Wellington City Libraries

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Te Whare Pukapuka o Korimako, Ngaio Cummings Park (Ngaio) Library

Find out the provenance and heritage behind the Māori names of our library branches

Exterior of the entrance of Cummings Park Library

Address

1a Ottawa Road
Ngaio
Wellington
New Zealand

Get directions

You can find public transport, walking and driving options at the link below:

Get Directions

Parking

FREE parking is available at the Cummings Park and Ngaio Town Hall.

View Cummings Park Ngaio Library in a larger map

Opening hours

Day Hours
Monday 10.00am-5.30pm
Tuesday 10.00am-5.30pm
Wednesday 10.00am-5.30pm
Thursday 10.00am-5.30pm
Friday 10.00am-5.30pm
Saturday 10am-12.30pm

Programmes

Most of our programmes are back, check our calendar for full list..

Newsletter

Have a read of our monthly newsletter, full of staff and library member reviews from Khandallah and Ngaio:

Services

  •   Cashless site
  •   Wheelchair Access
  •   After-hours return chute
  •   FREE Wi-Fi
  •   Computer use
  •   Printing, photocopying and scanning
  •   Toys to use in the Library

Special Collections

  •   Māori Collection
  •   Kids' World Languages
  •   Magazines
  •   Taonga Tuku Iho Heritage Centre
  •   Electoral Rolls - full NZ set
  •   Children's VOX books
  •   Adult Large Print

Taonga Tuku Iho Heritage Centre

Filing cabinets andshelves of local history books, part of Taonga Tuku Iho Heritage Centre at Cummings Park Library

Cummings Park Ngaio Library is now the home of Taonga Tuku Iho; a small heritage centre of reference resources to help with local history and genealogical research. As well as a selection of local history books and magazines, the centre also holds:

Newspaper Microfilm

Desk with Microfilm machine and Microfiche reader

The centre now holds microfilm of:

  • The Evening Post newspaper from 1946 to 2002
  • The Dominion Post / The Post from 2002 onwards

A digital microfilm viewer / scanner is available but note that this cannot be used to print directly from so take a USB memory stick if you wish to take image files away with you (or use a digital camera / smart-phone to photograph the screen).

About Heritage Wellington Newspapers

Birth, Death and Marriage records

Also available is a complete set of birth, death and marriage index records on microfiche covering all registered 'events' up to 1990, and a selection of CD-ROM databases produced by the NZ Society of Genealogists containing information not available in any other form.

Please note: some historical Birth, Deaths and Marriage index information is available online via the Department of Internal Affairs' historical births, deaths and marriages website (click the link to find out what 'historical' means for the different types of records). There are also a number of searchable indexes available for historical records via Ancestry (access is in-library only).

For context around what was collected over different time periods, we also recommend DIA's About the records page.

Microfiche available:

Births, Deaths and Marriages Records on Microfiche
Index (more information) Births Deaths Marriages
New Zealand General 1840-1990 1848-1990 1840-1990
Māori 1913-1961 1913-1954 1913-1961

Electoral Rolls

A full current set of New Zealand electoral rolls are available at Cummings Park Library. The other library location where you can find electoral rolls for all New Zealand electorates, is Te Awe Library, on Brandon Street in the CBD — all other branches only hold a Wellington set.

For New Zealand historical electoral rolls, we subscribe to research databases for genealogy and family history enthusiasts that can help you to trace your family history, and include access to historical New Zealand electoral rolls, from 1853-2010. Access is generally available in-library only.

For details of these resources, please see our Genealogy and Family History Guide:

Genealogy and Family History Guide

Collection of Māori Land Court Minute Books on Microfilm

Filing cabinet drawer at Taonga Tuku Iho containing Māori Land Court microfilm

The Minute Books of the Māori Land Court are an important source of whakapapa – containing the names of significant local places, land blocks and people. They are also an important resource for Waitangi Tribunal claims.

With the closure for earthquake strengthening of Wellington's Central Library building, our printed reproduction copies of the Minute Books are currently unavailable, but our microfilm copies can be accessed at the Taonga Tuku Iho Heritage Centre.

The main part of this collection covers 1865-1974, i.e. Wellington, Wairarapa, Ōtaki, Taranaki and Whanganui. However, also included are some smaller microfilm collections for Rotorua, Taupō and the top of the South Island – but nothing for the Auckland region or north of Auckland.

There is an online index made available for searching by the University of Auckland for all of the Minute Books from 1865-1910:

Note: you also have options for browsing in the top right-hand corner, e.g. by District. (Aotea is the District for Wellington, Wairarapa, Ōtaki, Taranaki and Whanganui)

In Te Whanganui-a-Tara we also have the Wellington Office of e Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga Archives New Zealand, whose collection provides coverage for the Minute Books for all of New Zealand (through a combination of microfilm and printed volumes):

Minute Books at e Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga Archives New Zealand

Waitangi Tribunal Research Reports on Microfiche

A small selection of Waitangi Tribunal research reports available are available on microfiche. These are research reports prepared in the process of gathering evidence for Waitangi Tribunal inquiries, and may be undertaken by claimants, Waitangi Tribunal staff and contractors, Crown Forestry Rental Trust researchers, and commissioned researchers.

Below is a list of research documents available on microfiche at Taonga Tuku Iho — please note that some of these may be available online on the Waitangi Tribunal website.

Waitangi Tribunal research reports on microfiche at Taonga Tuku Iho
Wai NumberSubject
Wai 4Kaituna River
Wai 4/150Manukau
Wai 9Orakei
Wai 17Mangonui sewerage
Wai 22Muriwhenua Fishing
Wai 32 Ngāti Rangiteaorere
Wai 33Pouakani
Wai 150Allocation of Radio Frequencies

See also our Te Whanganui-a-Tara Waitangi Tribunal Reports page for other reports relating to Te Whanganui-a-Tara and available online.

Other resources available on microfiche

Event Calendar

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