NOTES ON OCTOBER AND DECEMBER MEETINGS OF ARANZ COUNCIL

* The continued delay in gett ing an Archives BHI before Parliament i s causing wide-spread consternation amongst members and Council i s ac t i ve l y invest igat ing every avenue to expedite th is matter.

* Strong support was given for the moves to form a Central D i s t r i c t s (North Is land) Branch based on the Manawatu and surrounding areas.

* Graham Butterworth addressed Council on Maori Archives and sought support for establ ishing some t ra in ing for those with arch iva l respons ib i l i t i es in th is area.

* Christchurch was agreed upon as the venue for the Eleventh Annual Conference in August 1987.

* Progress was reported on Frank Rogers' compilation under ARANZ d i rect ion of an Index to Archifacts ("Operation INDARCH").

* S tuar t Strachan, Pres ident , was appointed to represent ARANZ on the Dictionary

of Hew Zealand Biography pol icy committee.

* Cathy Marr was appointed to accept f u l l ed i to r ia l respons ib i l i t y for archifacts from the December 1986 issue.

* A l e t t e r of condolence had been sent to the Lesbian and Gay Rights Resource Centre fol lowing the desecration of the organisat ion 's a rch ives .

* Council noted with appreciat ion the e f fo r t s of a l l concerned with organising t ra in ing courses pr ior to Conference.

* Branch reports from Wel l ington, Canterbury/Westland, Otago/Southland and Central D i s t r i c t s were rece ived.

* A posi t ion paper from Kevin Bourke on t ra in ing needs was received and discussed. A committee i s to be convened to fur ther invest igate th is area.

CONTENTS

EDITORIAL: Taking the B i l l by the Horns Stuart Strachan 1

THE DUNEDIN CITY COUNCIL ARCHIVES J i l l McClymont 3

CENTRAL DISTRICTS BRANCH FORMS 9

ARCHIVES AND RECORDS MANAGEMENT TRAINING COURSES 10

NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT RECORDS MANAGEMENT REVIEW

Information can be managed THE ACTON REPORT Cathy Marr 11

RECORDS MANAGEMENT GROUP 12

RECORDS OFFICERS AND THE ACTON REPORT OR WHAT'S IN IT

FOR ME? Al ison Fraser 13

WILL ACTION FOLLOW ACTON? Rosemary Co l l i e r 14

OBITUARY: K . J . R . TALL, 1918-1986 Rosemary Co l l i e r 16

RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT: THE TENTH ANNUAL ARANZ

CONFERENCE AND CONFERENCE 1987 Carol ine Etherington 18

ANALECTA 19 Archives feature in Christchurch newspapers; Bof f ins at Loggerheads; Labour Caucus Minutes come to National Arch ives, Local Authority respons ib i l i ty recognised; Maritime Arch ives; Internat ional Symposium on Newspapers; Warning: Conservator at Work; Cer t i f i ca t ion issue enters f i na l phase; Floods and Arson; Contract awarded for Optical Disk Storage research; Jimmy Carter l i b ra ry opens; Agresto nomination reaches impasse; Technology; Nazi ghost s ta lks French p o l i t i c s ; Nixon Papers open to scrut iny

REVIEW ARTICLE: Nancy M. Taylor The Home Front Ρ J Gibbons 23

BOOK REVIEWS

Gavin McLean - Otago Harbour, currents of controversy ' (G M M i l l e r ) 25

Raewyn Dalziel - Julius vogel, business politician (Tom Brooking) 26

David Gee - Poison, the coward's weapon (Richard Greenaway) 27

Nancy M. Taylor - A finding list of the papers of

Jim Roberts (Richard H i l l ) 28

A

Arch i fac ts i s the official bulletin of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand Incorporated. It continues the bulletin of the same title, previously published by the Archives Committee of thé New Zealand Library Association, 9 issues of which appeared between April 1974 and October 1976. The successor "new series" contained 24 issues (nos. 4 s 5, 7 & 8 were combined) with consecutive pagination from February 1977 to December 1982. From March 1983, issues of the bulletin are numbered sequentially within the year of publication, with the pagination commencing afresh with each issue. Currently, Arch i fac ts i s published quarterly, at the end of March, June, September and December.

Subscriptions to Archi facts are through membership of the Association at the current rates. (See inside back cover for details.) Copies of individual issues, however, will be available to non-members at NZ$6.00 per copy.

The membership year begins with the June issue and ends with the March issue.

Enquiries concerning the content of Arch i facts (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.

All members (and others) are welcome to submit articles, short notices, letters, etc. to the Editor. Copy dealine i s the 15th of the month preceding publication (i.e., 15 May for the June issue, etc.). Book reviews should be send directly to the Reviews Editor; details of accessions directly to the Accessions Co-ordinator.

EDITOR: Cathy Marr, P.O. Box 11-553, Manners S t r e e t , Wel l ington.

REVIEWS EDITOR: Richard Greënaway, 1 Snel l P l ace , Dal l ington, Christchurch 6.

ACCESSIONS CO-ORDINATOR: Bruce Rals ton, Manuscripts Sec t ion , Alexander Turnbull L ib rary , P.O. Box 12-349, Well ington.

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

ISSN 0303-7940

Β

1986/4 December 1986

ARCHIFACTS Bulletin of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand

TAKING THE B I L L BY THE HORNS

For t en , long years now new public archives leg is la t ion has been in the making An updated act was recommended by Dr Wi l f red Smith in his 1978 report , and in the subse-quent Wards Report on the National Archives In i t s time the 1957 Archives Act had served the country w e l l , but by the mid-1970s, i t had become obsolete in a number of important respects I t predated and consequently took no account of the new o f f i c i a l information environment, i t was i l l -equipped to cope with the new information technol-ogies, and, above a l l , i t embodied a foss i l i sed and quite anachronist ic view of the place and ro le of our National Archives A decade la te r these defects are even more marked

Of course good leg is la t ion i s not everything Suf f i c ien t resources and the i r e f fec t i ve management are equally s ign i f i cant for a f ree ly functioning National Archives But leg is la t ion does provide the administrat ive se t t ing , and in the case of the National Archives th is is notably def ic ient by any standard, New Zealand or overseas Alone of our major national cul tura l ins t i tu t ions i t occupies a subordinate administrat ive posit ion within a government agency, the Department of Internal A f f a i r s Compared to the National L ibrary , the National Museum, and the National Art G a l l e r y , and compared to i t s counterparts overseas ( in the United Kingdom, Aus t ra l i a , Canada, Zimbabwe, e tc ) the National Archives i s administrat ively in a state of arrested adolescence There i s no standing advisory body, no annual report to Parl iament, no r ight of access to the Min is ter , and there i s the poss ib i l i t y of po l i t i ca l d i rect ion in matters where there ought to be none Who can forget the a f f a i r of the Nash Papers 7

A mature National Archives requires mature l eg i s l a t i on , and, in l i ne with the recommendations of both the Smith and Wards reports, th is Associat ion has constantly lobbied the Min is ter of Internal A f fa i r s and his department for the introduction of an appropriate b i l l In June 1984 the l as t National government did introduce a b i l l which went some way towards remedying the current Ac t ' s inadequacies In pa r t i cu la r , the National Arch iv is t was to be given r ight of access to the Min is te r , and some distancing of National Archives' professional functions from departmental d i rect ion was wr i t ten in But an independent annual report and a statutory advisory body were notably absent The b i l l lapsed with the Muldoón government, but was adopted as a discussion document by the new Minister of Internal A f f a i r s , who in December 1984 ca l led fo r submissions from interested part ies A considerable number of organisat ions, including th is Associat ion, responded

I t i s a matter of regret to have to report that two years l a t e r we s t i l l have no b i l l , and there i s a real danger tha t , unless we, and those who are with us , press hard for an ear ly introduct ion, another e lect ion w i l l be on us and matters w i l l be no fur ther forward Recent correspondence with the Minister however gives some hope of a new b i l l ear ly in the next parliamentary session He must be given every encouragement to bring forward the r ight kind of leg is la t ion In our view th is would provide fo r

1 Complete impar t ia l i ty in the select ion and administration of the public archives by the National Archives

2 Right of public access to a l l public arch ives, excepting those containing personal information, a f te r at the most, 30 years

3 Right of access to the Minister of Internal A f fa i rs by the head of National Archives

2

4 An independent annual report to Parliament from the National Archives

5 A standing body, with strong user representat ion, to advise both the Minister and the National Archives

I f these minimal and quite simple provisons, which would not in any way be p o l i t i c a l l y con t rovers ia l , are included, then we shal l have public archives leg is la t ion and ul t imately a National Archives worthy of the name However, th is i s not a matter that we can afford to leave to chance, or to the goodwill of po l i t i c ians and depart-mental o f f i c i a l s I t must be pressed So I ask every member of th is Associat ion to pick up a pen or s i t down at a typewri ter and wri te to the Minister urging the need for the ear ly introduction of appropriate l eg i s l a t i oh , and to do so now along the fol lowing 1 ines

A LETTER TO THE MINISTER

January 1987

Hon Ρ W Tapse l l , Min is ter of Internal A f f a i r s , Parliament Bu i ld ings , WELLINGTON

Dear Dr Tapse l l ,

Publ ic Archives Legis lat ion

As one deeply interested in New Zealand's archives her i tage, I wish to urge upon you the need for the ear ly introduction in the coming pa r l i a -mentary session of updated and e f fec t i ve public archives leg is la t ion Such l eg i s la t i on should give due recognition to National Archives as a major and independent statutory i ns t i t u t i on , so that i t stands equally with i t s s i s t e r ins t i tu t ions in New Zealand and with i t s counterparts overseas In par t i cu la r the leg is la t ion should provide fo r

(Here give my points 1 to 5)

I t i s my be l ie f that a b i l l constructed in these terms would promote the development of National Archives towards f u l l maturity so that i t i s of serv ice to a l l New Zealanders

Yours s incere ly ,

A CHANGE IN EDITORSHIP

This issue sees a new edi tor for archifacts, Cathy Marr of National Archives Michael Hodder has stepped down a f te r f i v e years m which the standards of wr i t ing and presen-ta t ion have never been higher For an except ional ly busy person, his achievement i s a l l the more meritorious Edi t ing Archifacts i s a most gruel l ing respons ib i l i t y Extract ing and moulding copy takes hours and hours of devoted, exacting work, and Michael deserves the thanks of a l l of us for the unst int ing best he has given Our new Ed i to r , Cathy Marr, i s the a rch iv i s t in charge of appraisal at National Archives and w i l l , I am sure, give very good serv ice in the post But she needs our support and the best way to give i t i s by supplying her with copy or materials for copy So , i f you have an idea for an a r t i c l e or some interest ing t i t b i t s of information, do not s i t on them Wri te and t e l l Cathy Her address i s on the cover

S R Strachan, President

3

THE DUNEDIN CITY COUNCIL ARCHIVES

A re la t i ve l y short time a f te r the f i r s t European se t t le rs began ar r iv ing in Dunedin in earnest, in 1848, local government at the mumcpal level began with the const i tut ion of the Dunedin Town Board in 1855 Unfortunately the Board lacked both f inanc ia l and po l i t i ca l clout and was to a large extent the poor re la t ion of the more powerful Otago Provinc ia l Government Indeed i t was probably in spi te of the Board that Dunedin developed during the f i r s t few years of i t s existence A great many of the developments required to cope with the inf lux of people a f ter the s ta r t of the gold rush were dealt with by the Provincia l Government, and i t was not unt i l the Board threatened to surrender i t s functions i f i t was not granted addit ional powers and means of ra is ing funds, that the Dunedin Improvement Ordinance was passed in 1862, reconst i tut ing the Board This however did not resolve many of the d i f f i c u l t i e s being faced The increasingly .s t ra ined relat ionship between the Board and the Provincia l Council and a lack of public support, led to the passing of the Dunedin Town Board Dissolution Ordinance on 12 Apr i l 1865 The Otago Municipal Corporations Ordinance went on to establ ish the Corporation of the City of Dunedin on 18 May that same year

Municipal government in Dunedin moved into a new era with i t s f i r s t Mayor and eight Council lors However i t was not rea l l y unt i l the abol i t ion of the Provinc ia l Government in 1876 that the Council began to exert a stronger inf luence over municipal a f f a i r s This brief, overview of the or igins of local government in Dunedin also gives an indicat ion of the scope of records housed in the Dunedin City Council Archives The records from 1855 through to the present day cover a s ign i f i cant part of Dunedin1s European history (Ref Κ C McDonald, city of Dunedin a century of

Civic Enterprise, D C C 1965 ')

Appraising the holdings

While various interested groups expressed the i r concerns about the Counci l 's archives from time to time in the 1950's, no action was taken to assess the Counci l 's nuldings of non-current records unt i l the mid 1970's No doubt the Council was made aware of the section re lat ing to the preservation of Local Government a rch ives , as set out in the Local Government Act 1974 In 1975 Shei la Ward, a member of the Public Library s taf f at uhat t ime, carr ied out a Lomprehensive survey of records f a l l i n g into the non-current/possibly archival category I t appears that nothing was done with th i s inventory at the time The Counci l 's awareness of archives was then heightened when the newly established Otago Branch of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand asked that the Council be represented on the Branch Committee The Dunedin Ci ty Council declined

I t was then not unt i l concrete plans to move the Municipal Chambers to the new administration block were being made that the question of archives began to be deal t with more earnestly Rosemary Co l l i e r was contracted to make recommendations on how the Council should best deal with i t s archives and meet i t s obl igat ions under the Local Government Act Her i n i t i a l recommendations were based on storage areas located in the basement of the Municipal Chambers, however, a space for the storage of archives was set aside in the new administration block While the Archives Sub-committee of the Committee responsible for the sh i f t to the new administration block (the STAB Committee) was appreciat ive of the work done by Rosemary, i t was obvious that her recommendation that a t leas t a part time a rch iv i s t be employed, would have to be implemented in order for the project to be followed through to completion Archiv is ts being f a i r l y thin on the ground in New Zealand, i t was fortunate that the Council did not give up at thi.s point

The appra isa l , t ransfer , boxing and l i s t i ng of some 130 years of records was by no means a small task and in 1982 the Council was extremely lucky to gain the assistance of Canadian a rch i v i s t , Susan Kooyman, to supervise th is job Like many other local au thor i t ies , the Council was able to take advantage of the Labour Department Project Employment Scheme to employ a team of people to ac t i ve l y set up the Archives I t is very unl ikely that th is would have been achieved without the support of that scheme By the end of the i n i t i a l sett ing up stage mountains of records had been appraised and a tota l of >some 400 l inear metres of records had been transferred to the i r new home in the Archives Hundreds of subject f i l e s were placed in new ac id -

4

f ree fo lders and thousands of rusty staples and pins were removed from damaged documents (The l as t staple to be removed during th is project has been kept as a reminder to future generations of the contribution made to archives by that t i r e l e s s team of s tap le removers')

The Archives establ ished

In J u l y 1984 the Council approved a report from the Finance committee recommending the creat ion of the permanent posit ion of A rch iv i s t , making Dunedin the f i r s t local author i ty in the country to do so

Administrat ively the Archives f a l l s under the scope of the City Sec re ta r i a t , the successor of the Town C le rk 's Department and the t rad i t iona l records keeping arm of Council The Arch iv is t is responsible to the City Secretary who in turn reports d i r ec t l y to the Management Executive

The Counci l 's records keeping system is not centra l ised However, records from a l l , except a couple of out- ly ing departments, are housed in the Archives A storage area for semi-current records is also provided The Archives ex is t pr imari ly to meet the Counci l 's archival needs, but are also open to the public for research purposes

The value of having the Archives close to the body that created them cannot be understated Because the Dunedin City Council Archives are si tuated in the central administration block, the material is used far more frequently than i f they had been removed to a more d is tant repository This has led to an increased understanding and respect for the Archives, which is a healthy sign at th is stage of the i r develop-ment

The arrangement of the Archives echoes the administrat ive structure of Counci l , i t i s organised by department The Town Clerk 's Department (now no longer in

ex is tence, however the records being referred to are from the Τ C ' s era and i t i s eas ier and more accurate to label them thus ) , was responsible i n i t i a l l y for over-seeing a l l the functions of Council and is natural ly the largest section of records in the Archives

For the period of the Town Board (1855-65) very few records remain, among them the f i r s t Minute Books and several Outward Letterbooks No d i s t i nc t break occurs in the records as a resul t in the change from the Town Board to the City Corporation, but th is is perhaps not surprising when one notes that John Lazar was the Town Clerk both before and a f te r the change Council records up to the turn of the century are l imi ted in some areas Minutes of Council proper run r ight through, uninterrupted (and unindexed 1) , to the'present day These are complemented by the Minutes of the various Standing Committees which developed as the Council became more involved m providing public serv ices and amenities

Unfortunately, only Outward Letterbooks have survived up unt i l 1906, when the subject f i l e system begins This gives only hal f the picture of many issues and i s a source of great f rus t ra t ion in some instances Another category of record, dating from 1884, which i s extrememly use fu l , is the ser ies of Newspaper Clippings Books Ear ly Council meetings were reported almost verbatim and these reports give an excel lent insight into how and why decisions were made and also of the people and personal i t ies involved Because only items pertaining to Council have been selected for these books, they are a fa r quicker source of relevant information than having to go to the or ig inal newspapers

By-laws dating from the 1870's give an indicat ion of how quickly the Ci ty had establ ished ground rules for administering i t s a f f a i r s Often these regulations were copied d i r e c t l y from the i r B r i t i sh equivalents

Fortunately a number1 of very useful reports have survived from the ear ly period of administrat ion These include detai led discussions by A Κ Smith, W Ν B l a i r , Henry Cour t is , Ε Genever and Τ S Cleminshaw on various aspects of the Dunedin Gas Works, reports from George W Cole, J G i l l i e s , Τ C Bur t , S H Mirams and R L Mestayer on the disposal of the C i t y ' s sewage, and B l a i r and Mirams ' many recommendations to Council

5

on i t s water supply That such records have survived at a l l i s f a i r l y amazing, as many of them are not much more than l ea f l e t s However i t i s perhaps j us t an indicat ion that for a great many yea rs , respect for the printed word has been greater than that accorded to archives or manuscripts

Use of the Archives

I t is d i f f i c u l t to know whether a subject f i l e system existed before 1906 I f one d id , no t race of i t has survived Material was f i l e d into the system

on the basis of what Standing Committee was l i ke l y to be responsible for the matter in question Generally the system works quite w e l l , but in some areas the functions and respons ib i l i t ies of the committees were not c lea r l y defined and tha t , coupled with the fac t that the system remained v i r t u a l l y unchanged unt i l 1980 and did not always develop to meet changing circumstances, means that searching for information is not always as straight-forward as one would l i k e , and in some cases i s almost impossible I t i s not surprising e i ther that the ser ies of Miscellaneous M/l f i l e s i s one of the la rges t , as they grew to be the home of a great deal of correspondence which simply d idn ' t f i t anywhere else However for th is century th is ser ies of records is probably the most important of any housed in the Archives Material covering a l l facets of Council po l icy , administration and a c t i v i t i e s is found on these f i l e s , any-thing from agreements to supply e l e c t r i c i t y and gas, to the use of Council property, jub i lee celebrat ions and other public events, dog reg is t ra t ion , overdue l ib ra ry books, staf f appointments, public works, bands in parks, bus fares and water re t i cu la t ion

The contribution made to researchers and arch iv is ts by R W Richards, Town Clerk 1905-11, cannot be understated Along with many other reforms, he was responsible for having the annual reports of Departmental Heads printed and bound in one volume The f i r s t such volume was compiled in 1906 and i t is only in recent years that th is pract ice has lapsed These reports give a year-by-year account of the important a c t i v i t i e s of Council and are invaluable for those vague inqui r ies we a l l get a t t imes, such as 'wel l I think i t could have happened sometime over the l as t f i f t y years '

The Council Arch ives , l i ke most other repos i tor ies, receives regular inqui r ies from genealogists Although not many records are held that are spec i f i ca l l y useful for th is type of research, i f a person has been a member of Counci l , or a Council employee, i t i s often possible to provide some information The more prominent the person was in municpal a f f a i r s , the better the chance of success

Another category of record that could eas i l y be passed over but which i s very useful for f inding out what committees individual Counci l lors sat on and which also give information about the Counci l 's representat ives on outside bodies, is the humble Council Handbook or Diary These are held from 1899 through to the present day and also contain s t a t i s t i c a l information re la t ing to the c i t y

Electoral ro l l s for the local body elect ions are of use for some inqui r ies Unfortunately they only date back to 1915, but th is is s t i l l a better set than other inst i tu t ions in the c i t y hold I t i s possible that the consolidated r o l l s only began being produced then because of amalgamations of the various boroughs with the Ci ty at that time

The above account gives a broad out l ine of the types of records generated by the Town Clerk 's Department In some instances there is an overlap between these records and those of the other departments, however i t was not feas ib le to appraise in such deta i l as to be able to pick up cases of dupl ication While most of the Town C le rk ' s records are s t i l l being kept in or ig inal form, the subject f i l e s from 1967 onwards have been microfilmed

Archives of departments

Records from the City Engineer's Department f a l l into s imi lar categories F i r s t l y , there are Let ter books for the period 1879 to 1913, which again only give hal f the story After th is a ser ies of subject f i l e s s t a r t , indexed a lphabet ica l ly by s t ree t and subject The Department now has a strong microfilming pol icy and a l l subject f i l e s af ter 1943 have been copied

Newspaper clippings Books although not used of ten, are in fac t indexed The

6

s e n e s of Contracts l e t for public works and construct ion, date from 1903 These records are par t i cu la r l y useful when exist ing structures need to be modified Without the or ig ina l spec i f icat ions i t would in many cases be necessary to go to a great deal of expense to work out how the i n i t i a l construction was carr ied out

Permanent Levels are another category of record that are used regular ly by engineering s ta f f The e a r l i e s t was drawn in 1863

The issue of unemployment crops up in a number of places in the Archives, pa r t i cu la r l y in the Town Clerk 's records, however an interest ing ser ies of records re la t ing to the unemployment Board Scheme No 5 , are found amongst the City Engineer's material The Scheme required that the Council provide work, mater ia l , cartage and superv is ion, while the Unemployment Board was responsible for wages Projects undertaken by the Council were largely in the area of public works and included the development of the Chisholm Park Golf Links

Although indiv iduals may feel at times that Local Author i t ies are somewhat removed from national issues, frequently the i r a c t i v i t i e s are d i rec t l y influenced by national pol icy or they are given d i rec t ives to enact such pol icy A case in point was the Housing Survey Act of 1935 This required the Council to make a survey of the d i s t r i c t to determine whether dwelling houses were overcrowded, or of a s a t i s -factory or unsat isfactory condition The records of the survey, conducted by the Council in 1937, contain a wealth of deta i l about the size and construction of the house, the sani tary and domestic equipment provided and the number and status of the occupants

S ta f f ing records for some periods of the Counci l 's history appear to be non-ex is tent , pa r t i cu la r l y in the area of waged-workers A ser ies of s ta f f cards for people employed in the City Engineer's Department during 1935-60, has however survived In some cases i t i s possible to pick up information about employees through Minute Books and the Town C le rk 's subject f i l e s , but such searches don't usual ly warrant the time required to make them

An area of local government records that often creates problems is that of Bui ld ing Permit records I t i s not d i f f i c u l t to appreciate the value of reta in ing these records, however they tend to be in the form of large volumes of bulky plans and hence occupy vast amounts of storage space The Dunedin City Council has deal t with the problem by microfilming the ent i re ser ies and keeping a sample in or ig inal form This s a t i s f i e s the administrat ive need for a complete record and future h is to r ica l requirements Bui lding permit plans housed in the Archives date from 1901

Financia l records also tend to be voluminous, however only very l imited use ever seems to made of them once they have ceased to be current As a resul t a r e l a t i ve l y small quantity of material from the Treasury is t ransferred to the Archives S ign i f i can t records include the annual accounts and balance sheets, the City Treasurer 's Minutes and ear ly ledgers

Rating records are used extensively, often in conjunction with the records of the Ci ty Va luer 's Department The Council did i t s own valuations up unt i l the mid 1950's Valuation F ie ld books are par t i cu la r l y useful as they are small and easy to handle ( th i s is an important considerat ion, many searches using these books span several decades and heaving dozens of huge rates books, which might contain the same or s imi lar information, off shelves i s not much fun - and putting them back i s w o r s e 1 ) , and they often contain extra snippets of information about what was on a property, or who the occupant was A large number of inquir ies from the public are property-re la ted , one of the most common being 'How old i s my house 7 ' As the Council formerly set i t s rates using the improved value system, i t i s possible to determine when s ign i f i can t changes to a property or building took place by noting the changes in i t s rateable value F ie ld books may also note that in one year a section was vacant and the fol lowing year a building had been erected on i t These records date from 1876 and are invaluable for th is type of research, par t i cu la r l y as no building permit records ex is t for l as t century

7

Archives for other Council Departments are rather scant, in some cases th i s is because the Department has been removed physical ly from the central administration and is e i ther s t i l l holding on to i t s own records, or has managed to lose or dispose of them somewhere along the way However, a record of each Department's a c t i v i t i e s is kept on the Town Clerk 's f i l i n g system, which i s general ly able to f i l l any gaps which may ex is t for the above reasons The following is a br ief summary of the records held for each of these other Departments

E l e c t r i c i t y deeds and agreements re la t ing to the establishment of a power supply to Dunedin, 1892-1920, Chief Hydraulic Engineer's l e t t e r books, 1903-06, F i r s t Class Diploma E l e c t r i c Power and Light Department exhib i t , 1912 Otago Industr ia l Exhibit ion

Gas Gas Manager's and Secre tary 's l e t t e r books, 1882-93, sample business, stock and time books, 1889-1972, plans and proposals for Gas Works, 1869-1909

Parks and Recreation Superintendent of Reserves d i a r i e s , letterbooks and correspon-dence, 1905-25, ca 1940-54, plant inventor ies, 1935-58, David Tannock's gardening column, 1919-20, shed Times, - Newsletter of Botanic Gardens S ta f f , 1933, cemetery records 1858-1980 (note cemetery registers are being transcribed by members of the Dunedin Gioup of the Ν 2 Society of Genealogists before being transferred to the Archives Copies of the t ranscr ipts are held in the Parks and Recreation Department and other local ins t i tu t ions)

Transport Agreements etc re construct ion, and maintenance of tramways in and about Dunedin, 1882-1948, Tramway Manager's let terbooks, 1906-13, 1924-27, Roslyn and Mornington Tramway records, 1903-15,

reports, correspondence and contracts re conversion to t ro l leybuses, 1944-60

Archives of other bodies

The archives of a number of other bodies and committees which are or have been associated with the City at some stage, are stored in the Archives Perhaps the most s ign i f i cant of these is the Dunedin Drainage and Sewerage Board consist ing of representatives from the Dunedin City Council and St Kilda Borough The Council provides engineering, administrat ive snd f inancia l services for the Board and the Town Clerk (and more recently the City Secretary) and City Engineer have been the Board's Secretary and Drainage Engineer respect ive ly , since the Board was reconstituted in 1917 H i i l e most of the Board's records are now incorporated into the Counci l 's own records systems, Minutes of the Board and i t s Committees are s t i l l kept separately and date from 1910 Other records which have survived include Letterbooks and Correspondence f i l e s , Newspaper Clippings and By- laws, and a range of records dealing with the pract ica l aspects of the Board's a c t i v i t i e s

The Dunedin City Council ;is the administrat ive body for the Dunedin Combined D is t r i c t C i v i l Defence Organisation which was establ ished in 1961 Records held include admmstrative f i l e s and examples of t ra in ing exercises

Dunedin City i n i t i a l l y covered quite a small area and was surrounded by a number of smaller Boroughs These Boroughs began to amalgamate with the City jus t a f te r the turn of the century, as follows Caversham Borough Counci l , amalgamated 1904, South Dunedin Borough Counci l , 1905, North East Va l ley , 1910, Roslyn Borough Counci l , 1912, Mornington and Maori H i l l Boroughs and Bay Town Board, 1916, West Harbour Borough, 1963, Peninsula County Counci l , 1968 Archives are held for each of these bodies pr ior to amalgamation Unfortunately, very few records have survived for some of the Boroughs, (a miserable six Letterbooks for Caversham1) while others have most categories of records one would expect a local authority to create

Harrow Street, Dunedin, during flood, April 1923

D.C.C. Photo 334/50

Dunedin City Council Archives and Archivist Jill McClymont

24 November 1986 Photographer: Darrel Robinson

9

Other interest ing ser ies of records are those of the Dunedin C iv ic Arts Counci l , also established in 1961, the Ci t izens ' Flood Re l ie f Committee, which was set up to deal with the ef fects of extensive flooding in the City in 1923, Les l i e Coombs archi tectura l drawings (Coombs was City Bui lding Surveyor from 1932-41, a f te r which he returned to pr ivate archi tectura l p rac t i ce ) , the Dunedin Ci ty Sinking Fund Commissioners' records dating from 1871, the Dunedin Metropolitan Regional Planning Authori ty, with records leading up to the establishment of the Authority in 1950, the Dunedin's More Work Campaign based on a s imi lar 'B r i s t o l Scheme', whereby c i t i zens pledged jobs which could be done by the unemployed (1934-35), the Local Unemployment Committee, 1930-35, the Unemployment Re l ie f Committee, 1921-23, the Dunedin Water Works Company, records from 1864-75, when the Council purchased the Company, archi tectural drawings of Cecil Gardner Dunning and Wil l iam H Dunning, the Ocean Beach, Ocean Grove and Te Rauone (Harrington Point) Domain Boards, the S S Kakanui Rel ie f Fund, 1891, the Otago Provincia l Centennial Counci l , 1936-40, and the Otago Provincial League of Local Bodies, 1954-69

There has been no pol icy for taking photgraphic records of Council a c t i v i t i e s and events over the years and only a re la t i ve l y small number (approximately 2000) photos are housed in the Archives These have been copied to ensure that a more stable negative exists Each photograph has been indexed, using Library of Congress headings, and reference pr ints are attached to the index card The index i s easy to use and avoids the need to s i f t through boxes of or ig inal p r in ts

Another rather small but important area of records is that of maps Approximately 160 maps are stored in the Archives, showing the changes to the City over the years

In summary, the Archives hold a wide var ie ty of records that cover the scope of Council a c t i v i t i e s and re f l ec t the interelat ionships between the Council and other bodies, Council and the community, and within Council i t s e l f

J i l l McClymont Dunedin Ci ty Arch iv is t

CENTRAL DISTRICTS BRANCH FORMS

On 22 November 1986 a day seminar on 'Our Archives' was held for custodians and users in the 'Central D i s t r i c t s " of the North Island Aimed at people from Wanganui, Rang i t i ke i , Manawatu, Horowhenua, Southern Hawke's Bay and Northern Wairarapa, the seminar emphasised the status of archives as One of the most neglected of our cu l tura l resources' and at t racted wide in terest The venue was the Ci ty Council Chamber of Palmerston North City Council Many new members were a t t rac ted to ARANZ

Approval had already been given by ARANZ Council for the establishment of an Interim Council consist ing of local a r c h i v i s t s , records keepers, and users The new Branch welcomes new members and potential members should wr i te to Mr Keith H a r w e l l -Cooke, Ρ 0 Box 1854, Palmerston North

10

ARANZ ARCHIVES TRAINING COURSES . . .

The Four-Day course on Archives Management and Description that preceded the tenth annual ARANZ Conference in August 1986 was so successful that a repeat was held on 17-20 November This was also strongly supported and some regis t rat ions had to be decl ined Over eighty people attended both courses, most of them were already working with archives or in a re la ted f i e l d

Both courses were organised through the Centre for Continuing Education at V ic to r ia Un ivers i t y , by members of the Wellington Branch of ARANZ Tutors were drawn from the Manuscripts Section of the Turnbull L ib rary , and from National Archives

There was a strong emphasis on pract ica l work Topics covered included accessioning, pr inc ip les of provenance and or ig inal order, ser ies i den t i f i ca t i on , agency and ser ies documentation, and problem solving An introduction was also given to the GAIMS' innovations in arrangement and descript ion being introduced a t National Archives

. . . RECORDS MANAGEMENT COURSES

Two successful records management courses have also been held in August and November 1986 Once aga in , they were keenly sought a f te r and some appl icants had to be turned away

A one-day seminar was held on 28 August co-sponsored by National Archives and ARANZ This raised the poss ib i l i t i e s of career prospects in records management and covered such areas as c l ass i f i ca t i on systems, choice of equipment and retent ion and disposal schedules Speakers included Cathy Marr and E l len E l l i s from National Arch ives, Al ison Fraser from the Ministry of Defence and Rosemary C o l l i e r , Archives Consultant Speakers from the DSIR, Po l ice Department and Fletcher Challenge also took part in a panel discussion

A second two-day course was held on 25 and 26 November, sponsored by National Archives through Continuing Education a t V ic tor ia Univers i ty Course members heard

ν P a t r i c i a Acton and Rosemary Co l l i e r speak and topics included cost benef i t ana l ys i s , c l a s s i f i c a t i o n systems and retention and disposal schedules

RECORDS MANAGEMENT AND ARCHIVES TRAINING

The recent reviews of records management pract ice (and the i r revealed neglect) in New Zealand has highl ighted a strongly f e l t need among pract i t ioners in both archives and records management for fur ther and better t ra in ing within th is country ARANZ Counci l , with encouragement from several leading ins t i tu t ions ( including Palmerston North City Counci l) has commenced an in-depth review of th is whole area and inv i tes submissions on t ra in ing needs and experiences in the f i e l d for ear ly 1987 Please wr i te to the Secretary of ARANZ, Ρ 0 Box 11-553, Wellington

Papers on th is topic were presented a t S t r a n d B of the 1986 ARANZ Annual Conference and these w i l l be taken into consideration during the review

11 -

NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT RECORDS MANAGEMENT REVIEW Information can be managed

THE ACTON REPORT

From Apri l to June 1986, a study team co-sponsored by the Sta te Serv ices Commission and National Archives, reviewed records management in the New Zealand Publ ic Serv ice This was the f i r s t comprehensive review of records keeping since 1913, 2 and was establ ished as a resul t of concern about the ef fect iveness and adequacy of current records systems

The review team included a records o f f i ce r , two a r c h i v i s t s , representat ives from the State Serv ices Commission and the Ministry of Works, and was led by Pa t r i c i a Acton of Acton Information Resources Management Limited, of Canada

The major ob ject ive of the study was to review the state of records management in the New Zealand Publ ic Serv ice and to make recommendations on how to improve i t s e f f ec -t iveness and e f f i c iency More s p e c i f i c a l l y , t h i s included reviewing the adequacy of Publ ic Serv ice records systems including the i r technical adequacy, administration and resourcing, developing a strategy to establ ish appropriate systems, organisations and staf f ing for the present and future development of e f fec t i ve records management, and recommending means by which t ra in ing , research, advisory and support services for records management should be developed in the Publ ic Serv ice

During the course of the study, the review team interviewed and heard representa-t ions from a wide var ie ty of interested indiv iduals and groups including members of ARANZ and i t s Council S ta f f working with and responsible for records in the Head Off ices of 36 Publ ic Serv ice departments were interviewed and representat ive regional o f f i ces in Auckland, Hamilton, Rotorua, Wel l ington, Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin were v i s i t ed

Major areas of invest igat ion were volume and space occupied by records, records centres, s taf f resources and t ra in ing , retention and disposal schedules, c l ass i f i ca t i on systems, equipment and technology, and v i t a l records

Some of the major f indings included

present record keeping systems contain some 300 kilometres of paper, costing an estimated $6 8 mi l l ion annually and stored in 62,000 square metres of space,

s ign i f i cant potential savings are ava i lab le through the e f fec t i ve use of such records management components as records cent res , retent ion and disposal schedules and adequate c l ass i f i ca t i on systems,

records s ta f f are inadequately t ra ined, under -u t i l i sed, and the i r importance to e f fec t i ve and e f f i c i en t records management i s general ly not recognised,

there is a wide d ivers i ty of experience and success in the u t i l i s a t i o n of modern technologies for records management Expert ise i s scat tered, developments often occur in iso la t ion and a mechanism for sharing expertise and information i s not ava i lab le This often resu l ts in the cost ly duplication of e f fo r t and, a t t imes, mistakes Nevertheless, s ign i f icant progress has occurred in some departments,

the concept of v i t a l records, required during the immediate aftermath of a d isaster , is not well understood or appreciated Po ten t ia l l y serious problems such as inappropriate protection for such records, the Tack of precise l i s t s of such records, and uncertainty about c i v i l defence record keeping respons ib i l i t i es within departments were i den t i -f i ed

12

Some major recommendations of the report were that

Individual departments acknowledge responsib i l i ty for records manage-ment within the i r organisations

The S ta te Serv ices Commission assume respons ib i l i t y , and accountabi l i ty , for the development of the records management programme functions within New Zealand This w i l l be accomplished by establ ishing a Core Group of expert ise within the Commission

The S ta te Serv ices Commission recognises the role of , and work c losely w i th , the National Archives in the implementation of the records management functions

I t i s essent ia l to avoid continued 'b lu r r ing ' of responsib i l i ty for records management Therefore, i f the management of the State Serv ices Commission should decide in reviewing i t s ro le that records management w i l l not have a high p r i o r i t y , th i s respons ib i l i ty should be formally delegated to another organisation

The importance of the ro le of qua l i f i ed records s ta f f be recognised, that comprehensive t ra in ing courses be developed, and that a records career be establ ished by reviewing staf f grades This w i l l be developed and coordinated by the Core Group within the State Services Commission

The concept of records centres be recognised as the most cost e f f ec t i ve means of storing inact ive records, current o f f i c i a l records centres be re ta ined, and that addit ional space be made ava i lab le This w i l l be accomplished by National Archives

A v i t a l records programme be developed as a p r io r i t y in conjunction with appropriate c i v i l defence organisations with the object ive of producing a l i s t of v i t a l or essent ia l records created by government departments

The report a lso includes a 'b luepr in t ' for action for the State Serv ices Commission ( S S C ) , National Archives and individual departments The report was submitted to the SSC a t the beginning of J u l y I t has been printed (minus the summaries of individual departments) and i s ava i lab le from Government Pr in t bookshops The recommendations are current ly being considered by the State Serv ices Commission and National Archives

Cathy Marr National Archives

REFERENCE

1 Report oí the Committee appointed to inquire into the Records Systems of the Government Departments m Wellington 1913 J E BroadfOOt et al

RECORDS MANAGEMENT GROUP

Af ter the records management course held in August, in terest was expressed in forming a records management group with the intention of holding regular meetings to share information and discuss issues of concern An i n i t i a l meeting was held on 24 November 1986 and received very encouraging support At the meeting, a committee led by Al ison Fraser was formed to plan a possible programme of a c t i v i t i e s for the following year Al ison paid t r ibute to Rosemary C o l l i e r ' s e f fo r ts in supporting and encouraging records management in the past Pa t r i c i a Acton spoke to the meeting, covering a var ie ty of topics including the Acton Report Anyone interested in par t ic ipat ing or learning more about the group i s welcome to contact Al ison Fraser a t the Ministry of Defence, Freyberg Bu i ld ing , P r i va te Bag, Wellington (Phone (04) 726-499 X 8932)

13

RECORDS OFFICERS AND THE ACTON REPORT

OR

WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME 9

At the recent meeting of Records people discussion turned to the topic of the moment The Acton Report - information can be managed Comments ranged from " I t ' s not wr i t ten for me, i t i s directed a t management" to "What's in i t for me 7 " , hence the t i t l e of my ep is t l e

I t i s recognised that the Report was not wr i t ten for the Records person involved at the work face , they are only too well aware of the problems that e x i s t , but almost a l l of them are uncertain of what action should be taken to address these problems, or how to convince management that time and e f fo r t spent on addressing these s i tuat ions can be cost e f fec t i ve

Whilst i t i s accepted that many of the recommendations are the province of the hierarchy, each and every Records person, whether in sole-charge, or head of a sect ion, can plan and implement a programme of the i r own in preparation for a management decision in th is f i e l d

Nature of Records Management

Let us look at Records Management What is i t 7 Condensed to i t s essen t i a l s , GETTING THE RIGHT INFORMATION, TO THE RIGHT PERSON, AT THE RIGHT TIME, AT THE LEAST POSSIBLE COST In many instances, the c lass i f i ca t i on system has been l i k e Topsy - jus t 'growed' Many people are endeavouring to meet the c l ass i f i ca t i on and indexing needs of th is day and age with a system which was never designed to meet the task I t has, in many cases, evolved from the Colonial Secre tary 's system, but cut here, tucked there and l i ke the oversize 'prima donna' squeezed into the fashion of the day In a l l too many cases, Records people admitted that they were far too busy keeping pace with the dai ly work flow to rea l l y get out and f ind out what the f i l e users need, expect or thought of the serv ice

Changes in Records Management

A large proportion of Records o f f i ce rs are ta lk ing of computerisation of the i r systems, with a view to becoming more e f f i c i en t and e f fec t i ve However, in the jargon of today, "Garbage in = Garbage out" , or , automation of an i l l -p lanned and unprepared system w i l l only resul t in automated chaos I t is therefore necessary to give cons i -derable thought to the preparation of a system before choosing the correct computer programme for Records

What of the actual f i l e holdings 7 How much of that which i s held in current high-cost storage i s rea l l y needed there 7 I wonder who would win the pr ize i f one were offered for the oldest f i l e found s i l en t l y mouldering away in "Current S to rage" 7

Retention and disposi t ion schedules are an integral part of good Records Manage-ment Here, I can envisage people saying that they are wait ing for National Archives to come and advise them how to produce one F ine , but when National Archives are in a posit ion to come and of fer th is adv ice, i t would be most sa t i s fy ing for them to f ind that the person in charge was f u l l y conversant with the contents of each f i l e , and had sought advice from the users as to the value of same

Costs of Records Management

What are the essential costs involved in records keeping 7 They tend not to be too obvious, however they are largely made up of s a l a r i e s , equipment, and space There-fore , i t i s sound logic to ensure that these items are working at the most cost e f f ec t i ve level possible

what's in it for me' The opportunity to t idy up the c l ass i f i ca t i on system, survey the f i l e holding, t ransfer outmoded f i l e s to low cost storage, prepare for automation, prepare for retention and disposal schedules, l i a i s e with the f i l e users to f ind out what they expect, and the need to do the job more e f f i c i e n t l y and, in genera l , bring

14

the systems "kicking and screaming into the twentieth century" For years the complaint from Records people has been that they have a "Cinderel la" image, management does not not ice what happens unt i l a l l goes wrong, and the staf f feel neglected Try updating the serv ice once the staf f s ta r t to receive compliments, the i r self-esteem w i l l r i se as w i l l the i r job sa t is fac t ion Remember, with a l i t t l e work Cinderel la went to the ba l l and turned a l l heads 1

I commend to you the Acton Report and i t s guidelines towards implementing cost benef i ts in the Records f i e l d

Alison Fraser Ministry of Defence Wei 1 ington

(Alison Fraser was the Records Officer member of the Review team )

* * *

WILL ACTION FOLLOW ACTON 9

Information can be Managed A Records Management Review sponsored by State Services Commission in co-operation with National Archives, Acton Information Resources Manage-ment Ltd , June 1986

A l l who have been pleased at the commissioning of a report on records in the public serv ice w i l l now wait wnth in teres t to see how rapidly and how completely i t s recom-mendations are implemented While the Smith report on archives in New Zealand does not en t i r e l y provide a p a r a l l e l , since i t was commissioned by ARANZ and not by government, nevertheless government funding support might have implied a degree of commitment to the f indings of Dr Smith But implementation of that report has been more notable outside of centra l government than within i t (e g loca l au tho r i t i es , church archives) The greater commitment of government to the Acton Report w i l l , one hopes, mean a more ready and more speedy implementation . ( S i n c e a team of seven people worked on the report for a period of three months plus, my i n i t i a l surpr ise was at i t s brevi ty However, I have subsequently learned that not a l l of the i n i t i a l report has been published)

The published report i s wel 1-produced, c lea r l y printed in a large typeface, d ia-grams exce l len t ly placed and reproduced, c lear table of contents These fac to rs , com-bined with the A4 s i z e , make the report useful as a manual, pa r t i cu la r l y for on-going use of i t s appendices, which include the de ta i l s on conducting a records user survey and a g lossary, and also a l i s t of the questions asked when interviewing s ta f f a t various l eve l s

The topic headings in the six main sections of the report take the reader rapidly through the background to the report , methodology, and a consideration of what records management i s , through a br ie f h is to r ica l survey to an an lys is of the findings and recommendations, a section on issues of information management, to a programme for records management in New Zealand and a strategy for change I t i s in these l a s t two sections that perhaps the widest in terest w i l l l i e , since there are implications here for the pr iva te sector as much as for central government

Inev i tab ly with such reports (as with Dr Smith 's) there are many things which are well-known l o c a l l y , and which some of us have made noises about off and on for a considerable per iod, the 'overseas expert ' syndrome i s s t i l l a l i v e and well in New Zealand, and ye t again one hopes that , th is being the case, i t w i l l mean at tent ion being paid to what is recommended Other sections benefi t from the wider range of contacts and experiences ava i lab le to someone l i v i ng in a country of larger population and more diverse industry, adjacent to the United States of America

IS

The History section of the report (B) has serious errors and omissions which give an incorrect view of what has been done in records management in both National Archives and the Sta te Serv ices Commission in the past A Records Management Of f icer was appointed in the l a t t e r in the ear ly 1960s, consequent upon the passing of the Sta te Services Act This is implied rather than stated in the chronology, whereas the appointment of another o f f i cer a t SSC in 1979 i s spec i f i ca l l y stated There was a gap of some years in the 1970s, but a great deal was achieved by Mr Ken Ta l l in his many years at the Commission (see obituary in th is issue of Archi facts ) In the text under 'Role of State Services Commission' his work is stated as 'records management courses offered i r regu la r l y , and some advisory services provided' In f a c t , a great many short courses were run, and fa r more than 'some advisory serv ices ' were provided, Mr T a l l , and his colleagues employed by National Archives undertook major rec lass i f i ca t ions of departmental records systems, were responsible for microfilming programmes, records o f f i ce layouts, constructing departmental records procedures manuals and a great many other records-related a c t i v i t i e s

The history of the National Archives ro le is also vast ly understated I t i s stated that ' i n 1963 the Sta te Serv ices Commission assumed responsib i l i ty for the advisory serv ices ' As seen above, the SSC o f f i ce r was not ca l led 'Records Advisory Of f icer ' (and his function carr ied more weight behind i t thanwould that of giving adv ice ) , but that t i t l e was the designation of the two o f f i ce rs s t i l l a t National Archives One Records Advisory Of f icer continued to be on the s ta f f of National Archives r ight up unt i l 1977, and he continued to carry out rec lass i f i ca t ions (notably of the Department of Internal A f fa i r s records system) as well as provide sundry advice on records matters On his ret irement, the decision was made to appoint a second senior a rch iv is t rather than another records advisory o f f i ce r , and I endeavoured to carry out some records advisory work, including par t ic ipat ion in rec lass i f i ca t ion work However, growth in s taf f numbers and workloads meant th is was intermittent for both me and my successor as Senior Arch iv is t Ά ' , Stuar t Strachan

I t is ins t ruct ive to read again Ken T a i l ' s remarks to the ARANZ Conference, September 1978 (Archifacts no 7 s 8 ns pp 22-25) in l i gh t of the Acton report, there are many points in the former re-echoed in the l a t t e r - which can make one ei ther sigh that the home-grown expert was not l istened to, or re f lec t on how l i t t l e has changed

The Acton Report 's Findings and Recommendations make interest ing reading, and demonstrate just how records management can deter iorate without continued staf f t ra in ing , constant review, and consistent in terest and support from higher adminis-t rat ion The importance of the emphasis on Records Centres and Sta f f Resources in th is section can hardly be overemphasised Al l is put c lea r l y and concisely, with l i t t l e use of management jargon The part of th is section with which I was somewhat disappointed i s that on C lass i f i ca t ion Systems The implication is that the system developed in 1913 remains v i r t ua l l y unchanged today Yet there have been changed emphases, so that while in many cases the outward form remains s imi lar , the implemen-tat ion of i t d i f fe rs In 1913, and for some time thereaf ter , every individual f i l e was regis tered, and the topic or subject of the f i l e was ident i f ied very minutely, that i s , many small f i l e s were created and wri t ten into registers Over the years , ' r e a l ' subject f i l i n g developed, where topics are ident i f ied much more general ly , allowing many more papers to generate on the same subject on the one f i l e As stated in the report , th is process has often gone far to far In addi t ion, the growing use, from the ear ly 1960s, of alpha-numeric f i l e c lass i f i ca t i on (using mnemonics to desig-nate departmental functions) has, in my view, been more than a cosmetic change, and has changed the whole emphasis from subject c l ass i f i ca t i on to functional c l ass i f i ca t i on Paradoxical ly , th is change has led away from s lav ish ly putting f i l e s into alphabetical order and then numbering them, to looking a t the organisation and i t s various functions in re la t ion to each other The report states that 'where departments have adopted new c lass i f i ca t i on systems, the trend has been to favour the block numeric or "Canadian" system' Yet I know of one department that has found th is system to be unsuitable and working very badly, so has rec lass i f i ed away from i t The period over which th is trend has been followed i s not stated Numbers of departments have rec lass i f ied to other systems in the l as t 10-15 years

16

Recommendations are made, to use the block numeric system ' f o r administrat ive and operational records of theîPubl ic Se rv i ce ' and 'That a standardised block numeric system be developed for use throughout the Publ ic Serv ice fo r a l l administrat ive records' Yet there i s no descript ion or evaluation of the system, or explanation of why i t is superior Those unfamil iar with i t are asked to take i t on t rust Any system needs to be main-ta ined, and staf f trained in i t s construction and use Many of the fau l ts found in present systems would be overcome by these two factors

While I agree with the concept of a standard system throughout government for adminis-t r a t i v e records, i t i s the operationa'l records which are the ' m t t y - g r i t t y ' of each department's work, and for these, i t - i s a matter of 'horses for courses' in my view, the system must be suited to the functions and operations ' Indeed, the adoption of th i s recommendation would render rather point less the one which precedes i t by two 'That Records Managers have access to t ra in ing to enable'them to evaluate appropriate classification systems

The section of ^.Equipment and Technology closes with a piece of commonsense often over-looked by those whose eyes'shine with the mention of 'paperless o f f i c e ' or 'e lec t ron ic mai l ' 'Government record systems w i l l continue to be a mixture of paper and computer records ' ( Indeed, the l a t t e r adds to the former )

The l a s t chapters of the report must have^been the most d i f f i c u l t to wr i t e , they give a l te rna t i ves for the placement of records "management function between State Services Commission and National Archives, given that there are some overlaps within present l e g i s l a t i o n , then coming down in favour of-an overa l l respons ib i l i ty with SSC, and fol lowing th i s up with a blueprint for the implementation of á programme Anyone interested in public records and archives should'become fami l ia r with th is sect ion, i f they wish to be able to support lobbying for improved training and f a c i l i t i e s for the^se having the care and responsib i l i ty for current and semi-current records, and for archives

For i t s par t , ARANZ should monitor the implementation of th is wide-ranging report , for which Pa t r i c i a Acton and her excel lent team should be commended

Rosemary Co l l i e r Wei 1 ington

* * *

OBITUARY

K . J . R . TALL, 1918-1986

Ken T a i l ' s death, on 27 August 1986 marked the end of an era for records management,™ New Zealand More than anyone e l s e , he has been the 'guru'^ of records management in New Zealand over the l as t twenty-f ive years Some of th i s is re f lected in h is paper a t the ARANZ Conference of 1978 (Archifacts no 7 & 8 ns, pp 22-25), and also in his obituary of S id Tiedt {Archifacts 1984/3, page v i n ) Much more of his contribution i s contained in the State*Serv ices Commission's A Manual of Records Management, f i r s t published in the ear ly 1960s, for which he was largely responsible, in reports to government departments and other bodies, and above a l l , in the information and t ra in ing he passed on to innumerable people Some of h is t ra in ing was conveyed through courses for records o f f i ce r s , but much more through working with and talking to people involved in records work In a l l these contacts he was unfa i l ing ly f r iendly and generous with his advice and ideas, both of which were the outcome of his incomparable experience and enthusiasm for good records management

Personal ly , I -learned a great deal ffom him, in the best way possible through personal conversation, laced with a great sense of humour He took the greatest in terest in any and every.matter I discussed with him, was never condescending from the he igh t s^ f his greater experience, and was most generous in pra ise , helpfulness, and in act ing 'ás a sounding board for ideas In l a t t e r years most of our conversations were by telephone, thank goodness for our untimed telephone c a l l s in New Zealand'

17

Ken T a i l ' s career in the public service began in 1944 when he was appointed as a temporary o f f i ce assistant at the Public Works Department's Housing Branch This was followed in 1949 by an appointment as clerk in the Prime Min is ter 's Department In 1949 Ken Tal l was one of those' t ra ined in records management through a seven-month-long course run by the (then) Publ ic Serv ice Commission The thoroughness of th i s t ra in ing could be seen in the work of other course members a l so , but par t i cu la r l y in Ken's work in the Manual and in his subsequent development of and fami l i a r i t y with up-to-date ideas in his f i e l d The Manual is s t i l l widely used, and I have found i t to be seized on with a l ac r i t y by U Κ and Austral ian a rch iv is ts concerned with records management

From October 1950 to March 1963 Ken worked in records in several departments At the l a t t e r date he became Records Of f icer in the Army Department, and in August 1963 he was appointed Records Management Of f icer in the State Services Commission, a new posit ion resul t ing from the passing of the State Services Act and the restructur ing of the former Publ ic Serv ice Commission In th is way, the Commission recognised and made a s ign i f i cant move towards f u l f i l l i n g one of i t s obl igations under the new Act - to promote e f f ic iency and economy in the public serv ice - in the records sphere

After the introduction of occupational c l ass i f i ca t i on in the public se rv i ce , the description of Ken's posit ion was changed to Management Services Off icer Much of his work entai led records surveys in departments, and recommending new records systems, which he devised, new o f f i ce layouts, and new procedures Many projects were under-taken along with Records Advisory Of f icers on the s ta f f of National Archives, par t i cu-l a r l y S id Tiedt and Jack G i l ch r i s t

Perhaps there are considerable stresses in records management work, espec ia l ly in persuading departments to implement changes, changes only recommended a f te r a long period of careful work I t i s a fac t that Jack G i l ch r i s t died soon af ter ret irement, Sid Tiedt died in o f f i ce (as a>Senior Management Services Off icer in the DSIR) at the end of 1983, and Ken Tal l re t i red ear ly on health grounds, in Apri l 1978, due to a severe heart condition

In the ear ly 1970s Ken f e l t that the commitment to records management and also the prospect of a career s t ruc ture ' fo r himself were no longer present in the SSC, and so he took a promotion to the Ministry of Defence, as Senior Management Services Of f i cer , in Apr i l 1975 Here his duties included a wider range of a c t i v i t i e s than solely records management But he continued to keep up-to-date with and interested in a l l aspects of records work He came to meetings of the records management committee of ARANZ and contributed his ideas He also was a member of the International Records Management Federation (now IRMC) - with his "opposite number" Jus t in Smal l , Records Of f icer a t NZ Railways

Af ter his ret irement, Ken's health improved, and he undertook a number of records management consultancies - for the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Defence, and in the South P a c i f i c , which he very much enjoyed v i s i t i n g , for the Cook Islands Government, the South Pac i f i c Commission and the Universi ty of the South Pac i f i c

I t is perhaps i ronic that his death comes just before the publication of Pa t r i c i a Acton's report on records management in the public se rv i ce , which he hoped to discuss with one of Ms Acton's team, and on which he surely would have had a valuable contr ib-ution to make

Throughout much of h is career Ken Ta l l was the only person working fu l l - t ime to improve records management service-wide in the public serv ice (and beyond), h is contr ib-ution was enormous and w i l l not read i ly be forgotten or superseded I can do no better than to quote the very words Ken used in wri t ing the obituary of Sid Tiedt ' ( h i s ) memorial i s in the much greater e f f i c iency shown by the many records rooms he surveyed and the great ly improved serv ice they give to the user o f f i ce rs and, as a resu l t , to the public general ly His reports w i l l be around for a while yet '

Rosemary Col 11er Wellington

10

RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT THE TENTH ANNUAL ARANZ CONFERENCE

WELLINGTON, 29 - ' 3 1 AUGUST, 1986

This conference marked the tenth year of ARANZ - a time for looking back over a decade's achievements, and looking fprward to the demands of the future This involved three days of stimulating papers and discussion

Day one was en t l t l edu fter the Smith Report the state of New Zealand archives m the 1980s,, and was spent examining both the advances, and the remaining def ic ienc ies in the current archives s i tuat ion Speakers were drawn from a l l perspectives - central and local government, . l i b ra r i es , un i ve rs i t i es , archives professionals and archives users Discussion ranged over problems of access, preservation of records, s ta f f ing l e v e l s , l e g i s l a t i o n , t ra in ing , and records management A plenary session - 'Which way the f u t u r e 7 ' - allowed a l l those attending the conference to take part in debating these issues with the speakers There was some-l ively commentary,' c r i t i c i sm and pra ise , and the general a t t i tude was construct ive

Days two and three were taken up with two concurrent,strands , A - People m the past - the use of archives in New Zealand historical writing, and Β - The lone archi-vist , confronting the documentary mass

Strand A presented sixteen speakers on a var ie ty of subjects such as wr i t ing local h is tory , research prac t i ces , economic, social and po l i t i ca l h is tory , and biography The common theme, however, was the use of the primary sources.for h is tor ica l research archives A l l speakers displayed a notable enthusiasm for, the i r subjects, and a pioneer-ing zeal for new research areas I t was most rewarding to hear of the i r experiences in using arch iva l sources

Strand Β was planned espec ia l ly for those working in the archives f i e l d - ; which, in 1986, remains a small and somewhat beleaguered area, as the strand name suggests So, th is was a welcome opportunity for a rch iv i s ts and records keepers to look at the issues facing them Seven sessions were held covering t ra in ing , computerisation, microf i lming, conservat ion, access, apprajsal and the National Register'of Archives and Manuscripts Each topic featured several , speakers, and some included a panel, of commentators, repres-enting a wide range of archives workers Par t i c ipa t ion by those attending was encouraged, which led to a valuable exchange of opinions, ideas and experience

A sp i r i ted A G Μ , and an enjoyable dinner were also part of the three days pro-ceedings The tenth annual conference of ARANZ proved an excel lent indicat ion of the Assoc ia t ion 's heal th, and a promising point of departure for the next decade

* * *

CONFERENCE 1987

This w i l l be held in Christchurch, on 28-29 August, 1987 The general theme w i l l revolve around other forms of archives f i lm , sound, o r a l , photographic, and maps Further de ta i l s w i l l appear in l a te r issues of Archifacts

?

The Canterbury/Westland branch of ARANZ looks forward to seeing ARANZ members from both is lands at th is conference

Caroline Etherington Christchurch

19

A N A L

ARCHIVES FEATURE IN CHRISTCHURCH NEWSPAPERS

I t is some time since archives have been the subject of so much attent ion in New Zealand newspapers as happened in Chr is t -church in mid-November The coverage began with a front page column-one story in the

Christchurch Press '

MUSEUM BRISTLES AT BID TO WREST ARCHIVES

A cal 1 for the Canterbury Museum to hand over 80 percent of i t s archives has met with strong opposition from the Museum's s ta f f and Trust Board

The bid for control of the archives had come from the recently established Canterbury branch of National Archives, which says the records are of national importance

Under the Archives Act , 1957, the Chief Arch iv is t at National Archives i s allowed to take custody of public archives which are considered of su f f i c ien t value to warrant the i r preservation

But museum staf f and board members fear the archives might not be as accessible to the public or as well stored as they are at the museum

Christchurch Press, 22 November 1986

The following day, both morning and evening newspapers carr ied follow-up stor ies

CANTERBURY MUSEUM'S STORAGE 'SUBSIDISED' BY ARCHIVES

National Archives says i t has'been subsi-dising the Canterbury Museum's storage of Government archives because i t does not have the resources i t s e l f

The arch ives ' d i rec tor , Mr Ray Grover, said yesterday he was surprised by the public opposition museum s ta f f and board members were now expressing to the pending transfer of the archives to a new Chr is t -church o f f i ce

I t is intended to combine papers from the museum with other Government archives originated in Canterbury for much improved public access a t a Christchurch branch of National Archives

Mr Grover told the press that National Archives had contributed about $75,000 to

Ε C Τ A

the Canterbury Museum in the las t four years through grants and s ta f f time to help arrange the archives i t holds

christchurch Press, 22 November 1986

TRANSFERRING MSUEUM ARCHIVES 'BENEFICIAL'

Mr Trotter [Director of the Canterbury Museum] said he did not bel ieve the National Archives would be able to of fer the public a better combination of storage and access ib i l i t y than that already ava i lab le at the museum

Currently, the museum opens i t s archives three days a week by appointment only According to a senior a rch iv is t at the National Archives, Mr Mark Stevens, the Crhistchurch branch would be open f i v e days a,week for regular hours [Note the branch has s t i l l not o f f i c i a l l y opened]

Researchers would be able to come in without an appointment and be granted access to micofi lms, Mr Stevens said

"Three of our s taf f are already working fu l l t ime in the museum By moving the archives out of the museum they would be able to receive professional care from us and we w i l l be able to of fer a better service to the publ ic , " he said

There were also many non-government archives that , i f the museum decided to take an interest in would receive the support of the National Archives, he said

Christchurch star, 22 November 1986

BOFFINS AT LOGGERHEADS

The Departments of Land s and Survey and S c i e n t i f i c and Industr ial Research are locked in bat t le over whether sc ien t is ts should be charged for h is tor ic data already paid for by the taxpayer

Dr Ian Speden, director of the Geological Survey, said he could understand Lands and Survey charging for current information or for work which was spec i f i ca l l y commissioned

But i t was now try ing to charge for data col lected over 120 years , previously paid for by the taxpayer, which should be f ree ly ava i lab le

20

In a primary production select committee hearing at Parliament today Mr B i l l Robertson (Assistant Surveyor-General) said i t was c lear f rom ahCabinet decision on cost recovery and a f te r c l a r i f i c a t i o n from Treasury that the approach Lands and Survey was taking was appropriate in pr inc ip le

Evening Post, 28 October 1986

NOTE ON PUBLIC ARCHIVES IN NZ

Al l public archives of the age of 25 years* or over (other than those which under any Act are required to be held. in the custody of a speci f ied person or Government o f f i ce ) which .in the opinion of the Chief Arch iv is t are o f su f f i c ien t value to warrant the i r preservation shall be tranferred to the custody o f the Chief Arch iv is t and be deposited in the National Archives

Archives Act 1957, S8( l )

LABOUR CAUCUS MINUTES COME TO NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Minute's of the parliamentary Labour Party Caucus, from 1935 to 1966, are to be transferred to National Archives, under an agreement recently reached with the presert Caucus Secretary, Heretaunga MP B i l l J e f f e n e s

Minutes from af ter 1966 are s t i l l embargoed, subject to a 20 year access res t r i c t i on Though these provide only sketchy deta i ls of meetings, the minutes reveal a l o t about Labour Readers and leadership sty les The f i r s t volume opens on 4 December 1935 " Michael Savage won the r ight to select his own Cabinet in secre t , and announced his choices at a special Caucus meeting the same evening

Evening Post, 15 November 1986

LOCAL AUTHORITY RESPONSIBILITY RECOGNISED

I t is encouraging to hear, that more local author i t ies are recognising the need to preserve the i r records and archives The Egmont County Council in the smal l town o f Opunake has al located $30,000 to construct a new records room and archive The new bui ld ing, now well under way, is a concreti block construction w i t h a' Z \ hour f i r e , rat ing door leading through to the main Council building I t is hoped to move the archives to their newihome in December

MARITIME ARCHIVES

The Taranaki Harbours' Board has decided to deposit the i r archive in the Taranaki Museum The ent i re co l lec t ion of maps, plans and archi tectural drawings have been microfilmed and are now ready for t ransfer to the Taranaki Museum The Board intends to microfilm a l l items'and are even unsti tching bindings and then re-bindmg a f te r microfilming The Harbours' Board has also al located an annual grant of $1,000 for the f i r s t f i ve years The transfer of the Taranaki Harbours' Board archive w i l l bring most of the regions's maritime archives under one roof The Taranaki Museum also holds Mokau, New Plymouth and Patea Harbour Boards archives

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON NEWSPAPERS

The f i r s t International Symposium on Newspaper Preservation and Access w i l l be held in London, 12-15 August 1987 I t has been organised by the Working Group on Newspapers of the Internat ional Federation of Library Associations ( IFLA) The aim is to bring together a l l those concerned in the important task of maintaining and preserving newspaper co l lec t ions , and to provide a forum for the discussion of common concern "How should we optimise the use of ava i lab le resources, and what is to be microfilmed and what conserved 7 " , a r e s o m e 0 f the questions to be addressed

Ross Harvey, the Newspaper L ibrar ian at the National L ibrary , w i l l be one of the speakers on an international panel, discussing national approaches to newspaper preservation

Further information about the symposium can be obtained from the edi tor

WARNING CONSERVATOR AT WORK

Cla i re Dawe, the Westpac Bank a rch iv i s t in Wel l ington, has sent us th is snippet which came to her in a recent l e t t e r

"Regarding [a house magazine that shall remain nameless] in Melbourne - w e l l , what happened there is bordering on a calamity Apparently a conservator was engaged and he thought i t a good idea to have the magazines put on microfilm He gui l lo t ined the bound books for th is purpose and there is no way for us to have them re -bound 1 1 1 "

21

CERTIFICATION ISSUE ENTERS FINAL PHASE

The issue of ce r t i f i ca t i on for the (US) archival profession swung into i t s f ina l phase at the 1986 Annual Meeting of the Socity of America Archiv is ts (SAA) where the SAA Council approved a questionaire for a general membership poll on the controversial plan The Council i s expected to resolve the i r sue of ce r t i f i ca t ion at i t s winter 1987 meeting scheduled for the end of January

I f approved, ce r t i f i ca t i on w i l l be administered by an Academy of Cer t i f ied Archiv is ts (ACA) Cer t i f i ca t ion w i l l require a mix of professional,experience and academic qua l i f i ca t ion , followed by a thorough exam For an i n i t i a l two year period, exist ing experienced arch iv is ts w i l l be able to apply for ce r t i f i ca t i on without the exam

There is no plan to make ce r t i f i ca t i on compulsory

SAA Newsletter, September 1986

FLOODS AND ARSON

On 11 J u l y , water from a broken main on an adjacent building s i te f i l l e d the basement stack area of the Chicago Histor ical Society Fortunately, most of the col lect ions usually stored there had been removed due to building renovations, but what remained included about 200 volumes of newspapers, 175 paint ings, 800 folders of archi tectural plans, and over 3000 photographic items

The bui ld ing's air-condit ioning system was knocked out, and steam produced by the water s t r ik ing a basement boi ler endange-red col lect ions throughout the building

On the other side of the U S , f i r e ravaged the Los Angeles Central Library on 29 Apri l 1986, and again on 3 September Arson possibly by an employee is suspected The Apri l f i r e was the worst in United States l ibrary h is tory , raging for nearly eight hours and causing $US 22 mi l l ion damage The September f i r e was confined to the ar t and music room, but at least 25,000 volumes were burnt

SAA Newsletter, September 1986

CONTRACT AWARDED FOR OPTICAL DISK STORAGE RESEARCH

The National Archives of the United States (NARA), has awarded a $968,000 contract

to System Development Corporation (SDC) to explore the la tes t advances in e lectronic imaging technology and thei r app l i cab i l i t y to storage and re t r ieva l of h is tor ica l records

The pro ject , known as Optical Dig i ta l Image Storage System, w i l l research image enhancement, document conversion from paper and microform to optical d isks, e f f ic iency of reference and r e t r i e v a l , and the preservation benefi ts which resul t from reduced handling of documents

More than one mi l l ion mi l i tary serv ice records from the Confederate Army of Tennessee, along with selected other National Archives holdings, w i l l be stored on 12 inch optical disks The disks w i l l each contain up to 40,000 documents, and w i l l be stored together in an automated disk l ib rary not unlike a juke-box Disk-ret r ieval time is 12 seconds, af ter which information can be read using a low-powered laser

SAA Newsletter, November 1986

JIMMY CARTER LIBRARY OPENS

Former President Jimmy Carter and his w i fe , Rosal ind, were joined by President Ronald Reagan on October 1 , 1986, at the formal dedication and opening of the Jimmy Carter Library in At lanta, Georgia

The 70,000 square foot l ib rary houses 27 mi l l ion pages of text , over 1 5 mi l l ion s t i l l photographs, 600 hours of videotape, 300 hours of audiotape, and 40,000 objects This co l lect ion covers many subjects from the Carter Presidency, including the eruption of Mt St Helens, the Iranian hostage c r i s i s , the pol lut ion of Love Canal, the Three Mile Island d isaster , the Camp David Accords, and the Panama Canal Treaty

The privately-funded l ib rary was donated to the Federal government at the dedicat ion, becoming the eighth Presiden-ta ia l l ib rary operated and mamted by the National Archives

SAA Newsletter, November 1986

AGREST0 NOMINATION REACHES IMPASSE

The United States secret confirmation panel has chosen not to vote on the nomination of John Τ Agresto to the l i fe t ime post of Archiv is t of the United States This leaves President Reagan

22

with the choices of resubmitting Agresto's nomination next year , ors a new nomination, or appointing him while Congress i s in recess" and r isk ing his removal when ' Congress reconvenes The las t option i s thought unl ike ly with so controversial a candidate

Sixteen major archival and h i s t o r i c a l orga'nsiations had opposed Agresto at the confirmation hearings, cüaiming he lacked the professional qual i f ica t ions and p o l i t i c a l independence necessary for the job A White House questionnaire sent to potential nominees asked about po l i t i ca l a f f i l i a t i o n s , campaign contr ibut ions, and voting records

SAA Newsletter, November 1986

TECHNOLOGY

A concern from an archi v,ist about new l ib rary technology appeared in Library Hotl ine and was excerpted in a newsletter Technology may bury the 20th century, a rch iv i s t warns

David J Murrah, director of the Southwest Col lect ion at Texas Tech Univers i ty , warned in a recent interview that the rapid obsolescence of today's information hardware and software has created "a night-mare for a l l of us charged with sort ing information" Arch ives , ' i n order to have access to the i r mater ia ls , are becoming museums for obsolete equipment, which must be kept up in order to maintain access Records on tape and other media, he notes, have no better means of survival than t ransfer to the technology they were supposed to replace - pr int on paper The records of the information age i t s e l f , "the most chronicled period in h is tory , may wind up buried in technological caves as inaccessible to future generations as the Dead Sea Sc ro l l s were for centur ies"

From NLW ν 87 No 1033, J u l y 1986

NAZI GHOST STALKS FRENCH POLITICS

The ten tons or so of Gestapo archives in the possession of the French Secret Serv ice contain damaging evidence against people highly placed in French po l i t i ca l l i f e today This is according to a recent book about the German occupation and i t s a f te r -math in France A former head of the French External Secret Serv ice said that the archives revealed evidence that people who had been, or who had pretended to be, in the Resistence, had been in the pay of the Germans

The archives, and thei r damaging contents are l i ke l y to be exploited by the defence when Klaus Barbie goes on t r i a l for War Crimes ear ly in 1987 The former head of the Gestapo in Lyons, who was deported from Bo l i v ia to France three years ago , 'w i l l use disclosures about the scandals and quarrels of the resistence to d iver t at tent ion from his own al leged mass deportations and tortures during the war

christchurch Press, 18 September 1986

NIXON PAPERS OPEN TO SCRUTINY

A mountain of White House papers that former President Richard Nixon thought he could keep secret w i l l be opened to public inspection a f te r a 12 year ba t t le over the i r fa te

The [ U S ] National Archives which holds 40 mi l l ion pages of Nixon material in 20,000 boxes, i s releasing about 2 mi l l ion pages

None of the material i s expected to shed new l i gh t on Watergate, the scandal ^that toppled Mr Nixon in 1974, said Chief Nixon Arch iv is t James Hastings

But John Erlichman, a former top a ide , quoted Mr Nixon as saying 15 years ago that he planned to destroy the papers "Of course no one w i l l see a l l of i t , " Erlichman quoted Mr Nixon as t e l l i ng him "When I re t i re I'm going to spend my even-ings by the f i rep lace going through these boxes There are things in there that ought to be burned No one needs to see those things "

The former President, who resigned in disgrace during Congressional attempts to impeach him, has fought in the courts for control of the papers, losing a key' Supreme Court tes t nine years ago the Government has been storing them in Alexandria, Virg in ia a t a cost of $1 1 mi l l ion a year

Mr Nixon had issued an order giving himself complete control over what would be made public and allowing him to destroy what he wanted kept secret

This raised such a row in Congress that a special Act was passed in 1974 giving cus-tody to the National A rch i v i s t , who was ordered to make the papers publ ic , star t ing with those materials involved in. Mr Nixon's al leged abuse of power

Evening Post, 1 December 1936

23

REVIEW ARTICLE

Nancy M Taylor , The Home Front Wellington Government P r in te r , 1986 2 vols , xxx + 661 ρ & xx + 667 ρ $99 50

The Home Front ( i t seems to require the dignity of an i t a l i c i zed def in i te a r t i c l e ) i s the f ina l t i t l e in the New Zealand war history ser ies i t appears for ty years a f te r Howard Kippenberger was appointed f i r s t ed i to r , though i t i s in the longer perspective a f i t t i n g f ina le to a programme which Joseph Heenan, Ε H McCormick and J C Beagle-hole inaugurated for the 1940 centennial This work has long been eagerly awaited, though from somewhere we have gained the impression i t was commissioned rather l a t e r than the other t i t l e s There was a danger that drawn-out ant ic ipat ion might have heightened expectations unreasonably i t i s good to report that Nancy Tay lo r ' s e f fo r ts have made the wait worthwhile The ed i t o r ' s Foreword i s dated 29 November 1982, so readers must not expect the la tes t necrology or reference to several recent books

The work i s a very large one, nearly 1300 pages of text I t i s bound in two volumes, and so t i t l e d , but i s s t r i c t l y Ί vol in 2 ' since the pagination i s continu-ous and thus index and 'Sources' appear for the whole text at the end of the second volume We do get a double rat ion of p la tes , though not enough The production i s t i dy , except that there are var ia t ions in vacant space between text and footnotes, no doubt a function of modern typesett ing technology which ins is ts on superior numerals and related footnotes remaining in the same page space Pr in t ing errors are rare and ins ign i f icant for example, a straying superior numeral on page 1020 Biographical notes, absent from the companion Baker and Wood volumes, are inserted here, general ly use fu l l y , not altogether evenly H i t l e r , Mussolini and Laval make a sobering s t a r t , and Goering's o f f i c i a l posit ions f ind a space 1200 pages l a t e r , there i s a note for F Ε Maning, but none for Michael Young, who was rather c loser to the local action

The text i s made up of 24'chapters Most are between 30 and 60 pages in length, but much longer are 'Defence by the People' (ch 12), dealing with the Home Guard, the Emergency Precautions Scheme ( E P S ) , and re lated serv ices , 'Manpower i s d i rected ' (ch 15), and 'Censorship' (ch 19) which f i l l s more than 120 pages Though chapters are arranged around themes or top ics , there i s a chronological sequence each topic takes i t s place in the order of chapters according to when i t became a public issue or ins t i tu t iona l development of s ign i f i cance , and i s then followed through to i t s conclu-sion or resolut ion some distance fur ther on in the war Inev i tab ly there are d i s t rac -t ions in th is procedure but on balance i t works and the admonitions to 'see above' or 'below' are not excessive A more s t r i c t l y chronological approach might have been more confusing and must have had the added disadvantage of requiring a 'cent ra l point of reference' (the government7 J Τ P a u l 7 ) t h i s i s a polycentr ic account which contr ives to convey an impression of contemporaneous divergent experiences

I t helps fo r some topics to have Wood and Baker on hand ( there are cross re feren-ces to these works), espec ia l l y for economic and f inanc ia l measures, and for 'manpower-ing' and the debate over the size and locat ion of the expeditionary force ( the furlough fuss remains rather awkwardly sp l i t between th is book and Wood) On nearly a l l topics Tay lo r ' s account is complete in i t s e l f and i s by fa r the most extensive, and in most cases the f i r s t published account of any consequence, (Tay lo r ' s material on objectors and pac i f i s t s was completed before David Grant 's thesis (1981) and book out m the cold (1986))

The author refers in her Preface to an 'attempt at a social history of a community during six years when i t s main energies were directed to war' (ρ x i ) While th i s might seem to suggest a comprehensive social h istory of New Zealand between 1939 and 1945 (with the l imi tat ions of various kinds to which the author adverts in the P re face ) , the work s t icks very large ly to ' the Home Front ' of i t s t i t l e - c i v i l i a n s and the war e f fo r t The larger ' soc ia l h is tory ' i s not attempted and the coherence of the whole i s thus retained Only in the chapters on education and the ar ts does Taylor ( a t times) d r i f t into a more general survey and there is some loss of relevance by contrast with the bulk of the book

One major source of evidence was the war history narrat ive se r i es , ava i lab le but unpublished There are hints of the strengths and weaknesses of th is ser ies but more information on the scope and scale and circumstances of composition of the par t icu-la r narrat ives would have been helpful The predominant material was newspapers,

24

metropolitan and provincial Newspapers at the best of times are d i f f i c u l t sources to use sa t i s fac to r i l y (too often the rhetor ic O f leader wr i ters and the crankiness of l e t t e r wr i ters is as far as histor ians get) and for th is period the problem is compounded by the steady"growth in the interference of the Director of Pub l ic i ty Taylor has faced the censorship issue and taken J Τ Paul care fu l l y into account,* and has managed to make the most impressive and extensive use of newspapers in any major New Zealand h is tor ica l work of recent times Problems of coverage are not en t i re ly resolved there'Seems to be less a t tent ion, espec ia l ly for the f lat ter yea rs , to rural areas and smaller towns, and Christchurch and Dunedin are not on view as often as Auckland and Wellington I t is not only that Taylor has been able to give strength to her picture by myriad de ta i l s drawn from news columns, the newspapers, then as now, provide a close grained account of the a c t i v i t i e s and opinions of leaders of local communities the mayors and town and country counci l lors and spokespersons of social and welfare organisations and elected and appointed members of Education Boards and school committees and judges and lawyers and headmasters, and so on -'middle'New Zealand' has never been brought into such c lear view as in The Home Front

il

The c l a r i t y , given the a c t i v i t i e s of major and minor d ign i tar ies and lesser personages, is due to the p i l ing up of deta i l rather than the i r a r t i cu la t ion to any exp l i c i t theory of how societ ies operate i t i s a kind of p o i n t i l l i s t technique, which when badly done becomes anecdotal and gives 'soc ia l h is tory ' a poor reputation Here i t is not only well 'done i t is given shape by the author 's perception of the ideological r i f t s which had appearednn the Depre'ssion, developed in the la te 1930s, and came constantly intofview, and into play, in wartime New Zealand The authoritarianism expressed by 'middle New Zealand' is quite c h i l l i n g , of fset only by the exertions of the l i be ra ls In a way the 'character ' of New Zealand soc iety , i t s intolerance and wowserism, i t s constructions of c lass and gender (and somtimes in th is account ' r a c e ' ) , i ts slippage towards fascism, is displayed more c lea r l y in , these years of tension than in the ear ly 1930s and 1951 The w r i t e r ' s own preferences are not hidden there is a personal involvement in th is work although Taylor herself appears on the edge of the stage only at odd moments

There i s much ent i re ly 'newl history in th is work the material on a l i e n s , on censorship, on at t i tudes to the USSR, the i n t r i ca te examination of the vas t , sprawling EPS, fresh material on the coalmine dispute of 1942 The sections on women are excel lent , and'indeed women are there or thereabouts throughout the work A few discussions are less inspir ing - not inadequate but by contrast more mundane 'The American Invasion' seems br ie fer than i t ought, though Americans are to be found wandering around other chapters looking for l iquor and entertainment The impact of Greece and Crete is sui tably emphasized because i t was the i n i t i a l shock, but i t i s not c lear why Libya and indeed other campaigns should disappear from view Postal censorship, no doubt an extremely d i f f i c u l t top ic , is not altogether sat is factory The material on the universi ty col leges is informed by personal experience but seems a l i t t l e indulgent, but l t ^ i s , l i ke the whole'work, a very good piece of h is tor ica l prose and makes beguiling reading Tay lor 's s t y l e , inc iden ta l l y , jus t occasional ly terse to the point of journalese, i s e f f i c i en t and sometimes elegant, highly evocative in odd places where she leaves the evidence aside for imaginative reconstruction (e g , ρ 1053) Her use of commas is more frequent than most contemporary taste applauds (And no doubt the 'slow s ta r t ' to the work is a case of ar t imitat ing l i f e )

I t is d i f f i c u l t to rank' Tay lor 's work i t i s quite d i f ferent from any other volume in the New Zealand se r i es , in s i ze , in the materials researched Nor can i t be contrasted eas i l y with any of the HMSO volumes I t i s , perhaps, a unique work about a unique s i tuat ion a people organized f o r ' ' t o t a l war' without the presence of war in i t s bloodier manifestations The Home Front has s igni f icance in another way while the ' po l i t i ca l revolut ion ' may have dated from 1935, New Zealand society was restructured by the e f for t for ' t o ta l w a r ' e s p e c i a l l y in 1942 and 1943 What was brought into being on the Home Front was the framework of the ins t i tu t iona l structure we have l ived within for the past forty years , and which is only now being pa r t i a l l y dismantled

A comment about the jprice Thos who picked up Murphy's Tobruk for 25 bob in ' 1961, or took Baker 's wart Economy off the remainder p i le a few years l a t e r , may f ind $99-50 a b i t steep The 'price i s , from one perspect ive, something l i ke the cost of

25

three substantial local hardbacks Or you can try the pr ice of Davin's Crete or s imi lar volume in good condition in a second-hand shop Ei ther comparison w i l l indicate that th is is reasonable value for money just in terms of printed pages As a reference book, as a social h is tory, as an orthodoxy from which researchers may proceed on further par t icu lar jstudies, as a 'book to read' (several s i t t i n g s ) , as the reclamation of an important even formative part of our personal and 'na t iona l ' pasts, as a t r ibute to those who were given no medals but fought the i r own wars, The Home Front IS a f ine work •

Ρ J Gibbons Universi ty of Waikato

BOOK REVIEWS

Gavin McLean otago harbour, currents of controversy Dunedin Otago Harbour Board, 1985 357 ρ

This book examines how a long sea in le t with l imi ted depth and many sand banks has, been repeatedly modified to provide two por ts , one a t Port Chalmers, the other a t Dunedin

Navigation has never beenteasy, e i ther through the entrance at Taiaroa Heads or along the winding channel of the inner harbour to Port Chalmers and thence to the upper harbour, and the o r ig ina l l y shallow waters opposite Dunedin Scarc i ty of f inance has always hampered development, while change has been needed as ships constantly increase in draf t and length demanding greater depths<of water and longer, more substantial wharves

The or ig inal authori ty for marine a f f a i r s was the Otago Provincia l Government, which had charge not only of Dunedin and Port Chalmers but a lso of a l l other harbours between Oamaru and B lu f f In June 1874, authority was transferred to the Otago Harbour Board which began with a pronounced bias in favour of the 'upper harbour' (Dunedin) to the disadvantage of the ' lower'harbour' (Por t Chalmers) Powerful Dunedin mercanti le in terests were behind the 'upper harbour' favour i t ism, while the Port Chalmers wharves, including the key rai lway wharf, long remained the property of central government

Those in terests favouring Port Chalmers pressed for improvements a t the massive bar at the harbour entrance where the mole was rebu i l t in the ear ly 1880s, while Dunedin interests urged extensive dredging and a t idal retaining wall in the channel of the 'upper harbour' This was ca l led the 'V ic to r ia Channel ' , but Port Chalmers people knew i t der is ive ly as the 'b ig d i tch '

The nature of the problem of use of the 'upper harbour' can be seen by the 1896 incident when two Union Company l i n e r s , shoaling in 'V ic to r ia Channel ' , were unable to come to Dunedin In the same year , the two most important overseas shipping companies decided that , because the i r ships were large and the depth of 'V ic to r ia Channel' inade-quate, they would discharge the i r ships only a t Port Chalmers So the story continued -of harbour improvements, and, in the 1930s, a ban by the Conference Lines on the i r largest ships going beyond Port Chalmers

At the end of the 1960s, with the advent of container shipping, there came the need for massive reconstruction The Otago Harbour Board came to be in charge of the premier container port in the South I s land , perhaps surpr is ingly through a large scale programme a t Port Chalmers In the same period, the whole form of Dunedin wharves had to be revised The out l ine map in the endpapers shows the s i tuat ion in 1984

There are appendices and s t a t i s t i c s of some 130 pages, and a t t rac t i ve colour p late reproductions of nineteenth and ear ly twentieth century paintings of the harbour The out l ine map in the endpapers i s 'no t as detai led nor as c lear as the map, dated August 1948, m A Η McLmtock's 1951 Port of otago

G M Mi l l e r Christchurch

26

Raewyn Dalziel Julius vogei, business politician Auckland Auckland Univers i ty Press/Oxford Univers i ty P ress , 1986 368 ρ $35

Raewyn Dalz ie l has wri t ten a scholar ly , thorough,biography of J u l i u s Vogel No stone i s l e f t unturned, every Conceivable nook and cranny has been scoured with ruthless e f f i c iency The book i s wel l wr i t ten and makes for interest ing reading I t has been handsomely produced, sports a s t r i k ing cover, and, although the photographs would have been more e f f ec t i ve i f they had been scattered through the, text instead of c lus tered, th i s i s but a minor disappointment

The author t races Vogel from his-London Jewish beginnings, through the goldf ie lds of V i c to r i a , to Dunedin His ident i ty was unclear from the outset , and he never rea l l y belonged to any one ethnic, c lass or re l ig ious group The complexities of his in te r -connected business and po l i t i ca l in terests are examined with precision and sk i l l From r e l a t i v e l y modest beginnings as edi tor of the otago Daily Times, Vogel went to the Otago Prov inc ia l Council-and Parliament In the l a t t e r he proved so able that he suc-ceeded in overcoming a strong undercurrent of anti-semitism and c lass snobbery as well as a sh i f t from Dunedin to Auckland When in Dunedin he also married, predictably out-side the Jewish f a i t h In 1869 he became Colonial Treasurer, and i t was in th is ro le that he made his greatest contribution to New Zealand history by devising" and imple-menting a massive development programme The i n i t i a l success of public works and large scale immigration enhanced the populari ty of the Otago p o l i t i c i a n , and he became Prenfier ,m 1873

As Premier, Vogel set about replacing the old provincial system with centra l ised government, improved shipping l i nks , and connected New Zealand to the internat ional cable But he suffered from gout, found his^energy drained in an enormous bat t le with those supporters of provincial ism, James Macandrew and S i r George Grey, and, in 1876, took the opportunity to have himself appointed Agent-General in London

Eight years l a t e r , tie was back in New Zealand heading a ministry in tandem with Otago radical Robert Stout Much of his time he spent promoting rai lway development in Canterbury, and rescuing from bankruptcy the New Zealand Agricul tural Company in which he was deeply involved His government also saw attempts by John Bal lance to put men of l imited means on the land, and women come close to winning the vote {Vogel wrote a novel about the benefi ts which would fol low from an extension of the f ranch ise, but he set the book in the year 2000 )

The ministry was defeated in 1887, and Vogel l e f t po l i t i ca l l i f e , and moved back to London He dabbled in business, journal ism, and novel wr i t ing , was given various sinecures by the L ibera l Government, and limped along in strai tened circumstances t i l l his death in 1899, f a i l i ng thus to see in the new century which would rea l i se many aspects of his v is ion of a developed New Zealand economy,

Dalziel concludes that th is controversial man, who combined aspects of both S i r Robert Muldoon and Roger Douglas, 'although undoubtedly a po l i t i ca l adventurer, con t r i -buted more to the development of New Zealand and possessed a greater v is ion of i t s place in the P a c i f i c , and in the world, than any other po l i t i c ian of his time ' I t i s hard to quibble with th is judic ious assessment, but, upon f in ish ing the book, 1 was l e f t feel ing uneasy about a number of , th ings which re la te to the genre of po l i t i ca l biography rather than to*>this work in par t icu lar F i r s t , on a minor note, James Macandrew was a 'wealthy Dunedin businessman' more in theory than in pract ice Although he made large sums of money at t imes, he had a greater ta lent for losing fortunes He was so impecunious at the time of his death that a l l he bequeathed to four maiden daughters was a house and a l i f e insurance pol icy of one thousand pounds A special memorial fund had to be raised to stop these daughters f a l l i ng into genteel ' indigence' I f Dalziel had consulted other histor ians working on 19th century Otago, th is other side of Macandrew would have been revealed Perhaps the new Dictionary of New Zealand Biography w i l l persuade wr i ters to share around the numerous biographical snippets they discover on a host of people when researching one par t icu lar individual

Second, and again th is is a somewhat pedantic point, although 'par ty ' i s a useful shorthand term, i t i s quite misleading to talk of any truly modern s t y le party t i l l 1891 The term should at least be placed in inverted commas, or have an explanation

27

attached to show that i t i s being used in the rather imprecise sense employed by Vogel 1 s contemporaries This kind of problem suggests that the author needed to spend a l i t t l e more time on sett ing her subject in context But is th is possible in a po l i t i ca l bio-graphy'

Th i rd , I would have l iked Dalziel to have made more comparisons with other Prime Ministers in her assessment of Vogel 's worth Comparisons with other new world p o l i -t i c ians in Austra l ia and North ^America would also be i l luminating Surely business p o l i t i c i a n s , who brought in capi ta l from metropolitan Europe and exerted considerable power within the co lon ies, were rather typ ica l of se t t l e r soc ie t ies This i s , of course, a t a l l order, and I am r e a l l y asking Dalziel to wr i te another book I hope she explores the comparative dimension, but, even i f she does not, her study of Vogel w i l l remain the de f i n i t i ve work on th is complex and fascinat ing man who never rea l l y belonged in England or New Zealand The book complements Jud i th Basse t t ' s Harry Atkinson, and I recommend i t to anyone interested in New Zealand history

Tom Brooking Univers i ty of Otago

David Gee Poison, the coward's weapon Christchurch wh i t cou l l ' s , 1985

127 ρ $9 95

This book begins with an account of the psychology of poisoners, and a l i s t of poisons and the i r symptons Then fol low 25 chapters on New Zealand poison cases

David Gee i s no s t y l i s t He wri tes straightforwardly about what happened, and his narra t ive tends to become an unrel ieved account of man's inhumanity to his fe l lows I t can be - and has been - done better Gee wri tes a no-nonsense account of the t r i a l of Captain Wi l l iam Jarvey fo r the murder of his wi fe a t Dunedin in 1865 In cont rast , Robert G i l k i son 's Early days of, Dunedm contains a fac tua l l y cor rec t , and, a t the same t ime, macabre and entertaining descript ion of J a r v e y ' s treachery

A number of chapters are short , and, consequently, the characters are mere shadows Take Joyce Morrison - dumpy, 46, ch i l d l ess , and k i l l ed off in a few sentences Neither Jarvey nor Minnie Dean - the l a t t e r arguably New Zealand's best-known criminal -come to l i f e , while the well-born Tom H a l l , who k i l l ed his fa ther- in- law and attempted to k i l l his w i fe , remains a Vic tor ian pantomine rather than a human v i l l a i n The most interest ing chapter i s that which deals with 68 year old father and grandfather J i m Bol ton, a man of previous good 'Character, who was convicted for the murder of his w i f e , and hanged in 1957, the l as t person to be executed in th i s country

Gee has cul led information from a number of books Unfortunately, he tends to pjote from them at length rather than paraphrase relevant sections Contemporary news-napers have been used extensively ( the cover design includes a photograph of a court report from the Lytteiton Times) But there i s no bibl iographic l i s t i n g of sources, and the reader who wants to delve fur ther w i l l have a big job on his hands

When i t comes to the use of a rch ives , Gee i s , lamentably, an amateur He quotes o f f i c i a l s 'Records are not re ta ined ' 'No confirmation of the de ta i l s you have can be given' Ί bel ieve some 25 to 30 years ago a lo t of f i l e s of long standing were destroyed and only very unusual cases and records remain ' These are stock responses from government o f f i ce rs who are pre-occupied with the present operations of the i r department, and have scant in teres t or knowledge of i t s doings in e a r l i e r years A bloodhound nose would have led the author to pol ice f i l e s a t National Archives I t was J u l i a M i l l en ' s a b i l i t y to sn i f f out and exploi t the contents of these and s imi lar items which made her colonial tears and sweat such a refreshing book

S t i l l , David Gee does bring together the sa l ien t fac ts of a number of long-forgotten cases, and there may well be researchers in the future who f ind useful information in Poison, the coward's weapon

Richard L Ν Greenaway Christchurch

28

Nancy M Tay lo r , A finding list of the papers of Jim Roberts compiled by Ν M Taylor in the V ic tor ia Univers i ty of Well ington Library Wellington V ic tor ia Univers i ty Press , 1985 142 ρ $19 95

In 1979 the Labour Archives Committee of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand c i rcu la r i sed a large number of trade union, trades council and lef t -wing organisations encouraging them to ensure the preservation of the records of the i r past I t was noted that the retent ion of such material would help redress a ' lack of balance' in New Zealand historiography, and would go some way towards removing 'a marked bias against the labour movement' in the history books Expert advice was offered on storage, arrangement, conservat ion, and the depositing of records

There were few responses An anarchist group d id,wr i te in accusing the committee of being an agency of the s ta te , and some committee members wished they were - so that action could be taken despite the poor response to the questionnaire Since that t ime, union and soc ia l i s t society archives have suffered further destruct ion, despite the best e f fo r t s of a small "number of h istor ians and a rch iv i s t s who are dedicated to pre-serving and analysing New Zealand labour history

One does not have to think too hard to locate an ideological reason for a lack of i n te res t , or h o s t i l i t y , to those labour records which remain extant But the l imi ted appearance of the labour and soc ia l i s t movement in New Zealand history can be at t r ibuted in part to the ignorance of the ex i s tence , k access ib i l i t y and potential of such material as has been preserved The publication of f inding aids such as Nan Tay lo r ' s arrange-ment and l i s t i n g of the 'B ig J i m ' Roberts papers at V ic tor ia Univers i ty i s therefore to be welcomed In such ways can labour history be eased towards that higher p ro f i le in New Zealand historiography which i t s contribution to the shaping of the nation deserves

The meticulousness which character ises Mrs Tay lo r ' s recent book, The Home Front, (a lso reviewed in th is issue of Archifacts) i s much in evidence in the arrangement of the 1400 odd items in the Roberts co l l ec t i on , and in the 142 pages of the l i s t i ng A draf t f inding aid has been ava i lab le for years The publ icat ion of a f i na l i sed version has been undertaken despite the res t r i c ted nature of the papers 'Experience has suggested that the l i s t i ng alone may be helpful to students of labour history '

The l i s t i ng w i l l indeed be of ass is tance, although no exaggerated claims as to the importance of the papers are made in the br ief (and anonymous) introduction 'The co l lec t ion originated from the of f ice f i l e s of the Al l iance of Labour and the Waterside Workers' Federat ion, and as such i t contains no Labour Party mater ia l , and only a hand-ful of personal papers ' But the arrangement and descr ip t ion, and good cross-referencing, w i l l ensure that the l i s t i ng w i l l be placed in the same category as the acclaimed Frank Rogers f inding aids which guide students through the 8 89 metres of the Fowids Papers at the' Univers i ty of Auckland Library

The descr ipt ive element of such l i s t i ngs can make them ins t ruc t ive per se The vu lnerab i l i t y of the union movement to legal ac t ion , for example, i s seen in the Taylor compilation 'an i ronical sketch about receiving scabs into the union, omitted from the Transport worker l es t i t exci te court action ' Or the scope'of idealogical debate within a union, hinted at in an unwitting juxtaposit ion in the 'Of f ice L ibrary ' section of the l i s t i n g a work by Lenin usually known as Left-wing communism - an infantile disorder (but here under an e a r l i e r t rans la t ion) cheek by jowl with the New Zealand

Loyalty League's What is! the red menace7 an exposé of the so-called 'Labour' Party

The f inding aids of most archive and manuscript ins t i tu t ions - i f they exist at a l l - remain v i r t ua l l y unknown to a l l but s ta f f members and researchers in spec i f i c f i e lds A greater degree of publ ication could not but enhance the recorded history of New Zealand -Labour histor ians are doubly fortunate when an aspect of t he i r f i e l d i s highlighted in th is way

Richard H i l l , H is tor ica l Publ icat ions Branch, Dept of Internal A f fa i rs

oOo

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 I N C

PATRON:

P.O. Box 11-553 MANNERS STREET WELLINGTON, N.Z.

S i r John Marshal 1

PRESIDENT:

VICE-PRESIDENTS:

SECRETARY:

TREASURER:

MEMBERSHIP SFCRETARY:

EDITOR:

COUNCIL:

Stuart Strachan

Mary Reid

Brad Patterson

Mike Hoare

Marlene Sayers

David Retter

Cathy Marr

Kevin Bourke

Caroline Etherington

Richard H i l l

Michael Hodder

Nicola Frean

Sherwood Young

c / - Hocken Library P.O. Box 55, Dunedin

42 Carrington Street New Plymouth

20 Khyber Road Seatoun, Wellington

58 Beauchamp St reet Linden

97 Happy Val ley Road Ohiro Bay Wellington 2

P.O. Box 11-553, Manners S t ree t , Wellington

c / - National Archives P.O. Box 6148, Te Aro Wellington

57 Fox S t r ee t , Ngaio Wei 1ington

c / - National Archives Southern Regional Off ice P.O. Box 1308 Christchurch

53 Moana Road, Kelburn Wellington

P.O. Box 28-011 Wellington

c / - National Archives P.O. Box 6148, Te Aro Wellington

22 Taupo Crescent Plimmerton

C

COMMITTEE CONVENORS

Archival education and tra in ing

Business archives

Labour archives

Records management

Religious archives

Women's archives

Architectural archives

Cartographic archives

Oral archives

Auckland

Canterbury

Otago/Southland

Wellington

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

Kevin Bourke c / - P.O. Box 11-100, Manners St reet

Wellington

Cathy Marr c / - National Archives , P.O. Box 6148

Wellington

Rosemary C o l l i e r c / - P.O. Box 11-100, Manners St reet

Wellington

Beverley Booth c / - Hocken L ib ra ry , P.O. Box 56

Dunedin

Kay Matthews Education Dept. , Univers i ty of Waikato

Pr iva te Bag, Hamilton

SPOKESPERSONS

Robin G r i f f i n BNZ Archives, P.O. Box 2392, Wellington

Brad Patterson 20 Khyber Road, Seatoun, Wellington

Graham Butterworth 83 Gloaming H i l l , Onepoto, T i tahi Bay

BRANCH CHAIRPERSONS

Verna Mossong 1 Bruce Road, G l e n f i e l d , Auckland

Caroline Etherington c / - National Archives , P.O. Box 1308

Christchurch

Peter M i l l e r c / - Hocken L ib ra ry , P.O. Box 56

Dunedin

David Retter c / - Alexander Turnbull Library

P.O. Box 12-349, Wellington

0

OBJECTS OF THE ASSOCIATION

1 . TO FOSTER the care , preservat ion, and proper use of archives and records, both

public and p r i v a t e , and the i r e f f e c t i v e administration.

2 . TO AROUSE public awareness of the importance of archives and records and in a l l matters af fect ing the i r 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 i k e objects .

3. TO PROMOTE the t ra in ing of a r c h i v i s t s , records keepers, curators, l i b ra r ians and others by the dissemination of specia l ised knowledge and by encouraging the provision of adequate t ra in ing 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 resul ts of t h i s research.

5. TO PROMOTE the standing of archives i n s t i t u t i o n s .

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

Zealand.

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

of these objects.

MEMBERSHIP

Membership of the Association i s open to any individual or ins t i tu t ion interested in foster ing the objects of the Associat ion. Subscription rates for ¡986 a r e :

within New Zealand overseas

Swzl7.00 $JVZ20.00

individuals $wz25.00 $«z28.00 ins t i tu t ions

Subscription rates for 1987 a re :

within New Zealand $JVZ19.00* overseas $«z22.00 individuals

$wz28.00 SJVZ30.00

i ns t i tu t ions

Overseas members who wish airmail dispatch of notices and bul le t ins w i l l need to advise the i r requirements. The addit ional fee w i l l depend on current postal charges

Applications to j o i n the Associat ion, membership renewals and correspondence on related matters should be addressed t o :

The Membership Secretary ARANZ P.O. Box 11-553 Manners Street WELLINGTON New Zealand

*For two indiv iduals l i v i n g at the same address (within New Zealand) a joint membership i s a v a i l a b l e , at $wz22.00 per year , which e n t i t l e s both people to f u l l voting r ights at meetings but provides only one copy of each issue of Archifacts.

Régi s t e r e d

at the

Post O f f i c e Headquar ters

Wei 1 i ng ton

as a

magaz i ne