Rotorua Library Trust Fund Variation Bill

on behalf of Steve Chadwick (Labour): I move, That the Rotorua Library Trust Fund Variation Bill be now read a first time. At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be considered by the Local Government and Environment Committee. The first reading today will be welcomed by the Rotorua District Council and the Rotorua Public Library. I have agreed to give this speech today on behalf of the MP for Rotorua, Steve Chadwick, who is attending the tangi of Guide Bubbles in Rotorua. This bill is non-controversial and, in effect, realises the intention of the deceased Elizabeth Ann Seddon-Johnson as expressed in her will, which was probated in 1936. We do not know a lot about Elizabeth Seddon-Johnson, but we can assure her descendants that her desire to support the library will be honoured by this bill, almost 70 years later.

The current library building is located in Haupapa Street, Rotorua. It is located on the ground and first floors of a four-storey building. The top floors are currently leased out, though those leases terminate at the end of this calendar year. The library desperately needs the additional space that will be freed up as a result of the leases’ expiry. The drafters of the bill have been advised by Jane Gilbert, the library manager, that, effectively, the library has been in a holding pattern for the last 5 years or so, due to the shortage of space. It is proposed that the library will occupy the whole of the building, and the additional two floors will increase the space available at the library by around another two-thirds. In that regard, the two top floors provide less space than the two existing floors occupied by the library. The council has allocated a budget of around $1 million for its 2006-07 year, commencing on 1 July 2006, towards the necessary renovations, refurbishing, fitting out, and provisioning of the library as a result of the top two floors becoming available on the expiry of the leases.

The essential and primary purpose behind the bill is, therefore, to enable to council to access the capital of an endowment currently vested in it pursuant to section 31 of the Local Legislation Act 1937. In that regard, I refer members to the explanatory note of the bill, which spells out the basic background details. The fundamental difficulty the council currently has in administering the endowment vested in it pursuant to the 1937 Act is that it does not have the ability to apply the capital of the endowment for the purposes of the library; rather, it is only the income that can be so applied. Further, the purposes for which the income can currently be applied are arguably not sufficiently specific to enable the income, let alone the capital, to be applied in the way the council intends.

There is no doubt that the primary and fundamental purpose—and the driver—behind the bill being promoted by the council is the need to access the capital to enable the work intended to be carried out once the leases of the top two floors expire at the end of this year. Members will note that clause 5(2) enables both the capital and income of the endowment to be applied for a range of purposes, including any expansion of the library. It is fair to say that the bulk, if not necessarily all, of the endowment will be applied for that particular purpose. However, that is not inconsistent with the basic thrust of the bill. There may or may not be excess funds available for the other stated purposes covered in clause 5(2).

The endowment has a rather tortuous legal history. Members will note from the explanatory note that the endowment can be traced to the will made on 30 December 1932 by Elizabeth Ann Seddon-Johnson. That will, probate of which was granted on 1 September 1936, provided for certain legacies and then directed the residue to be held in trust for the then Rotorua Borough Council to be used for, or towards, the erection of a new wing for the Rotorua Public Library. It is fair to say, therefore, that the purpose intended to be achieved by the bill effectively restores the legal position to one whereby the original intent of Miss Seddon-Johnson is achieved. In that regard, although what is contemplated by the council is not the erection of a new wing to the existing library, it does involve an expansion of the existing library.

The residue of Miss Seddon-Johnson’s estate comprised a Crown lease situated in Rotorua. The purpose of section 37 of the Local Legislation Act 1937 was to enable the then Rotorua Borough Council to acquire the lease and to borrow a sum for the purpose of paying out the legacies provided for in those provisions of Miss Seddon-Johnson’s will that needed to be satisfied. As a result of the Rotorua Borough Council acquiring the land under the power conferred by the 1937 Act, revenue was derived by it. Accordingly, further provision was made in the 1937 Act whereby the income it so derived could be applied for certain specific and relatively narrow purposes associated with the Rotorua Public Library. The 1937 Act did not, however, go so far as to enable the capital of the endowment to be applied for the purposes of the library.

The council has, on at least two to three occasions over the last 20 years or so, approached the drafters of this bill, seeking advice as to whether it was able to apply the capital of the endowment for the purposes of the Rotorua Public Library. The advice, the most recent of which was given in 2005, has consistently been that the council does not have the power under the 1937 Act to apply the capital, but can apply only the income, for certain particular purposes associated with the library. The purpose of the bill is therefore to enable the council to access the capital and to apply it for a wider range of purposes than is currently available, but in a way that seems to be entirely consistent with the original intentions of Miss Seddon-Johnson.

In conclusion, as is the case when member promote local bills, I request the support of the House for this bill. However, I did make an error in my speech. The bill should be referred to the Government Administration Committee, not to the Local Government and Environment Committee.

The National Party in Opposition will be supporting the Rotorua Library Trust Fund Variation Bill. As was noted by the list MP for Hamilton and previous member for Hamilton East who has just spoken in the debate, this is in respect of an endowment and the philanthropy of Elizabeth Ann Seddon-Johnson of Rotorua. Subsequently, over the years, this bill is to provide for the capital to be used for the extension and development of the Rotorua Public Library.

I am probably one of a handful of members in this House who have visited the Rotorua Public Library. Probably, those other members would be Mr Te Ururoa Flavell, Mrs Chadwick, and maybe one or two others. The thing that struck me the most when reading the bill when it was introduced was the generosity of the benefactor, Elizabeth Ann Seddon-Johnson, and I have been reflecting on the fact that in many of our communities today we do not see the level of private philanthropy in public amenities that we have seen previously. The library in Gisborne, for example, was donated by H B Williams. The Williams family from Gisborne, of course, have donated a large number of public amenities to the people of Gisborne and the East Coast area. If we go to other communities we can sometimes find significant public buildings and parks that have been donated by individuals. These days, however, we do not see that level of philanthropic investment.

I suppose the closest we have seen in recent times to that level of philanthropy in public amenities is from the member for Tauranga, Mr Bob Clarkson, who built a stadium in Tauranga, privately, and is now offering it back to the people of Tauranga City at quite a substantial discount. I know that the people of that city and of the wider western bay—and, indeed, of the North Island—would appreciate that very, very generous act. Mr Clarkson’s generosity is, I think, one of the very few projects of private philanthropy we have seen in this country for quite some time.

So, I reflect on the fact that the endowment of Elizabeth Ann Seddon-Johnson was made at a time when people did donate and build public amenities, and Rotorua Public Library is certainly a case in point. These days people look towards trusts and ratepayers to build public amenities, and I think we have to salute those individuals in the past who were so generous as to contribute those sorts of assets.

Last week Mr Clarkson and I attended the opening of the Papamoa Public Library in my electorate of Papamoa, where there has been a very significant investment of $6 million by the community. The rates bill was increased by 1 percent to pay for the library, so the investment by ratepayers is very, very significant. But what was clear, both at that opening of the library in Papamoa and during my visit previously to the Rotorua Public Library, was the very strong depth of feeling and commitment local communities have to their public libraries. Public libraries—in terms of availability of information, access to information, and the ability to work with others of a like mind—have changed so much since the time of that investment by Elizabeth Ann Seddon-Johnson all those years ago. Indeed, when visiting the Papamoa Public Library, I saw that it now has a widescreen television in a room where people can come in and watch Sky news from Australia, about happenings around the world. It also has a number of community meeting rooms that enable people to use the library in a similar way.

The vision the Rotorua District Council has for its public library is similar: it is to expand it and make it an asset for the future. That is why the library is seeking the ability to access the capital of the endowment, which is about $300,000. The National Party made some checks to make sure that this would not be controversial. There appeared to be very little controversy, if any, about it in Rotorua. There is a very keen commitment to get on and develop the library, to improve the assets for that city for the 21st century.

I just want to make some preliminary statements. I have a real affection for Rotorua—I holidayed there as a young boy—and that affection was reinforced by the fact that when my parents retired they went from Mangakino to Rotorua. They lived out at Lake Ōkareka. During that time I was teaching on the East Coast, so our family spent a lot of time up there with mum and dad. I must admit I really enjoyed Rotorua, and I still enjoy going back there. My parents ended up passing away in Rotorua. All this was in the mid-1980s. Since then Rotorua has increased in size quite considerably, and there has been quite considerable development.

The secret to understanding this bill is to go back to the will of Elizabeth Ann Seddon-Johnson, dated 30 December 1932, and its intention. It is quite clear that Elizabeth Ann Seddon-Johnson wanted to enhance the library facilities in Rotorua for the people of that area to enjoy. As a consequence of legislation passed from the time of that will, the situation has come about that the capital from the legacy is not able to be used for that purpose. Although the legacy may not be used particularly for the erection of a new wing, it certainly will be used for the expansion and enhancement of the library’s facilities. That, obviously, is what the Rotorua district wants, and it seems entirely sensible to release the capital to enable it to be used for that particular purpose, and the purpose as explained by Dianne Yates.

New Zealand First will be supporting the bill. As the previous speaker said, there is no controversy over it, and we believe we should be able to move it through as quickly as possible. We will be voting for it.

The Green Party will be supporting this bill. I would like to make a few comments on behalf of Sue Bradford, who has been the MP following this issue. She spends a lot of time in Rotorua, dealing with issues there. I would like to take just a brief call to offer our support for the bill and to extend our best wishes to the Rotorua District Council on its efforts to improve the public library in Haupapa Street.

The substance of this private bill is fairly technical but significant for those who are involved. It deals with a request from the council that it be allowed to return to the original intentions of a will made in 1932 by a certain Elizabeth Seddon-Johnson, probate of which was granted in 1936. This generous donor directed the bulk of her estate to be held in trust for the then Rotorua Borough Council to erect a new wing for the local library. The current unfortunate situation in which the council finds itself seems to have occurred because certain events subsequent to probate being granted meant that the council had lost—if it ever had—the power to apply the capital of endowment to purposes associated with the library, despite that being the benefactor’s original intention.

When faced with issues like this the Green Party has always taken the position that, where possible, Parliament should abide by the original intention of wills and bequests. From looking at the information available, I think there is no doubt that this is in fact what the current Rotorua District Council proposes to do in seeking to use the bulk of this money towards acquiring and appropriately refurbishing another two floors of its current building. For that reason we are supporting the bill to the select committee.

I would just like to add that I think it is great that the council is moving to expand the library, because in a district like Rotorua with a proportionately high number of low-income people it is especially important that public libraries provide as good a service as possible. Libraries are a great leveller, offering the opportunity for any child or adult, no matter what their income or background, to read, learn, and develop in ways that are not constrained by their immediate economic circumstances. In supporting the council’s intentions with this bill I simply exhort it not only to focus on the library’s physical expansion, but also to maintain and improve its acquisitions programme in the years to come. Books, not buildings, are the heart and soul of any library, and I trust that the council will not get its priorities wrong as it moves forward on this project.

Kia ora anō tātou katoa e noho nei i tēnei pō. [Greetings to us all sitting here once again tonight.] I stand with considerable pride to support my colleague Steve Chadwick in respect of this bill, the Rotorua Library Trust Fund Variation Bill. As the member for Waiariki I am delighted to endorse the original intention specified in the will of Elizabeth Ann Seddon-Johnson in relation to the Rotorua Public Library. Like others, I note the generosity and foresight of the benefactor in bequeathing the residue of her estate to be used towards the building of a new wing for the Rotorua Public Library. This sort of idea is really commendable and will bring huge benefits to the whole community. I indeed have visited and used the facility. My children are all members of the library—they are all cardholders—and I have a fine thesis sitting in a cupboard of the library, which I hope will benefit all.

I understand that Mr and Mrs Seddon lived on the corner of Arawa Street and Fenton Street in Rotorua. Mr Seddon owned the Comet shop, one of the first shops in Rotorua. On the grave in which he is buried in Sala Street is a great bust of himself, whereas the original library had a more modest plaque that acknowledged Mrs Seddon. That plaque is today nowhere to be found. So in many respects this bill serves another purpose in honouring her and her intentions as per the terms of her 1932 will.

I am also profoundly proud to stand here today in recognition of the respect that books and literature receive in te Waiariki. It is a source of encouragement to me that many of our rangatahi Māori take up the opportunity to use these fabulous resources. The Books in Homes concept, for example, is encouraged at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Koutu, which my children attend.

In this last week in which we have honoured Guide Bubbles, I think too of another hostess guide at Whakarewarewa, Guide Maggie, Makereti Papakura. She was of Ngāti Wāhiao, Te Arawa, and Pākehā descent. Maggie Papakura was raised by the senior members of her mother’s family and educated in Māori knowledge from the time of her birth in 1873. She developed a love of literature and writing that was formalised in 1924 when she settled at Oxford University in England and began to record her knowledge of Māori life and customs for a Bachelor of Science. Tragically, just weeks before her thesis examination in 1930, she died. However, her work The Old-Time Māori was published posthumously and remains a significant scholarly reference source that will no doubt be a treasured part of the Rotorua local history section of our library. Following Makereti Papakura’s death in 1930, her friend and Oxford academic counsellor T.K. Penniman wrote: “The secret of her own greatness of soul lay in knowing who she was.”

Thinking about the benefits and value that this bill offers to the Rotorua library, I turn to the resources that will stock the shelves and tell us who, indeed, we are. The use of the book as a vital tool to advance the revitalisation of Māori society has its source in 1923, when Sir Apirana Ngata established the Board of Māori Ethnological Research to publish Elsdon Best’s manuscripts on Māori culture, and other writings by contributors to the Journal of the Polynesian Society. Throughout the next 80 years the bibliography of Māori books bloomed, each new decade bringing a distinctive chapter in our history of Aotearoa. One need only look at the pageant of New Zealand books published in 1958 by A.H. and A.W. Reed—classics such as How the Māori Lived, Living in a Māori Village, and How the White Men Came—to get a fascinating insight into the society of the time. Of course, questions about whether a book is a Māori book or whether it was written by a non-Māori will inevitably come into the debate.

Yesterday the Hon Brian Donnelly talked about Ken Mair’s whanaunga Captain Gilbert Mair in relation to a new book called Māori Treasures of New Zealand: Ko Tawa. It includes stories of the tribes and people associated with each of the taonga he collected in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The book includes interviews with and photographs of descendants of those who both created and gifted their taonga to Gilbert Mair, including Murirangaranga, the flute associated with the stories around Lake Rotorua that were to do with Tūtanekai and Hinemoa.

The history of our taonga and ourselves, and our knowing who we are, can illuminate the past to enhance our present. In light of this I refer to one of our most recent taonga, The Art of Māori Weaving: The Eternal Thread—Te Aho Mutunga Kore, written by Miriama Evans and Rānui Ngārimu and published by Huia Publishers. This book has been named as a finalist in the 2006 Montana New Zealand Book Awards in the lifestyle and contemporary culture category. The Art of Māori Weaving has also been nominated for the Textile Society of America’s R L Shep Award for its exceptional scholarship in the field of ethnic textile traditions. In making reference to just one or two examples, I do not say that one is better than the another; I do so to illustrate the variety, the excellence, and the distinctive body of work encompassed in Māori literature that our libraries can draw on.

The production of that literature is being nurtured by three key initiatives that I want to refer to briefly. The first is Te Hunga Taunaki Kaituhi Māori, a committee that has encouraged writers to publish works reflective of the best writing in Māori. The committee, consisting of Wena Tait, Dr Merimeri Penfold, and Dr Hirini Moko Mead, is committed to the retention of Māori knowledge through publications in te reo Māori. The committee assists in finding publishers and provides a mentoring role for new writers. One example is Eruera Manuera, written by Te Onehōu Phillis, which was published by Huia Publishers and won a special award in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards in 2002.

The second is Te Hā, a forum of contemporary Māori writers to promote excellence in writing and to encourage new writers. The initiatives include On the Bus, an annual showcase of readings and performances that takes Māori literature around the country and provides workshops on writing. Te Ha was first kicked off in 1991 by Witi Ihimaera and Patricia Grace, who are well known throughout Aotearoa, with a tour of Taranaki. They came to Waiariki in 2004, and this year are travelling across to Gisborne and the East Coast.

The third initiative I refer to is the Māori writers’ national hui, the biennial gathering of Māori writers and other individuals passionate about contemporary Māori literature. This year’s hui is to be held here in Wellington in September.

I wanted to use the opportunity provided by the Rotorua Library Trust Fund Variation Bill to talk briefly about Māori literature because I wanted to correct a perception some people have that denies our distinctive role in the written genre. Our strength as tangata whenua artists is derived from our oral traditions, our stories, our truths, and our learnings from the past that guide us into the future. But because we are fine orators or passionate storytellers does not mean that we are not also excellent writers of books.

Although our whaikōrero is distinctive, our talents as Māori publishers are also worthy of note. Publishers such as Huia Publishers produce books that have a significant Māori voice and build on the high quality of Māori work already published. Mauri Tu was formed by Robyn and the late Dooley Kahukiwa, and Kaitora Publishers, based in Hamilton, publishes educational products and services that have a strong Māori theme. The Kia Ata Mai Educational Trust develops and promotes Māori literacy programmes for readers in kura kaupapa Māori and Māori medium schools.

The Rotorua Library Trust Fund Variation Bill will enable the Rotorua district to access capital—some $300,000—to support the much-needed extension to the local library. As the member for Waiariki I am delighted to support this bill, and I realise the benefits of the smooth passing of this legislation, which will ensure access to these sorts of facilities throughout our community. Te Arawa, indeed, will be much richer for the opportunity to access increased resources that will lead us further to knowing who we are. Kia ora tātou.

The folk of Rotorua—Rotorua City and district—are indeed indebted to the generosity of this lady, Elizabeth Ann Seddon-Johnson of Rotorua who, the explanatory note states, “By her will dated 30 December 1932, probate of which was granted on 1 September 1936”, left through the Public Trustee “the residue of her estate on trust for the benefit of the Rotorua Borough Council to be used for or towards the erection of a new wing”. The district council, which has now taken the place, of course, of the borough council, I am sure is indebted to her, and this is a fine legacy for someone whose generosity the whole area appreciates.

Libraries are important facilities in our community. We have seen instances where libraries have been taken away and only at some later date did people say it was a sad loss. In fact, we have a case in Cambridge where that happened in a school and that library has now been put back for the benefit of the students.

Here is a very generous legacy that has been left from way back in 1936. National has much pleasure in supporting this bill known as the Rotorua Library Trust Fund Variation Bill.

Bill read a first time.

Bill referred to the Government Administration Committee.