Building Plan May 1967

Until closure of the firm in 1998, Wright and Carman was one of the pre-eminent printers in Wellington and the Hutt Valley. R.A. Wright apprenticed as a compositor and worked with the New Zealand Mail. Walter John Carman, like Wright, was a trained compositor who worked for the New Zealand Times. In 1900, they merged their skills and business acumen to establish Wright and Carman which specialised in book printing. In the early 1920s, Wright was elected Mayor of Wellington and later went on to be a Member of Parliament. In 1927 he presented a special report recommending expansion of the Government Printing Office facilities which were seriously overcrowded and inefficient. Wright lived in Kelburn in what was A.W. Reed's front garden and the two spent many companionable evenings discussing books and publishing. Carman's son, A.H. Carman (1902-1982), was a noted Wellington sports journalist and writer, Christian pacifist, founder of the Onslow Historical Society, local body politician, left-wing bookseller, and publisher who was on the board of the family printing and publishing firm.