1870-1900
The last 30 years of the nineteenth century were spent by the Library Committee in enlarging the Library and in trying to obtain an adequate and suitable building to house it. The vote was raised to £300 in 1867 and £600 in 1874, while in addition the adoption of a new standing order for Private Bills in 1870 gave the fees up to £25 for a Bill that passed both Houses to the Library fund. Fines levied on members were also devoted to the Library fund, though this has never been a lucrative source. Among others, the fine of £75 imposed on Mr Lusk was received in 1875, and a similar sum from the Hon. Mr Robinson, but the historic fine of £500 inflicted on the manager of the Bank of New Zealand in 1896 was never received.
Private Bill fees varied from nothing to £150, so that the income was between £650 and £750. The money was not spent on books only, but included expenditure on binding, periodicals, and on insurance. In the eighties and early nineties insurance premiums on the collection housed in a wooden building were £100 per annum and, though they were reduced, even in the last years of the century, £40 had to be used for this purpose.
Even so the Library stock was increasing annually by some 1,400 volumes. In 1871 there were 8,330 volumes, in 1877, 14,580. Five years later the figure had increased to 21,000, and to 30,000 in 1887, reaching 52,000 in 1902. Most of the growth was due to purchase, but the Library had many friends, especially among members, and they were most generous. Their gifts filled gaps specially in New Zealand material, while others gave books of value on subjects not of great interest to Parliament. Among such donors were Carleton, Mantell, and Sheehan, to mention only a few.
The Library had other friends who were no less helpful. New Zealand was represented at the Philadelphia Centenary Exhibition in 1876 by Dr Hector. He made arrangements with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington for the General Assembly Library to receive United States Government papers and for New Zealand in turn to supply New Zealand official publications to the Institution. This was the Library's first large exchange agreement and, while the material received under it has often threatened to swamp it, very many valuable items have been added from this source.
The overtures to the British Government first made in 1858 do not finally seem to have succeeded until 1883. In this year Lord Derby in a circular dispatch to all colonies offered to exchange British official papers for those of the colonies to be sent to the British Museum. The Library Committee jumped at the offer; it had since 1874 been buying sets of parliamentary papers and immediately approached the Cabinet to authorise that New Zealand publications should be sent. As a result the Library possesses an extremely valuable and still growing collection of British official papers.
The Library was in addition receiving New Zealand newspapers and publications of all kinds and it had other exchange arrangements with Canada and the Australian States. Until 1884, 81 newspapers were being bound regularly out of 153 received, but in this year because of the lack of space and the expense the number was reduced to 24. For all this the Library was adding to its holdings of newspapers at a fairly rapid rate.
The increase in the number of books necessitated an increase in storage space. The first attempt was made in 1869 when a motion was brought before both Houses asking that the Library building should be added to in order to provide additional room. The matter was deferred until a general enlargement of the buildings took place. This was done in the recess of 1872-73, and the Library was given the old smoking room, but only after a division when an attempt to have a proper building for the Library had been defeated.
There was genuine concern on the part of the Committee for the safety of the Library. In 1875 the building caught fire which was only put out by the efforts of members. Two days later the Committee passed a motion stating that the time had come when the erection of a proper Library building could no longer be delayed. Sir George Grey was asked to move the motion in the House. This was passed and a Royal Commission set up to superintend the construction, £5,000 being voted in the Estimates for the job, which it was thought would take two years and cost £14,000.
Nothing was done before the session of 1876 and the Committee set to work again. Several resolutions concerning the Library, its location, and the calling of competitive designs were passed, but though the Government proposed to put £7,000 on the estimates towards a Library, it was not done. The resolutions seem to have confused rather than helped the situation.