Mr. James Nash Howard Strong, Sub-librarian of the Public Library, was born at Exeter, and was educated at a private school at Newton Abbot, and at Vilvorde, near Brussels. After three years at sea, Mr. Strong came to Lyttelton in 1859, per ship “Victory.” He was afterwards in Wanganui for one year, where he was a member of the Wanganui Yeomanry Cavalry with which he went through the West Coast campaign, taking part in the capture of Wareroa pah and at the fight at Nukumaru, for which he holds the New Zealand war medal. Early in 1868, Mr. Strong went to Poverty Bay, where he was at the time of the massacre by Te Kooti, and had to do duty as a volunteer throughout the campaign. After eleven years in that district he returned to Canterbury in 1879, and was appointed to the position he now holds. As a Freemason, Mr. Strong was initiated under the E.C., in Gisborne. He was married in 1875 to a daughter of the late Mr. W. Bach, of Birmingham, and has five sons and two daughters.