Tangiwai Disaster

After the Tangiwai river railway disaster, the Railways Department had asked the Turnbull Library if it could provide a record of floods in the area over the previous 75 years. The library had, from old documents of all kinds, been able to provide data which enabled the Ministry of Works and the Railways Department to work out a pattern of previous floods and accidents.

One of the best-known students the Turnbull Library had had, Mr Taylor said, was the late Harrold Gatty, American flyer who wrote "Round the World in Eight Days." When he was attached to Pan-American Airway in Auckland after his pioneering world flights, Mr Gatty had frequently flown down to the Turnbull Library for the day to continue his studies.