Puke Ariki is a combined museum and library at New Plymouth, New Zealand which opened in June 2003. It is an amalgamation of the New Plymouth Public Library (founded in 1848) and the Taranaki Museum (founded in 1919). Its name, Māori for "hill of chiefs", is taken from the Māori village that formerly occupied the site.
Site
Puke Ariki (Māori: hill of chiefs) was the site of a significant Māori pā of Te Āti Awa, dating back to 1700, with a marae called Para-huka. It was the home of the paramount rangatira (chief) Te Rangi-apiti-rua. The pā was deserted around 1830 when the majority of Te Āti Awa moved to the Wellington region and Kāpiti Coast. When colonial settlement began in the area, the hill was renamed Mount Eliot by the New Plymouth settlers, and was the location of government buildings and a signalling station for ships in the area. It was used as a military camp for British forces in the 1850s and 1860s, and was a barracks for the Naval Brigade during the First Taranaki War. Most of the hill was removed for land reclamation to form the railway yards, and by 1905 it had largely been demolished.
Origins
The New Plymouth Public Library was founded in 1848, as a Mechanics Institute and Library (often referred to as the institute). It initially was run from the premises of a school on Vivian Street, then in October 1852 moved to an auction room on Devon St. It was renamed the Literary Institute in 1856, but had no funding to build a permanent home for some years, and much of its collection was destroyed in a fire in 1859. The institute and library occupied the ground floor of the newly built Provincial Council Town Hall building in 1865, but despite paying no rent it fell into debt and was dissolved in 1878, although the reading room remained.
The first museum exhibits in New Plymouth date back to 1865 and were housed in the Town Hall; for many years the museum, library, and reading room were regarded as one organisation. Reading room fees were imposed from 1880, but in 1884 the council declared that the reading room would function as a "free public library", although funding was quite limited, its librarians were untrained, and its collection was very disordered. All this changed when a new Carnegie Free Library, funded by a £2,500 grant from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, was built on a site on King Street and opened in July 1908. The first full-time librarian, a Miss Free, was appointed in 1908 at a salary of £60 (she remained on staff for 22 years, later as Assistant Librarian, resigning in 1942).
In November 1895, William Skinner first petitioned the council for a dedicated room for the museum in the Town Hall building; a similar petition was received in 1900. In 1913 Skinner and his son Prof. H. D. Skinner offered the town their collection of Māori artifacts and historical documents, on the condition that they be displayed in a suitably furnished fireproof building that would function as a "purely Taranaki museum". An annex was eventually built behind the Carnegie Library at a cost of £3,000; the old Town Hall exhibits were moved there in 1918, and the Skinner collection in 1919. The Taranaki Museum opened on 28 August 1919.
The library was reorganised on a Dewey system in 1922, and the headquarters of the Polynesian Society moved to Wellington in 1925, creating more space. In 1927 contention over the ownership and display of two Māori treasures – the anchor stone of the Tokomaru canoe and the adze used in its construction – was resolved in a meeting between museum administration and representatives of three iwi.
By the 1930s, the museum and library were considered hopelessly overcrowded, and a new site was sought, but it was many years before approval was granted for a combined library, museum, and war memorial building on a site bounded by King, Brougham, and Ariki streets. The building was designed by Taylor and Collins, and the contractors were Fairbrother, Snowden and Wheeler Ltd. Planning began in 1954, and the four-story building opened on 14 July 1960. Its top floor was the War Memorial Hall, the next floor the Taranaki Museum, and the mezzanine and ground floors the library. One wing, designated for art display, was occupied by the North Taranaki Society for Arts, until they were forced out by a need for more museum display space.