LUCAS’S ALMANAC

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 26 November 1942, Page 4

LUCAS’S ALMANAC

PUBLICATION SUSPENDED WILL APPEAR AGAIN AFTER THE WAR i The first number of Lucas's Almanac I appeared in 1865. Each year from then till now it has found its way regularly , into many homes in Nelson, West Coast | and Marlborough, and even in other l parts of New Zealand. Last year the exigencies of war made this handy and valued book of reference much slimmer than usual: this year, unfortunately. the long period of publication—77 years—will have to be broken and the Almanac for 1943 will not appear. No one regrets this more than the publishers. but materials are scarce and manpower scarcer, and we simply have not the facilities available for its production. In the Almanac has been printed a variety of useful local and general information not readily accessible elsewhere. I! has catered both for town and country people, and in many homes the Almanac has been used as a diary, account book and ready reckoner as well as a book of reference. Pains have been taken to keep it up to date by the addition of new and revised tables and statistics and digests of recent legislation. The directory of all ! kinds of officials in various organisa- j tions in the different districts of the northern part of the Island has been well thumbed. One particularly interesting edition of the Almanac was that published in 1892, Nelson’s Jubilee year. It contained a brief illustrated history of Nelson specially written by Mr J. F. Dundas. then editor of “The Mail.” The advertisements of that time reveal a good array of well-known names both in town and country with a wide variety of goods and services to offer the public considering that Nelson was only 50 years old. Some of the firms are still flourishing; others have given way to fresh blood or have disappeared altogether. Neither in their time nor in that of their successors did New Zealand face a war such as we are fighting now with its huge demands on our energies and materials. Once it is over Lucas’s Almanac will appear again.