Library book returned after 53 years

Photo / Greymouth Star

A book checked out from the Greymouth Municipal Library 53 years ago has finally been returned.

"I've heard of this happening, but it's never happened to me before," Grey District Library librarian Wynne Norgrove said.

The battered hardcover edition of Later Notes from a Backblocks Hospital, a collection of medical notes from Dr G M Smith, was mailed to the library from a doctor currently living in Australia.

He borrowed it when he worked at Greymouth Hospital in about 1960, and accidentally packed it with his belongings when he left.

He returned the book with a letter of apology and a donation of $300.

Ms Norgrove plans to add the book to the library's collection of letters, papers and other ephemera from Greymouth history.