'Let Your Eminence give orders throughout each and every province that a public building be allocated, in which building the magistrate (defense) is to store the records, choosing someone to have custody over them so that they may remain uncorrupted and may be found quickly by those requiring them, and let there be among them an archives, and let that which has been neglected in the cities be corrected.'

Emperor Justinian

ARCHIFACTS Bulletin of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand

1983/2 June 1983

An issue dedicated to Stuart Strachan

A R C H I V E S A N D . R E C O R D S

A S S O C I A T I O N O F N E W Z E A L A N D

ADDRESS: P.O. Box 11-553, Wellington

PATRON:

PRESIDENT:

VICE-PRESIDENTS:

SECRETARY :

TREASURER:

"EDITOR:

COUNCIL:

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY:

S i r John Marshall

Peter M i l l e r

Jack Churchouse

Michael Hoare

Marjorie Maslen

Tim Lovel l -Smith

Michael Hodder

John Angus Rosemary Co l l ie r Annette Fairweather Ron Keam Cathy Marr Evan Wright

Pa t r i c i a Oil i f f

COMMITTEE CONVENORS

Archival Education and Training Business Archives Labour Archives Records Management Religious Archives

Michael Hodder Kevin Bourke Cathy Marr Rosemary Co l l i e r Beverley Booth

SPOKESPERSONS

Architectural Archives Cartographic Archives Oral Archives

Robin Gr i f f i n Brad Patterson Graham Butterworth

BRANCH CHAIRPERSONS

Auckland

Canterbury

Otago/Southland

Waikato

Wellington

Verna Mossong

1 Bruce Road, G len f ie ld , Auckland.

In recess

Stephen Innes Publ ic L ibrary , 230 Moray P l a c e , Dunedin.

Bernie Hume 22 Bet ley Crescent, Hamilton.

Stuart Strachan 41 Rose S t r ee t , Wel l ington.

Copyright for articles sc. in Archifacts rests with authors and the Association. Permission to reproduce should be sought, in writing, from the Editor.

REGIONAL ARCHIVES IN PERSPECTIVE

I

FROM THE PRESIDENT

I f the Otago o f f ice , succeeds the way i s open for the establishment of other regional record o f f ices around the country, s lowly, pa in fu l l y , but su re l y ' When th is happens, i t can be taken as marking a new cul tura l maturity in th is country, as surely as the great New Zealand nove l , symphony, or paint ing, i f less clamourously 1

So wrote Stuar t Strachan, to whom th is issue of the Associat ion 's Bu l le t in i s dedicated I t i s r i ch ly deserved as recognition of h is serv ices as founding Edi tor of Archifacts, 1974-81, and a prime mover in the formation of ARANZ, in October 1976 The theme of 'Regional Archives ' re f lec ts the cause which i s probably c losest to his heart and is cer ta in ly the one for which he i s best known to members of th is Association

In making the decision to honour Stuart in th is way, Council was also mindful that the theme was par t i cu la r l y timely for several reasons Let us traverse the ground during the f i v e years since Dr Wi l f red Smith in Archives in New Zealand, a report (1978) recommended 'That the concept of regional archives should be accepted as an ob jec t ive , and co-operative e f fo r ts should be directed to the i r establishment as circumstances permit' This recommendation, along with his whole Report was considered during a day-long seminar held as part of the Associat ion 's 1978 Conference The proceedings were published in a special thematic issue of Archifacts (September-December 1978) and submissions were ca l led for from members

Counci l , in February 1979, submitted the Associat ion 's comments on the Smith Report to the Department of Internal A f f a i r s , i t being the Government department most concerned with archives In doing so, Council stated

The Association strongly endorses the concept of regional archives o f f ices as the only r e a l i s t i c long-term object ive for the preservation of regional archives in th i s country, and that th is should have the highest p r i o r i t y , second only to the upgrading of the National Archives 2

What you may ask has happened to th is recommendation of Dr Smith in the f i v e years which have e lapsed ' The short answer i s very l i t t l e Despite i t being accorded the second highest p r io r i t y by the Associat ion, i t must be admitted that i t has languished unt i l recently Why has th is occurred' In the f i r s t p lace, I think because the Department of Internal A f fa i r s did not take any i n i t i a t i v e on i t , nor, fo r that matter was i t pushed vigorously by more than one or two ins t i tu t ions and organisations Secondly, your Council was pre-occupied with other recommendations which were seen as being more urgent, notably the question of future accommodation for National Archives and i t s upgrading general ly These and other matters have been very time consuming

In the past y e a r , however, i t has been pursued ac t i ve l y Meetings have been held with the Department of Internal A f fa i rs A consensus has emerged that a ser ies of regional meetings in the major centres should take place to al low those in each region - i ns t i t u t i ons , local au thor i t i es , community organisations and the general public - an opportunity to discuss the concept and i t s app l i cab i l i t y to the i r area Such matters as f inance, administration and s ta f f ing w i l l a lso be a necessary part of such discussions Council i s now considering the mechanics of holding such meetings, with assistance from the Department of Internal A f fa i r s

For th is reason, too, Council f e l t that i t would be useful to produce th is issue of Archifacts We strongly urge a l l members to re-read the relevant sections of the Smith Report (copies can s t i l l be purchased from the Treasurer) and to attend any regional meeting held in your area

I t is time decisions were made e i ther to work towards the establishment of regional archives of f ices or to abandon the whole idea But i f we agree to do the l a t t e r , do we continue with our present ad hoc ' so lu t ions ' to problems or i s there an a l t e r n a t i v e ' In th i s a r c h i v i s t ' s opinion, i t i s time we got our act together and came up with a rat ional system for the preservation of New Zealand's archives Too much has been los t already

Peter M i l l e r President

3

REFERENCES

ι 'Perspect ives on the Smith Report' Archifacts no 7 & 8 n s September - December 1978, pp 14-15

2 Submission from ARANZ Council to Department of Internal A f f a i r s , February 1979, pp 5-6

I I

FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO LIBRARIAN

I am interested to f ind that Stuart Strachan is seen by his colleagues to be ident i f ied with regional records, since the question of the best way of handling regional records i s very c losely bound up with the future involvement in archives of the Hocken L ib ra ry , in which he started his career

Stuart was appointed to the s ta f f of the Hocken Library in 1968 This was the f i r s t time that the Universi ty had establ ished a posit ion spec i f i ca l l y for archives and manuscripts, and i t was not a t a l l c lear what kind of person was needed, but among the hopeful l i b ra r ians was th is young history graduate with no professional qua l i f i ca t ions but with the l igh t of archives in his eyes So he was appointed and the Universi ty agreed to help him la te r to get an archives q u a l i f i -ca t ion , which i t did in 1972 By the time he l e f t in 1977, the posit ion of Arch iv is t was well established and a number of po l ic ies thought out

The period of S tua r t ' s employment a t Otago was also the period of the foundation of ARANZ, in which he was deeply involved I t was very refreshing to observe the keenness and dedication with which th is small professional group was gett ing i t s e l f organized, the i r plans which would accomplish a century 's work in a decade, the i r passionate discussions of pol icy The whole atmosphere, which I picked up through seeing S tua r t ' s outgoing correspondence, was so l i ke what comes out of the f i l e s of the NZLA in the 1930s I was pleased to be able to help the cause by providing money from Library funds to get Archifacts off the ground unt i l i t could be supported from elsewhere, though part of the pr ice was that every now and then Stuart seized an opportunity to lecture me about a r c h i v i s t s , and how l ib ra r ians could never understand them ,

The main point of the present discussion i s the way in which regional records should be administered This i s , I know, a matter of fundamental concern to ARANZ I t i s also a matter of concern to the Univers i ty of Otago, whose Library includes the Hocken L ibrary , and whose thinking has been influenced by the way in which po l ic ies were developed during Stuart Strachan's incumbency I t might therefore be useful for me to state the Un ive rs i t y ' s posi t ion, which is of course that of a large organization which controls many things besides archives

The Univers i ty , through the Hocken L ib ra ry , has bu i l t up an incomparable research resource which includes some Central Government a rch ives , local body arch ives , business a rch ives , and pr ivate papers I t has done th is to provide material for use by univers i ty people, but i t has also taken into account the obl igat ion i t accepted under the Hocken Trust Deed to provide a co l lec t ion "to be used as a Library or museum of information and reference by the general public of The Colony of New Zealand " The kind of co l lec t ion so created, so fa r as archives and manuscripts are concerned, is very close to Dr Smith's concept of an all-embracing a rch ive , which i s presumably why he c i ted i t as a model for the future development of regional record o f f ices in New Zealand

Since the publication of the Smith Report, the Univers i ty L ibrary has agreed, on the advice of the Hocken Library Committee, that i t should press for the establishment of a regional record o f f i ce for the Otago region, and tha t , when th is i s achieved, part of the Hocken L ib ra ry ' s archives and manuscripts co l lec t ion should be made over to i t This would comprise about two-thirds of the present archives and manuscripts co l lec t ion - not quite the range of material en-visaged by Dr Smith, but a substantial portion a l l the same The Univers i ty would not, however, be prepared to hand over any material to an organization that was not properly set up and funded, because i t would not be prepared to r isk damage to a resource that i t had been responsible for creat ing In the meantime (and i t is l i ke l y to be a long meantime), i t hopes to be able to obtain f inancia l assistance from what i s , a f te r a l l , a very heavy respons ib i l i t y , in respect of Central Government archives a t l eas t

I think that th is indicates that the Univers i ty of Otago has the true interests of Otago at hear t , and that i t has l is tened to i t s a rch i v i s t s

W J McEldowney Univers i ty of Otago

4

LOCAL ARCHIVES

IN

NEW ZEALAND

[This paper was prepared in 1975 for the use of the Archives Committee of the New Zealand Library Association Unpublished until now, it was the earliest and remains the fullest statement of the case for regional archives In the introduction, Stuart Strachan revealed that the paper rested on his personal experience of working with archives at a local level, a reading of the relevant literature, foreign and New Zealand (not very much), the results of a previous survey of local body archives published by the Archives Committee m 1960, the returns of two questionnaires he circulated, visits to the archives of the Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson and Wellington City Corporations, discussions with various individuals, and inspired supposition It is published here as originally written, with the omission of the Precis and the summary of local records held by archives, libraries, museums and historical societies, September/November 1974, the intro-ductory paragraph has been reworked Those reading the paper now, eight years since it was written, will need to be conscious of important subsequent developments, notably the addition, in 1977, of archives provisions to the Local Government Act, the work of the mam churches (Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Catholic) on their archives, and, at the moment, the prospective opening of branches of National Archives m Auckland and Christchurch ]

'No one i s more adept than the New Zealander in paying l i p -serv ice to the past , and in destroying the means of knowing i t T i l l we convert our scattered rat-ravaged records into a proper system of a rch ives , our claim to c i v i l i z a t i o n i s so much the more slender We have hacked at the t ree of our t rad i t ion with the murderous inconsequence of adolescent vandals in a public park We have burnt our history with the same bl ind stupidi ty as we have burnt our forests 1 ι

What Professor John Beaglehole had to say of national archives in 1954 has equal appl icat ion to local archives today They have in the past suffered s imi lar depredations and are quite without system for the i r proper keeping Local archives i s here defined to mean a l l records created a t a local leve l which have passed out of current use and are of permanent administrat ive and h is to r ica l value , which have d i rec t appl icat ion to a l imited part of the country and which are pr imari ly of local in terest Spec i f i ca l l y local archives include

1 Records of d i s t r i c t o f f i ces of Government departments

2 Records of local author i t ies

3 Records of businesses

4 Records of churches

5 Records of other corporate bodies - trade unions, employers' organizat ions, char i tab le soc ie t i es , etc , etc

S p e c i f i c a l l y i t excludes the Head Off ice records of Government departments and the records of headquarters of organizations whose of f ices are commonly located in Wellington I t i s recognised that a l l local records are to a greater or lesser degree of national in terest and v ice versa

THE USE OF ARCHIVES

Before going fur ther , i t i s necessary to spel l out b r i e f l y the reasons for keeping archives at a l l , so that i t can be known jus t what needs any archives system must meet, so that the prob-lems associated with the sat is fac t ion of those needs can be more c lose ly def ined, and the solut ions put forward be more precisely tested against them What fol lows i s not meant to be a statement of the current use of archives in New Zealand, as in our present a rch i va l l y underdeveloped condit ion th i s would be fa r too l im i t ing , but rather a short statement of the uses that archives receive general ly , including New Zealand, and of the i r potential value for the future

I t i s usual to consider the uses of archives under two heads, administrative and cultural

A The Administrative Uses of Archives

Records and so archives are in the f i r s t place created and kept as an a id to administrat ion, as a tool of government The der ivat ion of the word archives i t s e l f , from the Greek arche, meaning

5

government, emphasises that fac t Schellenberg wrote

Records, even the older ones, are needed by a government for i t s work They re f l ec t the or ig ins and growth of a government and are the main source of in for-mation on a l l i t s a c t i v i t i e s They const i tute the basic administrat ive tools by means of which the work of a government i s accomplished They contain evidence of f inancia l and legal commitments that must be preserved to protect the govern-ment They embody the great fund of o f f i c i a l experience that the government needs to give continuity and consistency to i t s ac t ions , to make pol icy deter-minations, and to handle social and economic as well as organizational and procedural problems In short , they are the foundation upon which the govern-mental structure i s bu i l t 2

Administrative necessity then i s the primary purpose behind the generation of archives and a basic reason for the i r continuance, and what Schellenberg says of government records is true also for a l l other bodies that produce records for the i r own purposes, such as local au thor i t i es , businesses and a l l associat ions and societ ies Of course not a l l records become arch ives , or a l l archives continue to be retained for administrat ive reasons And as the sorts of records we are concerned with are not those in the process of creat ion connected with the transaction of current business, but have been defined as those of permanent value which have passed out of current use, the administrat ive value of archives i s as a store of past t ransact ions, potent ia l ly of s igni f icance for the future They are not for these reasons any less important Schellenberg indicates three areas in which government archives have permanent administrat ive value

1 In citizen-government re la t i ons , e g evidence of entit lement to land (land grant

records) , to c i t izenship (natura l izat ion records)

2 In re lat ions between c i t izens that are af fected by re la t ions with the government, e g to se t t l e labour disputes (awards, cost of l i v i ng s tud ies ) , to se t t l e disputed contracts to buy and se l l (pr ice regulat ions)

3 In o f f i c i a l a c t i v i t y , e g , to answer claims (contract records) , to f ind

precedents for pol icy or action (committee minutes, e tc ) 3

S imi lar uses for records can be found for a local body in re la t ion to i t s ratepayers and for a business in re la t ion to i t s customers In addi t ion, many forms of records are required to be kept indef in i te ly by s ta tu te , notably, in New Zealand, the Counties, Municipal Corporations, Companies, and Incorporated Soc ie t ies Acts , for example, minutes of council and board meetings, adequate f inancia l records, etc I t is worth quoting some Otago examples (by way of i l l u s -t ra t ion) that have come to my notice during the past year the use of a mid-nineteenth century engineering plan of a road cutt ing by the Dunedin City Corporation Engineer 's Department in making a new cut t ing, thereby saving some considerable expense, the determination by the Otago Harbour Board of the terms of the or ig inal grant of land a t Aramoana, the s i t e of the proposed aluminium smelter, an enquiry from the Otago Education Board about an agreement reached with a local tennis club concerning the maintenance of cour ts , requests from the Ta ier i High School for the dates of pupi ls ' attendances from the School regis ters so that c e r t i f i c a t e s may be issued for employment requirements, consultation of back f i l e s by the D is t r i c t Registrar of Companies, and a request for information concerning the or ig inal purchase pr ice of a piece of machinery from a f irm Al l these are administrat ive uses of a rch ives , that is the i r use by the body which created them, la rge ly , but by no means exc lus ive ly , for the purposes for which they were o r ig ina l l y created And th is use must have precedence over a l l other uses of archives In any case where the cul tural and administrat ive uses of archives c o n f l i c t , par t icu lar ly in terms of the i r arrange-ment and organizat ion, then the administrat ive must p r e v a i l , as only in th i s way can the i r impar-t i a l i t y and in tegr i ty be maintained for future cul tural as well as present administrat ive uses This is not to say that administrators are unaware of the possible cul tura l value of the records they are creat ing and keeping, or that i t may not be a very large factor indeed in deciding what records ought to be preserved permanently Nor is i t to say that a rch iv i s t s should or w i l l r e -f ra in from representing to administrators the cul tura l worth of archives In f a c t , a rch iv i s t s constantly do t h i s , but i t should never be a t the expense of the i r administrat ive values

F i n a l l y , a properly organised'and consti tuted archive can in i t s e l f a id e f f ic iency quite apart from the value of the information to be found within i t The enormous bulk of modern records and the great rate a t which they accumulate i s well known Too often such records accumulate as an undif ferent iated mass, current papers being confused with the non-current and the worthless jumbled with the permanently valuable, and i t s proper reduction neglected or even completely ignored The space i t occupies becomes a physical l i a b i l i t y and a considerable expense,

6

individual documents are d i f f i c u l t to f ind and essent ia l records may be los t al together In such circumstances, because the records are d i f f i c u l t to use, they w i l l be less and less used, and decisions made without reference to them w i l l become increasingly uninformed and inconsistent The introduction of a sound records management programme providing for the systematic and cons i -dered reduction of accumulating records w i l l help el iminate such ine f f i c ienc ies and unnecessary expense and at the same time lead to the formation of a properly constituted a rch ive , pruned of unnecessary bulk, easy to use and so frequently used

Β The Cultural Uses of Archives

As archives grow in age, the administrat ive value of the e a r l i e r portions of c lasses of records tend to decl ine and the i r cu l tura l value to increase correspondingly, though th is i s not invar iab ly the case , as some classes never acquire a compensating value in th is way Thus the f i r s t volume of minutes of the Univers i ty of Otago Counci l , 1869-1884, could quite safe ly be des-t royed, and for a l l pract ica l purposes the administration of the Univers i ty would be completely unaffected The cu l tura l l oss , however, would be very considerable The cu l tura l or h is to r i ca l use of archives may roughly be described as the i r use for purposes other than those for which they were o r ig ina l l y created and most frequently by outside bodies and indiv iduals This i s the use of archives that natural ly looms largest in the public mind, par t i cu la r l y as the word archives in th is country is usually thought to refer to the very oldest records only and hardly ever to those of quite recent date I t has to be recognised, however, that th is i s a use of ever- increasing importance, and that in many instances, i t may be the sole j u s t i f i c a t i o n for keeping archives a t a l l Though th is use should never be allowed to obscure the primary administrat ive value of a rch ives , the fac t remains that the archives of th is country, of any country, whether national or l o c a l , o f f i c i a l or uno f f i c i a l , const i tute a very large and v i t a l part of i t s cul tura l h e r i -tage, touching as they do on almost every aspect of i t s l i f e As such, archives ought to rank equally with a country 's other cu l tura l asse ts , i t s a r t g a l l e r i e s , l i b ra r i es and museums, as i s indeed the case in Europe and to a lesser extent North America New Zealand's are not duplicated elsewhere, and once destroyed can never be recovered In th is respect archives can be likened to our country 's national parks, one the product of natural a c t i v i t y and an out let for physical adventure, the other the product of human c i v i l i z a t i o n of fer ing i n te l l ec tua l l y a land for the exercise of the h is to r i ca l imagination Very d i f ferent and very s imi lar

The cu l tura l uses of archives are of several d i f ferent kinds

1 scholarly This can be described short ly as the use of archives to make detai led studies of the past so as to add to our store of knowledge of i t in quite substantial ways or for the purpose of making the present more i n t e l l i g i b l e This was the ea r l i e s t cu l tura l use of archives and remains one of i t s most important Now i t is largely the work of profess ionals, the academic s ta f fs of the un ivers i t ies and the i r post-graduate students, par t i cu la r ly those wr i t ing doctoral theses For many years the f i e l d was en t i re ly dominated by h is to r ians , and, though th i s is ce r ta in ly no longer the case, they are s t i l l the largest s ingle group of users The establishment of presses a t the larger New Zealand un ivers i t ies since 1961, and the launching of the New Zealand journal of history in 1967 have permitted the ready publication of a sizeable number of scholar ly works and a r t i c l e s embodying the resul ts of h is to r ica l research Though these natural ly vary in qua l i t y , they are tending more and more to draw upon a wide range of archival resources, instead of being dependent upon one or two groups or even classes of records, to pioneer the use of c lasses previously ignored because of the apparent d i f f i c u l t i e s in exploi t ing them, and to be marked by increasingly meticulous documentation A l l these qua l i t i es are wel l exemplified m R C J S tone ' s , Makers of fortune, a colonial busi-ness community and its fall (1973), the material for which is drawn from a wide range of arch iva l sources, governmental, business and pr ivate I t a lso i l l u s t r a tes another important development in New Zealand h is to r i ca l s tud ies, the increasing emphasis on substantial regional and local Studies, of which W Η O l i v e r ' s Challenge and response a study of the development

of the Gisborne East Coast region (1971) i s such an excel lent recent example, and for which a considerable range of local records was used This approach to the study of New Zealand h i s -tory has been given j us t i f i ca t i on in the same author 's Towards a new history? (1971) In doing so he i s fol lowing wel l -establ ished patterns overseas, par t i cu la r l y in North America and England, where regional schools of history and regional journalsof history f lour ish strongly In England a number of record soc ie t ies ex is t spec i f i ca l l y for the purpose of publishing the contents of the most important c lasses of archives in local record o f f i ces The trend i s one that can be expected to grow in th is country and with i t the requirement that local archives be better organized and managed

A most important development with regard to the scholar ly use of a rch ives , both in th is country and overseas, i s how they have ceased to be the ent i re preserve of h istor ians and the i r

7

value has been discovered by other d i sc i p l i nes , par t i cu la r l y the social sciences Anthropolo-g i s t s , economists, geographers, soc io log is ts , educat ionists, po l i t i ca l s c i e n t i s t s , and even natural s c i en t i s t s , such as botanis ts , c l imatologists and zoologists, are a l l beginning to turn to archives as a source of data re la t i ve to the past , i f not ye t as a matter of course, then with growing frequency A r t i c l es in such New Zealand journals as Political science, the new Zealand Journal of educational studies, the Journal of the Polynesian Society and the New Zealand geographer are today studded with reference to archival sources, including local ones Again i t i s a trend that can be expected to continue

2 Educational Archives are gradually coming to be used as a part of the educational process in much the same way as are books and other published mater ia l , and data gathered in the f i e l d The tendency is most pronounced in the un ive rs i t i es , but is also noticeable in the teachers' col leges and even in schools The inst i tu t ion of Β A (Hons ) courses a t Massey, Otago and Victor ia Un i ve rs i t i es , commonly requir ing the completion of research essays or exer-c i s e s , and of the same requirement for the M A degree a t the other un ivers i t ies is causing students to cul l a rch ives , par t i cu la r ly those close to the i r un ivers i t y , f o rma tena l s The same i s true of the students a t teachers' col leges which usually require the wr i t ing up of a pro ject , very often on a local topic The use of archives by school pupils as an a id to the i r studies can hardly be said to have begun in th is country I t was, however, the theme of the f i r s t International Congress on Archives in Par i s in 1954 In North America and Europe the use of archives by classes of school chi ldren is becoming commonplace, and many of the i r a r c h i -val inst i tu t ions have education o f f i ce rs attached to them in much the same way as museums in th is country 4 A further indicat ion of the growing interest in the use of archives a t th is leve l i s the appearance overseas of a large number of archive teaching un i t s , consist ing of k i tse ts of documents such as those issued by the Universi ty of Newcastle upon Tyne, or of archive publications spec i f i ca l l y directed to chi ldren E f fec t i ve d i rec t use of archives by school chi ldren is not eas i ly ar r ived a t , however, and demands a high degree of preparation and supervision But i t i s c lear that in the l igh t of recent educational thinking in th is country, New Zealand archival ins t i tu t ions cannot hope to escape much longer unscathed

3 Recreational What might be described without disparagement as the recreat ional use of archives is probably now responsible for the greatest single number of enquir ies to archival inst i tu t ions and is cer ta in ly the one most fami l ia r to the public a t large Under th i s heading can be placed the furnishing of information for the wri t ing of school, church and d i s t r i c t h i s -t o r i es , often wr i t ten to celebrate a centennial or some other special occasion, and the meeting of the needs of those who pursue history jus t as a hobby, not necessar i ly leading to publication Local history has always been popular in New Zealand and p rac t i ca l l y every d i s t r i c t in the country now has a published history of some kind A notable model was the publication of Otago centen-nia l h i s to r ies , which appeared between 1948 and 1958, systematical ly covering the whole province in seventeen volumes, and in terest has burgeoned ever since An indicat ion of the strength of th is interest IS the l i s t in the l a tes t Journal of the Federation of New Zealand Historical Societies of almost for ty local h is to r i ca l soc ie t ies Some of these are very small a f f a i r s , almost one man bands and tending to come and go, but others have large and stable memberships, producing the i r own journa ls , such as those of the Tauranga, and the Whakatane and D i s t r i c t H is tor ica l Soc ie t i es , to which members contribute a r t i c l e s Of course the qual i ty of local h is tor ies v a n e s enormously, ranging from the f i r s t r a t e , such as W J Gardner's Amun (1956) to the frankly very bad, and the tendency s t i l l i s for them to be very la rge ly , i f not exc lus ive ly , dependent on newspapers as the i r source of information In the better works, however, there is a noticeable readiness for authors to seek a t least corrobative evidence from local archival sources, notably d i s t r i c t Lands and Survey Department o f f i c e s , and borough and c i t y council records

To th is general group must be added the very ac t i ve membership of the New Zealand Genealo-gical Soc ie ty , which i s organised into a number of branches throughout the country Their interests are pr imari ly genealogy and family h is tory , the successful pursuit of which i s largely dependent on the a v a i l a b i l i t y of well organised archival material The Society publishes a journa l , The New Zealand genealogist, which contains a r t i c l e s on groups of archives of genealogi-cal importance Other spec ia l i s t groups making demands of th i s kind on archives are those interested in t r a i ns , shipping, av ia t ion h is tory , mines, gold dredges, l i gh t houses, h is tor ic bui ld ings, m i l i ta ry h is tory , etc Their number and var ie ty are constantly increasing, often organised as soc ie t i es , each producing i t s own journal

J o u r n a l i s t s , too, are turning to archives as a source of information, and a r t i c l e s in dai ly newspapers on h is to r ica l subjects are commonplace Both te lev is ion and radio have discovered the h is tor ica l documentary as a va l i d means of interpret ing a nation to i t s e l f , and one which in i t s highest form can have a fa r greater impact on i t s popular consciousness than any scholar ly work With the d iv is ion of the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation into three separate

8

corporations based m Auckland, Christchurch, and Wellington with expanded production f a c i l i t i e s m Dunedin, the pressures for the speedy exploi tat ion of the country 's archival resources, national and l o c a l , are l i ke l y to become much greater

CURRENT SITUATION

Archives in New Zealand, even a t the national l e v e l , have never achieved any real measure of general acceptance The National Arch ives, though i t has now existed in some form for a considerable number of yea rs , remains a fundamentally undernourished i ns t i t u t i on , low in s ta tus , short of s taf f and funds, and cramped for space The Alexander Turnbull L ib ra ry , now part of the National L ib rary , and comparatively well staf fed and funded, has the country 's leading manuscript co l l ec t i on , but i s only a recent entrant in the archives f i e l d , and i t s holdings, la rge ly un-o f f i c i a l records, though re la t i ve l y smal l , are growing rapidly At the local leve l the picture i s much less sa t i s fac to ry , the question being not so much the acceptance of archival i ns t i t u t i ons , but rather one of the i r existence Whi lst every major l oca l i t y in New Zealand has i t s public l i b -rary , i t s a r t ga l lery and i t s museum, separately consti tuted archive ins t i tu t ions are quitelack.ing This i s in complete contrast to the s i tuat ion in Europe, where regional and local archives are usual , or even in North America and Austral ia which are much less developed a rch iva l l y There are a number of reasons why this should be so, but a major fac tor has been the absence of strongumts of local of regional governments, such as New Zealand could have had i f the Provinces has not been abol ished, and to which strong archival ins t i tu t ions might have been attached In the absence of these the archives function has tended to be assumed by re lated but not primari ly archive i ns t i t u -t i ons , such as l i b r a r i e s , museums and h is to r ica l soc ie t i es , in which archives ex is t tenuously as an appendage to very much larger book and ar te fac t co l lec t ions These commonly lack t rained s ta f f , properly supervised and serviced reading rooms, adequate f inding a i d s , repair f a c i l i t i e s , and are short of space Only three, the Canterbury Museum and the Canterbury Publ ic L ibrary in Christchurch, and the Hocken Library in Dunedin employ a rch iv i s t s In Auckland there are none Par t i c ipa t ion in records management programmes i s usual ly quite lacking and a t best nominal Above a l l archives in these circumstances have nevenbeen and can never be the primary concern of the ins t i tu t ions that hold them Of necessity the i r p r i o r i t i es must l i e elsewhere From th is flows the important con-sequence that such arrangements have great d i f f i c u l t y in providing an adequate career structure for a rch iv i s t s and so work strongly against the development of an archives profession in th i s country and, with i t , higher standards of work

In 1974 a t leas t t h i r t y - f i v e ins t i tu t ions in New Zealand held a t the very minimum 18,000 feet of local a rch i ves , comprising local author i ty , d i s t r i c t o f f i c e , business and church records, plus an unspecif ied quantity of records of soc ie t ies and associat ions Only ten of these had footages exceeding 100 f e e t , and only f i v e had 1,000 fee t or more They are the National Archives Records Centre, Auckland, the Alexander Turnbull L ib rary , Wel l ington, the National Arch ives, Wel l ington, the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, and the Hocken L ib rary , Dunedin Well over half of these local archives are d i s t r i c t o f f i ce records held by the National Archives in Wellington and Auckland A very much greater quantity of local records of archival qual i ty remains with the or ig inat ing bodies I am guessing when I estimate that quantity to be in the region of 150,000-200,000 1 mear fee t

A Records of District Offices of Government Departments The work Of the Government IS Or-ganised by min is t r ies or departments As producers of local archives the most important of these are those of Agr icu l ture , Customs, the Forest S e r v i c e , Education, J u s t i c e , including the Courts, and i t s Land and Deeds, and Commercial D iv is ions , Labour, Lands and Survey, Mines, Maori A f f a i r s , P o l i c e , Rai lways, Social Wel fare , Trade and Industry, Transport, including the Marine D iv i s ion , Valuat ion, and Works The organization of these ministr ies or departments is h i e r a r c h i c a l , with a head o f f i ce in the c a p i t a l , Wel l ington, and regional or d i s t r i c t o f f ices in the large centres which are primari ly concerned with the local appl icat ion of general pol icy With very few exceptions the records of the d i s t r i c t o f f ices are pr imari ly of local i n te res t , re f lec t ing the Government's dealings with local persons and local i ns t i t u t i ons , and involving local issues The records of some d i s t r i c t o f f i c e s , in par t icu lar those of the Lands and Survey, and Jus t i ce Departments, and also the records of the Prov inc ia l Governments, are absolutely cruc ia l for the wr i t ing of adequate local history

The f ina l disposit ion of the records of d i s t r i c t o f f ices i s largely the prerogative of the Chief A rch i v i s t , National Archives, under the terms of the Archives Ac t , 1957, without whose per-mission records nay not be destroyed unless by pr ior arrangement This control i s largely exer-cised through the operation of disposal schedules, or in some d i f f i c u l t cases by personal appraisal of the f i l e s concerned by s ta f f of the National Archives At present records of d i s t r i c t o f f ices of archival qual i ty are located in one of three places

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1 in the District offices themselves This is the case with some very large groups of records with higher-than-average administrat ive va lues, such as those of the Lands ,and Survey Department, the Courts, and the Land and Deeds Division Though not often in danger of destruc-t i on , they tend nevertheless to be physical ly neglected and be relegated to out-of-the-way strong-rooms, stores and basements, sometimes in conditions of severe over-crowding and gross d i r t For members of the public who may wish to consult such records, there are no f ixed procedures concerning access, reading f a c i l i t i e s can be very pr imi t ive , and finding aids are usually no more than the or ig inal indexes and registers A v i r tue of th is arrangement i s that the records are a t least physical ly accessible to those most interested in using them The tota l quantity of records of archival qual i ty held in th is way i s not easy to est imate, but in the Dunedin area alone I should put i t a t between two and three thousand feet

2 In the National Archives, Wellington The National Archives with a total of almost 25,000 l inear feet of archives and a s taf f of 14, soon to become 15, is incomparably the country 's largest and most s ign i f i cant archival ins t i tu t ion I t i s also i t s only pure archives es tab l i sh -ment I t s mandatory powers with respect to Government records are l a i d down in the Archives Act of 1957, and are largely vested in the statutory o f f i ce of Chief Arch iv is t With respect to non-Governmental records, she has only advisory powers Of the National Archives total holdings of 25,000 feet the greater part are the records of the head of f ices of departments accounting for some 15,000 fee t The balance of 10,000 feet consists almost en t i re ly of d i s t r i c t off ice records Jus t over 5,000 feet of these are held a t the National Archives in Wel l ington, and jus t under 5,000 fee t a t the National Archives Records Centre in Auckland Those in Wellington include the records of a l l the Prov inc ia l Governments, excepting that of Canterbury, Lands and Survey Department records from the Blenheim, Nelson, Hoki t ika, Napier, New Plymouth and Wellington D i s t r i c t O f f i ces , J u s t i c e Department records in some quantity from most parts of the country, and Valuation Department r o l l s from a l l the main centres These records are a l l well organised with good f inding aids a v a i l a b l e , and there are good f a c i l i t i e s for the i r reading The whole arrangement, however, of housing records from distant centres in Wellington suffers from the grave d i sab i l i t y of rendering them inaccessible to the majority of people who would l i ke to use them, no matter how well cared for they might be Though the Records Centre in Auckland holds a large footage of archives emanating from the Auckland area, some most important groups of Auckland archives are housed a t the National Archives in Wellington

3 m 'approved libraries or museums' Section 19 of the Archives Ac t , 1957, provides for the deposit of archives in 'approved l i b ra r i es or museums', such records as ' the Chief Arch iv is t considers to be in excess of or unsuitable to the requirements of the National Archives' Excepting the Alexander Turnbull L ibrary and the Medical Council of New Zealand, which areboth si tuated in Wel l ington, seven ins t i tu t ions have been so approved They are

Auckland Ins t i tu te and Museum Te Awamutu His tor ica l Museum Hawke's Bay Art Gal lery and Museum, Napier New Plymouth Publ ic L ibrary Marlborough His tor ica l Society Museum, Blenheim Canterbury Museum, Christchurch Hocken L ib ra ry , Dunedin

These are sometimes known as the 'regional repositor ies In the North I s land , beyond obtaining the i n i t i a l approval, th is provision of the Act has barely been made use of Even allowing for the fac t that the existence of the Records Centre in Auckland has largely rendered the status granted to the Auckland Ins t i tu te and Museum redundant, in 1974 the approved ins t i tu t ions in Auckland, Te Awamutu, Napier and New Plymouth could only muster a mere 30 fee t of d i s t r i c t o f f i ce records between them Not one of these employs an a rch iv i s t Though there are no f igures ava i lab le for the holdings of the Marlborough His tor ica l Soc ie ty , the picture in the South Island i s rather d i f ferent The Canterbury Museum held 1,500 l inear fee t of records, the chief components of which are those of the Christchurch o f f i ce of the Lands and Survey Department and the records of the Canterbury Provincia l Government In Dunedin, the Hocken Library held 825 feet of d i s t r i c t o f f i c e records drawn from the Customs, P o l i c e , Heal th, Lands and Survey, J u s t i c e , Marine and Mines Departments I t i s no accident that of the approved inst i tu t ions these are the only two to employ a rch iv is ts Even so i t i s probable that for both the Otago and Canterbury regions almost equally large footages of d i s t r i c t o f f i ce records are to be found in the National Archives in Wellington The idea of the approved ins t i t u t i on , however i t is seen, does not seem in pract ice to have worked w e l l , achieving only small success in the south wh i ls t , in the north, the designation has been almost wholly honorif ic

In the f i r s t place the wording of the Act has been hardly encouraging ' I n excess of or

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unsuitable to the requirements of the National Archives' i s , to say the l e a s t , extremely ambiguous and susceptible to d i f fer ing interpretat ions I f i t i s taken to mean records pr imari ly of local i n te res t , that i s d i s t r i c t o f f i ce records, i t has cer ta in ly not been acted upon in th is way in the past, as a far greater quantity of d i s t r i c t o f f i ce records are now held by the National Archives than in a l l the approved ins t i tu t ions combined I f , however, i t i s taken to mean, as i t cer ta in ly can, d i s t r i c t o f f i ce records somehow not of su f f i c ien t value to be housed in the National Archives ye t s t i l l deserving of preservation l o c a l l y , the inference is that only records of the second rank ought to be housed in 'approved ins t i tu t ions ' In my view th is interpretat ion comes dangerously close to meaning second c lass records for second c lass ins t i tu t ions and, in f a c t , however uninten-t i ona l l y , i t has had a retarding e f fec t on the development of approved ins t i tu t ions as e f fec t i ve regional reposi tor ies for d i s t r i c t o f f i ce records On the other hand, the approved ins t i tu t ions have done l i t t l e to j us t i f y the confidence of the Chief Arch iv is t to handle large quant i t ies of d i s t r i c t o f f i ce records No approved ins t i tu t ion i s pr imari ly an archives establishment and in every case only a small part of i t s resources i s devoted to archives work Al l are inadequately s ta f fed , both in t ra in ing and in numbers, poorly f inanced, are def ic ient in technique and pro-cedures, and only one, the Auckland Ins t i tu te and Museum, has produced a comprehensive guide to i t s holdings And even though in many instances the Chief Arch iv is t might have been w i l l i ng in pr inc ip le to al low d i s t r i c t o f f ice records to be retained l o c a l l y , these shortcomings have hardly allowed th is to be done

A grave defect of the Ac t , so far as the approved ins t i tu t ions are concerned, i s the i r weak-ness v i s - a - ; i S the departments They are completely without o f f i c i a l status with the d i s t r i c t o f f ices and have no authori ty with respect to the i r records The Manual of records management issued by the State Services Commission makes no mention of approved ins t i tu t ions as a possible destination for the archives of d i s t r i c t o f f i c e s , 5 and with a few exceptions administration and records o f f i cers are completely unfamil iar with the poss ib i l i t y Formal approaches to d i s t r i c t o f f ices can o n l y be nade through the Chief Arch iv is t in Wel l ington, leading to awkward t r iangular correspondences which hardly encourage close l ia ison between d i s t r i c t administration o f f i ce rs and approved inst i tu t ions In spi te of these shortcomings, however, the deposit of d i s t r i c t off ice records in aporoved inst i tu t ions does a t least serve to make them more eas i l y accessib le to those most interested in then

F ina l l y i t should be noted that small but s ign i f i cant quant i t ies of d i s t r i c t o f f i ce records seem to have found thei r way into ins t i tu t ions not 'approved' under the Act and which s t r i c t l y speaking have no r ight to retain them

Β Local Authority Records The question of local authori ty records has largely been deal t with i6 another paper which should be read in conjunction with th is one 6 The major points to be made are as fol lows The Archives Act does not apply to local authori ty records, and the Counties and Municipal Corporations Ac ts , and the other statutes which govern special purpose author i t ies have nothing t o say on the permanent preservation of a rch ives , though minutes, adequate f inancia l records and cer ta in other records are required to be kept, but for how long is not touched upon None of the central administrat ive departments of the local author i t ies have archives sections or employ a r c h i v i r t s , and, with the exception of the larger c i t y corporat ions, they are in any case too small to support such special ised s ta f f Systematic records management programmes, taking into account administrat ive and cul tural c r i t e r i a for the preservation and destruction of records are general ly non -existent The vast bulk of local authority records, as both the 1960 Prel iminary L i s t ' and the resul ts of my own questionnaire showed, continue to be held by the or ig inat ing author i -t i es Again, as with non-current records held by d i s t r i c t o f f i c e s , storage conditions are usual ly poor, adequate finding aids lacking and reading f a c i l i t i e s pr imi t ive The returns indicate that s ign i f i cant quanti t ies of local authori ty records, over 100 f ee t , were held by only f i v e non-or iginat ing ins t i tu t ions , two in Auckland, one in Wel l ington, one in Christchurch and one in Dunedin, a l l of them, with the exception of the Auckland Publ ic L ib rary , being a lso 'approved ins t i t u t i ons ' under the Act The Auckland Publ ic Library is the only body to hold c i t y council records on a large scale The holdings of the others are largely made up of the archives of special purpose bodies, counties and small boroughs, many of them now defunct Only in Otago and perhaps Canterbury where the Hocken Library and the Canterbury Museum, hold 1,250 and 300 l inear feet of records respec-t i ve ly has there been any attempt to cent ra l i se local authori ty archives on a regional basis Other than the Alexander Turnbull L ib rary , the conditions under which local authori ty archives are held in this way is precisely the same as for those of d i s t r i c t o f f ices in 'approved i n s t i t u t i o n s ' , except that there is d i rec t l ia ison between the holding ins t i tu t ions and the or ig inat ing author i t ies

The advent of regional government, as heralded by the passage of the Local Government Act la te in 1974, ra ises fresh problems concerning the fa te and organization of local authori ty records, in par t icu lar records of defunct au tho r i t i es , records involved in the t ransfer of a function from one authori ty to another, and the adoption of proper archive keeping standards by newly

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consti tuted author i t ies These are problems requiring both long and short term solutions i f permanent damage to the in tegr i ty of local authori ty archives is to be avoided

C Business Records New Zealand is s t i l l a c a p i t a l i s t soc ie ty , and the records of pr ivate enterprise are a th i rd very large source of potential a rch ives , one unt i l recently very much neg-lected Businesses are of many d i f ferent kinds and have a wide var ie ty of forms, a l l of which has a quite def in i te e f fec t on the character of records produced They range from sole proprietorships as represented by the corner s tore, through partnerships such as legal firms and public accountants to pr ivate and huge public companies such as New Zealand Forest Products Ltd Serv ice and d i s t r i -butive companies may well have complex branch structures with o f f ices a l l over the country A large manufacturing enterprise may have plants in just one, two or three locations Most big companies have separately establ ished head o f f i ces , which are usual ly the registered o f f i ce a s w e l l , and the records that accumulate in these are of central importance Commonly they are si tuated in Auckland and Well ington, but other centres have the i r share

For sole proprietorships and partnerships the only l eg i s l a t i ve requirement re la t ing to records is that adequate books of account be kept for a period of seven years as by the Land and Income Tax Act , 1954 The Companies Act , 1955, however, requires public companies to keep in -de f in i te ly a t the i r registered of f ices cer ta in documents, usually known as the statutory records, spec i f i ca l l y minutes of general and d i rec tors ' meetings, registers of members, of debenture holders, and of d i rec to rs , a regis ter of charges, and also 'proper books of account' These account for only a f ract ion of permanently valuable records being produced by companies, par t i cu -l a r l y the larger ones, and with the constant restructuring of business that i s taking place in New Zealand today, the destruction of business records of archival qual i ty happens constantly Takeovers, mergers, l iqu idat ions, removal of head o f f i c e s , the erect ion of new premises and the extension of old ones are a l l occasions a t which the destruction of archives can occur There i s nothing new in th is as i t i s a process which has been going on for the whole duration of New Zealand's commercial h is tory , but i t i s one now great ly acce lera ted, so that pe r fec t l y ' i n tac t groups of business arch ives , even for companies establ ished quite recent ly , are very few indeed There are s igns, however, that some old-establ ished companies, l i ke old-establ ished fam i l i es , are beginning to take a pride in the i r l ineage and h is tory , and so in the i r records, par t i cu la r ly as centenaries approach This is borne out by the recent rash of company h i s to r i es , though in most cases the material for the i r wr i t ing has been sadly lacking

The resul ts of the questionnaire and also of the recent survey conducted by Mr E l l i s of the Ins t i tu te of Economic Research^ both show, as was to be expected, that the overwhelming bulk of business archives continue to be held by the businesses themselves Only one New Zealand enter-p r i se , the Bank of New Zealand, employs an a rch i v i s t as such, though the records of two other banks in New Zealand, the Austral ia and New Zealand Bank and the Bank of New South Wales, are taken care of as part of Australian-based archive programmes With a few exceptions, archives held by companies are in a state of disorder, lack f inding aids and have no reading f a c i l i t i e s Records management procedures are generally only haphazardly appl ied, though the posit ion w i l l be great ly improved i f the scheme for the disposal and retention recent ly issued by the New Zealand Division of the Ins t i tu te of Chartered Secretar ies and Administrators should become widely adopted, despite i t s incompleteness and in par t icu lar i t s lack of reference to correspondence 9

In 1974, sixteen ins t i tu t ions held a total of 2,149 l inear feet of business a rch ives , of which three, the Alexander Turnbul l , Hocken, and Massey Univers i ty L i b r a r i e s , with 578, 1,150 and 200 feet respect ive ly , accounted for 89 percent of the total Mr E l l i s ' s survey showed that of the top 100 companies, only f i v e have placed the i r records in an archival ins t i tu t ion 1 0 Both in Auckland and in Christchurch the work of preserving business archives was almost ent i re ly in the hands of the businesses themselves

D Records of Clubs, Societies and related Institutions New Zealand has a large number of organizat ions, with the common charac ter is t i c that they are not established for pecuniary ga in, and which r e f l e c t the preoccupations of New Zealanders They range in size from large national organizations with complex branch s t ruc tures, such as Federated Farmers and the Plunket Soc ie ty , to very smal l , purely local i ns t i t u t i ons , such as an embroidery guild They include po l i t i ca l pa r t i es , trade unions, employer organizat ions, lodges and f r iendly soc ie t i es , service c lubs, sport ing, char i tab le and cu l tura l bodies, professional assoc ia t ions, common in terest and pressure groups of a l l k inds, and very small clubs catering for hobbyists The larger organizations are usual ly registered as an incorporated society under the Act of 1908, thus l imi t ing the l i a b i l i t y of the i r members and giving them an independent legal existence Incorporated societ ies are required to have ru les and to keep a regis ter of members Copies of the r u l e s , reg is ter and annual reports and accounts are required to be f i l e d with the Registrar of Incorporated Societ ies or an Assistant Registrar in the nearest centre On unincorporated soc ie t ies there is no such obi igation

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The largest organizations employ a t l eas t a fu l l - t ime secretary or executive o f f i c e r , and in these cases the i r records are re l a t i ve l y well organized and cared f o r , though th is i s cer ta in ly not always the case The records of organizations whose o f f i cers are honorary, being elected annually by the members, are in a much more precarious condi t ion, par t i cu la r l y i f they lack permanent premises In these circumstances there i s a perennial tendency, e i ther fo r the records to be retained by an out-going o f f i ce r a t his home, p rac t i ca l l y becoming his personal property and soon los t sight of, or for them to be destroyed by the incoming o f f i ce r who has less space in which to keep them A solution many soc ie t ies have adopted i s to deposit the i r older records in an archival ins t i tu t ion However the return to the 1974 questionnaire c lea r l y showed that the vast bulk of these records remained with the soc ie t ies themselves

Ε church Records Only a small quantity of church records, 220 f e e t , were reported by i ns t i t u -t ions making the return More than half the total was accounted for by Presbyterian Church records held by the Knox College L ibrary in Dunedin I t i s c lear that p rac t i ca l l y a l l church records are retained by the churches themselves At the diocesan l e v e l , or i t s equivalent , and above, my impression i s that church records, i f not professional ly organised and described, are a t l eas t well cared for by fu l l - t ime administrat ive s ta f f s The Catholic Diocese of Auckland i s known to employ an a r ch i v i s t At the parish leve l the picture i s more spotty, par t i cu la r l y with the move-ment towards union and rat ional izat ion that i s taking place between the churches today, and losses can occur when churches close But , by and la rge , clergymen have a well developed sense of h i s -tory and an appreciation of the importance of the reg is ters in the i r ca re , even i f often the i r physical condition leaves much to be desired

The overr iding impression of local archives in New Zealand i s one of tota l inadequacy in the i r organizat ion, lack of ra t i ona l i t y in the i r d i s t r ibu t ion , and the i r resul tant under-ut i l iza-t ion Quite simply the arch iva l ins t i tu t ions in the regions have not been up to the functions that they have ventured to assume The work done by l i b ra r i es and museums in the absence of pure archive ins t i tu t ions has been absolutely invaluable, but they have never been able to do more than a small part of a l l that needed to be done, and i t i s doubtful in the extreme i f , on an unreformed bas i s , they ever w i l l A resul t i s that the National Archives and the Alexander Turnbull L ib rary , both national bodies, have had to assume some responsib i l i ty for local archives outside Wel l ington, which in other countr ies would be thought to be properly the province of local ins t i tu t ions New Zealand badly needs a strong local archives se rv i ce , ra t iona l l y organized, to take care of local archive needs

CRITERIA

In putting forward any plan for the improvement of local a rch ives , cer ta in c r i t e r i a ought as nearly as possible to bet met They are

1 Archives should be held physically in locations most easily accessible to the majority of people with a potential interest m using them consistent with their good care Supposing l oca l l y produced records to be pr imari ly of local i n te res t , as i t seems reasonable to do so, th is can be restated as ' l o c a l l y created records should as fa r as possible by l oca l l y held for local use' This seems to be to be fundamental as archives are kept only for use, and anything which hinders the i r use, cu l tura l or admin is t ra t ive, i s a denigration of the i r whole purpose, so long as the i r preservation can be assured There i s no doubt that the locat ion of records has a very d i rec t bearing on the amount of use^they are l i ke l y to receive I f a rch ives , no matter tiow well organized, are remotely he ld , say more than a day 's return journey from the l oca l i t y in which they or ig inated, then thei r use w i l l be severely cur ta i led J u s t how far the presence or absence of archives can promote or inh ib i t local h is tor ica l studies based on archival sources is shown by the extensive use made of the records of the Canterbury Provinc ia l Government held a t the Canter-bury Museum in Christchurch, and the comparatively l i t t l e use made of the Otago Prov inc ia l Records held a t the National Archives in Wellington Even more s t r ik ing i s the continuous in teres t in missionary studies over many years a t the Univers i ty of Otago resul t ing d i rec t l y from the presence of Church Missionary Society records in the Hocken Library in Dunedin, otherwise a most unl ike ly place for such an in terest to develop Only academics and perhaps postgraduate students can these days afford the expense and time to spend extended periods away from home to use a rch ives , and as users they are probably now in a minority Housewives, those with jobs , and schoolchildren are simply not in a posit ion to do th is and are e f fec t i ve l y disbarred from the i r use Postal reference se rv i ces , no matter how conscientiously operated, can no more than in a very small way compensate for th is l oss , besides being extremely expensive in terms of s taf f time There i s no subst i tute for the d i rec t handling of archives for the i r f u l l exploi tat ion by the researcher, whether amateur or professional , for the personal sa t is fac t ion that th is w i l l give him, and for the development of a mature, appreciat ive c l i e n t e l e I f local archives cannot be d i rec t l y handled by local people, then local in terest in them wilT be low or non-existent to the detriment of the cause of archives

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generally The s t r i c t appl icat ion of the pr inc ip le that local archives should be loca l l y held for local use should resul t in the archives of a region re f lec t ing the ent i re a c t i v i t y of the region or l o c a l i t y , and foster a sense of ident i ty between people and thei r a rch ives , which is now quite lacking to the great advantage of a l l a rch ives, national and local

The idea that archives should be accessible in th is way and are most meaningfully held a t the place of the i r or ig in is not a new one Some recognition of i t lay behind the repatr ia t ion of the records of the ancient kingdom of Scotland from London to Edinburgh Rogers wr i t ing in New Zealand inA1952 made physical access ib i l i t y a key requirement of public a r c h i v e s , ^ 1 and Carbone and Gueze in the i r Draft model law on archives (1972) note the necessity ' to observe one of the basic rules of archive sc ience, namely a respect for the place of or igin of documentary sources - a respect which also takes account of perfect ly legit imate local interests and sus-c e p t i b i l i t i e s '12

2 Any arrangement for the administration of archives should be convenient to those creating them This is not jus t a matter of physical proximity The archives of an existent body can be likened to a l i v i n g , growing organism, constantly being accrued to , and for the i r sound const i tut ion i t is esssent ia l to have the co-operation of the administrators of the or ig inat ing body I f th is is not forthcoming, then the qual i ty of the archives w i l l su f fe r , and i t may lead to dangerous sp l i t t i ng of the records group along administ rat ive/cul tura l l ines For th is reason the a rch iv i s t should never allow his archives to be considered as an administrat ive emcumbrance, as an inconvenience, but rather he should s t r i ve to see that they are regarded as an asset and a source of pr ide, and thei r creation a normal part of the administrat ive process This argues a close and easy relat ionship between the administrator, the records o f f i ce r and the a r c h i v i s t , of the sort which thr ives best on continual contact Such a relat ionship is best achieved i f the a rch iv i s t and his archives are located in the central administrat ive department of the body crea-t ing them 13so that when the time comes for i ts permanent records to pass into the custody of the a r c h i v i s t , the administrator 's sense of loss w i l l be minimal Such a location also permits the author i ta t ive implementation of records management programmes with f u l l par t ic ipat ion by the a r c h i v i s t , so that cul tura l values are completely taken into account in the i r devising I t is possible to go further and say that the work of the a rch iv i s t is so great ly eased and the integ-r i t y of the archives so strongly confirmed through the working of a vigorous records management programme that the proper discharge of cul tural obl ivat ions depends very much on how well the a rch iv i s t honours administrat ive ones These obligations are most eas i l y honoured from within the central administrat ive department, a truth well exemplified by the locat ion of most Engl ish county record o f f i ces in the county c le rks ' departments In pract ice th is w i l l not be in most cases a feas ib le proposition in New Zealand, but the pr inc ip le of c lose co-operation has to be borne in mind in making the necessary arrangements

3 Archives as nearly as possible should be in the professional care of trained archivists I t must be emphasised from the outset that the administration of archives is not a branch of 1ibrar ianship, even though many l i b ra r i es administer archives and some l ib rar ians have an interest in the matter I t s h is to r i ca l t radi t ions are quite d i f fe ren t , being European rather than American, the training of a rch iv i s ts is d i f fe ren t , so are the materials with which they dea l , and so are the pr incip les which govern the i r organization and description Librar ians are no more qual i f ied to administer a large accumulation of records than an a rch iv i s t is to administer a large co l lec t ion of books' Equally archives administration i s not a branch of museum curatorship, for the simple reason that archives are not museum objects or exhibit ion p ieces, any more than books are

Experience the world over has shown that archives are best administered by a rch iv i s ts with t ra in ing in the administration of archives Arch iv is ts are the only people whose sole business is the preservation of a rch ives , and they are the ones best qual i f ied to arrange and describe them so as to f a c i l i t a t e the i r greatest possible use The proof of the pudding i s in the eat ing, and, with a l l due respect to the achievements of the United States in the l as t for ty yea rs , par t i cu la r -ly in the f i e l d s of conservation and records management, i t i s s t i l l Europe and to a lesser extent B r i t a i n which are a rch iva l l y the most developed places on th is earth I t was in Europe that the basic theoret ical advances were made, i t i s in Europe that pure archive ins t i tu t ions have been by fa r longest establ ished and are th ickest on the ground, and equally i t is in Europe that the t ra in ing of a rch iv i s t s i s most systematic, and the possession of a formal archives qua l i f i ca t ion i s universal ly the prerequis i te for employment as an a rch iv i s t This t ra in ing is given e i ther in ternal ly a t the largest i ns t i t u t i ons , or a school attached to them, or a t un ivers i t i es or uni vers l ty- type ins t i tu t ions on a fu l l - t ime basis leading to a separate archives qua l i f i ca t ion In England such t ra in ing i s ava i lab le a t the Univers i t ies of L iverpoo l , London and Wales, in Germany a t the archival schools of Marburg and Munich, in France a t the fxole des chartes in P a r i s , in the United States a t the American Univers i ty , Washington, and now in Sydney a t the Univers i ty of New South Wales Though the detai led content of these courses and the i r duration natural ly va r i es , they a l l require a degree, preferably in h is to ry , as an i n i t i a l qua l i f i ca t i on ,

ν

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or are themselves equivalent to a degree, are of a t leas t one y e a r ' s durat ion, and include in the i r syl labus the elements of archives .administration., records management, preparation of f inding a i d s , administrat ive history and accounting This sort of knowledge i s simply not taught on l i b ra ry courses, and never can be to the required depth and extent More and more the sepa-rate archives qua l i f i ca t ion is becoming the prerequis i te for obtaining archives posts overseas, and w i l l of necessity ul t imately have to be adopted in th is country i f standards of work are to be ra i sed , i f New Zealand a rch iv i s t s are to maintain themselves on an equal footing with the i r counterparts overseas, to have job mobi l i ty , and to maintain the i r standing a t home

4 Any system devised should provide archivists with an adequate career structure I f 3 i s accepted, then 4 must fol low Whi lst a rch iv i s t s are probably less ambitious than the average run of indiv iduals in worldly terms, they are s t i l l human beings and would much prefer to have a career which offers some prospects, i n t e l l e c t u a l l y , professional ly and mater ia l ly This is espec i -a l l y true i f graduates of a b i l i t y , dr ive and ambition are to be drawn to the work which so badly needs them Indolence and mediocrity are no more a recommendation for working with archives than for anything e lse I t is perhaps an unfortunate fac t of human nature that excellence tends to go with expectat ions, and that i f these are lacking then the former w i l l not eas i l y be forthcoming

Such expectations are most eas i l y sa t i s f i ed when a rch iv i s t s are grouped together in r e l a t i v e -ly large un i t s , rather than being scattered as lone indiv iduals around a large number of i n s t i t u -t ions or administrat ive bodies Contrary to the popular conception, a rch i v i s t s do not par t i cu la r l y thr ive in iso la t ion Nor from a l l I have seen and read overseas are they very happy working in museums and l i b r a r i e s , a s i tuat ion in which the i r in terests w i l l always be subordinate to the larger funct ion, and the ult imate d i rect ion of the i r work in f ac t l i e with another profession, a postion which l i b ra r ians themselves would be unhappy to be in At the same time i t lacks the com-pensating advantages of being attached to the central administrat ive department For these reasons to conceive of the country 's archives system as being a ser ies of appendages to other ins t i tu t ions seems to me to be bas ica l l y unsat isfactory Arch iv is ts i f they are not attached to a central administration of the body whose archives they are responsible fo r , ought to be organized together into en t i t i es with a separate iden t i t y , with professional independence in the performance of the i r work, and not be placed in a posit ion where, to quote Schellenberg aga in , they are expected ' to survive on budgetary crumbs from the tables of agencies pr imari ly concerned with other programs' 1 4

There are other advantages to the grouping of archives s ta f f together in large units I t avoids the professional isolat ion of a rch iv i s ts working a lone, enabling them to develop the i r s k i l l s more quickly with each learning from the other, and so ra is ing the standard of the i r work I t would a lso permit the employment of anc i l l a ry s ta f f , including document repa i re rs , which archives in New Zealand require as much as anywhere e lse A f i na l advantage is that the presumed economies of sca le would al low the purchase of expensive specia l ised equipment such as fumigators and laminating machines which are seen as indispensable by most overseas reposi tor ies of any s ize today

5 Archivists should be vested with sufficient status and powers for the effective perfor-mance of their duties towards the records of organizations for which they are responsible In other words a rch i v i s t s should have teeth This has been found overseas to be an essent ia l require-ment for the orderly development of an archives programme, even in those countries where sound archives pract ices have long prevai led I t is even more essent ia l in s i tuat ions in which the idea of archives administered by a rch iv i s ts is a new one In these circumstances, an a rch i v i s t without authori ty or standing w i l l be the object of suspicion, sometimes intense, by administrators and records o f f i c e r s , and i s too eas i l y ignored

The posit ion and powers of the a rch i v i s t w i l l vary depending on his posit ion in re la t ion to the body for whose archives he is responsible I f the a r c h i v i s t ' s respons ib i l i t i es are largely i n te rna l , he should be placed on the central administrat ive s ta f f , he should be given powers with respect to a i l the records of that body, he should be so placed in the hierarchy that he is able to deal independently, equally and d i rec t l y with a l l those with whom he i s expected to have deal ings, and f i n a l l y h is posit ion should be given a t i t l e indicat ing i t s f u l l scope, e g , Ci ty A rch i v i s t , Univers i ty A rch i v i s t , etc The nature and extent of his authori ty should be de-f ined and granted by the highest authori ty of the body, e g , Ci ty Counci l , Univers i ty Counci l , etc

In the case of an outside archives authori ty responsible for the preservation of archives of bodies external to i t s own organizat ion, the authori ty may have to have i t s posit ion defined and enforced by l eg i s l a t i on , as with our own National Archives with respect to the records of other Government departments I t s powers should as nearly as pract icable approach, in a l l pert inent respects, those given to an a rch i v i s t with purely internal respons ib i l i t ies

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In both cases these powers should include

a The power to advise on current f i l i n g pract ice in so fa r as i t w i l l ul t imately a f fec t the qual i ty of the archives

b Final authori ty over the ult imate disposit ion of archives In par t i cu la r , records should not be destroyed without his pr ior permission

c The custody of the a rch iv i s t or the archival authori ty should be reckoned as legal custody, as va l id as the custody of the or ig inat ing o f f ice or body Some statutes require cer ta in records to be held at the o f f i ce at which they were created, e g , County Council minutes at the o f f ices of the Counci l , without specifying for how long they should be so held At the moment that 11becomes more convenient to put such records in archival custody, there should be no legal d i sab i l i t y The same is true of certain classes of business records

d The power to arrange and describe the records in his care so as to make them most e f fec t i ve ly ava i lab le

e The a rch iv i s t should have the power of authenticating for legal purposes documents in h is custody

6 Notice should be taken of existing arrangements where they do not seriously hinder the implementation of criteria 1-5 This is simply recognition of the fac t that over the years there have developed in New Zealand quite close l inks between some inst i tu t ions and some groups of records which have proved f ru i t fu l in the past , which should not be severed without good reason I f severance should be necessary, however, for the successful implementation of the previous c r i t e r i a , then i t should be done

7 Finally, any system adopted should be capable of onward development to archival maturity There is no point in sett ing up a framework, even one which meets a l l the previous c r i t e r i a , i f i t is one that w i l l become outmoded in ten or twenty years time Otherwise the whole exercise w i l l have to be gone through again, and then perhaps only with the greatest d i f f i cu l t y A long term solution to the country 's needs, one substantial and f lex ib le enough to adapt and grow with change, capable of accommodating the highest standards of archives administration now and in the future, w i l l ul t imately prove the fa r better proposition

Not a l l the above c r i t e r i a are compatible There are tensions between the requirements for the maximum use of a rch ives , as outl ined in c r i t e r i a 1 and 2 , and the requirements for the i r best preservat ion, as outl ined in c r i t e r i a 3, 4, and 5 How to reconci le these d i f ferences, or a t least decide between them, and make them pract icable in the New Zealand si tuat ion is no easy matter

SOLUTIONS

Applying the c r i t e r i a outl ined in New Zealand presents considerable d i f f i c u l t i e s , given the t rad i t iona l parsimony in public spending on any ac t i v i t y not of a b latant ly u t i l i t a r i a n character, and given our long history of indif ference to archives in par t icu lar There are two further obstacles One is the mimscule size of the archival profession in this country The other is the lack or meagre nature of ins t i tu t ions on which to bui ld In these circumstances i t would be absurd to expect the perfect system for local archives in th is country to spring up from the ground f u l l y armed To be pract icable some compromise must be made, but not so much that the essential ideals of such a serv ice are obscured and so los t sight of, or are impossible of ult imate rea l iza t ion

Two opt ions, however, are eas i l y discussed and dismissed

1 The centralization of all local archives at national institutions m Wellington, spec i f i ca l l y o f f i c i a l archives a t the National Archives and unof f ic ia l archives in a great ly ex-panded Manuscripts Section a t the Alexander Turnbull Library This would cer ta in ly sa t is fy c r i t e r i a 3 , professional ca re , and 4, the provision of a sat is factory career structure for a r ch i -v i s t s I t would, however, be completely a t the expense of c r i t e r i a 1 , physical access i b i l i t y , and 2 , administrat ive convenience, and also of 6, respect for exist ing arrangements Moreoever, i t would be lega l ly enforceable only in the case of d i s t r i c t o f f i ce records, and, i f leg is la t ion were passed, local authori ty records I t i s impossible to imagine local businesses, societ ies and churches being happy a t being compelled to par t ic ipate in such a scheme, and the same could

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be said of local author i t ies too Local sentiment would be strongly against i t Par t i c ipa t ion a t the local level in records management programmes by a rch iv i s t s would be extremely d i f f i c u l t to sustain Further i t is doubtful i f e i ther the National Archives or the Alexander Turnbull L ibrary would welcome the idea as i t would have the inev i tab le e f fec t of befogging the essent ia l l y national character of the i r holdings, and would absorb a disproportionate part of the i r own r e -sources in serv ic ing them F ina l l y the idea is open to objection on the grounds that no nation should have a l l i t s archival eggs in one basket, par t i cu la r ly in a place such as Wel l ington, which has a high degree of suscept ib i l i t y to earthquakes The r isk should be spread, even i f th is increases the chance of d isaster be fa l l ing a part of the country 's archives

I t i s p rac t icab le , as has already been shown to a considerable degree, to concentrate a l l d i s t r i c t o f f i ce archives in the National Archives in Wellington This i s possible because of the re la t i ve l y uni f ied and hierarchical character of the Publ ic Se rv i ce , and because of the powers given to the Chief Arch iv is t in the Archives Act As an arrangement, however, i t i s s t i l l open to the objection of rendering the archives inaccessible to those most interested in using them

2 The administration of all archives locally m their offices of origin This represents the other extreme, complete loca l izat ion I t would appear to maximise administrat ive convenience and a c c e s s i b i l i t y , but th is time a t the expense of professional care and a career structure for a rch iv i s t s The advantages, however, are in these circumstances to a very large degree i l lusory Experience has shown that in jus t such a s i tuat ion archives without professional care are often extremely d i f f i c u l t to use, that i s i f they ex is t to be used a t a l l Losses, e i ther by destruction or simple disappearance, and physical deter iorat ion a f f l i c t p rac t i ca l l y every group of local a r c -hives in New Zealand today Even assuming the survival of a rch ives , physical access ib i l i t y by no means assures access to the information desired Archives that are d i r t y , disorganised and un-l i s t e d , and which lack proper f a c i l i t i e s for the i r consultation w i l l receive very l i t t l e use, even by the administrators creat ing them The good preservation of a rch ives , ordered and described, with proper f a c i l i t i e s fo r consulting them, are essent ial for the i r f u l l exploi tat ion This i s best assured by having them in the care of trained a r c h i v i s t s , and as most bodies in New Zealand are unable or unwi l l ing to employ an a r c h i v i s t , the keeping of archives in the o f f ices of the i r or igin i s in general not a sat is factory solution

This leads inevi tably to consideration of regional arrangements for the care of local a rch ives , midway between the two extremes of cent ra l izat ion and loca l iza t ion They are made much more a t t r a c t i v e by the advent of regional government in New Zealand, which promises to of fer a sui table framework for the i r devising Further, i f one excepts the t e r r i t o r i a l administrat ions, counties and boroughs, New Zealand has in e f fec t been governed by regions for years Fundamentally an adaptation of the old provincial d i s t r i c t s , these regions have proved surpr is ingly useful as ad-min is t ra t ive d iv is ions and as such are widely used A large number of Government departments Agr icul ture and F i she r ies , Customs, Labour, Heal th, Lands and Survey, P o l i c e , Post O f f i ce , Socia l Wel fare, Transport, Works, and Valuat ion, and the Forest Se rv i ce , a l l use the region as the i r primary geographical d iv is ion A number of special purpose au tho r i t i es , notably Catchment, Education, E l e c t r i c Power, Harbour and Hospital Boards, are organised on a regional basis F ina l l y the primary nature of the region asserts i t se l f in the organization of a l l sorts of other unof f ic ia l bodies, the dioceses of the Anglican and Catholic Churches, the provincial d i s t r i c t s of Federated ι Farmers, the sections of the New Zealand Alpine Club and ad infinitum Many organizations which are not national in character take the region as the i r natural sphere of influence 1 5

Though the regions are by no means prec isely the same m every case , a recurring pattern i s readi ly apparent As put'forward in Government proposals for United Authori t ies in 1972, they are eighteen in number 16

Region Chief Town

Northland Whangarei Auckland Auckland Waikato/Coromandel Hamilton Bay of Plenty Rotorua/Tauranga East Coast Gisborne Taranaki New Plymouth Wanganui Wanganui Hawkes Bay Napier Manawatu Palmerston North Wairarapa Masterton Wellington-Hutt Wellington Nelson Nelson Marlborough Blenheim West Coast Greymouth North Canterbury Christchurch South Canterbury Timaru Otago Dunedin Southland Invercarg i l l

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These are not organizational units only They are also rooted deep in the consciousness of New Zealanders, who when v i s i t i ng other parts of the country are much more apt to think of them-selves as coming from South Canterbury, the Wairarapa and Northland, than from S t ra tha l l an , Featherston or Hobson Counties In general centred around a single large town, the regions are not jus t functional d i v i s i ons , as any Ranfurly Shield match makes quite p la in , but have an emotional and h is tor ica l cohesiveness which is quite lacking in the exist ing local government structure or even within pre-1876 provincial boundaries I t makes them the logical framework for the organization for a local archives service

Within the regional framework two poss ib i l i t i es offer themselves, which may be b r i e f l y termed the dispersed solution and the unif ied solution But underlying both is the fundamental notion of the region as an arch iva l l y integrated area Al l archives produced within the region should as far as possible be retained within the region and, conversely, no region should seek to acquirearchives created in another, any more than Auckland should attempt to remove Mt Cook to i t s boundaries

1 The Dispersed Solution The essence of th is is an agreement between a number of i ns t i t u -tions of regional stature to spec ia l ise in the co l lect ion and administration of archives from di f ferent areas Typical ly a univers i ty l ib rary might co l l ec t business records, a large public l ib rary administer the archives of i t s c i t y corporation and a museum have responsib i l i ty for d i s t r i c t o f f ice arch ives , each employing at least one trained a rch iv i s t to look a f te r the archives in i t s charge As a solution i t has several very obvious advantages I t takes care of the need for for a c c e s s i b i l i t y , and i t ensures that the archives have a t least a modicum of professional care But most important of a l l , as an arrangement i t is re la t i ve l y easy to get off the ground The ins t i tu t ions already ex i s t , and thei r wi l l ingness to assume an archives function presupposes an ab i l i t y to spend funds for the purpose F i n a l l y , because i t is a solution that can be implemented re la t i ve l y quickly, some groups of archives w i l l be saved that would not otherwise survive The dispersed solution then in the short term has some very decided advantages

The disadvantages in the long term are readi ly apparent In the f i r s t place i t does not have a very great deal to of fer in the way of administrat ive convenience, and the par t ic ipat ion of a rch iv i s ts in the working out and operation of records management programmes w i l l not be eas i l y secured Second, and jus t as important, i t does not allow the erect ion of a career structure for arch iv is ts As i t i s d i f f i c u l t to imagine any l ib rary or museum in New Zealand employing more than two a r c h i v i s t s , th is can only develop where large quant i t ies of archives are gathered to-gether, jus t i f y ing the employment of two, three or more a rch iv is ts and other supporting staf f Only when career prospects are ava i lab le can we expect to see the development of an archives profession a t a local level in New Zealand, and without which professional standards of work cannot be looked for Further i t is doubtful i f many inst i tu t ions could afford to employ essen-t i a l anc i l l a ry s ta f f , in par t icu lar document repa i re rs , or to invest in spec ia l i sed , expensive equipment There would e i ther be duplication of expensive f a c i l i t i e s , or none at a l l I t has to be repeated that in such an arrangement the care of archives w i l l always be a minor function of an inst i tu t ion whose primary purpose and experience are quite d i f fe ren t , and that in these c i r -cumstances i t would be fanci fu l to expect archives to secure the p r io r i t y they deserve in terms of s ta f f and expenditure, par t i cu la r ly i f the ins t i tu t ion 's own circumstances are strai tened F ina l l y i t would destroy any chance of the archives of a region developing a substantial ident i ty , and deprive i t of the a b i l i t y to make any real impact on the popular consciousness, which would enable i t to summon up the degree of public support necessary for the advancement of the i r cause The dispersed arrangement, of course, assumes the presence in each region of a number of i ns t i t u -t ions , each capable of employing an a r c h i v i s t , and not every region has them

2 unified solution This involves the notion that the region is the smallest d iv is ion capable of generating su f f i c ien t permanently valuable records which would support a purely archives inst i tu t ion or a t least something l i ke i t This is the concept of the regional record o f f i ce

THE CONCEPT OF THE REGIONAL RECORD OFFICE

The essential element of th i s concept i s the gathering together of a l l the archives of a region, those of d i s t r i c t o f f i c e s , local au thor i t i es , businesses, etc , into the one record o f f i c e , s taf fed exclusively by a rch iv i s ts and situated in the chief town of the region I t f u l f i l s most of the c r i t e r i a

The requirement of access ib i l i t y is met as the record o f f i ce w i l l be able to be v i s i ted from most parts of most regions during the course of a day Administrative convenience is a more d i f f i -cu l t matter, but the uni f ied character of the o f f i ce w i l l allow the employment of a number of devices which w i l l ease any d i f f i c u l t i e s in large degree Professional care of the archives is ensured by the employment of trained s ta f f , thereby meeting the requirements of c r i te r ion 3

18

Further, i t is the only arrangement which gives any prospect of providing a career structure for a rch iv i s t s a t a local l e v e l , as i t i s postulated that each regional record o f f i ce would be headed by a chief o f f i ce r to be known as the Regional A rch i v i s t , a post of su f f i c ien t consequence to sa t i s fy the aspirat ions of any but the most ambitious a r c h i v i s t . The existence of such a sub-stant ia l o f f i ce w i l l a lso have very decided administrat ive advantages,'of which more l a te r I f the record o f f ices were establ ished on a su f f i c ien t l y uniform basis throughout the country and appropriately coupled to the National Archives, we would have the makings of an archives se rv i ce , in which a rch i v i s t s could move f ree ly between the regional record o f f i c e s , and between the regional record o f f ices and the National Archives The re l a t i ve l y large size of the record o f f ices would also al low the employment of essent ia l anc i l l a r y s ta f f , which a rch iv i s t s need jus t as much as l ib rar ians do and for exactly the same reasons, the development of document repair capab i l i t y , and the purchase of special ised equipment

Next, the creat ion of an o f f i ce as considerable as that of Regional A rch i v i s t , no mean f igure a t the head of no mean ins t i t u t i on , would al low i t to be invested with su f f i c i en t authori ty to bring compulsorily the o f f i c i a l archives of the region into h is charge, should that be necessary, thereby sat is fy c r i te r ion 5 Of course, compulsion in the case of business and other unof f ic ia l archives is not to be contemplated F i n a l l y , i t i s the only arrangement which of fers a prospect of developing into a mature local archives system for th is country The extremes of cent ra l izat ion and loca l izat ion have already been rejected as impracticable or unsat is factory, and whi ls t the dispersed solution of fers a l imited prospect for growth, i t s fragmented character w i l l in the long term have the e f fec t of permanently stunting i t s development and res t r i c t i ng the poss ib i l i t i es open to i t

Several matters re la t ing to the successful working of a regional record o f f i c e , even in ideal circumstances require further discussion

1 There should be only one record office m a region New Zealand I S fa r too Small a country to support more than one record o f f i ce in a region, or even another ins t i tu t ion co l lec t ing archives Supporting the existence bf even one record o f f i ce i s going to be d i f f i c u l t in some regions, and not only in the short term Well ington, with i t s national i ns t i t u t i ons , andAuckland, because of i t s large s i z e , are possible exceptions A general exception can perhaps be made for bodies generating su f f i c ien t archives to j us t i f y the i r employing a rch i v i s t s ' o f the i r own I have pa r t i cu la r l y in mind the corporations of c i t i e s with populations of over 100,000, the un i ve rs i t i es , and the very largest companies This would only be j u s t i f i e d i f the a rch iv i s t s employed were mem-bers of the central administrat ive s ta f f of the body concerned on the score of administrat ive convenience of such a s i tuat ion and i t s attendant records management advantages Thus the a r ch i v i s t of a c i t y corporation would be a member of the Town Clerk 's Department, and of a un i -vers i t y a member of the Registry I t may be convenient to locate him physical ly in the public or un ivers i ty l i b r a r y , as the case may be, but he should be responsible only to the Town Clerk or the Regist rar and not to the head of the l i b ra ry Unless th is i s done, much of the point of having an a r c h i v i s t a t a l l w i l l be los t and his ef fect iveness great ly reduced

2" Regional Archives councils This re la tes to the governance of regional record o f f i ces As archives are envisaged as being organised on a regional basis i t i s natural to think of the i r administrat ion as being a log ica l function of the new regional governments I f t h i s i s accepted, a pur is t would make the function the concern of a separate department of the regional government or locate the o f f i ce within the central administrat ive department, and i t would seem that i t s governance would be the same as for any other function of regional government But whatever the administrat ive placement of the regional record o f f i c e , whether within the structure of regional government or outside i t , the record o f f i ce w i l l a lso be responsible for large quant i t ies of d i s t r i c t o f f i ce and unof f ic ia l archives produced within the region, and which administrat ively have nothing to do with the regional government a t a l l This means that there has to be a governing, or a t the very leas t an advisory body, representat ive of a l l bodies interested in the successful working of the o f f i ce We can ca l l i t the Regional Archives Council To such a body the Regional Arch iv is t would be responsible for the good performance of h is duties and the running of the record o f f i c e , and from i t he must seek approval for his budget I t would a lso have the power to instruct him on matters of po l icy , though the f a c i l i t a t i v e decisions ought to be l e f t to the Regional Arch iv is t himself The composition of the Council should be small but representat ive I t could be as fol lows

Chief A rch i v i s t , National Archives (ex officio) Chief executive of the region or his nominee D i s t r i c t Council representat ive Member of the local jud ic ia ry Head of a d i s t r i c t o f f i ce

19

Professor of History a t the local univers i ty Another univers i ty nominee Businessman One other c lea r l y f i t t ed person Regional a rch iv i s t

The membership could of course be varied by the requirements of individual regions, but the weighting towards what may be termed the administrat ive members is de l ibera te , as the co-operation of the interest they represent i s absolutely essential for the successful working of the regional record o f f i ces The Chief Archiv is t would not be able to attend every meeting of a l l the coun-c i l s , but her r ight to be present when matters of exceptional importance are being considered could prove invaluable

3 separate archives budget The necessity of a separate archives budget holds true whether we have separately consti tuted record of f ices or not For Schellenberg th is is a sine qua non for the successful operation of an archives repository 17 The administration of archives is a d is t inc t function and any inst i tu t ion seeking to assume i t should seek and get separate funds to support that function Experience has shown that i t is extremely d i f f i c u l t to secure adequate provision for the f inancing of an archives programme in a budget which is pr imari ly concerned with other purposes The archives budget should have the approval of the regional archives council I t i s envisaged that funds w i l l be obtained from three sources

a Central Government with respect to d i s t r i c t o f f i ce archives held

b Local author i t ies with respect to local authority archives held

c Univers i t ies as the biggest s ingle cul tura l users of archives

Nothing much can be expected from other sources, though some large businesses might be persuaded to contribute with respect to business archives held The provision of a separate budget to which contributions can be made d i rec t l y w i l l great ly f a c i l i t a t e the i r securing

4 The delegation by the Chief Archivist to the Regional Archivists of her powers under the 1957 Archives Act with respect to district office archives This IS most desirable i f the regional record of f ices are to act as e f fec t i ve repositor ies for d i s t r i c t archives These de le-gated powers, in the g i f t of the Chief A rch i v i s t , should by no means be automatic, but they should be usual I f the circumstances warranted i t , they should be able to be withdrawn The Chief Arch iv is t would be ent i t led to lay down certa in minimum c r i t e r i a concerning disposit ion prac t ices , arrangement, l i s t i n g and access, so as to ensure reasonably uniform treatment of d i s -t r i c t o f f i ce records throughout the country This delegation helps meet c r i te r ion 5 I t w i l l require a substantial amendment to the Archives Act

5 The granting of powers of a similar nature to the Regional Archivist with respect to local authority archives Chief of these is the requirement that no records be destroyed without the authority of Regional Arch iv is t Again th is is essential for e f fec t i ve control over local authori ty archives and w i l l require leg is la t ion also

6 Amendments to the Companies, Incorporated Societies, Counties, Municipal Corporations and Local Government Acts The purpose of these would be to al low the Regional Arch iv is t to hold non-current records which are otherwise required by statute to be held a t the of f ices of local author i -t i e s , and the registered o f f ices of companies and incorporated societ ies This would c lear the way for the ready deposit of such statutory records as minutes of board or council meetings, regis ters of shareholders, e t c , which a t present by law is not s t r i c t l y permissible, though many bodies have done so

7 The granting to the Regional Archivists of the power of legally authenticating documents in their charge This power, essent ia l l y a matter of convenience, would make documents so authent i -cated acceptable as such in a court of law without need of fur ther proof Besides being convenient to a l l part ies concerned, the possession of th is power would have the incidental e f fec t of adding to the stature of the Regional Arch iv is t in the eyes of o f f i c i a l s who might otherwise doubt his competence general ly

JMPLEMENTATION

I t w i l l be objected that a l l th is i s pie in the sky, and so i t is a t the moment Though the concept of the regional record o f f i ce i s not capable of complete rea l izat ion for another ten, twenty or more yea rs , i t i s possible to make a beginning now Indeed i t is par t i cu la r ly important to begin now before other eas ier and in fer io r arrangements become too strongly entrenched f o r l a t e r

¿o

removal There are some very obvious problems* acceptance of the idea, administrat ive loca t ion , supply of a r c h i v i s t s , and, needless to say., T inance.

Acceptance of an idea can be achieved in two ways and i t i s best to make use of both I t can come through sustained, conscious and, i f necessary/Ti ighly public appl icat ion of pressure I t can a lso come through everyday l i v i ng with an idea a t work so that the f r u i t s of i t come to be accepted unconsciously and so the ins t i tu t ion behind them The f i r s t thing to do then i s to estab-l i sh the record o f f ices so that they have a not iona l , ' i f not ye t a physical existence, and then make them work gradually But i t i s important to begin with something, even i f i t is nothing more than an ident i ty The best way to get them started as going concerns i s to attach them to exist ing ins t i tu t ions and to th is end the f i t t e s t exist ing ins t i tu t ion within each region should be chosen, whether i t is now an approved repository or not Within the regional ins t i tu t ion the recordof f ice should be accorded a separate ident i ty and be known as such, for example, the Waikato Record Off ice and the Nelson Record Of f i ce , so that i t s presence in the region can be establ ished as f u l l y as possible In the case of selected ins t i tu t ions a lso being approved ins t i tu t ions under the 1957 Act then the disturbance of exist ing arrangements w i l l be minimal Two obvious candidates for the i r respect ive regions are the Hocken Library in Dunedin and the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch which in e f fec t already have embryonic record of f ices attached to them In time the record off ices can gradually be expected to grow up and away from the i r parent i ns t i t u t i ons , but the connection as with chi ldren grown never need be ent i re ly l o s t , and in most cases i t w i l l probably continue to be very close indeed, even to physical ly sharing the same quarters Good examples of th is arrange-ment in England are the co-existence of the India Off ice Library and Record O f f i ce , and the s i tuat ion of the Liverpool Record Off ice as a separate ent i ty within the Liverpool Publ ic L ibrary Wellington i s fortunate in having both the National Archives and the Manuscripts Section of the Alexander Turnbull L ibrary The functions of the Wellington Regional Record Off ice can be con-venient ly s p l i t between them, with the National Archives assuming responsib i l i ty for d i s t r i c t o f f i ce and local authori ty records, and the Alexander Turnbull L ibrary respons ib i l i ty for a l l un-o f f i c i a l archives

I t i s not to be expected that record o f f ices w i l l be able to be establ ished in th is way in a l l eighteen regions a t once In many cases su i tab le parent ins t i tu t ions are lacking A temporary expedient would be for the record of f ices establ ished i n i t i a l l y in the major regions, Auckland, Waikato, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Wel l ington, Canterbury and Otago to assume responsib i l i ty for the archives of the smaller regions unt i l record of f ices can be establ ished in these too The f i r s t arrangement could be as fol lows

Auckland responsible for Northland

Waikato

Hawke's Bay

Taranaki

Wellington

North Canterbury

Otago

Bay of Plenty

East Coast

Wanganui

Manawatu

Wairarapa

Nelson

Marlborough

West Coast

South Canterbury

Southland

I f , under these arrangements, i t proved necessary to t ransfer records from one region to another, then i t should be understood to be s t r i c t l y temporary, a holding of them in t rus t so to speak, unt i l they can be returned to the i r r ight fu l place As each of the smaller regions f e l t i t could begin to support i t s own record o f f i c e , i t would bud off from the o f f i ce of the major region to which i t was previously at tached, assume i t s own ident i t y , and take up a ready-made archival patrimony

The supply of a rch iv is ts could be resoled readi ly by supporting the course leading to the Diploma in Archives Administration a t present conducted in Sydney by the Univers i ty of New South Wales, in much the same way as the supply of va ter inanans was obtained before the establishment of the veter inary courses a t Massey Univers i ty The Department of Internal A f fa i rs i s the obvious body to sponsor such a scheme Something also might be done in the way of in - t ra in ing a t the National Archives

21

Of f inance, nothing much can be said a t th is stage i t is cruc ia l and a thorough costing of the whole scheme w i l l be absolutely essen t i a l , though the probable sources of funds have already been indicated

NATIONAL AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Defining the ro le of regional record of f ices also has the ef fect of defining in a negative way the role of the National Archives, the Alexander Turnbull L ib rary , and various special co l l ec -tions

1 The National Archives The National Archives should and always w i l l be the premier a rc -hives ins t i tu t ion of th is country, the one to which a l l others should look for guidance and leader-ship, and nothing is further from my intention that i t should be anything less As a national i ns t i tu t ion , however, i t should confine i t s holdings to o f f i c i a l archives of national s ign i f i cance, that is the records of head o f f i ces of Government departments, and only hold such regional archives as f a l l to i t in i t s function as part of the Wellington Record Off ice This does not mean that the Chief Arch iv is t should abandon his ultimate authority over a l l d i s t r i c t o f f i ce records, the r e -tention of th is w i l l be an important means of ensuring the maintenance of good standards of work in the regional record o f f ices to the benefi t of a l l archives held by them I t is envisaged that the National Archives w i l l have on i t s s ta f f an inspecting a rch i v i s t with a senior i ty a t l eas t equivalent to that of Regional Arch iv is t whose duty i t w i l l be to ensure that d i s t r i c t o f f i ce records are being well kept, and who is capable of giving advice on other matters when i t is asked for and sometimes when i t is not The natural authority of the National Archives can also be exerted as necessary through the Chief A rch i v i s t ' s membership of the various archives councils Whilst the influence of the National Archives on the regional reposi tor ies should be important, i t should not be so overwhelming as to s t i f l e innovation For th is reason the Chief A rch i v i s t ' s authority should not extend to local authori ty and unof f ic ia l records, which should remain com-pletely within the ambit of the Regional Archiv is ts

2 The Alexander Turnbull Library The Alexander Turnbull L ibrary should have the same role with respect to unof f ic ia l archives as the National Archives should have for o f f i c i a l arch ives, and occupy a posit ion analogous to that of the Department of Manuscripts in the B r i t i sh Library or the Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress, confining i t s e l f to archives of national s ign i f i cance, except those which f a l l to i t s lo t as the other part of the Wellington Record Off ice I t s natural f i e l d w i l l be the records of businesses and other organizations which have the i r national headquarters in Wellington To cope with such a task, however, w i l l require considerable upgrading in status and staf f numbers of the present Manuscripts Sect ion , with a head of Deputy Chief L ibrar ian rank

Those organizations, however, which have the i r headquarters in other regions, as for example the Plunket Society in Dunedin, should be encouraged to place the i r archives in the record off ices of the regions in which they are s i tuated In the f i r s t place th is i s desirable simply as a matter of administrat ive convenience, second, i t accords with the idea that the archives of a region should re f l ec t i t s to ta l a c t i v i t y , and, l a s t , nothing is bet ter for the morale and standing of a record o f f i ce than that i t should have some archives of national s igni f icance There is no doubt, for instance, that the archives and manuscripts co l lec t ion a t the Hocken L ib ra ry , Dunedin, would not have received much of the local support i t has had, i f i t had not been for i t s possession of the very prestigious co l lec t ion of ear ly Church Missionary Society records re la t ing to New Zealand

3 Special collections There are now in a small way beginning to p ro l i f e ra te , and are a growing cause for concern, par t i cu la r ly when they purport to be established on a national basis Often they are the brainchi ld of some academic or univers i ty department gathering material in support of a teaching or research programme Usually begun without consulting those with an established in terest in the matter, they usual ly prove to lack the resources for the proper ca re , arrangement and description of the archives col lected In my view, unless i t can be shown there i s a very special need for a subject co l l ec t i on , which cannot be handled in the ordinary way by the exist ing repos i tor ies , then they ought not to be begun at a l l and should be strongly d i s -couraged, as one person's co l lec t ion is so eas i ly another's chaos An honourable exception is the co l lec t ion of dairy factory archives brought together a t the Massey Univers i ty L ibrary

S R Strachan

22

REFERENCES

ι J C Beaglehole, 'The New Zealand Scholar 1 , , reprinted in The feel of truth, ed Peter Munz (1969) ρ 251

2 Τ R Schellenberg, Modern archives (1956) ρ 10

3 Ibid ρ 116

4 Hans-Joachim Behr, 'Archives and school education - p o s s i b i l i t i e s , problems, l i m i t s ' ,

UNESCO bulletin for libraries vol XXVI I I no 3 (May-June 1974) ρ 131-138.

s Ν Ζ State Serv ices Commission Management Serv ices Branch λ manual of records management (n d )

6 S R Strachan, 'Local body archives in New Zealand a personal v iew 1 , New Zealand libraries

vol 37 no 4 (August 1974) ρ 161-175

7 Pamela Cocks, Preliminary List of archives of local bodies m New Zealand I960 (I960)

8 J A E l l l S , Business archives m New Zealand - draft discussion paper Wel l ington, New

Zealand Ins t i tu te of Economic Research, 1974)

9 The Ins t i tu te of Chartered Secretar ies and Administrators New Zealand Div is ion The

disposal and retention of documents (n d )

10 J A E l l i s , op cit pp 13-16

11 F H Rogers, 'Archives and Public Records' , New Zealand libraries vol 15 no 1 (January/

February 1952) ρ 7

12 Sal vatore Carbone and Raoul Guêze, Draft model law on archives description and text

(1972) ρ 39

13 See a l s o , Society of A rch i v i s t s , Recommendations for local government archive services (1971)

and Local authority archive and records management services m metropolitan areas (1972)

14 Schel lenberg, op at ρ 121

15 For maps of administrat ive regions see, Ν Ζ Local Government Commission Regions and

districts of New Zealand (1973)

16 Ibid ρ 81

17 Schel lenberg, op at ρ 21-22

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THE REGIONAL ARCHIVES CONCEPT - AN AUCKLAND VIEWPOINT

For a long time i t has been a matter of concern to many people with an in terest in archives that there has been no coordination of archival a c t i v i t i e s in the Auckland region This matter came to the fore a t the Annual Conference of the Archives and Records Associat ion of New Zealand held m Auckland in 1980 At that Conference I put together a paper out l in ing some of the problems of coordinat ion, as I saw them Let me say a t the outset that then, as now, 1 know nothing about archive-keeping and would not even regard myself as an amateur in th is f i e l d

My in terest in the subject of archives has been l i t t l e more than a personal view that what is worth holding on to should be preserved and that persons in posit ions of respons ib i l i ty in any f i e l d should be encouraged to ensure that anything of h is tor ic in terest within the i r f i e l d must be preserved for poster i ty When I was asked to take part on the panel in the seminar on 30 August 1980, I had to do a considerable amount of homework, having t i l l that time never met anyone whom I ident i f ied as a professional a rch i v i s t or been in an archives repository From the research that I did pr ior to that Conference, i t became c lear that there were four essent ia l elements in approaching the question of archives in the Auckland area, or in any other area These were ade-quate physical f a c i l i t i e s , ident i fy ing and gathering archives that are in danger of being l o s t , the tapping of the vast goodwill in the form of human resources ready to work vo luntar i ly in the archives f i e l d , and, f i n a l l y , the need for a Regional Archives Council to both encourage and co-ordinate the ef for ts of people and organisations doing pract ica l work in the f i e l d of archives

ADEQUATE PHYSICAL FACILITIES

There are two leve ls of adequacy in terms of the physical f a c i l i t i e s for keeping archives F i r s t l y there i s space, not of repository standard, which is adequate to hold the material in the meantime, par t i cu la r ly up to the point where i t can be torted and c l a s s i f i e d On the second l e v e l , that of fu l ly - f ledged archives repos i to r ies , the problem i s more d i f f i c u l t I t is a case of obtaining space of a standard which the Director of National Archives can feel confident i s of a leve l that can be designated as a permanent archives repository What must be said i s that there is a considerable amount of square footage in numerous public buildings throughout New Zealand which meets both standards and which hardly can be said to be f u l l y l t i l i z e d a t the present time This par t i cu la r l y appl ies in public bodies I t i s largely a case of f inding organisations who have the sort of space ava i lab le that can be used for archives purposes

COLLECTION AND APPRAISAL

There i s an urgent need in New Zealand to ident i fy and where possible co l l ec t material with archival value and which is in danger of being los t I t does not matter great ly that i t i s not sorted or appraised a t th is stage I t i s important that i t be col lected and stored There is l i t t l e poss ib i l i t y that i t could be thoroughly appraised and sorted when there is a shortage of people, not necessar i ly professionals, who are competent to sort i t , and of professional people who can then use the i r judgement on i t s appraisal There is a need to have someone, e i ther professional or amateur, to go around contacting businesses and organisations which have material to go in the various archives This could well be the province of someone with experience in the business world and who has a f a c i l i t y for approaching firms and organizations

HUMAN RESOURCES

In the past i t would appear that too much emphasis has been placed on the need for more professional a rch i v i s t s The conventional wisdom appears to be that we need more a rch i v i s t s to do more archives work This need is not disputed However, what w i l l be a bone of contention is my impression that the few professional a rch iv i s t s who we have m New Zealand are engaged in too much "donkey work" and are not having the i r time and the i r professional ta lents u t i l i zed to the best and widest advantage The fac t that must also be faced is that the community i s STmply not prepared to pay from public resources for a large increase in the number of fu l l - t ime pro-fessional a rch iv i s t s The leading question to be faced is how to recru i t people of the r ight ca l ib re who are w i l l i ng to work with the various co l l ec t i ons , par t i cu la r ly on sor t ing, appraising and 1 ist ing

Fortunately, there is a solution Given a speci f ied minimum amount of elementary t ra in ing , there are dedicated people in the community who would very readi ly provide help, not because they would be paid for the i r e f for ts but rather because sort ing and appraisal and l i s t i n g would~give them an interest in l i f e Before looking a t the types of people a v a i l a b l e , i t i s however necessary for us to look a t the t ra in ing that is required before such people would be of any

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e f fec t i ve use or could be entrusted with sor t ing, appraisal and l i s t i n g

In many professions, technicians with l imited s k i l l s are taking over much of the day-to-day work which would otherwise be undertaken by professions Probably the best example of the use of sk i l l ed technicians is in the medical f i e l d where the development of "paramedicals" is now a successful and well-proven part of the pract ice of medicine These s k i l l s are taught a t various te r t i a r y ins t i tu t ions such as the Polytechnics and Night Schools While i t i s recognised there i s a need for f u l l y professional a rch i v i s t s to be adequately t ra ined, hopefully a t un ivers i ty l e v e l , there i s a very real scope for short-term concentrated courses to be ava i lab le for people who do not expect to become fu l l y professional in the f i e l d of archives pract ice but who see i t as much a hobby as anything e lse From the people attending these classes i t would be possible to then ident i fy not only those who could then be of assistance on a voluntary basis for the various co l lec t ions but also those who, from the i r other experience, could bring par t icu lar back-ground knowledge for par t icu lar kinds of co l lec t ions They would have to pass an examination that would establ ish that they had a level of competence and trustworthiness The t ra in ing and examinations that the volunteers would be given and the terms of reference under which they would work would have to guard against excesses of enthusiasm by "enthusiast ic amateurs"

The blunt fac t that we have to face is that the time and labour involved to do an adequate job on the country 's archives is enormous We can e i ther tap the resources of volunteers or con-tinue to have the problem in front of us in i t s present parlous state The question which must be answered i s "What sort of people would be interested in becoming part-t ime volunteer a r c h i -v i s t s 7 " I t would seem that the most l i ke l y areas of recruitment would be

1 re t i red people looking for an in te res t ,

2 houswives looking for an escape for a few half days each week from the kitchen s ink,

3 hobbyists in fu l l - t ime work but who would be w i l l i ng to give some of the i r l e i su re time to working among archives

We have to face the fac t that today there are a very great many people with good educational qua l i f i ca t ions who

1 do not want to be put out to grass when they r e t i r e , or

2 want an in teres t outside the home, or

3 want something to do in the i r spare time

There are many people who f i t a l l three of these categories A l l these people are looking for something to do that is knowledge-orientated, labour intensive and mentally sa t i s fy ing I t i s not expected that any of these people would be recognised as professional a r ch i v i s t s They would be part-t ime voluntary technicians working a t the i r own pace a t a job they enjoy doing They would need a l imited amount of supervision and would cer ta in ly have to work under the d i rect ion of a professional a r c h i v i s t , though often a t locat ions and times when that professional person could not be personally present I f the country cannot afford to t ra in a corps of fu l l - t ime profes-sional a r c h i v i s t s , the leas t i t can do is to make regular courses a v a i l a b l e , possibly on a night c lass basis in the main cent res , so that people who wish to become equipped in the most elementary archival s k i l l s have an opportunity to learn about th is f i e l d

What i s important i s that New Zealand produce, in a hurry, a group of people who have been adequately trained in the elementary s k i l l s and a t the end of a c lass are given a c e r t i f i c a t e which says that they have these s k i l l s and thereby can be entrusted with elementary work in the archives f i e l d This opportunity would be ava i lab le not j us t to hobbyists taking an in teres t in th is f i e l d but could be par t i cu la r l y valuable to those people working in public or pr ivate sector organizations and who have some responsib i l i ty within the i r organizations for archives keeping In no way is i t suggested that they should undertake the higher leve l work expected of a rch i v i s t s -the judgement side must be l e f t to people with much higher s k i l l s - but they could provide r e l i e f to professional a rch i v i s t s by doing a tremendous amount of time-consuming sort ing and other work In short , for every do l la r of expenditure on t ra in ing such people, the return in e f fo r t would be enormous I t may well be tha t , in the f i na l a n a l y s i s , the work of the fu l l - t ime professional a rch iv i s t s should be essent ia l l y that of supervising and encouraging archival work rather than being submerged in day-to-day work in the various reposi tor ies

THE NORTHERN ARCHIVES AND RECORDS TRUST

The work of archives has a spec i f i c p lace, a l b e i t too often unrecognised, in each community's governmental st ructure Apart from the National Archives which is a creat ion of s tatute and some

/

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voluntary organizations such as ARANZ, the work in the f i e l d of archives in New Zealand suffers from a lack of st ructural arrangements which enables the work of a rch iv i s ts to be coordinated and encouraged One of the biggest def ic iencies about the archives scene in Auckland has been i t s lack of coordination There is some very useful work being done in the Auckland Museum, Auckland Un ivers i ty , Auckland City L ib rary , some of the churches and a few business concerns In some spec ia l i s t areas such as the new Maritime Museum, valuable work i s a lso being undertaken Unti l recent ly , there has been no organization which has helped bring a l l these elements together to f a c i l i t a t e the i r work to ensure that they are not crossing each other 's tracks However, the Auckland region i s known for i t s wi l l ingness to take i n i t i a t i v e s in creating new organizations, a s i tuat ion that is often brought about by the dispersed nature of i t s local government

I t has been to f i l l th is need that there has recently been formed the Northern Archives and Records Trust This is a new type of organisation and is a f i r s t for New Zealand I t is fee l ing i t s way very care fu l ly The Trust i s made up bas ica l ly of a representat ive of each of National Archives, the Auckland Museum, ARANZ, Auckland Univers i ty , Auckland City L ib ra ry , the ARA, local government, a leading businessman, and a leading lawyer This Trust has as i t s purpose the very simple task of coordinating and encouraging those who are engaged in the work of archives in the Auckland area I t s stated object ives are as follows

1 To promote the co l l ec t i on , appra isa l , preservation and use of archives and records

2 To promote the development of designated archival repositor ies in the region

3 To encourage the work of those organisations concerned with archives and records manage-ment and preservation

4 To promote the t ra in ing of a l l people - both professional and volunteer - who are interested in archives and records management, including courses and examinations

5 To work in co-operation and co-ordination with the National Archives of New Zealand

6 To arrange the co-ordination of archival a c t i v i t i e s in the region

7 To arrange for the dissemination of l i s t s of archives held in the region and to support the widest possible access to a l l l i s t s of archives

8 To encourage a l l organisations and people with archival material to ensure the proper retention of that material

The formation of the Trust was in i t i a ted a t the Conference in 1980 when a steering committee was set up I t was fortunate that the leaders of various organizations involved in archives were w i l l i ng to be members of that steer ing committee The Auckland City Council provided the secre-ta r i a l arrangements fo r the committee The steering committee met on several occasions, pr ior to resolving to form i t se l f into a Trust I t was recognised a t the outset that the biggest def ic iency about archives in Auckland was the fac t that there did not appear to be any f u l l y trained profes-sional a rch iv i s t in Auckland At that time arrangements were commenced for the appointment of an a rch i v i s t to National Archives in Auckland That appointment is s t i l l to be f ina l i sed The steering committee tended to the view that i t should wait for th is appointment to be made so that i t had ava i lab le to i t the expertise and knowledge and some contribution of e f fo r t by the person appointed After a couple of years of wait ing for th is appointment to be made, the steering commit-tee decided that i t could wait no longer and proceeded to form the Northern Archives and Records Trust That Trust i s being registered under the Charitable Trusts Act

In the formation of any new body, par t i cu la r l y when i t s formation i s an innovation in i t s e l f , i t i s important that the people appointed are of the kind that are used to making decisions and acting with authori ty In having representatives of various organizations they should be the leaders of those organizations or cer ta in in s ign i f i can t posit ions of authori ty I t i s far better to have the managing director than the o f f i ce boy People in lower leve ls who have to report back to the i r superiors are not in a posit ion to make decisions which may commit the i r organisat ion, neither do they always have the a b i l i t y to communicate the thinking of the i r organisation The Northern Archives and Records Trust was par t i cu la r ly fortunate in a t t rac t i ng , as Trustees, people of the highest ca l ib re Although they are drawn from a wide spectrum of community organizations, each of the trustees are appointed in the i r own individual r ight The t rus tees , c o l l e c t i v e l y , have the power to appoint the i r successors For th is reason, i t i s cruc ia l that the f i r s t trustees be people of the highest ca l ib re

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I t must be stressed that the Trust must act only as a co-ordinating and encouraging body and not as a body that undertakes speci f ic tasks nor creates an "empire" for i t s e l f I t taps the wi l l ingness of people to be co-ordinated but in no way attempts to d i rec t them I f the Trust was to undertake spec i f i c tasks which are already done, or could be done, by other organizat ions, i t would possibly get into con f l i c t with those other organizations I t i s important that the Trust both define i t s ro le and l im i t i t se l f to that ro le That ro le is one of co-ordination and en-couragement I t has no powers to demand that anyone do anything This is i t s strength I t can only act by persuasion

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES

The Northern Archives and Records Trust has recognised r ight from i t s e a r l i e s t discussions that with over 40 t e r r i t o r i a l and special purpose local government organizations in the Auckland area, each with the i r own set of h is tor ic records, there is a danger that some of these records could readi ly be los t due to inadvertance or ignorance There is a fear that when local govern-ment people clean out records they may infr inge the Local Government Act in that they may throw everything out and destroy some records that may be of great value to those who do research in the future Many local government o f f icers would be w i l l i ng to be assisted i f professional advice was ava i lab le to ass is t them in termimng which records should be kept as records, which records should be kept as archives and which records should be disposed of , thus f reeing storage and other space

One of the principal object ives of th is whole exercise i s to t i e in records management and archives and to provide a d i rec t l ink from local government to National Archives To th is end, the Trust has been exploring the poss ib i l i t y of appointing a local government a rch i v i s t for the Auckland area who can go around the 40 or so local government units and help them The Trust , in c lose col laborat ion with National Archives, is now ass is t ing m the preparation of a manual of local government records and archive-keeping and which w i l l be the prescript ion on which local government a rch iv i s t s and local body organizations can base the i r a c t i v i t i e s The preparation of th is manual i s a most important ask and is expected to be completed in the near future

CONCLUSION

Many sayings have been at t r ibuted to Confucius, a l o t of which are quite unprintable, but h is ed ic t that "act ion without thought is dangerous but thought without act ion is f u t i l e " appl ies to what a l l the regions of New Zealand have the opportunity to do about the i r archives a t th is time I t would be the hope of everyone connected with archives in Auckland that not only w i l l the newly-formed Northern Archives and Records Trust f u l f i l a l l the hopes of those who have encouraged i t s formation but that people in other regions of New Zealand w i l l see i t , and fee l f ree to use i t , as an example of what might be achieved in the i r own areas

Jolyon F i r th Chairman Northern Archives and Records Trust

TOWARDS A REGIONAL ARCHIVES - THE HOCKEN LIBRARY AS

PROTOTYPE

Writ ing as I am to th is t i t l e suggested by the Ed i to r , here i t is f i ve years on from the Smith Report and s t i l l the archival community is being offered the Hocken Library as a prototype Regional Record Off ice But a prototype is the or ig inal thing in re la t ion to any copy, l a te r specimen or improved form Where is such a copy or l a t e r specimen, l e t alone improved form7 In view of National Archives being in the process of set t ing up branch o f f ices in Auckland and Christchurch, the functions of which w i l l presumably be res t r ic ted to central government records, and m view of the fragmented s ta te of archives administration in both these centres as well as (where i t ex ists a t a l l ) elsewhere except Wellington and Dunedin, is i t re levant to of fer the Ho-

d Library as a progenitor7 How has that role come to be assigned to i t 7 On the basis of his very considerable experience, a wide ranging v i s i t to th is country in 1978, equally wide d i s -cussions with administrators, a rch iv i s ts and users, and a thorough invest igat ion of pert inent l i t e ra tu re and records, Dr Wi l f red I Smith in h is published Report recommended that 'An Otago

29

Regional Archives should be established as a model as soon as possib le ' The Hocken Library because i t was 'performing most of the functions of a regional arch ives ' obviously had a key ro le to play in the implementation of the recommendations, but was not i t se l f to be the regional archives The point bears emphasising

There are good reasons why the L ib rary , although i t struggles manfully ( forg ive me, person-a l l y ) to do i t s best by archives in i t s area and in the process performs most of the functions of a regional a rch ives , should not and does not seek to set i t s e l f up as a model for future develop-ment The most immediate, par t i cu la r l y in f i nanc ia l l y strai tened times, and compelling of these i s in fac t f inancia l The Hocken Library is one of a number of l i b ra r i es wholly financed and adminis-tered by the Universi ty of Otago The others are General Stud ies, Law, Medical/Dental and Science The Univers i ty , through the Univers i ty Grants Committee and according to various formulae developed by that body, receives quinquennial block grants to enable to to f u l f i l a l l i t s functions There is no evidence that the l ib rary formula is var ied from univers i ty to univers i ty to make allowance for special respons ib i l i t ies Consequently the Universi ty of Otago received no special considera-t ion for the f ac t that the Hocken Library performs most of the functions of a regional archives The e f fec t must obviously be that resources given to archives are denied to other aspects of the 1ibrary system

How i s i t that Otago, alone among New Zealand un ivers i t ies is in this s i t ua t i on 7 In 1907, Dr Τ M Hocken, medical pract i t ioner ' , amateur h i s to r ian , co l lec tor and bibliographer gave his co l lec t ion to the Universi ty to be held ' i n t rust as a public reference l ib rary or museum of information' The co l lec t ion ranged the whole gamut of l i b ra ry materials - books, pamphlets, newspapers, maps, p ic tures , photographs manuscripts, although not archives in the sense they are now talked of The l e t t e r s and journals of Samuel Marsden and the ear ly missionaries in New Zealand were in f ac t part of the archives of the Church Missionary Soc ie ty , London, from whom Dr Hocken obtained them ear ly th is century, but the i r d iscrete nature in th is country changes the i r character to that of manuscripts Nevertheless the presence of these highly important items on the shelves of the Library and the amount of use they received undoubtedly played a very i n -f l uen t ia l part in the way the L ibrary l a t e r developed in the archival f i e l d This development commenced in the ear ly 1950s and has gathered momentum so that by now there are close on 2000 metres of such material and i t includes the archives of d i s t r i c t o f f ices of government departments, t e r r i t o r i a l and ad hoc local au thor i t i es , business f i rms, employee organisations and a l l manner of community organisations

Of course the advantage to the Library and i t s users occasioned by the presence of th is body of research material i s that i t i s a v a i l a b l e , that i t increases the usefulness of the rest of the co l lect ions and that they, in turn , increase the usefulness of the archives But the cost to the Universi ty in both f inanc ia l terms and in the denial of that money to other resources i s something that needs to be n ice ly gauged

Here is a further reason why the Hocken Library should not serve as a model for archival development What is true in the wider univers i ty context i s equally true within the Library i t -se l f Over the yea rs , l i b r a r i es have developed philosophies of existence out of which have grown techniques of management to meet the aims and objects embodied in those philosophies The stock-in-trade of l i b ra r i es is books and, to a lesser extent, other printed material L ibrar ians under-stand these materials well and can manipulate them, acquire them, not acquire them, serv ice them, lend them or not lend them, even dispose of them, with re l a t i ve ease To a r r i ve in th is happy s i tuat ion they are f i r s t of a l l trained in l i b ra ry schools and then have the resources of the pub-l i sh ing industry to ca l l on, a whole range of publ ishers' catalogues, national and other b ib l i o -graphies, reviewing journa ls , dea lers ' catalogues, a not inconsiderable body of l ib ra ry l i t e ra tu re and the face- to- face contact provided by meetings of l ib ra ry associat ions Archives, however, are another matter L ibrar ians are not trained in the i r administrat ion, there are no published l i s t s of what i s ava i l ab le , there are no dealers Moreover the sheer bulk of archives and the i r almost l im i t less var ie ty of format demand d i f ferent techniques of handling, techniques in which the l i b -ra r i an , accustomed to the re l a t i ve l y homogeneous format of the book, has no experience Access to information contained in archives i s conducted pn quite d i f ferent l i nes from those used with books Archives are unique, books are not The upshot of these and other aspects i s that l i b ra ry adminis-t ra to rs , where they are involved with archives do not bring to bear in that f i e l d the same leve l of t ra in ing and experience that they do with books The resul t must be to the detriment of a rc -hives Here i t must be made abundantly c lear that what is not being said i s that l ib rar ians should not have involved themselves with archives I t i s c lear that had they not, and did they not in such a s i tuat ion as the Hocken L ib rary , many, many ardhives would not have survived But that i s history The posit ion now within the Hocken Library and within i t s wider administrat ive set-up of the Universi ty of Otago l i b ra ry system, i s that the archives are competing for resources on a s ign i -f i cant scale and when decisions are made, the weight of experience must inevi tably f a l l on the side of conventional l ib ra ry materials This is not to deny the sympathy, even considerable understand-

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ing, the decision-makers bring to bear on the matter However, the scope and size ot the archives within the Hocken L ibrary , i f j us t i ce is to be done to them, now demand better than th is competing on an unequal footing Indeed the state of archives within the community a t large in the Otago/ Southland region demands better than the brave struggles of the Hocken Library and of the Univer-s i t y to cope with the s i tuat ion

Five years ago Dr Smith read the signs well 'An Otago Regional Archives should be estab-l ished as a model [ fo r the rest of the country] as soon as possible I t should have a d is t inc t ident i ty and budget [and] appropriate respons ib i l i t ies under the Local Government Act ' Note that the model is to be a f ree standing one, to have a ' d i s t i nc t ident i ty '

Even before the advent of Dr Smith, the desirable di rect ion of archival development in the south had been foreseen At the request of the Hocken L ib rary , the Department of Internal A f fa i r s in 1976 convened a meeting in Dunedin of representatives from the Department, the Un ivers i ty , the L ibrary , National Archives, the Dunedin City Council and the Otago Council That meeting agreed in pr inc ip le to the sett ing up of an Otago Record Off ice and the Hocken L ib ra ry , as part of the Un ivers i ty , indicated which of i t s holdings i t would be prepared, with adequate safeguards, to t ransfer to such an o f f i ce I t was reassuring to a l l those concerned that th is general approach received the endorsement of Dr Smith

The only development since th is meeting has been the payment by National Archives of a modest grant, both th is year and l a s t , as some recognition of the costs incurred by the Univers i ty over very many years in administering central government records of local or ig in The grants have been used to employ an Archives Ass is tant , but while obviously better than nothing, the agreement is unsat isfactory for there i s no guarantee of cont inu i ty , the costs incurred are markedly higher than the grants and no thought has been given to the rat ional development of the s i tuat ion There i s hope however that the arrangement i s a precursor of change

Ample evidence ex is ts that the rat ional development ought to be as a total regional archives The case has been argued most cogently by Stuart Strachan in h is 1975 paper 'Local archives in New Zealand' (printed above), 's t rongly ' endorsed by Dr Smith, and i t i s ARANZ pol icy Embodied in the proposal i s the idea tha t , consistent with the i r proper physical care ' l o c a l l y produced records should be l oca l l y held for local use' for there is no question but that archives receive the i r greatest use in the area in which they were created One example suf f ices to va l idate the point here The Canterbury Prov inc ia l Government archives created and s t i l l held in Christchurch receive immeasurably greater use than do the Otago Provinc ia l Government archives held in Dunedin but since removed to Wellington Moreover a t the demise of the Provincia l Government various ad hoc author i -t i es were created to assume respons ib i l i t ies previously taken care of by the province So, inquirers in to , for example, the medical and hospital history of Otago, education, or the development of Otago Harbour can pursue the i r in terest a rch iva l l y only to 1876 For the ea r l i e r years they must e i ther re ly on published sources (and too many books in the f i e l d of New Zealand history demonstrate the dangers inherent in doing th is ) or they must face the expense and inconvenience of a t r i p to and stay in Wellington The level of use the provincial archives obtain in Wellington indicates that the l a t t e r option i s not open to most inquirers Indeed the existence of those many books that simply repeat e r ro rs , mis-statements and wrong interpretat ions from one to the next is an indica-t ion of how d i f f i c u l t i t has been to consult archives in the past In a tota l a rch ives , the inquirer w i l l a lso f ind ready access to sources that w i l l complement o f f i c i a l records i f that is his main body of research material For example, in the f i e l d of heal th , the records of bene-volent and f r iendly soc ie t i es , patient a id soc ie t i es , even the l e t t e r s of indiv iduals And the proposition also works in reverse

In the cause of better administration of archives throughout New Zealand, i t i s apparent there are very good reasons for not offer ing the Hocken Library i t s e l f as a model for future development Rather, an Otago Record Off ice should be established much on the l i nes advocated a t the previously referred to 1976 Dunedin meeting and recommended by Dr Smith Elsewhere, and in the interim unt i l the Otago development can be assessed, improvements should be inst i tu ted but not in such a way that pre-empts the poss ib i l i t y of future s imi lar development In the long term th is course w i l l best serve the future needs of the country

M G Hitchings Hocken L ibrary

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THE IDEA OF THE COUNTY RECORD OFFICE

THE ENGLISH EXPERIENCE

The idea of the county record o f f i ce has spread throughout England over the l a s t th i r t y years Al l county councils now accept responsib i l i ty for preserving not only the i r own records but a lso others from the local community and the usual pat tern, in a l l save one or two, has been to set up a local record o f f i ce as part of the local government se rv i ce , financed from local rates Wales has followed su i t Scotland has rejected the county system but has been encouraged to decentral ize some of i t s services

What are the advantages seen in the system of local care of locally-produced records 7 In the English county record o f f i ce you can expect to f ind a fu l l range of records for the local community from many centur ies , o f f i c i a l as well as pr ivate records. They are housed in many places from the purpose-built repository to the old house, disused prison or barracks In a l l , the researcher can hope to f ind a trained and informed a r ch i v i s t , a research room, catalogues and indexes, perhaps a small l i b ra ry of reference books and some copying f a c i l i t i e s The owner and potential depositor can look for professional advice and the care , repair and storage of records, eventual l i s t i n g and descript ion and even publication The a rch iv i s t has the securi ty of a profession within the local government framework, union representation and a body of colleagues True, the rate-payer has to pay, but has control of h i s local records, can use the services and can ca l l the Council to account for the care of h i s past Twenty years ago, Maurice Bond summed up the advantages as having a recognizable sphere of inf luence, covering almost the whole country, and being under public control and accessible throughout the year

Why has the idea been so accepted in England? I t i s par t ly the needs of s ixty mi l l ion people generating local government and pr ivate records in vast quant i t ies From the past there i s the accumulation of records from a country about the same size as New Zealand with a t leas t a thousand years of record-making behind i t The continuity of government, the force of t r a d i -t i o n , the complexities of the land law have a l l helped to make and preserve records and there has been comparative peace and immunity from major wars within B r i t a in in contrast to the Continent A lo t of records have survived and in many places

The reason, however, i s not solely in the quantity arid d ist r ibut ion of records I t i s also because of the long history and the strength of local communities and local government County government, through counties and shires and thei r rural and urban a reas , has been a r ea l i t y since the Anglo-Saxons Central government has exploited and control led i t but the communities have never los t the i r v i t a l i t y and individual character Over the centuries the community of the county or sh i re has been taxed, judged, represented on ju r ies and in law courts or in Parliament or organized for the army musters or for the Poor Law, and the records, whether central or l o c a l , re f lec t that community This has made i t sensible for the county record o f f i ce to exist today with the o f f i c i a l county records as the nucleus of i t s col lect ions The county has remained the unit of local government throughout many changes in county author i t ies I t has remained so despite the occasional forai s into greater regionalism m the 20th century and even a f te r the 1973 reorganization which changed many h is tor ic boundaries Indeed, by incorporating many county boroughs into the count ies, the reorganization made archival sense and reinforced the claim for the county record o f f i ce to co l l ec t and keep the community's records

I cannot pretend that the sett ing up of county record of f ices has been as automatic or as easy as the history I have sketched might suggest Previous county administrations often managed to evade the problem or lose the documents, although i t has long been an obligation for them to main-ta in the i r records Quarter Sessions which from the 14th century came to be the chief adminis-t ra t i ve body was a court of record and from the same time there was a custos rotuiorum, 'a guardian of the r o l l s ' , who had oversight of the records He was normally, from the 17th century, the Lord Lieutenant and he usually delegated the duty to the Clerk of the Peace, the Clerk of Quarter Sessions Since Quarter Sessions in most counties do not seem to have had a permanent home unt i l the la ter 17th century, the Lords Lieutenant and the Clerks of the Peace often kept the o f f i c i a l papers with the i r own personal and family papers a pol icy that sometimes los t them but some-times could be the i r sa lva t ion , kept safely in some great country house From the 18th century such papers were more l i ke l y to survive in the Quarter Sessions' quarters in the Shire Hal ls In the 19th century there was another hazard as Boards were created to cope with the problems of the Poor Law, highways, san i ta t ion , e t c , and the records could be in many hands County Councils were created in 1889 and took over the administrat ive work of Quarter Sessions and, in t ime, that of the Boards and became hei r to the i r records, as well as creating many more as they took on new functions in education, we l fa re , motor l icensing and so on I t was reorganization of local govern-ment and the accumulation of records that forced the issue of record-keeping on the councils

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Even so, unt i l the mid-20th century the records could often be stored in odd corners and base-ments The more modern 'paper explosion' made i t imperative to take steps

The impetus to organize the records into an o f f i ce i s , therefore, fa r more recent in England than is often real ized Only a few of f ices had got under way before the Second World War Middlesex, Hert fordshire, Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire and Essex In Essex, Emmison was the pioneer in the associat ion of the record o f f i ce with the Education author i ty , rather than merely being an adjunct of the legal department of the County Council After the war there was a boom in a record of f ices and by 1968 prac t i ca l l y a l l the present ones had come into existence The growth was fostered by the work of the National Register of Archives, the B r i t i s h Record Association and the Society of A rch i v i s t s , and by the t ra in ing courses set up There was a boom in education and a revived in terest in history in the country

Some of the most successful record o f f ices are those which care for both ancient and modern records of the i r counc i ls , as a t Worcester where modern Council records have been one of the prime concerns of the a rch i v i s t I t is important to note the preoccupation with recent records among many a rch iv i s ts in B r i t a i n The journal of the Society of Archiv is ts has many pleas for the a rch iv i s t to take on the task of select ion and destruction as well as preservation of current records and only a few vo ices , one from Aus t ra l i a , have urged them to l e t the 'dust s e t t l e ' I n -volvement with current or recent ly-current records makes i t p la in to the County Secretar ies that a record o f f i ce i s ac tua l ly useful Some of f ices keep a ' t e r r i e r ' , maps and d e t a i l s , of the land and property held and being acquired by the counc i l , they may hold the footpath and commons information, de ta i l s of h is tor ic buildings l i s t e d , and, through the i r many records, have become essent ia l to the smooth working of the Councils I t often gives the a rch i v i s t much-needed status among the chief o f f i cers of the Council For the o f f i ce i t s e l f , i t preserves the cont inui ty of the o f f i c i a l archives as a body of records in process of 'continuous creat ion ' And researchers prefer the a r ch i v i s t to se lect the i r records than for a team of e f f ic iency experts from records management firms to dispose of what is not current

Probably the public most often knows about and consults the many pr ivate records which are deposited in the county record of f ices This serv ice offered to pr ivate owners was hesi tant a t f i r s t , but a l l counties have come to accept and, indeed, ac t i ve ly s o l i c i t and search for such records They are often the ea r l i es t records that they hold As the great landed estate has broken up i t has been fortunate that the county record o f f i ce has been there to l i s t , rescue and preserve such essent ia l material fo r the history of the community But the small depositor with one or two deeds i s also a feature of the record o f f i ce

To accept pr ivate records has not been without i t s problems other than those of sheer space and staf f ing The archival pr inc ip le of not sp l i t t i ng the archive group has had to be modified so that records re la t ing to d i f fe rent counties can be dispersed to the respect ive county record of f ices Good l i s t i n g and cross-referencing have made that more acceptable than some a rch i v i s t s o r ig ina l l y feared The problem of g i f t or deposit has been much more d i f f i c u l t Should the o f f i ce accept records from pr ivate people only as outright g i f ts or as deposits with the reservation of u l t i -mate ownership to the depositor ' Most o f f i c e s , indeed a l l , I be l i eve , opted for the l a t t e r and only now in the 1980s are some of the catches becoming obvious Fami l ies , t rustees of es ta tes , now see that records are worth money and there i s a fear that they may move to reclaim deposits on which the county has spent much staf f - t ime and much money in cataloguing, repa i r ing, micro-f i lming and even publishing indeed i t has happened in one or two notable cases recently The current worry of county record o f f ices is how to secure these pr ivate co l lec t ions for the community and how to recoup money and time spent on them i f they are reclaimed Many now urge that the councils secure a more legal agreement when deposits are accepted, an agreement that w i l l l e t them hold the deposit for a t least a number of yea rs , have i t microfilmed i f withdrawn and have some compensation for the work given to i t However, i t i s a de l icate relat ionship on which much of the success of the county record o f f i ce has been bu i l t and the a rch iv i s t i s concerned that the t rust between the depositor and the o f f i ce w i l l be destroyed in the sale room

The value of the county record o f f i ce has encouraged other inst i tu t ions to deposit the i r records there par ishes, for example, ecc les ias t i ca l author i t ies or business firms Some dioceses maintain separate reposi tor ies for the i r diocesan records, as for Oxford in the Bodleian Library (now being transferred to the County Record O f f i c e ) , for Ely in Cambridge Univers i ty L ibrary or for York a t the S t Anthony's Others have designated county record of f ices as the i r reposi tor ies I t is the combination of such a var ie ty of o f f i c i a l , pr ivate and other ins t i tu t iona l records that has made the county record o f f i ce the focus of so many h is to r ica l a c t i v i t i e s in the county, not jus t an o f f i ce for the Council or the academic History i s one of the big le isure- t ime pursuits in England, par t i cu la r ly family history and genealogy which, of course, a lso brings in the overseas enquirer Many councils recognise the need and encourage lec tu res , exhibit ions and publications from the o f f i ce The pur ist has grumbled about the diversion of the a r c h i v i s t ' s time but the

33

public has wanted i t The county record o f f i ce can be seen as serving the public not only with i t s records but also with i t s s k i l l and knowledge

What uniformity i s there 7 The county record o f f i ce is not the product of a 'system' imposed from above There are many var ia t ions from one o f f i ce to another Some uniformity i s given through the professional body of the Society of Archiv is ts and the B r i t i s h Records Association Some i s through the 1962 Archives Act I t had been real ized that the Councils needed authori ty for the amount of money they spent on arch ives, l i t t l e as i t might seem to be Could an authori ty actua l ly spend the rates on publ icat ions, lec tu res , exhimtions and other educational services or indeed on such things as the storage and repair of non-of f ic ia l records 7 What were the powers over other lesser local author i t ies in the county? The Act authorized such expenditure and allowed the councils to supervise the care of records of local government generally in the counties This sa t i s f i ed the Publ ic Auditor and encouraged the author i t ies to expand the i r work As in the case of the un i ve rs i t i es , the 1960s was the hey-day of the county record of f ices

They had r i v a l s , of course One of the problems m England stems from the la te a r r i va l of the county record o f f i ce Other i ns t i t u t i ons , l i b ra r i es and museums had stepped into the breach in the 19th and 20th centuries They did much valuable work and often formed the pressure group fo r a county record o f f i ce Unfortunately, a f te r 1924, the Master of the Rol ls could designate various bodies as repositor ies for manorial records and th is encouraged the work of local l i b -r a r i e s , so designated, as record-col lect ing ins t i tu t ions Few can supply the professionalism necessary and archives remain in them a poor re la t ion often of the l i b r a r y ' s other co l lect ions In other f i e lds the records of f ices are challenged as some un ivers i t ies seek to bui ld up archives col lect ions for the i r par t icu lar studies as in the Rural History Department of Reading Univers i ty or the Modern Records Centre a t Warwick What these other co l lect ing bodies cannot o f fe r , i t is argued, i s the combination of a community's records from many sources or that continuity of c o l -lect ing when the par t icu lar student or professor departs. I t i s not always easy for the general public to consult these records and they may not fee l comfortable among the academics In an-other s i tua t ion , no one would dispute the appropriateness of the generator of the records sett ing up thei r own record o f f i c e , as in the case of business and banking corporations But there i s always the disadvantage of too many small o f f ices and not enough support and resources fo r a small s ta f f I t i s commendable that smaller firms and local businesses often turn to the county record o f f i ce as the i r appropriate local centre I t i s the v i r tue of the county a rch iv i s ts that they are loca l l y based, able to bui ld up local contacts and en l i s t local support in rescuing and preserving records

Counties themselves can be poor and unwil l ing to devote su f f i c ien t resources to record o f f ices For th is reason larger regions are often advocated, but given the county basis of English local government and the way the records have been made, th is is hard to rea l ize But there are jo in t author i t ies as in the Cumberland and Westmoreland j o i n t record o f f i c e , and the Hereford and Worcester Record Off ice deals with an enlarged region a f te r the 1973 reforms, and there are other examples of cooperation between county and borough author i t ies I t is possibly a way for the future

I t i s interest ing to consider why the Publ ic Record Off ice in B r i t a in has not sought to cen-t ra l i ze the co l lec t ion of records and the care of them The answer is that they do not have the legal powers to do so In 1897 the Regius Professor of Modern History a t Oxford suggested such a move but government advisors to the Treasury soon pointed out that ' l oca l archives are not the property of the S ta te ' 1 Local au thor i t i es , that i s , are lega l l y bound to keep thei r own records and the pr ivate owner has a pr ivate property r ight in his archives I t i s doubtful whether the Publ ic Record Off ice then or now would have wanted such a task Relat ions, i t seems, are reason-ably harmonious with local record of f ices Since 1958 the relat ionship has been close in tha t , under section 4 ( i ) of the Public Record office Act, repositor ies have to be l icensed to hold certa in designated public records, for example coroners' or Quarter Sessions' records Local respositor ies a r e , therefore, v i s i ted per iod ica l ly by the l ia ison o f f icer of the Publ ic Record Off ice to check the i r f a c i l i t i e s and a b i l i t y to look a f te r public records On the whole the Pub-l i c Record Off ice seems to maintain a sui tably d istant a t t i tude to the co l lect ion of local records, gives advice when asked, monitors leg is la t ion and other government act ions for the i r arch iva l implications and helps in the training of a rch iv i s ts through the diploma courses I f there was a tendency a t f i r s t to t rea t the local a rch iv i s t as second best , the present standing of the county a r c h i v i s t , usually a wel l - t ra ined professional , often with an impressive array of degrees and publ icat ions, cer ta in ly precludes i t now County a rch iv is ts are now so numerous and con-f ident that they are able to form the i r own special group within the profession, and v ia the meetings of Chief County Arch iv is ts can t ry to formulate a common pol icy

I t would be easy to point out that the rea l i t y does not always l i v e up to the ideal A glance a t recent journals of the Society of Archiv is ts shows worry about the lack of a coordinated scheme, about the need for a pol icy and aims for the future Off ices are unequal in the i r size

34

and resources The current recession has brought cuts in s ta f f , f inance and in access ib i l i t y some of f ices have rest r ic ted opening times Yet i t would be hard to bel ieve that we would now want to be without the county record o f f i ce In i t s br ie f existence i t has given the local a rch iv i s ts a professional and internat ional standing which they never had before I t has en-abled the rescue and preservation of records on a scaleunthought of ea r l i e r in th is century I t has furthered the cause of scholarship not only in th is but also by i t s emphasis no English h is tor ian can now be unaware of local history or concentrate ent i re ly on central records I t has surely served i t s masters on the Councils well in the preservation and cataloguing of i t s records Best of a l l , i t serves local people in preserving the i r past and contributing to a sense of local ident i ty and, therefore, local cohesion

Marjorie Maslen Otago Universi ty

NOTES

I have based this largely on my own experience as an a rch i v i s t in Oxfordshire between 1962 and 1967 and on discussions I have had since then with ex-colleagues

l 0 R Ede, 'The Record Off ice Central and L o c a l " , journal of the society of Archivists, 1975, ρ 209

ANZ BANK — NEW ZEALAND'S FIRST

In 1840 John Smith opened a branch of the Union Bank of Australia, forerunner to A N Z Bank, at the New Zealand Company's settlement of Britannia

A N Z Bank Archives has an unbroken series of historical material beginning with John Smith's signature book

Access for research can be arranged by contacting

The Archivist,

A N Z Banking Group (New Zealand) Limited, Ρ O Box 1492, WELLINGTON

Telephone 738-622

AM X B A N K

35

COUNCIL NOTES

Council met on Saturday, 30 Apr i l 1983 a t Turnbull House, Wellington

COMMITTEES AND SPOKESPERSONS

Reports were received from committee convenors and spokespersons The one change was Richard H i l l ' s resignation as Labour archives spokesperson and the formation of a Labour/Socia l is t /Feminist Arc-hives Committee chaired by Cathy Marr

TRAVEL SUBSIDIES

Council agreed in pr inc ip le to the a l locat ion of funds to enable members not l i v ing in the town where Council meetings were usually held to attend a t leas t two meetings in each term The c r i t e r i a fo r a l locat ing expenditure were ( i ) attendance a t two meetings to be subsidised, ( n ) the maximum subsidy to be two-thirds of the total f a r e , ( i n ) the maximum amount to be $100 per member per meeting, and ( i v ) the total expenditure on t ravel subsidies in the f inancia l year was not to exceed $600

SEXIST LANGUAGE

Reports were received from Auckland, Wellington and Otago/South land Council agreed that in a l l o f f i c i a l ARANZ publicat ions and matters appearing over the Associat ion's name, ι e , not con-tr ibuted by a named individual or organisat ion, appropriate neutral gender terminology would be used

CANTERBURY BRANCH

Margaret Thompson's l e t t e r submitting her resignation as Branch chairperson was received with regret Council members were appreciate of her very s ign i f i cant work for the Association in th is capacity Rather than d isestabl ish the branch. Council decided to place i t in temporary recess

CONFERENCE

Annette Fairweather tabled reports on progress I t was agreed that the venue would be the Hawke's Bay Community College with the AGM being held in the Hawke's Bay Art Gal lery and Museum Regis-t rat ion fees would be as for 1982 Conference

REGIONAL ARCHIVES

Peter M i l le r and John Angus reported the i r meeting (on 29 Apr i l ) with Graham Knox ( Internal A f fa i r s ) and Ray Grover (Director of National Archives) about meetings on regional archives Council supported the concept of regional meetings, involving local au thor i t i es , repos i tor ies , i ns t i tu t ions , the publ ic , Internal A f f a i r s , National Archives and ARANZ

1983 TRAINING SEMINAR

The Education and Training Committee was to invest igate the poss ib i l i t y of using Victor ia Un ivers i t y ' s Centre for Continuing Education to administer the course. Council agreed to co-opt Rosemary Co l l i e r on to the Committee as a paid consultant for meetings concerned with the Training Seminar

* * * * * *

Council met on Saturday, 2 Ju l y 1983 a t Turnbull House, Wellington

BUSINESS ARCHIVES AND RECORDS MANAGEMENT SEMINAR

Planning for th is seminar, to be held* 20-21 February 1984, was progressing well

PUBLIC ARCHIVES AND RECORDS BILL

3 members of Council were allowed access to the proposed new B i l l but on a pr iv i leged basis which precluded them from reporting back in deta i l to Council I t was agreed that submissions would be prepared as soon as the B i l l was introduced into Parliament

UNION SHIPPING GROUP ARCHIVIST

The,Union Company had repl ied to the Pres ident 's l e t t e r regrett ing that because of the company's f inanc ia l posit ion the recently disestablished posit ion of a rch iv i s t would remain so

36

CONFERENCE 1984

Council agreed to a j o in t conference with the New Zealand Map Keepers' C i r c le in Christchurch provided that w i l l i ng people could be found to organise i t With the Canterbury branch of ARANZ current ly in recess there was some uncertainty on th is

PARBICA

There had been no response from the PARBICA Sec re ta r i a t , nor acknowledgement of rece ip t of sub-scr ipt ion payment However, a reply had been received from the ICA headquarters in Par is concerning membership of the regional branches of the ICA which Council would consider fur ther

NEWSPAPERS

Peter Sco t t , National L ib ra r ian , had repl ied to the expression of concern by Council on the manner of retrospect ive microfilming of newspapers Council was most disappointed with Mr S c o t t ' s reply which indicated that such f i lming had not in fac t ceased while the pol icy review was being under-taken Council determined on a more vigorous and public campaign to begin as soon as possible

ARANZ RECORDS

A paper expressing concern on the diverse locat ion and apparent incompleteness of the Associat ion 's records was received from Stuart Strachan Council agreed to approach the Chief L ibrar ian of the Alexander Turnbull L ibrary with a view to arranging formal deposit there of non-current records of the Associat ion

* * * * * *

Artifacts are also our business

At our archives we have many treasured, valued and historical

items These items include Colonial Bank of New Zealand and Asset Realisation Board records, architectural drawings, photographs, Bank of New Zealand and world bank notes and coins Archives can be viewed by appointment with the Archivist

Location of archives Our archives are on the Second

Floor BNZ Building, 100 Courtenay Place, Wellington Open 10am to lpm, 2pm to 4pm Entry is through the Bank Phone Wellington 843-259 or write to the Archivist, Bank of New Zealand, PO Box 2392, Wellington

RB Bank of New Zealand Established in 1861

37

NATIONAL REGISTER OF

ARCHIVES AND MANUSCRIPTS IN NEW ZEALAND

NEWS AND PRICES

The f i r s t volume of the A Ser ies (Al-AlOOO) i s now ava i lab le on microfiche Five microfiche contain the four separately published instalments and the cumulative index (published in 1982 with Instalment 4) The microfiche edi t ion a lso contains a fu l l set of revised entr ies The pr ice and format w i l l ensure that the National Register i s ava i lab le in ternat ional ly and the f u l l set w i l l not go out of pr in t The f i r s t volume occupies two binders and a third binder i s now required for the Β Ser ies Each set comes in an ac id- f ree envelope sui table for storage, e i ther inside the back cover of the binder or on i t s own

The f i r s t instalment of the Β Ser ies was published in May 1983 Entr ies B1-B250 continue the descr ip t ive reporting of archives and manuscripts held in New Zealand

Ν Β The f i r s t instalment of the A Ser ies i s now ava i lab le again, 1>ut stocks of a l l instalments of Volume l are l imited

PRICE LIST

Packed and Posted surface mail - sales within New Zealand only -

Volume 1 , Instalment 1 $5 50 2 $9 50 3 $11 50

II II 4 (with cumulative index) $16 00

Microfiche Edi t ion of Volume 1 $10 50 Volume 2 , Instalment 1 $17 00

Please indicate whether you wish to order a binder or binders The above prices include the cost of postage and handling of binders

Cash Sales - Avai lable from The Of f i ce , Alexander Turnbull L ib rary , 44 The Terrace, Wellington

Volume 1 , Instalment 1 $4 50 2 $7 50 3 $9 50 4 $14 00

Microfiche Edit ion of Volume 1 $10 00 Volume 2 , Instalment 1 $15 00 Binder $4 50

Orders for individual instalments, microfiche and binders should be sent to

National L ibrary of New Zealand Pr i va te Bag WELLINGTON

Please address any queries about reporting ent r ies to the National Register to The Ed i to r , Miss Oane Wi ld , Alexander Turnbull L ib ra ry , Ρ 0 Box 12349, Wellington North

38

ANALECTA

AD MAIOREM GLORIAM ARCHIVARUM

The text of the Governor General 's speech for the opening of the second session of the 40th Parliament of New Zealand noted that "A Publ ic Archives and Records B i l l w i l l be introduced This w i l l r e -place the Archives Act 1957 and take account of changes stemming from the Of f i c ia l Information Act 1982 "

New Zealand Gazette Extraordinary, 7 Apri l 1983

DIMINISHING OPPORTUNITIES

The posit ion of Company Arch iv is t in the union shipping Group establ ished ear ly in 1978 (and f i l l e d by Tim Lovel l -Smith) was abolished in June th is year because of a severe downturn in the Company's trading areas The archives brought together and co l la ted during the past f i v e years w i l l be held var iously in Dunedin and Wellington (some with the Harbour Board's Maritime Museum, the remainder with the Company) In Christchurch, the posit ion of Arch iv is t a t the Canterbury Museum ( f i l l e d by Margaret Thompson unt i l May th is year) i s now a hal f - t ime posit ion taken by Caroline Etherington Recent advertisements for two pos i -t ions a t National Archives, Wellington are not new opportunit ies but replacing Jonathan Adams, on a y e a r ' s secondment to the Computer Services Division of the Sta te Services Commission, and Margaret Ret te r , on a y e a r ' s maternity leave

WEEK-LONG TRAINING COURSE, WELLINGTON, NOVEMBER

1983

A ser ies of l ec tu res , workshops and v i s i t s fol lowing the pattern of courses held in 1979 and 1975 w i l l be held in Wellington th is November The Associat ion w i l l combine with the Centre for Continuing Education a t Vic tor ia Universi ty in planning and organising the course, and most sessions w i l l be held on campus The course d i rec-tor is Rosemary Co l l i e r A grant- in-a id has been received from the Todd Foundation

ARANZ ARCHIVES

Council is concerned a t the current s tate of the Associat ion 's records There are two par t icu lar pleas Former officers who have in the i r possession non-duplicated material are asked to send i t to the Secretary (This w i l l include or ig ina ls of l e t t e rs received and top copies of repl ies ) Branches are responsible for the care of the i r own records I f any portions of these records are placed with a local reposi tory, Council requests wr i t ten advice from the Branch secretary

COMBINED RECORDS MANAGEMENT BUSINESS ARCHIVES SEMINAR, WELLINGTON, FEBRUARY 1984

This seminar a r ises from col laborat ion between the Records management and Business archives committees, and questionnaires sent to 100 firms e a r l i e r th is year Further de ta i l s w i l l appear in Records manage-ment newsletter 2 in the next I S S U e Of Archifacts

NATIONAL REGISTER NEWS

The f i r s t instalment of the Β ser ies of the National Register i s now ava i lab le from the National Library at $17 00 B1-B250 comprises ent r ies from museums, univers i ty l i b r a r i e s , pub-l i c l i b r a r i e s , the Alexander Turnbull L ib ra ry , and an entry from Bishop's House in Auckland The microfiche edi t ion of Volume 1 (ent r ies A l -A1000 with cumulative index on f i v e microf iche) i s also ava i lab le from the National L ib ra ry , P n v a t e Bag, Wel l ington, for $10 50 Contribu-tors and prospective contributors are advised that the remaining three instalments of the Β ser ies w i l l be selected by three broad subject c r i t e r i a to give each instalment i t s own charac-ter and to ass is t the select ion of ent r ies for reporting The subject focus i s intended to make reporting entr ies both interest ing and achievable The three areas are as fol lows A r t i s t s ' papers and l i t e ra r y papers ( includes musicians, pa in ters , poets, pot ters , theatre records and the records of New Zealand ga l le r ies and a r t soc ie t ies ) Church history and re l ig ious records ( includes the correspondence and papers of ear ly mission-a r i es in New Zealand and the P a c i f i c , the reg is -ters and cemetery records of parish churches and the national records of church organisations) War history (papers and records ranging from the New Zealand Wars through the World Wars including the records of m i l i ta ry soc ie t ies and indiv iduals) I f you have any queries or comments please wr i te to the Editor Miss Jane Wi ld , Manuscripts Sec t ion , Alexander Turnbull L ib ra ry , Ρ 0 Box 12349, Wellington North

NOTIFICATIONS OF ACCESSIONS TO ARCHIFACTS

I f you would l i ke to be on the reminder l i s t for 'Not i f ica t ions of Accessions to Archifacts d i s -tr ibuted to archive and manuscript reposi tor ies throughout New Zealand, please wr i te to the Accessions Coordinator, Miss Jane Wild (Manu-scr ip ts Sec t ion , Alexander Turnbull L ib ra ry , Ρ 0 Box 12349, Wellington) The reporting sheet i s sent to selected reposi tor ies well before the copy deadline for March, June , September and December issues and returned to Miss Wild who prepares the l i s t i n g Please indicate whether you would l i ke to be on the mail ing l i s t for quarter ly l i s t i ngs or whether the volume of new accessions could be described only once or twice a year

Miss Wild can also advise on ent r ies for the National Register of Archives and Manuscripts m New Zealand I f you have archive or manuscript co l lec t ions ava i lab le to researchers you should have descript ions of your co l lec t ions published in the National Register Blank entry forms, instruct ion manuals for reporting and advice on par t icu lar problems are cheerfu l ly provided See 'National Register news' above

REGIONAL ARCHIVES MEETINGS

The f i r s t i s planned for Blenheim on 15 August, with the second in Napier on 29 August (immediately fol lowing the Associat ion 's AGM and Conference there)

39

RESEARCH ENQUIRY ROBERT TORRENS ,

Peter Moore, ANU Archives of Business and Labour (Ρ O Box 4 , Canberra, ACT 2600, Aust ra l ia ) w i l l be in New Zealand during September and October th is year researching Torrens who was one of the promoters of the f i r s t New Zealand Company (1825-26) and manoeuvred to get the second Company to "buy" back the f i r s t Company's purchases of land before i t proceeded to se t t l e New Zealand at the end of the 1830s He seeks to trace the location of personal papers, memorabilia, and to contact descendants, but the whole episode of the f i r s t Company's attempt a t settlement in the Bay of Islands in 1826, and what became of the s e t t l e r s , i s of importance too Readers are inv i ted to wr i te to Peter Moore a t the address above

DECADE OF UNSW's archives course

In 1973, eight people attended the f i r s t post-graduate course in archives administration a t the Universi ty of New South Wales, Sydney, a course which ten years la te r i s s t i l l the only f u l l -time archives course offered a t an Austral ian universi ty While a rch iv i s ts don't generally a t t rac t a great deal of a t ten t ion , the i r work could have a s ign i f icant influence on how future generations perceive and understand l i f e that has gone on before Arch iv i s t s , unlike l i b ra r i ans , are primari ly responsible for managing documents and records which are not frequently or immediate-ly used, and are preserved for future reference In archives administrat ion, among the more per-plexing problems with which a rch iv i s ts must dea l , are the decisions on what to re ta in and what to discard - a par t i cu la r ly valuable s k i l l with the cost of space and equipment now a t a premium in government of f ices and in business The UNSW Diploma in Information Management - Archives Administration has provided answers to these and other questions, and by 1981 the course had pro-duced 106 graduates

The archives course was tne brainchi ld of Miss Wilma Radford, then Head of the School of L ibrar ianship, and Mr Peter Or lov ich, the f i r s t lecturer in the course and new Senior Lecturer Candidates must hold a univers i ty degree and i t is considered desirable that they have studied history and po l i t i ca l science New Zeal'anders who have attended the course are Peter M i l le r (1975), Michael Hodder (1978), Tom Reynolds and Barbara Robinson (1979), Bruce Symondson (1982) and Mark Stevens (1983)

Members of the Sydney branch of the Austra-l ian Society of Arch iv is ts w i l l gather on 19 March a t Carey Cottage, 18 Ferry S t ree t , Hunters H i l l , to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the foundation of the course

Umken 1983 no 2 , ρ 163

CHURCH ARCHIVISTS' SOCIETY IN AUSTRALIA,,

The Church Arch iv is ts ' Society has been funct ion-ing for the past two yea rs , with the object ives

disseminating information on a l l archival matters, especia l ly those related to Church records, to members located throughout Aus t ra l ia , as well as furthering h is tor ica l research by serious students where resources al low th is Membership of the Society is open to those engaged in the care of the archives of any Church body, College or R e l i -gious Order, as well as those interested in such archives The current subscription rate i s $10 00 A Newsletter i s published monthly from February to November, and i t includes book reviews, and members contributions regarding par t icu lar repositor ies and items of interest within them Within i t s f i r s t year of operation, the Society was able to produce

the Registry of Church Archives Further infor-mation from Br L J Anse l ! , CFC, Church Arch i -v i s t s ' Soc ie ty , Ρ 0 Box 756, Toowoomba, Qld 4350, Austral la

PENTECOSTAL ARCHIVES

Church leaders and business representatives met a t the Church of God general o f f ices in Cleveland, Tennessee, to sign documents to begin construc-t ion of a new three-storey Pentecostal Resource Centre The f a c i l i t y w i l l house a complete array of books, per iod ica ls , documents and a r t i f a c t s pertaining to the Pentecostal movement I t w i l l be the only centre of i t s kind in the world accor-ding to church o f f i c i a l s Construction of the $2 4 mi l l ion complex w i l l begin immediately The completion date has been set for August, 1984

Challenge Weekly, 1 J u l y 1983

MISSION AND GOALS FOR THE ARCHIVAL PROFESSION

A draf t statement has been prepared by the Society of American Arch iv is ts ' Task Force on Goals and P r i o r i t i e s Several uses are envisaged a remin-der to the archival community of i t s ult imate purposes as a profession beyond the more immediate aims of par t icu lar programs and individual pro-fessional organizations, ass is t ing a rch iv i s ts communicate with non-archivists both within a r c h i -val inst i tu t ions "and in the broader community towards which we d i rec t our work and from which we seek support for i t " , and as a pre-requis i te for other stages of planning for the archival profes-sion The mission IS to ensur e the identification, preservation, sound administration, and maximum use of records of enduring value to society The

three goals (and constituent 14 sub-goals) elabo-rate on th is mission Of par t icu lar interest is the third goal - the maximum use of archival records for the benefi t of society The sub-goals are

(a) s ta tu tes , regulat ions, and accepted practices for maximum access to archival records con-s is tent with the protection of individual r igh ts ,

(b) studies to invest igate present and potential uses and users of archival records for the benef i t of society,

(c ) development and dissemination of information

4C

about h is to r i ca l records holdings,

(d) e f fec t i ve educational and promotional programs to encourage the maximum use of archival records

SAA Newsletter, March 1983

ARCHIVAL EDUCATION IN NORTH AMERICA

A directory of educational programs currently ava i lab le in Canada and the USA has been pre-pared by the Society of American Arch iv is ts ' Committee on Education and Professional Develop-ment The courses range from introductory work-shops or i ns t i t u t es , to s ingle course offer ings within history MA or l i b ra ry science MLS programs to multi-course offer ings (embracing addit ional pract ica l work within established archival or manuscript repos i tor ies) again within MA and MLS programs The Univers i ty of B r i t i s h Columbia (Vancouver) of fers a two year masters in archival studies

Ibid

ARCHIVISTS AND GENEALOGISTS

A specimen question sent to candidates for the f i na l examination in the Society of A rch iv i s t s ' t ra ining scheme read "Discuss ways by which archi-v i s t s can prevent the i r o f f i ces being swamped by genealogists' This negative a t t i tude has been c r i t i c i s e d An a rch i v i s t in the Pembrokeshire Record o f f i ce observed that genealogists "are pursuing genuine and legi t imate in te res ts , and have every r ight to expect reasonable serv ice and help form the arch iva l professional The current reductions in further education w i l l no doubt mean that genealogists w i l l represent an even higher proportion of our users, so any con-t inuation of th is petty-minded at t i tude among a rch iv i s ts w i l l become an increasing obstacle be-tween the profession and i t s customers"

Newsletter of the Society of Archivists, March 1983

BOOK REVIEWS

Jack Hunn Not only affairs of state Palmerston North Dunmore Press , 1982 237p $29 95

S i r Jack Hunn i s one of New Zealand's most distinguished c i v i l servants, and his autobiography w i l l be of in terest not only to people from within h is profession but also to the public he served

Hunn came to prominence as President of the Publ ic Serv ice Association in the 1940s A moderate among rad i ca l s , he sk i l f u l l y pursued the best in terests of his consti tuents At the same time he demonstrated f l a i r for administrat ive organisation and management and, in 1946, having commended himself both to the majority of c i v i l servants and to those on the other side of the tab le , he was drawn into the Public Serv ice Commission as an inspector Hunn was to become, e i ther temporarily or permanently, head of the Departments of J u s t i c e , Internal A f f a i r s , Maori A f fa i rs and Defence He had br ie f engagements with the Universi ty Grants Committee and National L ib rary , and was brought out of retirement to become f i r s t Chairman of the F i re Services Commission A reputa-t ion as a man who could diagnose departmental def ic ienc ies and reorganize and resusci tate a i l i ng organisat ions, led to him being given assignments with the United Nations, the South P a c i f i c Commission, South East Asia Treaty Organisation and Guyana

I t might be thought that a person whose preoccupation was organisation and management would be a colour less character This is not the case with Jack Hunn who was involved with challenging s i tua t ions , and wr i tes about them with c l a r i t y , precision and touches of humour which make for easy reading Comments about po l i t i c i ans , senior c i v i l servants and well-known c i t izens of the l a s t 40 years are reveal ing to those whose memories cover th is long period, and w i l l , to younger readers, demonstrate the human side of departmental and o f f i c i a l l i f e

Hunn's best known piece of pol icy formation was his 1960 report on the Maori A f fa i r s Depart-ment, which, though neglected by Walter Nash, was taken up, on a change of government, by Ralph Hanan who published the work and adopted most of i t s recommendations, thus ushering in a new era within the department Hunn was less fortunate as Secretary of Defence where his pol icy recom-mendations on Vietnam, though probably r ight on paper, were p o l i t i c a l l y wrong He bowed to the views of his po l i t i ca l masters, and then, a f te r his ret irement, spoke his mind In the f i na l paragraph the author i s controversial and provocat ive, arguing that the Anzus Pact is no longer relevant to the defence of New Zealand, and that i t should be abandoned

The book makes c lear the relat ionship between government and public serv ice in pol icy making and the d i rect ion of administrat ive functions I t a lso examines the l ink between public servants and the i r employing au thor i t i es , and in par t icu lar the independent, circumspect Publ ic Serv ice

41

Commission Emphasis i s given to the f ac t that pol icy decisions are made not by bureaucrats but by a min is ter , and that the outcome of po l i cy , whether good or bad, i s his responsib i l i ty

S i r Jack Hunn can be proud of his achievements, and of how, in his book, he has deta i led

them

S i r John Marshall Wellington

++++++++++

Steven Eldred-Grigg A new history of canterbury Dunedin Mclndoe, 1982 252p $29 95

A new history of Canterbury i s not a chronological account of l i f e in the province Rather, the author has concentrated on three spots in time the provincial e ra , the 1920s or 'asp i r in a g e ' , and the 1970s and 1980s, intermingiina with h is description of society in these per iods, in for-mation about preceding years which gives continuity to the narrat ive However, i t i s the theme of the book, rather than the way in which i t i s served up to the publ ic , which w i l l a t t r ac t at tent ion

In A new history Eldred-Grigg plays again the role of enfant t e r r i b l e of the h is to r i ca l estab-lishment, a ro le which he took to himself in A southern gentry (1980) He is consciously, even flamboyantly, le f t -wing in his pronouncement, and members of the Establishment cer ta in ly fee l the impact of the s l ings and arrows a imedat the i r ancestors, and, v icar ious ly , a t them One ladyhas cal led the book ' b i t t e r ' , another, who somehow stuck i t out in the end, commented that i t made her 'squirm on every page'

An h is to r ica l work must do more than offend the matrons of Fendalton i f i t i s to gam accep-tance in academic c i r c l e s , and the author does present much valuable information In the sect ion on provincial days, fau l ty immigration, medical, educat ional, law enforcement and ecc les ias t i ca l systems are examined, mass dépendance on a lcoho l , and adulterat ion of food, the l a t t e r 'a sys -tematic poisoning of the populat ion,, are v i v id l y described Inevi tably the c lass with which the author has a much publicised love-hate relat ionship - the p o l i t i c a l l y dominant runholders or 'wool kings' - are accused of having imported, created or allowed to be perpetuated most of what was bad about Canterbury l i f e Eldred-Grigg may well be r igh t , but in h is attacked on the gentry he does not always back his arguments with subtantial evidence

II

In h is chapters on the 'asp i r in age' Eldred-Grigg continues to f ind much that i s palpably wrong For example, there i s a description of the pract ice adopted by employers of sacking s ta f f jus t pr ior to statutory hol idays, rehir ing themmmmediately thereaf ter , and saving on holiday pay The present reviewer responded to t h i s , knowing that his grandfather had for years been a v ic t im of the pract ice I t i s interest ing to note that then, as now, the number of unemployed appeared to be the greater in census returns than in other government s t a t i s t i c s . But the chief impres-sion which i s given of the 1920s is of a period when the savage economic and social in just ices of provincial days had been eliminated by the state which took a sternly benevolent view of i t s c i t i zens , and coerced them in adopting various prac t ices , educational, medical and m i l i t a ry , which were generally benef ic ia l One,is tempted to argue about the third section of the book that the features which helped d i f fe ren t ia te Canterbury from other provinces have now gone, that what happens in Christchurch, Timaru and Waimate, i s much the same as what happens in other parts of the country

A new history i s l a rge , a t t r ac t i ve l y produced, copiously i l l u s t r a ted , and possessed of some sad pr int ing errors There i s an extensive bibl iography, l i gh t on manuscripts i t i s t rue , but impressive where newspapers, theses and books are concerned Eldred-Grigg has a prodigious know-ledge of obscure printed sources, and uses th is knowledge, almost l i ke a magician, to bring forth apt or unusual quotations How many, 1 ! wonder, w i l l know George Chamier's sa t i re philosopher Dick with i t s cynical view of immigrants TO New Zealand ' C i v i l i s e d human beings - especia l ly i f t rue-hearted Bri tons - w i l l go wherever money is to be made'

In his own wr i t ing the author shows vigour, w i t , f l a i r When describing how ministers of re l ig ion f a i l ed to keep the i r f locks sober, Eldred-Grigg introduced jus t the r ight touch of slang 'Moral is ts denounced grog as the high road to perd i t ion, but the province swi l led i t down' E l s e -where an a l lus ion to the French Revolution emphasises the narrow cul tural l im i ts of the province in the 1920s, 'The excitement and innovation which had coincided with the Liberal revolut ion of the 1980s had been followed by an a r t i s t i c Thermidor' I t i s a measure of the wr i t e r ' s prowess that he ca"n look a t three eras and successful ly l ink each with the other Jus t occasional ly are there mistakes, such as when the important fac t tha t , in the 1890s, Christchurch was the chief industr ia l centre of New Zealand is passed over in one sentence

42

Pur is ts w i l l quibble that the book is based on secondary and published primary sources rather than on extensive or ig inal research in manuscripts and ardhives, tha t , on occasions, general isa-tions are backed by rhetor ic rather than reason, that the author is something of an h i s to r i ca l Liberace Nevertheless, the work i s a valuable reference tool The descript ion of the 1920s is excel lent , and the account of provincial Canterbury shows c lea r l y tha t , to the mass of the popu-l a t i o n , ' the superf ine, the gentlemen's colony' was no happy place Other researchers can now paint the detai l on to the canvas which has been set up for them

Richard L Ν Greenaway Canterbury Publ ic L ibrary

++++++++++

Ray Grover Cork of war Ngati Toa and the British mission An historical narrative Dunedin Mclndoe, 1982 371p $29 50

cork of war is an unusual cross between a h is to r ica l novel and the usual academic-type history As can be the case with an h is tor ica l novel events are shown through the eyes of a person who did ex is t L iber t ies are taken, the narrator on occasion taking parts in incidents when in r ea l i t y he was elsewhere But , unlike a work of f i c t i o n , the book has 48 black and white i l l u s t r a t i o n s , f i v e maps, a deta i led l i s t of references, and an extensive bibliography

The nar ra tor , Scott ish-born Jock N icco l , sone of a dest i tu te Dundee weaver, l e f t home a t 18, joined a whaling ship working out of Sydney, and in time joined John Guard a t h is Tory Channel stat ion He married a woman who had connections with both the Ngati Toa and Ati Awa t r i b e s , and took up trading along the Kapiti-Cook S t r a i t coast He is shown as being level-headed, to lerant and courageous, not the centrepiece or hero, but an excel lent vehic le for giving an accurate view of events in the 1840s as Maori and Pakeha cultures c lashed, and each side manoeuvred to stake i t s claim to the land

An excel lent example of Jock ' s a b i l i t y to see the s i tuat ion through both Maori and European eyes i s h is descript ion of the a r r i va l of the Wakefield se t t l e rs in Wellington

There was more gloom than joy to be seen on the faces of those who l ined the decks of the Aurora to look a t the i r new home In jus t over a for tn ight two more vessels came to anchor and a fortnight a f te r that a fourth was raised beating up the harbour against a northerly Upwards of a thousand people disembarked in less than six weeks, doubling the tota l number of people who l ived there before Some At i Awa asked i f the whole t r i be of England were coming I could have told them that not a l l the English were coming But it would not make much dif ference anyhow as s t i l l too many would come -bringing the i r grey-faced women, the i r ' law ' and the i r ' o rde r ' , and fences and fac tor ies and j a i l s I t was something that shore party men l i ke myself did not want to think too much about

The haphazard, almost i rresponsible way the Wakefields set up the Wellington settlement i s s k i l f u l l y conveyed Grover's a b i l i t y to weave a c lear pattern into the tangle of land deals and intr igue surrounding the establishment of the settlement is superb And against th is background of Maori and European cupidity the Ngati Toa ch ief Rangihaeata stands so l i d l y by the t rad i t iona l values Grover has done a good job bringing out the character of th is man, often given a very poor press but here shown as possessed of d igni ty and v is ion One example of h is cool rep l ies to the threats of grasping Europeans runs thus

Rangihaeata insisted nobody was going to take his land, and i f Ket t le wanted to make a f ight of i t he would give him one then or l a te r Ket t le sa id the land had been paid fo r with blankets and guns Blankets and guns ore out, Rangihaeata s a i d , but land was there forever Ket t le said the land had been sold and belonged to Wakefield and the Company now Then Wakefield may come said Rangihaeata You may come too - you, Wakefield and the other men may walk on the land You may come to Por i rua , but i f you muddy the water or damage the t rees , I w i l l muddy you

Later Rangihaeata f igures prominently in an account of the Wairau Massacre which i s f u l l , f a i r , and shows up the author's detai led reading of the subject and meticulous personal examination of the s i t e

Readers should look a t the br ie f note on ρ 351 under the heading 'Sources' before they move into Chapter one In future pr in t ings, information found here would be bet ter placed as an author 's note near the beginning I t i s here that Grover makes c lear the fac t that Jock Niccol

43

did ex i s t , and that the events described are based primari ly on the archives and manuscripts which deta i l our past and not on imagination I t is a t r ibute to the author that the book could read as a polished piece of f i c t i on rather than as the resul t of meticulous h i s to r i ca l research.

Barry Bra i ls ford

Christchurch Teachers' College

++++++++++++

A guide to manuscripts related to science in the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington compiled by Margaret Henry and Michael Ε Hoare Wellington Alexander Turnbull L ib rary , 1983 30p $3 00

The compilers of th is work have apparently sought to whet the appetite of potential researchers by the preparation of th is "representat ive rather than exhaustive" guide In f a c t , the volume i s a se lec t catalogue of holdings of sc ience, with a one-page introduction which i s in truth the guide

The Guid e b r ie f l y describes 274 groups of holdings, arranged in alphabetical order of the individual or society concerned Of these groups, some appear more than once, for example, the research notes on Kirk by McKINNON show the same accession code as the NEW ZEALAND FORESTRY LEAGUE, and are presumably included there in , and 22 percent are photocopies of microforms of or ig inals held elsewhere The d is t r ibut ion of holdings over the major f i e lds of science i s shown in Fig 1 As expected, for developing science in a young country, 'b io logical and earth sciences

EXPLORATION

Seaborne expedition

Land surveying

APPLIED SCIENCES

Farming (lncl horticulture^ H

Forestr' β!

Mining 1

NATURAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES

Biolon/

Chunstry fl

Earth Sciences

Physics Η

Antarctic HI

Meteorology I

MEDICAL S HUMAN SCIENCES

Human health

Archaeology and ethnology

Societies, scientif ic endeavour

FIG 1 - RELATTVE PROPORTIONS OF TURNBULL LIBRARY SCIENCE MANUSCRIPT

HOLDINGS FOR SELECTED DI-Bi IPLINES THIS DIAGRAM IS BASED ON

THE MINIER OF ENTRIES M THE GUIDE, AND DOES NOT REFLECT

THE ACTUAL NUMBER OF MANUSCRIPT ITEMS

o o

CD O

45

are well represented in the holdings, but there are s ign i f icant contributions in the f ie lds of health ( including pharmacy and dent is t ry) and the administration of science through s c i e n t i f i c soc ie t ies The absence of any subject index is unfortunate, par t icu lar ly since th is might have been a not ivat ion for ac t i ve sc ien t i s ts to consider an h is to r i c perspective of the i r par t icu lar f i e l d 1 1

ι-

Α shortcoming of the Guide i s the lack of separation of primary and secondary source materials This i s apparent by the ent r ies where the dates of holdings e i ther predate or postdate the ' l i f e ' to which they are referred (e g , papers 1847-1960 for BENNETT b 1872, d 1860, papers 1847-1970 for BERGGREN b 1837, d 1917) The reader w i l l assume that predated papers were probably col lected by the person concerned, but that post-dated papers are biographical notes or papers on s imi lar themes added l a te r While in some cases, th is is exp l i c i t l y s ta ted , as for example the en t r i es fo r DOUGLAS and PASCOE, in other cases i t i s unclear, as for example whether the "biographic notes" c i ted under PICKERING are of or by him Much to be preferred i s the c lear separation between bio-grapher and his subject (e g , ARTHUR on COCKAYNE) No doubt the inconsistency of c i t a t i o n , and indeed the inclusion of secondary materials resul ts from the cataloguing of the material in the L ib rary , but that is no reason why such a separation could not have been made in the Guide A potential user of the holdings is concerned to assess the writ ings and memorabilia of the people ac tua l ly concerned with the development of science separately from the i r l a te r reviewers While the holdings of the Turnbull L i b r a r y i n both areas may be strong, th is i s not revealed by the

Guj.de

0 I—

0 10

0 05 \—

0>—

ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι l I g , » 17* (7- [71 O O . O C?s O1- O CT\ r j > 0 > ( 7 ' 0 0 > C ' ( J , ( 7 s

r - r - r - M Û co oo OD COODOD OO GO O D c r - c r c ^ c ^ o o ^ o a v

Decade

F i g ! 3 - Lead-lag ef fects in Turnbull Library s c i e n t i f i c holdings

46

As mentioned e a r l i e r , the Guide impl ic i t l y assumes an in terest in science history based on par t icu lar people or inst i tu t ions Holdings of the Turnbull might be used in a sociological con-text , and the entr ies in the Guide may be assessed from th is point of view also

A plot of the number of Guide entr ies relevant to a par t icu lar year (F ig 2a) shows an over-a l l increase unt i l the mid-1930s and a decrease thereafter A comparison with a typ ica l p lot of s c i e n t i f i c ac t iv i ty - 1 over the same time period (F ig 2b) indicates that the post-war science boom has yet to be f e l t in the holdings of the Turnbull Pess im is t i ca l l y , th is might be a t t r ibuted to modern-day sc ien t is ts not depositing in the Turnbul l , or because of strong ins t i tu t iona l a f f i l i -a t ions , depositing elsewhere, as indeed Michael Hoare2 has e a r l i e r commented Perhaps an equally plausible explanation is that many of those contributing to the so-cal led exponential growth of science are s t i l l ac t i ve sc ien t is ts As i l l u s t r a t i v e of t h i s , a comparison of the r e l a t i v e pro-portion of manuscripts trend (e f fec t i ve l y a decade by decade version of F ig 2) with the trends of the dates of death of the people whose maniscripts are held shows an expected lead- leg e f fec t (F ig 3) This means that the maximum in Fig 3A may be expected to r i se and the curve be d i s -placed to the r ight as Fig 3B i s extended For the socio logist of sc ience, then, conclusions drawn from Turnbull holdings pr ior to 1930 are l i ke l y to be j us t i f i ed

This ana lys is ra ises an interest ing question about the Guide i t s e l f Unlike Hoare's e a r l i e r r ev iew 2 there is no discussion on the use to which the material may be put Inclusion of examples of successful research, both on individual sc ien t i s ts and on trends of science within society could could have been c i t e d , showing in what areas the holdings of the Turnbull are most l i k e l y to be he lp fu l , would cer ta in ly have been a'more arduous task, but the resu l t would have been more of a Guide than that which i s here reviewed

A Ρ W Hodder

Department of Earth Sc iences, Universi ty of Waikato

1 A commonly used index to a c t i v i t y m science is the number of publications Fig 2B is compiled from published bibl iographies of geology as representat ive of science (G L Adkins and Β W Co l l i ns , "A bibliography of New Zealand geology to 1950", w ζ Geological Survey Bulletin, vol 65, 1967, G Warren et a l , "A bibliography of New Zealand Geology, 1951-69", ibid , vol 93, 1977)

2 Hoare, Μ Ε "Turnbull Library holdings in the history of New Zealand science a review" Turnbull Library Record, vol 9 (n s ) , 1976, pp 4-19

A C C E S S I O N S

ALEXANDER TURNBULL LIBRARY, WELLINGTON

ASSOCIATION OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE Α Μ Ρ SOCIETY Minutes and repor ts , 1921-63 3 volumes RESTRICTED

BRETHREN MOVEMENT Records, 1899-1949 Including marriage reg is te rs , 1915-44, minutes of the trustees of the B ib le Carr iage, 1899-1909, gospel t racts and photographs 30 cm

CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN NEW ZEALAND Dioceses Auckland Microfi lm baptismal records and some marriage and burial regis ters for Auckland Dioceses 21 reels (or ig ina ls a t the Anglican Church Of f i ce , Auckland)

EQUITABLE AND BUILDING INVESTMENT SOCIETY OF WELLINGTON LTD Records, 1874-1977 1 5m

EWING, Barbara Leaving home Play compiled from extracts from l e t t e r s , poems and comments about New Zealand made by well-known New Zealanders 4 items

HENDERSON, Hubert Papers re la t ing to career in Education Department including serv ice in the Middle E a s t , 1956-58 for UNESCO and papers re la t ing to war serv ice 90cm

H0RSFALL, Les l i e The diary of a wanderer, being his wanderings m many countries and around the world . between the years 1901-11 1 volume

INANGAHUA Gold and Coal Miners' Union Records, 1907-45 30cm

McCURDIE, Wi l l iam J S The Colonial Boy

Describes holiday job in 1917 as rouseabout on the Point Stat ion in Central Otago

MacKAY, Ian Keith Papers, 1932-82 Papers re la t ing to broadcasting covering his career in New Zealand, Aus t ra l i a , Nigeria and New Guinea 2 3m

MONI Peeke o Rua Hepetipa Maungapohatu Ledger book of bank establ ished by Rua Hepetipa a t Maungapohatu, 1907-29 1 volume

NEW Zealand Society of Genealogists Cemetery Arch iv is t Isolated lighthouse graves, 1819-1980 (Photocopy)

0LSS0N, Arthur Les l i e Papers re la t ing to the New Zealand Library Associat ion, 1955-81 30 cm RESTRICTED

47

ARCHIVE OF NEW ZEALAND MUSIC

CASTLE, Z i l l ah and Ronald Music tapes, [1955-75] 14 cassettes RESTRICTED

CRESSWELL, Lye l l R Music scores for "Salm" (1977) and " 0 ' " (1982)

LEO, Dame S is te r Mary Reminiscences, 1981 2 cassettes RESTRICTED

MUSIC Federation of New Zealand Papers, 1952-62 30cm

HOCKEN LIBRARY, DUNEDIN

AMALGAMATED Theatres Ltd Exhibitors record books Octagon and State Theatres, Dunedin, 1934-67 4cm

DAVIDSON, Wi l l iam Η Additional papers (including movie f i lms of Otago), 1869-1967 40cm

DUNEDIN Municipal C ler ica l Union of Workers Records, 1936-76 20cm RESTRICTED

DUNEDIN Teachers' College Registry Records, 1904-81 3 9m SOME RESTRICTED

EATON, El izabeth Diary of voyage from England to Port Chalmers, 1881-82 1 volume

LITTLEJOHNS, Bui lders and Hardware merchants, Milton Records, 1910-46 25cm

MOSS, Edward M Let ters re Otago Harbour Ferry Boat Operations, 1887-90 1cm

Ν Ζ REFRIGERATING Company Limited Records (photocopies), 1881-86 10cm

OTAGO Cler ica l Workers' Urion Records, 1936-77 40cm RESTRICTED

OTAGO Provincia l Pa t r i o t i c Council Additional records, 1899-1950 (Includes predecessor bodies) 55cm RESTRICTED

OTAGO Trades Council Minutes and correspon-dence f i l e s , ca 1950-80 1 2m RESTRICTED

OTAGO Univers i ty Rugby Football Club Minutes and correspondence f i l e s , 1951-80 60cm

RICH, Wil l iam Gordon Diary of voyage from England to Ν Ζ and subsequent l i f e in Otago, 1852-58 2 volumes

UNIVERSITY of Otago Registry Additional general correspondence f i l e s , 1966-68 4m RESTRICTED

YOUNG Women's Christ ian Associat ion, Dunedin Additional records, 1878-1958 50cm RESTRICTED

NATIONAL ARCHIVES, WELLINGTON

CUSTOMS Department Values and Origin f i l e s for individual companies, 1960-82 30cm

EDUCATION Department UNESCO Section F i l es of New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO, General conference f i l e s , Executive Board f i l e s , 1948-76 28m

FIRE Se rv i ce , Masterton Reel of f i lm on Belmont Furniture Company f i r e , 1946 1 reel

HEALTH Department, Napier F i l es on water suppl ies, poisons, d isease, health education (includes water f i l e s for Napier earthquake), 1931-78 2m

JUSTICE Department Lyttelton-Woolston LPG Pipel ine Enquiry, 1982 Enquiry into Escape, Mt Eden, 1965, Inquiry into Mt Eden r i o t , 1965, Inquiry into Paparua Prison r i o t , 1965 3m RESTRICTED

METEOROLOGICAL Off ice Raoul Island records Maps, radio message books, farm reports, d i a r i e s , correspondence, 1959-63 lm

NATIONAL Library F i l es on accommodation and equipment, l ib ra ry se rv i ces , est imates, bui ld ings, 1938-77 2m

ROWLING Papers Min is ter ia l correspondence, e lectorate correspondence, Labour Party mater ia l , 1970-77 70m RESTRICTED

STATE Services Commission F i l e s on hours of work po l icy , minutes of meetings, depart-mental establishments, courses, s taf f t ra in ing , 1938-77 50m

NATIONAL ARCHIVES, AUCKLAND

INTERNAL Af fa i rs Department State of work reports, reception f i l e s , passports f i l e s , 1956-82

VALUATION Department Rol ls for Hamilton, Coromandel County, Thames County, Ngaruawahia Borough, Ohinemuri County, Waipa County, Paeroa Borough, Waikato County, HuntlyBorough, Raglan County, Piako County, 1969-77 19 5m

TARANAKI MUSEUM

INSULL, H W Papers re la t ing to Taranaki h i s -tory and education in the province 2 5m

MESSENGER, Wil l iam Bazire D ia r ies , reminis-cences re la t ing to farming and Taranaki land wars 1860-1900 8cm

NEW Plymouth L i t t l e Theatre Records, 1933-80 2m RESTRICTED

RIEMENSCHEIDER, Johannes Fredrick Mission reports, correspondence (microfi lm original in Bemen Staar) 2100p

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O B J E C T S O F T H E A S S O C I A T I O N

1. TO FOSTER the care, preservation, and proper use of archives and records, both public and private, and their ef fect ive administration.

2. TO AROUSE public awareness of the importance of archives and records and in a l l matters affect ing their preservation and use, and to co-operate or a f f i l i a t e with any other bodies in New Zealand or elsewhere with l ike objects.

3. TO PROMOTE the training of a rch iv is ts , records keepers, curators, l ibrar ians and others by the dissemination of special ised knowledge and by encouraging the provision of adequate training in the administration and conservation of archives and records.

4. TO ENCOURAGE research into problems connected with the use, administration and conservation of archives and records, and to promote the publication of the results of this research.

5. TO PROMOTE the standing of archives ins t i tu t ions .

6. TO ADVISE and support the establishment of archives services throughout New Zealand.

7. TO PUBLISH a bu l le t in a t least once a year and other publications in furtherance of these objects.

MEMBERSHIP of the Association is open to any individual or inst i tu t ion interested in fostering the objects of the Associat ion. Subscription rates are:

$NZ 10-00 individuals - $NZ 15-00 ins t i tu t ions. Overseas members who wish airmail dispatch of notices and bul let ins w i l l need to advise of their requirements. The additional fee w i l l depend on current postal charges.

Applications to jo in the Associat ion, membership renewals and correspondence on related matters should be addressed to the Membership Secretary, A .R.A.N.Z . , P.O. Box 11-553, Manners Street, Well ington, New Zealand.

ARCHIFACTS is the o f f i c i a l bu l le t in of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand Incorporated. It continues the bul le t in of the same t i t l e , previously published by the Archives Committee of the New Zealand Library Associat ion, 9 issues of which appeared between Apri l 1974 and October 1976. The successor "new ser ies" contained 24 issues (nos. 4 & 5, 7 & 8 were combined) with consecutive pagination from February 1977 to December 1982. From March 1983 issues of the bul le t in are numbered sequentially within the year of publ icat ion, with the pagination commencing afresh with the f i r s t issue for each year. Currently ARCHIFACTS is published quarterly, at the end of March, June, September and December.

Subscriptions toARCHIFACTS are through membership of the Association at the rates advertised above. Copies of individual issues, however, w i l l be available to non-members at NZ$3-00 per copy (issue 23 ns is $5-00).

Enquiries concerning the content of ARCHIFACTS (including advertising) non-receipt of an issue (or receipt of an imperfect copy) and requests for back or single issues should be addressed to the Editor.

A l l members (and others) are welcome to submit a r t i c l es , short not ices, let ters etc. to the Editor. Copy deadline is the 15th of the month preceding publication ( i . e . 15 May for the June issue, e t c . ) . Book reviews should be sent d i rect ly to the Reviews Editor; detai ls of accessions di rect ly to the Accessions Co-ordinator.

EDITOR:

ASSOCIATE EDITORS:

REVIEWS EDITOR:

ACCESSIONS CO-ORDINATOR:

Michael Hodder, P.O. Box 28-011, Kelburn, Wellington 5.

Cheryl Campbell; Brad Patterson; Mark Stevens

Richard Greenaway, 8 Mascot Place, Christchurch.

Jane Wi ld, Manuscripts Section, Alexander Turnbull L ibrary, P.O. Box 12-349, Wellington.

ISSN 0303-7940

C O N T E N T S

REGIONAL ARCHIVES IN PERSPECTIVE

I. FROM THE PRESIDENT I I . FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO LIBRARIAN

LOCAL ARCHIVES IN NEW ZEALAND

THE REGIONAL ARCHIVES CONCEPT AN AUCKLAND VIEWPOINT

TOWARDS A REGIONAL ARCHIVES - THE HOCKEN LIBRARY AS PROTOTYPE

THE IDEA OF THE COUNTY RECORD OFFICE : THE ENGLISH EXPERIENCE

COUNCIL NOTES

ANALECTA

Ad maiorem gloriam archivarum...; Diminishing opportunit ies; Week-long training course, Wellington, November 1983; ARANZ archives; Combined records management business archives seminar, Well ington, February 1984; National Register news; Not i f icat ions of accessions to Archifacts; Regional archives meetings; Research enquiry: Robert Torrens; Decade of UNSW's archives course; Church Archiv is ts ' Society in Aust ra l ia ; Pentecostal archives; Mission and goals for the archival profession; Archival education in North America; Archiv ists and genealogists.

BOOK REVIEWS

Jack Hunn Not only affairs of state

Steven Eldred-Grigg A new history of Canterbury

Ray Grover Cork of ware : Ngati Toa and the British mission. An historical narrative

ñ guide to manuscripts related to science in the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington compiled by

Margaret Henry and Michael E. Hoare

ACCESSIONS

Peter Mi l le r W.J. McEldowney

S.R. Strachan

Jolyon F i r th

M.G. Hitchings

Marjorie Maslen

(Sir John Marshall)

(Richard L.N. Greenaway)

(Barry Brai lsford)

(A.P.W. Hodder)

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25

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35

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R E G I S T E R E D A T T H E P O S T O F F I C E H E A D Q U A R T E R S , W E L L I N G T O N ,

AS A M A G A Z I N E