2018 Whanganui River Annual

I am very pleased to present the 30th Friends of the Whanganui River Annual to you. Over the years, its editors have kept the Annual true to its founding brief; that it would place on record important current documentation about the Whanganui River area, reprinting historical reports and stories about our river and the people who work and play on or about it. This Annual is no different.

It is a good thing that stories of the past be brought to light and be retold for new generations of readers. With the completion of this Annual, we have now filled over 2100 pages of these stories-quite a respectable number considering that it has all been done by dedicated amateur historians who have set a very high standard for its quality and that quality must be maintained.

An important step made last year was the printing of the Annual in colour. And this has immensely improved its quality and appearance. The past is a foreign country. Those in our past had lives that may seem strange to us who live in the present. We need reminding that our standard of living has been built on the shoulders of those who went before us. They had a different way of life, and that way should not be forgotten. 

Out there, there must be many more thousands of stories about the past that need to be recorded in our Annuals, and we, The Friends of the Whanganui River, have a mandate to do that. But to do so, we must get them, and the best ones are those provided by you.