The old town wharf with the Wanganui Library and News Room on the left and the Taylor & Watt Offices on the right. Photo / Whanganui Regional Museum Collection ref: W/S/T/-018
The old town wharf with the Wanganui Library and News Room on the left and the Taylor & Watt Offices on the right. Photo / Whanganui Regional Museum Collection ref: W/S/T/-018
MUSEUM NOTEBOOK
On September 20, 1854 William John Holder, a farmer in Kaitoke, wrote to his sister in England.
As well as general news, he wrote: "I wish you could oblige me by sending me out a few books such as the Railway Library, Popular Library and some of the cheap shilling books that are published in England now, for fancy to yourself living out here, no friends, or relations, or anyone that cares about you, how heavy the long night must pass."
When New Zealand was being considered for European settlement, a committee was established to prepare for the literary, scientific and philanthropic institutions that founders hoped to establish here.
Well before the first settler ships departed, the committee began to gather books to donate to immigrants to enable them to establish a library on their arrival.
A membership to the Wanganu District Library, belonging to Josephine Duncan in the early 2000s. It's your Library... enjoy it!
After a meeting of settlers with a substantial collection of donated books between them, the Port Nicholson Exchange and Public Library became New Zealand's first public library, opening on May 4, 1841.
But it was expensive. Dr Frederick Knox was appointed as the first librarian with a salary of £75 (nearly $14,000 in 2020). The library building was bought for £30 (nearly $5500). To recover costs, membership, annual subscription plus access fees were charged at up to £9.10s per year, equivalent to around $1600 today.
These fees were well out of the range of most settlers who were angry that it was near impossible to access the books sent from England for the good of all those in the colony. As a result, The Wellington Exchange was established in Te Aro, Wellington, a more populated area and with a reduced fee of £2.2s ($410) a year.
Both institutions vied for membership but The Wellington Exchange proved more successful and the Port Nicholson Exchange and Public Library closed in April 1842. It offered its collection and premises to the new Mechanic's Institute, which closed the library in 1843 and moved the collection to The New Zealand Company offices.
In 1850, the Wellington Athenaeum reopened the library, and then sold the collection to the Wellington City Council in 1892 to start the Wellington Public Library.
Closer to home, a meeting was held in Whanganui in 1856 to discuss the establishment of a public reading room. Early membership was strong and in February 1857, a call was made for just 15 more members to make the library viable.
The Wanganui Philharmonic Society agreed to support it on condition they were able to use the building for performances, but arguments about the use of the building arose and a fight over library versus Athenaeum stalled the project.
Letter from. William Holder to his sister in 1854, requesting books to help fill the boredom. Photo / Whanganui Regional Museum Collection ref: 1978.66.2 MS321-1-29 p1
William Holder died in 1875, two years before the first Wanganui Library opened in 1877.
The funds were raised through an industrial exhibition. The library was managed by a board of directors for 40 years before being handed over to the Wanganui Borough Council in 1917.
That same year, Miss Elizabeth Alexander left £12,000 ($1.5 million) of her father's money to go towards establishing a public library and public museum in his memory. It took much planning before the new Alexander Museum building opened in 1928, followed by the Alexander Library in 1933.
Museum Notebook
•Sandi Black is the archivist at Whanganui Regional Museum.
