Family members of JT Blake - a surveyor and interpreter with the Native Land Court from the late 1880s to the 1920s who left behind a collection of historically and culturally significant documents - want the items collected and homed in Hastings, but there is no suitable archive facility to store them.

According to an agenda item to be presented to tomorrow’s full Hastings District Council meeting, Blake’s “unique” material is currently distributed among his whanau around the North Island, who want to bring "the various holdings together in a facility where they can be properly cared for".