Heritage et AL

As the City Rail Link (CRL) project begins and Lower Queen Street has become predominantly closed to traffic, we take a look back at the varying ways that the space has been used. Lower Queen Street, between Customs Street and Quay Street, currently sits on reclaimed land that used to be part of Commercial Bay. Reclamation works in the area occurred between 1875 and 1886. Ref: Auckland Weekly News, Lower Queen Street Auckland near the wharf and Railway station, 7 December 1900, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19001207-7-2.

An account of a voyage in search of La Perouse: undertaken by order of the Constituent Assembly of France, and performed in the years 1791, 1792, and 1793 in the Recherche and Esperance, ships of war, under the command of Rear-Admiral Bruni D'Entrecasteaux. Ref:  An account of a voyage in search of La Perouse, title page, M. Labillardiere,   1800, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1800 LABI Atlas. This three volume set was published in 1800. The first two volumes were acquired by the Leys Institute Library  Ponsonby  in 1905 and some decades later transferred to Sir George Grey Special Collections. Volume three, an atlas including many beautiful engraved illustrations, was recently purchased, thus completing the set over a century later.

The joy of going online to read, is the instant access to so many great publications via Auckland Libraries such as Press Reader. Press Reader, link available on our website (but also on your own device if you’re a library member ) is a way to look through not only hundreds of local and international current newspapers , but dozens of magazines. For those of you keen on family history, there are several of interest. If you're all about things Scots, take a look at Scots Heritage . It's a quarterly publication, the 'official magazine of the Standing Council of Scottish Clan Chiefs,' and it runs regular features on the clans, genealogy, Scottish history, and culture. The current issue has a feature on the reformer, John Knox, and a fascinating true life story about a Scots girl, shipwrecked off the Queensland coast, who was found living with an Aboriginal tribe. Then there's Canada’s History (formerly titled The Beaver) which has a history just of itself...

In late January 1929, Erich Maria Remarque’s anti-war novel Im Westen, Nichts Neues ( In the west, nothing new ) was published by Propyläen Verlag. In England the book was quickly translated by the Australian librarian Arthur Wesley Wheen and republished under the title All Quiet on the Western Front . Ref:  Two original 1929 editions that finally made it into the Library, t he one on the left is from the Quaker Collection .

Sculptures, murals and statues are dotted around Auckland with information about many of these public artworks available on Auckland Council’s Art and Heritage Database . A display on level 2 at the Central Library showcases some of these items, from Fatu Feu’u’s Aotea Centre mural to Greer Twiss’s Pigeon Park sculpture. Statues and monuments from the Auckland Domain are featured including the Pukekaroa Palisade where Princess Te Puea planted a tōtara tree during the city’s 1940 centennial celebrations in order to reaffirm the mana of the Tainui people in the area, and the connection between her family and the Domain. Her great-grandfather Te Wherowhero had lived in two houses on the Domain site between 1847-1858 before returning to the Waikato as the Māori King. Ref: Pukekaroa Palisade, 2016.