OBITUARY. 



ALEXANDER HORSBURGH TURNBULL. 1868-1918. 



Alexander Horsburgh Turxbull was born in Wellington on thr I Ith 

 September. I8(i8. and was educated at Duhvicli ("olleae, England. 



HivS father was Mr. Walter Turnbull. one of the founders of the linn 

 W. and G. Turnbull and Co. (now Wright. Stephenson, and Co.) : and on 

 his entering on a nicrcantile career Mr. Turnbull joined his fathers 

 London offic<', returning to Wellington in 1890. For luanv vears he was 

 associated with the late Mr. Nicholas Reid in the nianagenient of the 

 business of W. and (i. Turnbull and Co., but owing to failing health he 

 was compelled some eighteen months before his death to relinquish most ot 

 his business activities retiring altogether in October. 1917. The whole 

 of his activities and the considerable means i-esulting from his business 

 were then devoted to the augmenting of his collection of books of history, 

 travel, and literature. He became one of the best-known book-collectors 

 of New Zealand, and his library was known far beyond the limits of New 

 Zealand. He devoted himself largely to the gathering of a representative 

 collection of accounts of voyages to the islands of the Pacific, and the 

 histories of those islands, including .Vustralia and New Zealand : and thi' 

 collection gathered by him is reputed to be one of the best in the world. 

 Jt includes not only works in English, but many in Dutch, French, .Spanish. 

 German, and other languages, the Dutch being especially valuable. This 

 portion forms, however, only about one-fourth of the library, the rest 

 being devoted to histories of early colonization in various countries, and 

 to poetry and general literature. Besides having copies of every obtain- 

 able edition of the better-known poets, the library is rich in works of the 

 minor poets. His collection of autographs, letters, ])oems, logs, and journals 

 is most representative : and he secured many rare editions l)oth of well- 

 known and out-of-the-way writers, so that the library contains wealth 

 for the historian and for the lover of [)ure literature as well as for the 

 bibliophile. He also specialized in New Zealand and Australian paniphlets, 

 original drawings, and sketches of early New Zealand and Australia, maps, 

 charts, photographs, &c. 



The library contains over 32,000 bound volumes, thousands being 

 almost jewel-like in their artistic binding, the work of such well-known 

 firms as Zaehnsdorf and Riviere, of London : thousands of unbound 

 |*amphlets, leaflets, maps, etchings, drawings, and prints, all of inestimable 

 value from an historical point of view. 



Whilst Mr. Turnbull was a member of the Wellington Philosophical 

 Society from 1897 to the dav of his death, he was not an active member 

 so far as the reading of papers was concerned. He was, however, inde- 

 fatigable in the gathering together of this s])lendid collection, which he com- 

 menced whilst still in London, and the luunber and extent of manuscript 

 notes in the various volumes show that he was a wide and unremitting 

 reader who loved his books and knew them thoroughly. Apparently his 

 sole object in making the collection, apart from present pleasure, was the 



