It was a real find and it led to an exhibition.
Patrick McKenna is a book dealer with a popular second-hand book shop in Whanganui. As such, he is always on the lookout for that special book ... and he appears to have found it.
"It was found in a derelict house in Whanganui," he says. He had been called in to check out some books before the house was torn apart, but they yielded no great treasure.
"But as I walked out, in amongst the debris, I saw the corner of this book sticking out." He asked permission to take it. "When I opened it, it was more interesting than I thought."
The book was a collection of large-scale architectural drawings for rehabilitation expandable state houses destined for returned servicemen after World War II. Homes for Servicemen: Rehabilitation Housing Plan Service, published in 1948, it contained 60 such house plans.