Once Upon a Time in New Zealand: Library Aspirations and Colonial Reality in the Early Years of European Settlement, or; 'The Tone and Character to Civilization'

Abstract

Public libraries, (as distinct from the private library of an individual with access dependent wholly on the favour of the owner) in the sense that books were available either to the members of a defined group, or to all those prepared to pay an entrance fee or subscription, or to everyone according to the rules of the institution, were part and parcel of New Zealand's foundation as a colonial outpost of European civilization in 1840. Our foundation 'public' libraries were in place by 1842 in Wellington, Nelson and Auckland [there was a hiatus of some six years in New Plymouth], and appeared within a year of the settlements in Canterbury and Otago later in the decade.