[4][5] He stayed in Dunedin for a few months and then accepted a position as assistant master at Te Aro School in Wellington.

[11] Wilson retired in 1899 when the next general election was held, and Wilford won the seat back on behalf of the Liberal Party.

Whilst the roof of the library was destroyed and the main entrance and foyer were damaged, the collection survived the fire.

[14][15] As a bibliophile with his own private collection, Wilson had a traditional approach to his librarianship role and concentrated on expanding the parliamentary library.

[1] In 1918 the library received the bequest to the New Zealand government from Alexander Turnbull, who had constituted the largest private library in the country consisting of "55,000 volumes of books, pamphlets, periodicals and newspapers, and thousands of maps, paintings, drawings, prints and manuscripts".

[2] Wilson was a member of the Academy of Fine Arts, and at one point was the president of the society's council.

[2] Wilson was a member of the original council of Victoria University College and its chairman for two years.

[4] Wilson regularly provided book reviews to newspapers, and his style of writing was described by the Auckland Star as "very pleasant, gossipy".