Ashburton Borough Centenary/The Public Library

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The first library was in a small building on the site where St. Stephen’s Hall is. In May, 1882, the County Council agreed to subsidise any funds given by the public £1 for £1 up to a limit of £200 towards the building of a new library. Joseph Ward, as a deputation from the Library Committee, asked the Borough Council to lease part of Reserve 766 for a new library, but it was suggested that they share a section with the Fire Brigade instead. February 5, 1883, on the motion of St. Hill, Reserve 766 was granted and the building went ahead. The Library Committee found itself short of funds and asked the Council to take over the building in October, 1884. The deputation stated that the subscribers had decided to hand over the building, provided the rights of life members were protected and two or three subscribers were elected to the Council’s Library Committee, not to interfere with the finance but to keep up with the choosing of books. The library debt was £370/18/5, £300 of which was owed to the Permanent Building Society.

The Mayor moved that the library lease be cancelled and the Borough Council resume control of it. On November 11, 1884, this resolution was confirmed and a Library Committee set up of John and Andrew Orr, W. Leggett, A. Harrison and R. Bird. It moved that the Council offices be put in the new building, and so the Council occupied the building earlier destined as a library, using the upper rooms.

At the Council meeting on October 15, 1888, W. J. Walker presented a petition for a clock to be erected in the tower from the Jubilee Memorial Fund. Books were ordered from Edinburgh, and magazines and newspapers from local sources. Misuse of the magazines frequently occurred in the reading room which was not well lit. In 1899, the Department of Education began granting a small subsidy to the library annually. The Edinburgh firm ceased to supply books to the library in 1908, and henceforth they were bought in New Zealand. Miss Phyllis Makeig was elected Librarian at £25 p.a. on May 28, 1910, but resigned six months later.

In 1918, the Council inquired as to how other towns came to acquire free public libraries and as a result decided to apply ​to Mr Andrew Carnegie for a free grant of £2500. They undertook to provide a site and to supply £125 a year for its upkeep from a special rate. A reply in November, 1914, offered a grant of £1750, Council to pledge £125 from rates.

Carnegie Grant Lost

Plans were sent to the Carnegie Corporation in March, 1915, and asking for the grant to be increased to cover the total cost. The Corporation approved of the plans but would grant only £1750. Tenders were called by Mr L. L. Miles, the architect, of Timaru. Eleven were received and it was proposed to accept Mr J. Munro’s of £1758. An amendment was moved that as the tenders were in excess of the grant (£1750) the erection of the library be held over for further consideration. It was carried on the casting vote of the Mayor. The difference of £8 lost Ashburton its Carnegie library.

The Carnegie Corporation, in November, 1916, offered to hold the grant till after the war. Nothing was done till the war was over when L. Metes gave it as his opinion that the Library could not now be built for £1750 and Council should ask for £2000. This was done, but the Carnegie Corporation refused to raise the grant.

The increased price had proved a final stumbling block to the erection of a free library, but the decision not to accept the tender of £1758, in 1916, had in actual fact brought on this result.

In 1940, the library was transferred to a shop next to the Somerset Hotel, on a suggestion by Mr E. J. Bell, the Christchurch Chief Librarian, that it was too far out of the town. In 1945, four Ashburton schools were admitted to the Country Library Service and it was decided to shift the Library to sample rooms in Havelock Street (behind the “Guardian” office) ​

​temporarily. Mr G. T. Alley was asked to establish a free library service for Ashburton. This opened in early July, and the schools contributed funds towards the library for the purchase of books. The Country Library Service provided a vast number of books for exchange by the Ashburton Library Service for years and frequently loaned the services of a library adviser.

Mrs B. E. Opie retired in June, 1958, after 24 years’ service and was replaced by Mrs McArtney, of Palmerston, in October. The National Library service, in 1962, congratulated the Borough on her excellent work in the library. In September, 1964, Mrs M. E. Robinson resigned from the staff after 23 years of service.

The years 1966-7 were occupied with the building, planning, furnishing and landscaping of the new library. When Mrs McArtney resigned after eight years of service, Miss M. E. Scott was appointed in her place. The South Canterbury Savings Bank in its first distribution of profits donated £30 to the Children’s Section of the Library, and Austin Deans’ well-known picture “Snowgrass on Mt. Arrowsmith” was presented by a syndicate of Ashburton businessmen to be hung in the new library — a very fine gesture, appreciated still by all who visit the library. The Lions Club shifted all the books from the old Havelock Street site behind the Guardian Office and the new library was declared open on September 15, 1967. The Scouts gathered the stones for the facing of the new building.

A record-hire system was begun in 1969, proving extremely popular, but too many records tended to stray. Exchanges of books were arranged with schools and visits from schools to the library, displays of work, holiday reading programmes and the Art Society decided to start a picture loan collection in the library. Mr P. White (Librarian from 1974) left at the beginning of 1978 to take up a position as Deputy Librarian in Dunedin. He introduced poetry readings by present day poets both at the library and at the Ashburton College and has himself written two volumes of poetry.

Miss J. Watson succeeded Mr White in this Centennial year and is carrying on the tradition of loan exhibitions.