DescriptionA mechanical barrel organ encased in an oak case with faux gilded wooden pipes, the first barrel organ in New Zealand came as 1829 as a bequest from their uncle John Marsh in England, to Archdeacon Henry Williams and his brother William Williams when they were stationed as missioners in the Bay of Islands. The organ includes three barrels with ten hymns on each. In 1898 Henry Williams' grandson Reverend Alfred O Williams, together with the Wanganui Public Museum curator Samuel Drew, travelled to the Bay of Islands and collected the organ, bringing it back to Wanganui, where Drew restored it in time to play hymns for Easter Sunday of that year.
Williams' barrel organ in the reginal museum at Whanganui. John Kinder Theological Library, accessed 19/03/2026, https://kinderlibrary.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/12633
