AN INVALUABLE GIFT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3114, 19 November 1913, Page 3

AN INVALUABLE GIFT.

MR M'NAB’S HISTORICAL RECORDS. ACCEPTED BY THE CITY COUNCIL. A very valuable and significant gift of historic literature reminiscent in many respects of the gift made to this city by the late Dr Hocken was made known to the City Council at its mooting on the 12th. The idonor is Mr Robert M‘Nab, whose enthusiasm and success in the collection of nil records bearing on the very early history of New Zealand are well known in many parts of the world. The conditions of the gift were announced to the council in a letter from Mr M‘Nab in the following terms; — I have a library of New Zealand books, papers, and pamphlets, collected over a number of years in various parts of the world, and which I think would serve students of New Zealand literature bettor if made available m some public institution. If your Library Committee is prepared suitably to house and maintain the collection, I am prepared to hand it over to your city, reserving to myself the right to take out for limited periods of time such books as may be required for my histoincal work. There are a few details of a minor nature which can be fixed up with your committee.

The letter was received with a round f hearty applause. The Mayor (Mr W. D. Stewart) said that it stated in very brief and modest terms a very generous gift to tho city. Mr M'Nab, as they were aware, was an authority on New Zealand history, and had for a number o£ years been very actively engaged in the search for records not only in New Zealand, lut at tho old whaling stations, and in the United States, in tho archives of Paris and elsewhere. He had found a great many facts of extraordinary interest to New Zealanders affecting their very early history, and had thrown a flood of light on a groat number of matters. Ho had that day asked Mr M'Nab to stay to tho council meeting so that he might explain a little more in detail the contents of the gift and tho value of it for students of history now and for many centuries to come. Unfortunately, Mr M'Nab had been unable to stay, but ho hoped to be back in Otago for the summer, and when tho library was housed in Dunedin there would bo some formal opening when it would bo possible to express to Mr M'Nab their great thanks for his generosity. The motives that prompted him to make the gift to Dunedin were hia great interest in Otago, and the fact that he gradaated at the Otago University, and hoped that tho concentration in Dunedin of collections of such great value as Dr Hocken’s and his own might lead at some time in the future to tho establishment of a chair of -history or of Polynesian research in the Otago University. Mr M'Nab had thought the matter over carefully, and had decided that the best place for his collection was tho Free Public Library. Ho (the Mayor) knew personally that some of the items in the collection were of extreme rarity and of great value. Some of tho files which Mr M'N-I had wore not to bo found anywhere else. There was also a chance that he would make further research in Franco and England and other countries, and might supplement tho collection from time to time. He moved —“That tho council convey to Mr R. M'Nab its hearty thanks for his very generous gift to the city, and hopes that it may have an opportunity at a Later date of expressing to him in person its high appreciation of hia generous gift.”—(Applause.) Cr .Sinclair (chairman of tho Library Committee) seconded the motion, and cn behalf of hia committee expressed its deepest thanks to Mr M'Nab for his generosity. Everything would be looked after with the greatest care, and any wishes Mr M'Nab might chose to express would lie thoroughly carried out. Tko motion was carried unanimously.