospital in October 2006. Opened in 1945 it was the last major institution housing people with intellectual disabilities in the country.

The repeal of the Disabled Persons Employment Promotion Act (2007) ensured that people with intellectual disabilities are guaranteed the same employments rights as other workers. IHC continues to promote real employment opportunities while also campaigning on behalf of children with disabilities to have full access to their local schools.

1971 End of the line for steam railways

The Christchurch-Dunedin overnight express, headed by a J^A-class locomotive, ran the last scheduled steam-hauled service on New Zealand Railways (NZR), bringing to an end 108 years of regular steam rail operations in this country.

New Zealand’s rail system was predominantly steam-powered from 1863, when the first public railway opened in Christchurch, until the 1950s, when the transition to diesel power gathered momentum. Although NZR operated some electric locomotives from 1923, petrol- or diesel-motored railcars from 1936, and electric multiple units from 1938, it was the introduction of mainline diesel-electric locomotives from 1950 that spelled the end of the line for the steam engine.

The dieselisation of North Island railways was complete by the late 1960s. Steam power only lasted as long as it did in the South Island because carriages on the Friday and Sunday night expresses between Christchurch and Dunedin required steam-heating during winter. This need was superseded by the introduction of train heating vans, which were attached to diesel-hauled expresses.

Steam trains hadn’t quite disappeared, though. Earlier in 1971 NZR had announced that it was launching a tourist-oriented steam passenger venture, the Kingston Flyer, which ran daily between Lumsden and Kingston on Lake Wakatipu. Two A^B-class locomotives and a number of preserved carriages were used for this service, which began on 21 December 1971. In the early 21st century a number of rail heritage organisations and museums run steam-hauled excursions around the country, while TranzScenic operates ‘Steam Engine Saturdays’ on the North Island Main Trunk Line. On these days the regular Overlander service is hauled by the preserved tank engine W^AB 794 between Feilding and Taihape.

Image: South Island Limited Express poster