Rotary in New Zealand really blossomed in the post war years with 15 clubs being chartered 1947/48 - one of which was our own club as a daughter of the Otahuhu club. Although the pace of new clubs slowed, vets from the 2nd World War - young and eager to retain their habit of service - joined clubs in droves, and the now middle aged vets from WW1, once the founders of Clubs, found themselves Presidents and Governors.
Rotary played an important role during the 1951 waterfront dispute, assisting in resolving the animosity and misunderstanding between the unions, workers and industry by holding fireside meetings with all parties present for informal discussions. These involvements took place right through the country and clubs provided pathways of recovery for many disputes that were very often straight out misunderstandings.
Rotary kept growing, and by 1956 there were three districts and a membership of 4,000 across 82 clubs. The Lions were arriving to challenge our stronghold. They were also a service club founded in Chicago in 1917, and sharing a similar commitment to projects to assist the community, but Lions membership was broader, reaching out to include the blue collared worker. Lions grew to nearly 9,000 members by 1971 - only 1,000 fewer than Rotary with its 50 year history.
In 1970 the fourth district was created in NZ. There were now 22 clubs across Auckland, and in this Golden Jubilee year in New Zealand we celebrated our 10,000th member, and achieved 185 clubs. The Auckland Club, at 300 members, joined the top ten clubs in the world. We were the most intensively cultivated Rotary district in the world, with one in 250 Kiwis becoming a Rotarian.
Rotary has started up or founded some incredible community establishments and legacies such as Outward Bound 1961, Life Line 1965, The Crippled Children Society, Blood Transfusion Service 1953, Abilities Incorporated 1959, TB Association 1946, Defensive Driving 1967, the Asthma Society 1965, to name just a few - of much interest to me are the names attached to those projects - all leading business people !!!!