Literary gold : the importance of Hokitika's Carnegie Library to post-gold rush settler society

Abstract

cottish industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and opened in 1908. This study examines the importance of the library to post gold rush settler society in Hokitika. It sets it in context by examining the ways in which British and American library traditions were transferred to New Zealand soil, and the impact of nineteenth century library initiatives in Hokitika. The examination of the period 1906 - 1916, which includes the planning, construction and the first eight years of the library's existence, is based on extensive newspaper research, the correspondence of the Hokitika Borough Council and Andrew Carnegie, annual reports of the library committee, as well as biographies and other settler reminiscences. Subscription numbers of less than five per cent of Hokitika's population indicate lacklustre support for the library in its first years of operation. While the public was criticised for apathy, there are other reasons why the library had few subscribers. They include access problems, financial hardship, the presence of alternative reading sources, a possible failure on the part of the library to fully cater to popular reading taste, and a general interest in more physical and social leisure activities on the part of the settlers. Success should not just be measured by the library's subscription numbers. Its very existence testifies to the support of the Hokitika community, as does its survival into the twenty first century. It was saved from demolition and restored in the late 1990s, and today forms an integral part of the cultural landscape of the town.