1.   Williams Family History Relating To Williams House

It has long been the intention of the Friends to have the top floor of Williams House open to the public. We envisaged displays of photographs to illustrate Paihia's past - particularly in relation to the family of Canon Percy Temple Williams, whose home this was. Now that the Stone Shed Museum project has been complete we can now start work on this project.

The Far North District council has also expressed a desire to see historical displays in the top floor of the house and have suggested a working committee to investigate photographic displays, displays of correspondence to and from the family members and some multimedia displays.

There have been displays in the top floor in the past, particularly for local artists displaying their art for sale. There was also a display of photographs of Paihia  over the last one hundred years or so. Before the arson attack on the house in September 2014, these displays were open for public viewing, but since the fire the upstairs area has been out of bounds to the public. Some remedial work needs to be done before the public can be allowed to re-enter the top floor.

The Libraries section of the Far North District Council will possibly have access to historical documents and photographs held by the Auckland Public Library and Auckland Museum. It is hoped that some of this material can be borrowed for display in Williams House.

Part of the project will be to investigate and implement secure display options for any such material. These will be complemented by multi-media displays with stored documents and photographs and possible interactive media.

Whatever the outcome, we are sure that any display will add to the Williams House experience for visitors.

2.   QR Codes for History Trail Signs

QR codes are two-dimensional bar codes that contain varying amounts of information. Simple versions contain basic details such as a part number, but some more complicated versions can contain complete web page data.

These codes were originally used by Toyota to track various items in their vehicle assembly plants, Now they commonly contain a web site URL for users to scan with their smartphone or tablet computer and then can see the complete parent web page. The latter is the use we are exploring.

Once we decide how to get these codes printed, we will fix them to interpretative signs on our History Trail to enable visitors to access more detailed information about Williams House and the grounds.

On the right are two possible versions of how we can display the required QR codes. A decision we have to make is how detailed the codes are and the impact they will have on the signs. Both of the illustrated examples should take users to our current page on the Business Paihia web site.