Heritage et AL

Auckland was the smelliest city in New Zealand according to a visiting reporter in 1871. Raw sewage ran into Queen Street’s main drain, the Ligar Canal, “an open, evil-smelling sewer in the very heart of the city” .  A writer in the Daily Southern Cross said the “stench was worse than asafoetida or sulphureted hydrogen, or an American skunk, or all three combined… daily and nightly the abominations of this great city are discharged, to swelter upon the shore, within twenty yards of its chief street.” He believed the city fathers should be sacked immediately because they “will… not open [their] purse-strings… to resolve the issue of sewage disposal.” Ref: James D Richardson,  Looking north west along Queen Street, Auckland Central showing the Ligar Canal..., 1857, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 4-387. 

A colleague was recently down in Christchurch at the New Zealand Historical Association conference for 2015 and has bought back news of the most recent winners of the J. M. Sherrard award in New Zealand regional and local history. The J.M. Sherrard Award is the only national award for local and regional history in New Zealand. Ref: Henry Winkelmann,  Showing men breaking down a pile of gum at L C Gillespie and..., August 1904, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1-W1156.

Today we are highlighting a couple of interesting items from our New Zealand Manuscripts collection: carbon paper manifold copying books. These two copying books show two of the most common uses for the technology.  The first of these is a letter book of a practising lawyer and contains business records as well as personal correspondence, while the second is a letter book as well as a diary. Ref: James Pirie's diary, Front endpaper detail, 1870s, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries,  NZMS 427.