The First Hundred

Last Modified: 26-1-2023 11:55

The First Hundred was a book commissioned by the Blenheim Borough Council (disestablished in 1989 by local body amalgamation, and succeeded by Marlboroguh District Council) to commemorate 100 years of the Borough. A (Sandy). Beverley, the Marlborough Public Relations Officer was commissioned to write the book, and although it focuses on Blenheim, it is one of the best available historical timelines of Marlborough, and has been used as a reference for a variety of content on Marlborough Online.

Manually searching a fragile paper copy of the book is tedious, so to make the text more readily searchable, I digitised the copy in my posession.

After doing due dilligence regarding copyright status, I'm pleased to be able to reproduce the text of the book in its entirety on Marlborough Online.

I'd like to acknowledge Marlborough District Council and the family of Sandy Beverley who have confirmed permission to reproduce the content. I'd also like to acknowledge the staff member at Just Jeans Blenheim, who recognised this book as a significant piece of local history and offered the copy I now have to anyone who could make use of it.

Scanning and editing the text for consistent formatting and correction of transcription errors has been a huge task, and has taken over a year in spare time to prepare for publication online.

In addition to the original text, where appropriate, I've taken the liberty of providing links with cross references to related articles on Marlborough Online.

I've had other less than scrupulous local media companies who are not prepared to put in the hard work themselves make use of my efforts without any acknowledgement or payment in the past, so it was tempting to keep the digital copy to myself for my own research, but it is such a good historical record of Marlborough, I believe it should be publicly accessible.

Marlborough Online did not receive any funding from local or central government for this digitisation project, and is not part of any media company, so if you'd like to see more of this kind of effort, please consider a donation.

With an increasing emphasis on New Zealand history in education, I think it's timely to offer a notable record of part of Marlborough's history in digital format.

The contents for each year covered by the book from 1869-1969 is a separate link below.

Some of the issues of the past can seem odd, or funny, or offensive by today's standards, while some things never seem to change.

Christopher Cookson

Editor, Marlborough Online

Chapters

• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• PRAYER
• FOREWORD
• PREFACE
• 1869
• 1870
• 1871
• 1872
• 1873
• 1874
• 1875
• 1876
• 1877
• 1878
• 1879
• 1880
• 1881
• 1882
• 1883
• 1884
• 1885
• 1886
• 1887
• 1888
• 1889
• 1890
• 1891
• 1892
• 1893
• 1894
• 1895
• 1896
• 1897
• 1898
• 1899
• 1900
• 1901
• 1902
• 1903
• 1904
• 1905
• 1906
• 1907
• 1908
• 1909
• 1910
• 1911
• 1912
• 1913
• 1914
• 1915
• 1916
• 1917
• 1918
• 1919
• 1920
• 1921
• 1922
• 1923
• 1924
• 1925
• 1926
• 1927
• 1928
• 1929
• 1930
• 1931
• 1932
• 1933
• 1934
• 1935
• 1936
• 1937
• 1938
• 1939
• 1940
• 1941
• 1942
• 1943
• 1944
• 1945
• 1946
• 1947
• 1948
• 1949
• 1950
• 1951
• 1952
• 1953
• 1954
• 1955
• 1956
• 1957
• 1958
• 1959
• 1960
• 1961
• 1962
• 1963
• 1964
• 1965
• 1966
• 1967
• 1968

Cite this page

The First Hundred. (2023) Retrieved December, 2, 2023, from https://www.marlboroughonline.co.nz/marlborough/information/history/the-first-hundred/

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