WHAT ELSE WAS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD IN 1910?
Nicole Thorburn, our resident heritage geek, did some digging to find out what was happening in 1910.
• New Zealand, along with the rest of the British Empire, mourned the loss of its king. King Edward VII, eldest son of Queen Victoria, passed away in May after nine years on the throne. Much of the country, including public libraries, closed on the day of the funeral as a mark of respect. He was succeeded by his son, George V.
• The first movie version of Frankenstein, one of Hollywood’s first horror films, was released. His Majesty’s Theatre in Auckland screened Frankenstein immediately following footage from Edward VII’S funeral as part of an ‘all star programme’ in July.
• Halley’s Comet appeared in the night sky for the first time since 1835. Mark Twain passed away the following day. In his autobiography, Twain had written, ‘I came in with Halley’s comet in 1835. It’s coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it.’
• One of New Zealand’s earliest pieces of censorship legislation, the Indecent Publications Act of 1910, came into effect. The Act did not explicitly define the word ‘indecent,’ but it did make it easier for indecent material to be seized by law enforcement. The New Zealand Library Association would later raise concerns about the lack of clear criteria around what was and wasn’t censored, and who made that call.
• The original New Zealand Labour Party was established. It folded in 1912; the modern Labour Party formed in 1916.
• The first Great Britain Lions Tour of Australia and New Zealand took place. The Lions beat New Zealand in every game.
• The Hocken Library opened at Otago Museum. Dr. Thomas Hocken donated his private collection to the university in trust for the New Zealand public in 1897, but it was not until 1910 that it became accessible to the public. The official opening of the library was on March
the founding of Dunedin.
• Gore’s Carnegie Library opened. Mayor D L Poppelwell ‘felt sure no town in the Dominion of the size of Gore had a better and more up-to-date building for a public library, and no man would be more pleased to see the public making use of it than Mr Andrew Carnegie.’
• Scandal in the newspapers over the salary of The Chief Librarian at the Parliamentary Library, who earnt £525 per year – a figure reported by a correspondent of The Dominion newspaper, who felt this was an excessive amount for a public servant to earn in a role of so little benefit to the public. The average public librarian earnt closer to £25 a year.
• The 1911 New Zealand Census gives us an idea of what the library profession looked like when the New Zealand Library Association was founded – it records 46 male librarians, 74 female librarians, eleven male library caretakers, and nine male library assistants.