CHAPTER FIVE

The Holdings of Auckland’s libraries.

‘The level of literacy was high, but the standard of reading tastes was not… Although there were settlers with impressive libraries and good reading tastes and habits, the mass of the population in colonial New Zealand read for entertainment, not for instruction, and they read literature which was second rate.’

The nineteenth century was the era of the novel. The English reading audience had changed dramatically since the turn of the century, both in size and composition. A larger mass audience took popular reading ‘out of the privacy of the study into [the] excitements of public transport.’ Reading became more intrinsically linked with entertainment than education. The most popular fare of the Victorian public, suggests Richard Altick, was ‘the most superficial and the most miscellaneous.’ His view was supported by one of the more widely read authors of the mid-nineteenth century, Samuel Smiles, who complained that ‘knowledge was "spread so widely, and in such thin layers, that it only serves to reveal the mass of ignorance lying beneath. Never perhaps were books more extensively read, and less studied; and the number is rapidly increasing of those who know a little of everything, but nothing well".’ Smiles argued that ‘the possession of a library, or the free use of it, no more constitutes learning, than the possession of wealth constitutes generosity.’

While the earlier chapters of this work have examined the development of the libraries in the province, this chapter is aimed at establishing what books were provided, and whether they were intended to entertain rather than educate. It will also examine what works were available through local booksellers, and whether the majority of book buying was through booksellers in England. It explores Gillespie-Needham’s suggestion that the choice of the New Zealand reader was hindered by the non-availability of books by canvassing what was advertised by local booksellers in the Herald. An examination of advertisements helps to evaluate whether the settlers were made aware of what had become available.

In 1874 the Auckland Provincial Council circularized libraries in the province requesting details of books purchased with Council funds. While some libraries merely sent a list of volumes purchased with the funds, others gave a complete breakdown of all items currently held by the library. These lists, representing the holdings of 33 Auckland libraries, have been collated on to a database of well over 1,200 titles. (See Appendix XI).Although the list is not a complete record of holdings of all the libraries listed, it can provide a valuable insight into what libraries were purchasing during the seventies, and indicate which authors and titles were the most sought after. The replies from Port Albert Library and the Onehunga Institute enclosed copies of their library catalogues. These have been included on the database. The catalogue of the Auckland Provincial Council, published in 1873, has been used to evaluate what was held by a special library, but has not been added to the data base of the ‘public’ or institute libraries.

A brief examination indicates that titles which were popular ‘at home’ in Britain were also popular here. Why particular committees saw fit to purchase some of the more unusual items in the list may reflect more on the background of the committee than the community they served. Because only a small percentage of the population were library members it would be foolish to suggest that the books held by these libraries were in any way proof of what the common ‘man’ was reading. They are more an indicator of what the library committees saw fit to provide to readers.

Library committees bowed to conservatism in the selection of books for most libraries. Only the Port Albert Library and the Onehunga Institute purchased works which could be considered in any way to question the status quo. A number of books exploring scientific and human inquiry appear in small pockets in the province, but most libraries stayed with familiar texts. Historical works, mainly non-fiction, were the major components of most library collections, although Sir Walter Scott’s fictional works were as popular as Froude’s English History and Carlyle’s French Revolution. Autobiographical and biographical works, and religious texts made up the next biggest group of titles. Although fiction was a small part of the collections in libraries there were a significant number of the titles by some ‘better’ known fiction writers spread throughout the province.

Most committees purchased collections of trivia or miscellanies for their libraries. These texts were critiqued by intellectuals who considered that the information gained through such short cuts came at the expense of real knowledge as the data provided was over-simplified and superficial. It was, suggests Altick, an era when the common reader was serviced by the common writer. There was a spread of mediocrity aided by writers who ‘were actually more intelligent and better educated than their readers [but found it] essential that they hide the fact behind a matey tone…’

Literacy increased with the introduction of universal education, and played a major part in the growing desire for cheaper reproduction of works of fiction and non fiction. The successful production of cheaper books still placed them way above the expenditure of many families, but now readers had access to circulating libraries advertising cheaper rates due to lower costs. This, plus the introduction of serialized stories in newspapers, helped to fill the reading needs for many working class readers. Newspapers and periodicals were adapted to suit the needs of a mass audience. Their appeal was not just their price, but the fact they were not as formidable to complete as a weighty book often was. Newspapers allowed readers fast access to what was happening around them in the rest of the world and gave them a dose of fiction at the same time.

In New Zealand access to newspapers was most important. Just as letters from home were welcomed, whenever a boat docked in port so were the papers from overseas. Readers in Auckland city and many of the northern settlements had access to local and national papers which provided a welcome respite from the daily grind against the elements of nature.

The database records determine that the book held by almost all of the institutions was Samuel Smiles’ Self help; the art of achievement illustrated by accounts of the lives of great men. Twelve copies were secured in libraries throughout the province. Self help was first published in 1859. It sold 20,000 copies in its first year, and 258,000 by 1905. Its appeal lay in the message that thrift, industry and perseverance could win out in the material world, while the spiritual and moralistic message behind the betterment of self would prepare one for the next world.

The very qualities which Smiles advocated would lead to a successful life were those necessary for the new colonist facing the bleak environment. They may well have been comforted by Smiles’ ideology that success could be gained, not through intellect, but through ‘ the energetic use of simple means and ordinary qualities, with which nearly all human individuals have been more or less endowed.’

Miles Fairburn has suggested that Victorian ideology supported the power of the will, of self reliance and self help. He states that the work ethic had reached cult status in Britain by the nineteenth century and ‘was propagated in an immense body of popular literature providing advice on how to achieve worldly success through self improvement.’ The same notions, suggests Fairburn, were part of the dominant ideology in nineteenth century New Zealand. In Auckland this theory is supported the large number of mutual improvement and debating societies which were formed during the later part of the century. In his analysis of the diary of labourer James Cox, Nearly Out of Heart and Hope, Fairburn questions how someone with such strong links with realism was ‘unable to spot the blatant contradiction between the material promise of self help and its performance’. Fairburn accepts that external pressures to believe in the instrumental powers of self help were intense, but suggests the doctrine ‘was imprecisely formulated.’ He suggests that Cox should have been aware that the doctrine had failed him.

Underlying Smiles’ philosophy of self help and success through independence was a moralistic and spiritual message. He proclaimed that good character evolved through self-discipline and work. His best seller Self Help was soon followed by Character (1871), Thrift (1875) and Duty (1880). By 1874 copies of Character had been purchased by libraries at Port Albert, Matakana and Maungaturoto.

Supporting this ideology of self help were the ‘moral’ texts on how to attain and preserve good character. A variety of these texts was available to library members in the Province, particularly to the young. For the ‘lost’ young men, the Onehunga Institute purchased a copy of C.E. Sargeant’s Self Reliance; a book for young men, and Port Albert had W. Landels’ True Manhood; its nature, foundation and development. A book for young men. The library at Mangawai had The Young Man’s Own Book, a manual of politeness, intellectual improvement etc. For the improvement of young women the Otahuhu Institute provided J. A. Sargant’s Shades of Character; On the formation of female character. The library at Kauri Hohou provided a dual text for men and women in W. Colbet’s Advice to Young men and women. There were also several copies, and several series of J.H. Friswell’s Gentle Life; essays in aid of the formation of the character available through the Onehunga Institute, Port Albert and Little Omaha.

Publishers such as the Chambers brothers helped to contribute to the spread of the trivial and the miscellaneous through the publication of their Information for the People and Miscellanies of Instructive and Entertaining Tracts. J.Timbs’ Things not Generally Known; a compilation of wildly assorted curious facts sold over 23,000 copies and went into a sequel in 1859. However, only one copy of this work was held in the province, at the Whangarei Literary Institute. The most popular general encyclopaedic works here were Chamber’s Information, Miscellanies and Encyclopedia of Useful Knowledge..

A strong emphasis on the provision of religious literature, which existed in British libraries in the earlier part of the century, was also present here. A large number of books held in libraries had some religious aspect. The presence of so many churches during this period substantiates a desire on behalf of the settlers to enjoy the social, if not reverential, aspects of the religious experience. Hugh Jackson examines churches and people between 1860 and 1930, through the New Zealand census, and states that an ‘analysis of the statistics suggests that a level of churchgoing in New Zealand rose during the late 1870s and 1880s to a peak sometime in the 1890s.’

Access to the clergy for regular services was not always possible, so access to religious literature would have been a comfort to the more isolated families. Books relating to the scriptures and copies of popular sermons were collected by many libraries. They were Blair’s Sermons (Port Albert), Saurin’s Sermons (Otahuhu Institute), Taylor’s Modern Preacher (Wade), and C.H. Spurgeon’s Sermons (Mangawai). The non-conformist community library at Port Albert had a substantial collection of religious works such as Josiah Conder’s Protestant nonconformist, and H.F.Uhben’s The Anglican Churches in the nineteenth century which explored elements of dissent. This library also provided W. Arthur’s The Tongue of Fire, or, the True Power of Christianity, R.F.Collis’s The Christian System, or, Manual of Scripture Truth, G. Combe’s Phrenology Considered in a Religious Light, and two copies of C.F. Cornwallis’ Christian Doctrine and Practice in the 12^th century and Dr Cumming’s Apocalyptic Sketches, or Lectures on the Book of Revelation, Rev. P Hood’s Moral Manhood, and D.Turner’s Social Religion to name but a few.

Altick suggests that the ‘two most potent influences upon the social and cultural tone of nineteenth century England were evangelical religion and utilitarianism.’ As the century progressed religion became one of the major leisure pursuits, primarily through the auxiliary activities of associated clubs and societies. Atlick suggests that utilitarianism condemned reading for enjoyment, suggesting that readers needed to be guided into systematic reading rather than browse at will. The evangelical-utilitarian doctrine insisted that ‘books were, first of all, a means of self improvement.’ Just as in the past readers were ‘increasingly concerned to obtain books of practical guidance and information’.

One of men at the centre of the utilitarian debate was John Stuart Mill. His works were well represented in Auckland libraries. There were eleven copies of his work on Principles of Political Economy, although only Waipu held his work on Utilitarianism. There were six copies of both Representative Government and On Liberty spread throughout the province. His essay On Liberty was an essay on the preservation of individual rights against intervention by the state. The libraries of the small Nova Scotian Scottish community at Waipu and that at Port Albert were the only ones to hold copies of Mill’s controversial book, On the Subjection of Women.

Thomas Carlyle’s works were also very popular in New Zealand. His work on The French Revolution was held by fourteen libraries in the Province. Carlyle’s ideology of popular education and planned immigration, and his thoughts on democratic government clearly made interesting reading to the New Zealand public. His essays on Chartism, Past and Present (5) were also popular. Chartism explained the development of the movement in Britain in the thirties. Although bowing to the presence of a laissez faire spirit of enterprise and endeavour which was developing, Carlyle recognised the inevitable presence of and conflict engendered by ‘the Mechanical Age’ and saw it becoming a progressive rather than a detrimental force. Distance may have separated the Auckland colonist from the major impact of the social problems at home but the controversy and discussion which would have emanated from the publication of such essays as these would have been debated at the Onehunga and Devonport Literary Association which held copies of both Chartism and The French Revolution. In a similar vein was T.Baker’s Elements of Mechanicism which was held by the Kawakawa Miners and Mechanics Institute.

Thomas Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus was held by nine libraries. Wheeler suggests that this was ‘a work which profoundly influenced the development of Victorian fiction.’ He suggests that Carlyle introduced several themes which were taken up by later novelists - ‘education, the idea of pilgrimage, the alienation of the individual in a modern society and the plight of the poor.’ The need for a universal educational system was keenly felt in New Zealand as well as in Britain.

Henry Mayhew’s What to teach, how to teach it, so that the child may become a wise and good man held at the Otahuhu Institute was a long pamphlet or essay which ‘rationalized the failures of his own education’and discussed the differing practical and theoretical ways of teaching. The pamphlet contested current teaching methodology in particular ‘task work, flogging and prizes in schools.’ Mayhew had been taught inductively and Bernard Taithe suggested that ‘the practical teaching of these broad themes was through a strictly heuristic awakening of the child’s curiosity and memory. Nothing was imposed on that child, all knowledge was imparted by a means of induction…’ Mayhew’s pamphlet suggested that the new methodology was to lead the child to expect a certain result but to produce an oppositional experience ‘thereby exciting his surprise, and wonder, together with his curiosity - and thus creating in him a desire to learn that which the tutor desires to teach.’ Taithe claims that Mayhew’s pedagogic philosophy extended into all of his writing, including London Labour. No longer bound by the traditional boundaries of an English education system, those who established the province’s schools could have taken on board some of the theories put forward by Mayhew. However, British institutions and ways of thought, once imported, were difficult to shift.

The development of education in relation to libraries followed a similar pattern to that in Britain. Mutual improvement societies, with their accompanying libraries or reading rooms, were seen to enhance reading and discussion. In a bid to extend the intellectual boundaries of their readers, some libraries provided reading on alternative philosophies and furnished excellent sources for debate. Works such as W. E. H. Lecky, Rise and Influence of Rationalism, joined those on the science of phrenology and the evolutionary theories of Darwin. Darwin’s Descent of Man and Origin of the Species were well represented in libraries along with The Duke of Argyle’s Primeval Man, W.B. Carpenter’s Principles of Human Phrenology, Louis Figuier’s Primitive Man, Sir J. Lubbock’s Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man, T.H. Huxley’s Man’s Place in Nature and J. Scott Moore’s Pre-glacial Man.

To aid the up and coming speakers in its mutual improvement association, the Wade Library provided Samuel Neil’s Art of Public Speaking and Young debaters; a handbook for mutual improvement and debating societies, and the Young Man’s Own Book: manual of politeness, intellectual improvement. The library also provided dictionaries in three languages and grammars. It held Fluge’s Complete dictionary of German and English Literature, Guide to Modern Greek, a translation of Undine by F.H. C de La Motte Fouque, Lowndes’ Modern Greek and English Lexicon, Meadow’s Italian-English Dictionary, German works (6 vols.), and a text on German algebra. The Otahuhu Institute also held copies of the Young Man’s Own Book.

Books addressing practical self-improvement were essential items in isolated communities where people with particular practical skills were not always easy to access. Settlers needed knowledge to ensure that they could cope with the necessities of daily life as well as manual labouring. Books supplied information to aid construction, industry, farming , first aid and mechanics. One of the well known series was published by Weale. The Provincial Council held copies of Weale’s series on Arithmetic, Mechanism, Statics and Dynamics, Pneumatics, Power of Water, Photography, Navigation, Tubular Bridges, Masonry: Cottage Building, Steam Engines, Ships and Boats, Warming and Ventilation, Civil Engineering, Steam Boilers, Clay land, Mineralogy, and Electricity, Electric Telegraph. These represent only a small portion of the series held by the Council in aid of the creation of the colony.

The small provincial libraries also carried copies of Weale’s series, but in smaller numbers. There were how-to-do-it books on Practical Chemistry, Electricity, Drainage of Districts and Land , Elements of Mechanism , On Modern Farming, On the Strength of Beams and Arches, as well as several books aimed at protecting the health and well being of the community, such as Cassell & Co’s Family Physician and C. H. Scharble’s First Health in Accident, being a surgical guide.

For self-improvement of the intellectual kind there were texts on Popular Astronomy, and Humboldt’s Cosmos (Kosmos); sketch of the physical description of the Universe, on the Insect and Natural worlds, and Beeton’s Dictionary of Geography, Brodie’s Pitcairn’s Island and the Pitcairn Islanders in 1850, Darwin’s Light science, or Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

There was also an abundance of autobiographical and biographical works on the rich, religious and the famous. The lives of monarchs, adventurers, writers, fighting men and politicians rated well in the minds of the Auckland reader. Some of the most significant were W. H. Prescott’s History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, J.Boswell’s Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson, J.Forster’s Life of Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria’s Leaves from a Journal of Our Lives in the Highlands, and Carlyle’s Lives of Frederick Schiller and John Sterling,

One of the first references to financial aid to libraries was a resolution of the Auckland Provincial Council. This specified the purchase of agricultural books for the Mahurangi Library at a cost of £50. Although the list supplied to the APC by the library is devoid of any agricultural books apart from one on Grapes and the Culture of the Vine, there is evidence in Lucy Moore’s history of the Warkworth (Mahurangi) Library to show they had been purchased. She notes that the £50 included the cost of the books ‘being specially bound in London, with the name of "Mahurangi Library" stamped in gold on the back,’ and states that in 1934 they were still in good order and occasionally used.

Books on farming and agricultural methodology were particularly limited even in farming settlements. Libraries on the outer boundaries of Auckland city at East Pukekohe and Onehunga held copies of J.J. Mecchi’s Profitable Farming, while Matakana held J.C. Morton’s Encyclopedia of Agriculture: Practical and Scientific and C.W. Johnson’s Farmer’s Encyclopedia. Kauri Hohou library owned J.F.W Johnston’s Experimental Agriculture and J.B. Denton’s Sewage disposal and results of sewage farming. The Wade library also held a copy of Experimental Agriculture plus a text on the tilling and fertilising of soils. The tidal and well silted soils deposited by the Wade River would have made the soil easy to work. Waiuku’s farming community was furnished with Lawes & Gilbert’s Agricultural Chemistry; on barley and crop rotations.

Mahurangi’s library committee may have been influenced by local resident and library founder Nathaniel Wilson’s preoccupation with lime works in their purchase of two works on lime and cement works. Wilson made his fortune through the invention of new and innovative methods of using lime in the production of cement. The library also carried a copy of W. W. Smyth’s Coal and Coal Mining. J.R.Leifchild’s Our Coal and Coal Pits, and the people in them was held at Otahuhu but its content would seem to be more of a social than practical nature.

Works with historic content were among the more commonly held in Auckland libraries. The Auckland Provincial Council catalogue lists 179 items under the subject area of History, against 147 in the area of Arts, Natural History and Science. The most preferred author in this area was W.H Prescott. His text on the History of the Conquest of Mexico was held by ten libraries, and The History of the Conquest of Peru by eight, while his Ferdinand and Isabella, which had originally been brought out in fortnightly and monthly installments by Routledge, was held in seven. Also rated highly were G. Bancroft’s History of the United States, E. Bonnechaise’s History of France , before the invasion, H.T. Buckle’s History of Civilisation in England, and Sir E. Creasy’s Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World.

Adventures and tales of expeditions into unknown territories, such as the dark side of Africa or the icy land of the Arctic, were popular additions to libraries. Sir S.W. Baker’s Nile Tributaries and the Sword Hunters of the Hamran Arabs and Albert N’Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, an exploration of the Nile sources were held in four libraries, while E. S.Kane’s tales of the Arctic exploration expedition was held in thirteen libraries. The number of travel books was quite low compared to British libraries. Maybe having personally survived the traumas and triumphs of the voyage to New Zealand the settlers did not find the adventures of others quite so awesome.

Many settlers had emigrated to escape the poor conditions which had evolved in Britain, particularly in the cities and they would have been keen to ensure that similar patterns did not evolve here. A chance to read up ways of remedying poverty and hardship may have lead to the Whau Library’s purchase of J. Anderson’s Pauperism, or, the evils of the present mode of managing the poor, and the remedies. The evils endemic in the streets of London, the poverty and the problems observed there were described in Henry Mayhew’s London Labour and London Poor, held by the Otahuhu Institute, and London Characters, and the Humorous Side of London at Wharehine.

The library at Port Albert stands out in its collection of books written by women and on issues relating to women. It was the only library listed which held a copy of the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It also held copies of Dr. Kate Bushnell’s Work and Play and Christian Nature and Josephine Butler’s Women’s work and Women’s Culture. American Kate Bushnell, a Christian temperance worker, published and worked in areas of women’s health and fought for women’s equality in the workplace. A contemporary of English women’s activist Josephine Butler, she published The Woman Condemned on prostitution in the United States. In her introduction in Women’s work and women’s culture Butler discussed the necessity of women gaining a place in the workforce, particularly those who were sole breadwinners. Butler’s major work was in the field of prostitution and the double standards contained in the Contagious Diseases Acts of the 1860s.

While adventure stories, both real and fiction, abound, there are but a few written by women. Ida Pfeiffer’s A Lady’s Voyage Round the World was held at the Auckland Provincial Council library, but where are the books by women travellers, such as Amelia Ann Blandford Edwards who traveled through Egypt and published 1,000 Miles up the Nile and a text on Pharaohs? Anglo-Irish novelist and historian Julia Kavanagh, who published a series of works about women in France, is also absent in the non-fiction area.

By the seventies a significant number of books relating to New Zealand had been published either in New Zealand or abroad. Many of them were guides for those who were considering emigration to New Zealand. Others were tales of travels through the colony, meetings with Maori, and descriptions of the landscape either published by officials or colonists who had returned to Britain. Settler associations also were party to the publication of literature which they hoped would persuade future emigration.

Some of the earliest books about New Zealand are those describing Cook’s voyage to New Zealand, copies of which were held by Mangawai and Patumahoe libraries. The adventures and narratives of the lives of officials and early settlers are described in three books held by libraries and published before 1870. A. Earle’s Narrative of nine months residence in New Zealand was published in 1832, and gave ‘ a good general account of the natives, the Church missionaries, Captain Herd’s settlement at Hokianga.’ Frederick Edward Maning published Old New Zealand, by a Pakeha-Maori; A Tale of the Good Old Times in 1863. Alex Calder states that although Maning became a judge of the Native Land Court because of his understanding of Maori, having lived amongst them in the 1830s, by the time he was appointed a Native Land Court judge he had become increasingly alienated from them. His work was described by James Davidson Davis as being ‘ destitute of literary finish.’ Maning himself described his book as ‘ironic, satirical, semi-political, with lots of fun and many serious and striking scenes from old native life and habits.... [it] shows indirectly without ostensibly pretending to do so what sort of creature this Maori is who we have to deal with.’ G. C. Mundy’s Our Antipodes, or, Residence and rambles in the Australasian colonies, with a glimpse at the goldfields describes the 1847-8 wars, as well providing a description of ‘the natives’, and the situation in the goldfields.

A particular favourite, which was held by six libraries, was written by Lady Barker about early life in the South Island. Published in 1870, Station Life in New Zealand was described by T. M. Hocken as being as ‘agreeable description, in numerous letters, of social and up-country life in Canterbury during 1865-68.’ It gave readers a taste of what life was like, for those with money, in New Zealand.

Information on New Zealand natural history and environment was clearly sparse in libraries. Apart from the work by F. von Hochstetter describing New Zealand, physical, geography, geology and natural history which was held by five libraries, there was very little listed in 1874. New Zealand was published in 1867 as the culmination of nine month’s scientific research in the Auckland and Nelson provinces. The result was an outline of the countries’ physical structure, with appropriate features such as volcanic cones, hot springs, geology, paleontology and a brief summary of ‘the natives’. The only other books on natural history were G. Bennett Gathering of a Naturalist in Australia and New Zealand, held at Port Albert, and R. A. A. Sherrin’s Handbook of the Fishes of New Zealand at Matakana, and How to Manage the Honeybee in New Zealand, compiled by an old bee keeper and revised by H.J.Hawkins at Mangawai. While Sherrin’s book describes fish acclimatized in New Zealand, fish culture, curing and canning, Bennett’s book details different birds located in New Zealand., such as the tui, and the reedwarbler, and describes the uses of fauna for medicinal and other purposes by the Polynesians.

The history of libraries in Britain in the early part of the nineteenth century is dominated by conflict over the provision of fiction. Librarians and library committees debated the function of libraries and how to come to terms with the demand for the increasing number of novels being published. The demand for fiction grew from the forties, yet a low representation of fiction was retained on many library shelves. Librarians who were against the provision of novels worked on the theory that if the demand was not met then the borrowers would move to the more beneficial books already provided. Many proclaimed that novel reading was time wasting and unproductive. E.A. Baker, Librarian at the Midland Railway Institute, responded to his fellow librarians claim by proclaiming that the ‘overwhelming fertility of the novel and the irresistible demand for it by the public who borrow books make the continuance of such abstract discussion ludicrous.’

Libraries and publishers were pressured to move with the times and bend to what Wilkie Collins called the ‘unknown public’. Altick discusses Collins’ suggestion that ‘as the century progressed, it was the ill-educated mass audience with pennies in their pocket that called the tune to which writers and editors danced’. Collins argued that this mass ‘must obey the universal law of progress, and must sooner or later, learn to discriminate.’ Meanwhile the fiction shelves cultivated the classics and ‘hardy popular novels of the past’but shied away from the more controversial and cheaply formatted novels which had become a popular genre among the working classes.

John Sutherland estimates that there were as many as 3,500 Victorian novelists. Their occupations ranged from servants, errand boys and criminals to High Court judges, generals, admirals, prime ministers, and clergymen. From this group there emerged as many as thirteen categories of British novels. David Masson lists the categories as follows: the novel of Scottish life and manners, the novel of Irish life and manners, the novel of English life and manners, the novel of American life and manners, the fashionable novel, the illustrious criminal novel, the traveller’s novel, the Oriental novel or novel of European manners and society, the military novel, the naval novel, the novel of supernatural phantasy, the art and culture novel and the historical novel.

Until the nineteenth century the reader had been actively involved in moral and sentimental representations in literature. Writers like Bunyan, Defoe and Milton had fulfilled the needs of the middle class reader through the provision of moral and religious commentaries. Radical social changes during the beginning of the nineteenth century created a new breed of writer who developed similar themes through the genre of the industrial and social novel. Leavis suggests that before 1820 the critical reader was never ‘made uncomfortable by crudities of feeling as he is in reading Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Kingsley, or by the vulgarity and puerility that he winces at in Dickens, Thackeray, Kingsley, Meredith… indeed any Victorian novelist except Emily Bronte, Mrs Gaskell or George Eliot.’

As the nineteenth century progressed the novel was shaped to meet the demands of the reader. Leavis states that the novel became stereotyped in a fantasy genre, with a ‘hero and heroine with whom the reader can identify himself [my italics].’ The serialization of the novel moved it ahead with almost dizzying speed. Within each chapter a fast moving plot was characterised by sudden surprises and small climaxes, and then closed dramatically leaving the reader with an element of doubt. They were written to ensure instant gratification, and to gain immediate effect. The most popular theme was ‘the romantic love story with a happy or else a moving tragic ending; the naively good and bad characters and romantic jargon, became the inevitable foundation of any but the highly exceptional novel for the next hundred years’.

The most popular author of fiction in the Auckland province was Sir Walter Scott, who began writing at the turn of the century. His first work was published in 1805. Thirty two of his titles were on the shelves of the libraries which provided lists of their holdings. There were over one hundred and ten volumes, and the most popular works were Guy Mannering, St Ronan’s Well, Ivanhoe and Kenilworth. Scott’s work fits into the last of Masson’s categories, the historical novel. Criticized by reviewers at home for his abuse of the historical, his work clearly found favour in the colony. Basing his works on historic events, Scott employed poetic license with the characters he utilized within the text. In Kenilworth, which was set in 1575, Scott introduced the literary figures of Shakespeare, Raleigh and Spenser. It was this abuse of history which drew criticism by those who felt the writer owed it to the audience to retain a close factual allegiance with historic events.

Masson suggests that the historical novel was very important to the newly established reader as ‘a man’s understanding of history, both ancient and modern, was a measure of both his own interests and his personal initiative. But this was the time of self-education and self-help, of Mechanics’ Institutes and the Library of Useful Knowledge.’ Given this background, suggests Masson,‘it is not surprising that so many people turned to the historical romances for the historical knowledge they thought could be gained from them.’ Without their own history the colonists filled the void with recollections of the past, from their country of the past.

The records reveal numerous copies of those better known authors such as Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Lord Bulwer Lytton , Charles Kingsley, and James Fenimore Cooper. Within the province’s libraries there were 26 titles of Dickens’ novels ( 174 volumes) , 15 of Cooper’s ( 22 volumes), nine of Kingsley’s ( 11 volumes), 24 of Lytton’s ( 43 volumes), and sixteen of Thackeray’s works (57 volumes).

Cooper first went into print during the twenties. A major component of his writings was held by the Otahuhu Institute. It had copies of The Oak Openings, The Borderers, Bravo, Heidenmauer, Lionel Lincoln, Mark’s Reef, Ned Myers, The Prairie, The Precaution, Satanstoe, The Sea Lions, Water-witch, and Homeward Bound. Carlyle’s work on hero-worship led to a series of novels which developed a ‘manly’ hero. One of this ‘muscular’ school of novelists was Charles Kingsley. Several of his works were held at the library at Waiuku. His novel Alton Locke, an autobiographical work on the life of a radical working class poet, was ‘arguably the finest of the social problem novels produced by the hungry 1840’s.’ Although Alton Locke was seen as an expose of sweated labour, Williams suggests that ‘the wider intention of the book is rather different. It is really a story of conversion: of the making of a Chartist’. One copy was held at the Onehunga Institute.

Edward Bulwer Lytton’s preferred literary form was verse. Disinherited from his family, Lytton was forced to write fiction to survive. Author, part-time politician, and journalist, Lytton created a wide variety of works. Of his historical, mystical and domestic novels the more popular in Auckland libraries were his later novels, The Caxtons and its sequel, My Novel. The largest collections of Lytton’s works were held at the Hamilton Institute and at Port Albert.

The most popular titles amongst Dicken’s work’s were Martin Chuzzlewit, Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby, Dombey & Son, Bleak House and Oliver Twist. Copies of his works were held throughout the province. Leavis called Dickens a working class man’s idol when it came to writers. Initially publishing through serialized form, Dickens was able to keep in touch with his readers in a way that ensured his plots developed as the reader desired. Although Dickens’ earliest novels worked within the boundaries of moral, religious and scientific thought, his later works developed to become more socially probing.

Books by Thackeray were held at the Otahuhu Institute, Patumahoe and the Wade Libraries. The most popular works were Vanity Fair and The Virginians. Vanity Fair had been first published in monthly instalments. It was a novel without a hero. A reaction to Carlyle’s heroes? No idealized protagonist enjoys a happy ending here. Thackeray reveals the stark reality of human nature and human frailty through a comparison of his two female characters. Michael Wheeler suggests that Thackeray ‘returns again and again to the frailties of men and women recognizably like ourselves, living in the real world.’ The novels which were popular here were considered to be his more mature works, ‘where Thackeray offers few grounds for optimism concerning humanity’. Far away from the realities of English society, Thackeray’s fictional explorations into realism were being read by colonists who had been forced to recognize the realities of life in a world full of heroes and survivors.

Other authors who had several titles of their works held in the province’s libraries were Captain Marryat, A. K. H. Boyd, De Quincey, Defoe, and Du Challiu. They were books on adventure, exploration, and travel. Marryat’s sea voyages gained popularity at a time when exploration, adventure, and changing views on scientific research were making their mark. A distinguished naval man, he wrote strikingly autobiographical stories about heroes and seamen. Sutherland concludes that he wrote ‘impromptu novels to buy farms with.’ Du Challiu’s works were mainly aimed at a juvenile audience.

The shelves of many Auckland libraries held a substantial number of novels which had a religious or social bent. Many were written by a new breed of women writers who sought to disclose societal problems through the popular press. Novels such as Elizabeth Charles’ Chronicles of the Schonberg Cotta Family, Mrs Balfour’s Drift, a story of Waifs and Strays, C.L. Brightswell’s Annals of Industry and Genius were held in Auckland libraries, but not in such numbers as the ‘masculine’ novels of Dickens, Scott and Thackeray. Most libraries seem to have bowed to a conservative book buying policy which precluded any ‘questionable’ or many female authors. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s best selling novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which sold ‘ten different editions in two weeks’ in 1852, and reached a record sale of over 1,500,000, was not purchased here for the colonial reader. The industrial novels Alton Locke, Hard Times and Sybil were preferred to those of Mrs Gaskell, Mary Barton, and North and South. Of all the works published by the Bronte sisters, only Charlotte’s works are listed. Three titles were held at Port Albert. They were Jane Eyre, Shirley and Villette. Only a couple of the one hundred and fifty works published by Charlotte Yonge had been purchased by Auckland libraries. Copies of The Daisy Chain and The Heir to Redclyffe were held by the Wade Library. The Bloomsbury Guide to Women’s Literature suggests that Yonge’s conservatism and strict morality overshadowed her fiction.

Many of the writers of literature for children and adolescents were women. The novelists listed in the Port Albert catalogue were Mrs H. Wood, Elchester College Boys and Danesbury House, Mrs C.L. Balfour, Drift, Troubled Waters, The Burnish Family and Club Night, C. Yonge, The Little Duke, S.A.Myers, Watch, Work, Wait; a story of the battle of life, or, the Orphan’s Victory, and Mrs Hofland, The Blind Farmer. The works of Du Chailliu provided some of the non-fiction adventure reading for juveniles in Auckland. The non fiction listed at Port Albert included Rainy Days and How to Meet Them, The Young Naturalist by Mrs Louden, Autobiographies of Coal, Salt etc by A. Cary, and David Lewis’ Britain’s Social State.

Juveniles were often targeted by writers with a purpose. One such author was American T.S. Arthur. Arthur wrote over 100 books, including manuals of advice for adolescents, and hints on marriage. One of his better known novels was Ten Nights in a Bar Room. This and its sequel Three Years in a Man-Trap were held at Port Albert. These novels examined the evils of drink and were supportive of the temperance movement. Religious non fiction written to stem the evils of drink held in the library were Dr J Miller’s Alcohol, Its Place and Power and Nephalism, the True Temperance of the Scripture , W.Ritchie’s Scripture Testimony Against Intoxicating Wine, and J.W. Kirton’s Four Pillars of Temperance. Other religious books which aimed at inspiring the young were Rev. A. Wallace’s Sketches of Life and Character, History of a Wasted Life, G.W. Montgomery’s Law of Kindness, Rev. R. Newton’s The Great Pilot and his lessons, and R. Ballantyne’s The Better Way, or, What do I live for. Role models for the young were supplied in books, such as J.M. Gilchrist’s Men Who Have Made Themselves, W. Russell’s Boyhood of Extraordinary Men, Dr A. Wallace’s Memoirs of James Stirling, and J.Hogg’s Men Who Have Risen.

In 1886-7 the Matakana Library supplied the local school with books as the foundation for a children’s library. The books they recorded as being suitable were The Life of Knox, Semi-detached house, Cook’s Voyages, The Demon Soul, Perils and Adventures of the Deep, Pilgrim’s Progress, Life of Washington, Self Help, Life of Nelson, Wide Wide World, Scientific Dialogues, Jaunt in a Junk, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Robinson Crusoe, Nelly Armstrong, The Ladies of River Hollow, Vicar of Wakefield, Modern Voyage of Discovery and Robin Hood. (Figure 25 is an example of Matakana Library’s handwritten catalogue).

During the 1880s and 1890s Aucklanders debated the selection procedures and merits of fiction in the columns of the Herald, The Northern Advocate and at meetings of the Auckland Provincial Council. The arguments put forward were very similar to those voiced in Great Britain during the forties and fifties. It was claimed that ‘novel reading is a great and growing evil’, ‘the habit of desultory reading thus formed must be weakening and injurious’ , ‘indiscriminate novel-reading is not good for the young’, ‘such reading too often fills the young mind with false ideas of practical life.’

Growing concern by some members of the Auckland City Council over the selection of books for the Auckland Public Library in 1884, culminated in a motion by Councillor Aickin on 15 August. The Herald reported that ‘Mr Aickin moved "that it is desirable in all future orders for books for the Free Public Library to adhere mainly to standard works upon the different branches of knowledge, as history, economic sciences etc, and that only a small proportion of approved works of fiction be admitted." Aickin wanted a ‘ruling on the subject, as he [considered that his views] differed from some of his colleagues on the Library Committee, holding that the Free Public Library should be should be a means of instruction for the people, not for amusement to many’. Councillor Crowther inquired whether there was truth in the rumour that a large proportion of novels and purposeless literature had recently been acquired by the committee. The Mayor interjected that that was a matter of opinion. Councillor Upton seconded the motion and ‘signified that he would give notice of motion that a committee of gentlemen be appointed’ to help in the selection of books. He proposed such well known entities as Judge Gillies, Maurice O’Rorke, Professors Brown and Thomas, as members.

There was some opposition to Aickin’s motion and Upton’s idea. Councillor Mackechnie suggested that they were in the business of encouraging people to read and if the people wanted novels they should be supplied. Councillor Devore suggested that they must follow the public wants when it came to spending public money. Councillor Masefield agreed and suggested that in appointing the committee, the ‘persons who paid the rates were those who should have themselves represented.’ Aickin’s motion was finally voted upon, and lost.

The following day the Herald had a variety of responses to the actions of the Council. The Herald suggested that the motion had been lost because the Councillors would not admit that there were ‘people outside who know better than them how a library should be built up’. It conceded that it was a good start that the problem was acknowledged by Council, but suggested that the provision of books which had a shelf life of less than a year was giving in to the ideology that reading was simply a way of passing the time. In doing this the Council was providing books which ‘are distinctly vicious in their teaching, and do great harm to the young, who are their principal readers.’ The article went on to suggest that the purchase of 138 works of fiction in an order of 266 volumes pandered to those idle classes who wished to while away their time rather than obtain instruction. ‘No man has the right to go to a library maintained at the public expense, and expect to find provided for him the latest sensational novel by Mrs. Henry Woods…. [instead of the] reference necessary for young men perfecting themselves in their businesses or trades.’

A letter to the Editor from M.D. suggested that the decision ‘to devote one-half of an entire years grants from rates to the purchase of fiction, many of them, as you so correctly state, ephemeral in their quality, is wrong, and debasing to the high function which a true library should fulfil.’ He suggested that one quarter of the books purchased could be fiction, while the other subject areas could have about one eighth of the grant each. He stated strongly that he supported Upton’s motion to appoint a committee of advisers, but suggested that those named were not suitable in that they were away so much of the year. He concluded that he felt that the library should be open from ten a.m. to six p.m., instead of nine a.m. to five p.m. so that it could offer ‘mental recreation to many clerks who cannot leave their offices, etc., before five p.m., and who do not need to reach home before half-past six p.m.’

The Herald continued to debate the issue of book selection stating if the mayor conceded that he knew little about books and allowed those who ‘pretended’ to know more to order the books, then it might be time to examine how the process was undertaken. If Council could take advice on other issues which it did not fully understand why could it not do the same when it came to the issue ‘of how to build up a library - a difficult and technical subject- which of all their duties they probably know least about, they must be taken to be above instruction and advice.’ Placed discretely amongst the snippets for the day was a note advising the public that a number of books had been added to the Auckland Institute library, of which ‘not a single work of fiction has been added to the library… the Institute leaves that work to the City Council, which, by its exertions at the Free Public Library, makes up for any shortcomings on that head at the other institutions.’ The Herald praised those members of the Council who had finally woken to the fact that ‘the people at large have some intellectual cravings which are not satisfied with inferior works of fiction and the cheap and nasty literature with which, of late years we have been so abundantly supplied….rubbish [that Councillor Aickin] would be ashamed to have seen in his own house.’

A series of letters in the paper condemning the Council for its failure to provide educative books appeared in the Herald on 19 and 20 August. These were the books, suggested ‘One of the People’ of Parnell, that most people had the least ability to purchase and, without the library, would never have access to. In defence of the Council’s stance was a letter from ‘A.C’., who clearly had some inside knowledge of the situation. He stated that the press had wound the issue up out of proportion. The number of fictional works received only seemed large because the scientific works ordered had not yet been received. He questioned whether those who published their views in the Herald ‘did so only upon supposition and evident ignorance, wilfully or otherwise, of the books originally upon the Free Library shelves when taken over, and which, when transferred to their permanent position, will doubtless be eliminated to make room for others of greater value.’

On the issue of locating outside help in the management and selection of the stock for the library, the Herald quoted a clause from the 1869 Public Libraries Act which stated that committees or governing bodies ‘may from time to time appoint, the members whereof need not be members of the governing body.’ The legislators had already foreseen that it might become necessary to seek help from qualified people in the community, so why were the councillors reluctant to concede the need for help.

On 21 August ‘H.D’ attacked a decision by the Council over book selection. After inspecting a list of books recently received by the library, he suggested that the purchase of the 31 volumes by Professor Max Muller was ‘of as much use in New Zealand as the cannonical [sic] books of Kong-fu-tsein ancient Chinese would be.’ He suggested that to make them useful it would ‘be necessary to import people to appreciate them.’ He believed that the Library Committee lacked the ability to order books for the public. Just imagine he stated ‘ 30 volumes of Mrs Henry Wood’s trash "cheek by jowl" with 21 volumes of "Forgotten Bibles" or 30 volumes of Pays[?] flanked by a Sanskrit grammar!’ His parting shot was that it was only thanks to the excellent collection of the Provincial [Council] Library that the Library collection was in any way decent. The Provincial [Council] Library he stated was ‘ an admirable one, as good as that of the Mechanics Institute was bad.’

A week after his initial address Councillor Upton brought up the issue of the Library Advisory Committee again. Upton declared that he felt it necessary to explain his action. His intention was purely to ensure the success of the institute, ‘and to promote its usefulness, whether it was for amusement or instruction.’ He suggested that library collection needed management. Although a library provided a large collection of books it did not mean that it was easy to locate suitable books. A balanced committee could give direction to the library collection. Upton suggested that ‘in a new colony like this, many of the productions of this country were unknown, and works of a class to afford information should be available. At present they had only tickled the surface of the country.’ Upton argued that there was a real need to ensure that attention was given to books about manufactures and arts and gave a list of subjects which he considered it was necessary to cover in libraries. These subjects were ‘shipbuilding, tramway construction, bridges, mining etc.’ He considered that additions to the library to date had been desultory and disorganised. It was necessary to ensure that they had a well selected and useful library where borrowers could seek information on medicine and agriculture. Upton pointed out that there was a lack of policy in the area of selection, and that this meant that the ever-changing Library committee had little direction or regulation. They should aim at ensuring a methodical classification of the library by ‘adding to the Library committee an element of permanent character.’

Councillor Garratt stated that he was offended by the suggestion that he and other members of the Council were incompetent to select books for the community and asked Upton for the names of the men whom he had in mind as capable of carrying out such a difficult job. Councillor Aickin suggested that there was a definite need to provide a catalogue of holdings. He concurred with Upton about the need to have help in book selection because when he had been requested to make a selection of books, he could only look at the list provided and make a guess about their suitability. He claimed that on the last occasion he made out a long list of books he discovered that one fourth had to be cut out, as the books were already in the library. When told by the Mayor that there was a catalogue of the Auckland Provincial Council and its manuscripts, Aickin claimed that he had not been made aware of it. Councillor Masefield suggested that appointing such a group would make the Library Committee lazy and could end up with them merely accepting the advice of the advising committee. Because they were elected to represent the people, they should be doing exactly that, not handing over their responsibilities to others. The motion was opposed and it was not until 1888 that a book selection committee was set up, comprised of nine academics, senior journalists and businessmen.

In 1889 the debate over fiction raised its head again when the library started to lend books in October. The lending library offered a ‘book stock of 248 volumes and a classified catalogue.’ In a letter to the editor, correspondent C.P. Newcombe questioned the transfer of novels to the lending department and stated that the move had had a major impact on numbers attending the library. He suggested that the transfer had been to the detriment of itinerant users, who used to come in during their leisure hours to read ‘the standard works of fiction which were there’. Newcombe suggested that the avenue for self-improvement for many young people had been taken away as they could not afford to pay the subscription fees to borrow.

Newcombe was critical of the selection of novels which had been left in the reading room. ‘Who are the purists’, he asked, ‘who say that Scott, Marryat, Dickens, Bulwer, Thackeray, Trollope, Lever, Mrs Gaskell, George Eliot, Charles Kingsley, Mrs Oliphant, George Macdonald, Edna Lyell, Blackmore, Charles Reade, and Besant are not to be read by young people.’ He went on to state that ‘this exclusion of novels is a positive disgrace. Is there any public library in the civilised world except ours from which they are shut out?... One of the worst features of the case of condemnation of novel reading is the hypocrisy it engenders.’

Newcombe’s letter produced a debate within the pages of the Herald for the following week. The Herald suggested that it was not the duty of the Library Committee to ‘provide light literature of an ephemeral character for the purpose indicated…. Nor do we believe that the time of young people is profitably spent by the habitual use of such literature. Not that we object to novel-reading in itself, but the novels provided should be classical, calculated to improve tastes and refine the character as well as enabling the reader to pass a pleasant hour… Apart from the ethical question of the value of ordinary novels…unless they have gained their place as classics, they can have no permanent value and should be paid for by the reader.’ The following day ‘Light’ suggested that much of the problem lay with the book selection made by the old Mechanics’ Institute and the Provincial Council as many of the books now held by the library were handed on from these two institutions. He stated that the ‘management act wisely in not providing yellow-back novels for the young at the expense of the ratepayer.’

The debate over fiction was also present outside the city. In 1888 a Northern Advocate editorial discussed the problems inherent in selecting and suggesting literature for the young. It suggested that the problem did not lie with a lack of choice of novels, but with an over-abundance of novels which idealized the ‘commonplace hero’. The editorial suggested that ‘the tendency of modern fiction is to give photographic pictures of modern society, with its commonplace women and money seeking men.’ The heroes of the modern novel did not educate the young to noble endeavour, whereas ‘the romance of a generation ago finds no lack of high ideals.’ While singing the praises of the likes of the heroes in Ivanhoe or Quentin Durward for boys, the editorial suggested that ‘the girl who reads the story of The Bride of Lammermoor or the Heart of Midlothian and does not find the impulses of her heart thrilled to the uttermost by those simple stories of Scottish life, written by the great master hand, must possess a coarse nature’. The editor felt the colonies’ youth should be encouraged into reading these books which supplied ‘romance and genuine sentiment which every young man and woman feel to be wanting in the modern novel of today.’

An examination of the Herald for the years 1873 and 1874, during the period that the lists of holdings were sent to the Provincial Council, shows that Aucklanders were hindered by a lack of knowledge about newly published books. Chapman regularly advertised those publications which had been printed in New Zealand but an examination of the titles advertised and those on the database shows that few were purchased even though they were directly related to topics of interest such as guides to dairy and sheep farming in New Zealand. Apart from Chapman’s advertisements there was very little advertising from booksellers in local papers to assist library committees in their selection. Booksellers would supply a catalogue of books to libraries if requested. Many of the books listed were not available in New Zealand and it was necessary to send orders overseas. There could be many months between ordering and receiving books. This would have made grant applications through the Provincial Council particularly difficult, as an annual return had to be sent to the Education Board detailing monies spent, so that the following year’s grant could be allocated .

The minute books from library committees show that most orders were initially placed through local booksellers, and titles which were unobtainable here were usually sent on to Britain. An example of this was the Maungakaramea library which recorded the ordering of 70 books through Champtaloup and Cooper in August 1878. Those orders not received by October were sent on to England. There is no record of when the order finally arrived. In June 1871 the Matakana Library minute book stated that books for the newly founded library were selected from lists procurred from booksellers, although an entry in September 1874 states that ‘only a small amount of the books selected are able to be purchased in New Zealand.’

During the seventies there were a number of booksellers working out of Auckland city. The major outlets were Champtaloup & Cooper, Upton, Waytes, Varty and Chapman. Although most booksellers required payment in advance of supply, some would sent packages of books to libraries on a purchase or return basis. On 14 February 1884 the Kaitaia Library minutes recorded a letter to N.G.Lennox, Bookseller and Publisher, which stated that they were including a cheque to cover books sent to them that they had kept. The balance of the cheque was to be credited to their account for the next order of books. Libraries would often shop around for the cheapest deals through booksellers by sending lists to several for pricing before ordering. On 21 May 1887 a list of books was sent to Kidd and Wildman to obtain prices before approval of the order. In his covering letter the secretary, F.H.P Matthews, stated that ‘ The novels of a poorer class such as Hayward’s or Dumas may be in yellow covers - those of a better class in cloth boards and books of reference such as Dr Ure’s Dictionary of Useful Information and works of that description may be found a little extra.’ On 1 August the Library received a letter from Kidd & Wildman stating that they had completed as much of the order as possible and would now be sending the list on to Sydney and Melbourne for completion. Extra books were included in the package for approval or return.

From the statement made by Councillor Aickin during the Council debate of August 1884, it is clear that some who were selecting books for the Auckland Free Library were doing so in the dark. Working from book lists, they were expected to select books without knowledge of what was already held by the library. There were no book buying policies to follow, so that the range of books offered to Auckland library members would have depended on the whims of the Committee. The Auckland reader was basically at the mercy of an unqualified library committee of ‘gentlemen’ councillors. The librarian was merely the custodian of the books. Even as late as 1902 the City Librarian, Edward Shillington, was still having to present lists to the Council for approval.

Although non-fiction predominates in the lists supplied to the Provincial Council in 1874, there is sufficient evidence from the catalogues supplied by Port Albert and the Otahuhu Institute to show that fiction was making inroads on to the library book shelves. Most book selection, however, tended to err on the side of caution. Well known and standard authors were those mainly purchased. There may have been several reasons for this. The first was that money for books was extremely scarce, so committees tended to stay with those authors whom they knew, rather than be exploratory in their choice. Another explanation could be that choice was taken away from many libraries. Book purchases depended on the views of members of the local Education Board when it came to using Government funding. For many of the province’s libraries this was the main source of income. External pressures combined with a lack of knowledge about the availability of new publications, may have lead to an unbalanced and conservative selection of stock. Those libraries which continued to fight against the ‘evils of fiction’ experienced a loss in library membership and borrowing levels . Where libraries failed to accommodate the desires of the community, community support fell away, often leaving the few who founded the library as the primary members.