DR F. A. BETT
We readily accede to the request by the Trustees of the F. A. Bett Collection to publish the following letter: The Chief Librarian, The Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington. Dear Mr Traue, We were interested to read the note in the latest issue of the Turnbull Library Record concerning the transfer of the Bett Collection to Nelson. For its stewardship over the years we have already written appreciatively, conscious too of the inconvenience it must have involved in the protracted term.
We think this is an opportunity to recall some of the gifts made by Dr Bett in earlier years, for he was a great admirer of the Turnbull. By far the most notable was the collection of New Zealand full-face Queen stamps assembled by him for presentation to the Library. It is to be noted that for the purpose, the Department of Internal Affairs extended facilities to him to search the National Archives for some of the specimens. The result is regarded by philatelists as one of the very best of its kind.
In the process of building up a perfect set of the ‘Nelson Examiner’ newspaper, he insisted upon the best set being donated to the Turnbull, his other, less perfect, remaining in his own hands. The other item we have in mind is the imposing volume of colour-prints and text known as Boydell’s ‘River Thames’. It is certainly one of the most splendid of its kind in the Library. As to the regrettable time-lapse, before Nelson could provide fittingly, it is a problem that besets great as well as small authorities, as is evidenced by the establishment of the Mitchell Library of New South Wales. Presented to the State in 1898, upon condition of accommodation, a building was commenced only after threat of withdrawal, and not completed till 1910 after the generous donor’s death. This is reported in Miss Leeson’s book on the Mitchell Library, 1936.
We should like this letter to be printed in the Record, as a matter of interest to Friends of the Turnbull Library.
Yours sincerely, (Signed) C. R. H. Taylor, James Andrew, J. G. Andrew, W. J. Glasgow, Trustees of the Bett Collection.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/TLR19731001.2.17
Bibliographic details
Turnbull Library Record, Volume 6, Issue 2, 1 October 1973, Page 57
Word Count
364DR F. A. BETT Turnbull Library Record, Volume 6, Issue 2, 1 October 1973, Page 57
Using This Item
The majority of this journal is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) licence. The exceptions to this, as of June 2018, are the following three articles, which are believed to be out of copyright in New Zealand.
• David Blackwood Paul, “The Second Walpole Memorial Lecture”. Turnbull Library Record 12: (September 1954) pp.3-20
• Eric Ramsden, “The Journal of John B. Williams”. Turnbull Library Record 11: (November 1953), pp.3-7
• Arnold Wall, “Sir Hugh Walpole and his writings”. Turnbull Library Record 6: (1946), pp.1-12
Copyright in other articles will expire over time and therefore will also no longer be licensed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 licence.
Any images in the Turnbull Library Record are all rights reserved. For any reuse please contact the original supplier. Details of this can be found under each image. If there is no supplier listed, it is likely the image came from the Alexander Turnbull Library collection. Please contact the Library at Ask a Librarian.
The Library has made best efforts to contact all third-party copyright holders. If you are the rights holder of any material published in the Turnbull Library Record and would like to contact us please email us at paperspast@natlib.govt.nz
Log in