OBJECTS OF THE ASSOCIATIO N

The objects of the Association shall be: i. To foster the care, preservation, and proper use of archives and records, both public and private, and their effective administration. ii. To arouse public awareness of the importance of records and archives and in all matters affecting their preservation and use, and to co-operate or affiliate with any other bodies in New Zealand or elsewhere with like objects. iii . To promote the training of archivists, records keepers, curators, librarians and others by the dissemination of specialised knowledge and by encouraging the provision of adequate training in the administration and conservation of archives and records. iv. To encourage research into problems connected with the use, administration and conservation of archives and records to promote the publication of the results of this research. v. To promote the standing of archives institutions. vi. To advise and support the establishment of archives services throughout New Zealand. vii. To publish a journal at least once a year and other publications in furtherance of these objects. ARCHIFACT S

Published by the

Archives and Records

Association of New Zealand

October ARCHIFACT S

Editorial Committee David Green Michael Hoare Gavin McLean Brad Patterson Adrienne Simpson

Reviews Editor David Green

Archifacts is published twice yearly, in April and October

Articles and correspondence should be addressed to the Editor at

PO Box 11553 Wellington

Intending contributors should obtain a style sheet from the Editor

Printed by G Ñ Print Ltd, Wellington

Copyright ARANZ 1995

ISSN 0303 7940 Contents

Guest Editoria l í

Vincent Orange Who's Who7 A Biographer's Problems 1 Michael O'Meeghan Catholic Archives in New Zealand 11 Philip Jane Archives at the University of Canterbury 25 G W Rice Urban History and the Millenium - Chnstchurch 2000 Project 29 Playing for Keeps Electronic Records Tena Incognita in the Modem Office7 35

Letter to the Editor Judith Devahant 39

Book Reviews Judith Ellis Keeping Are/uves (Rachel Lilburn) 42 Frank Rogers Archives in New Zeafond 4, Te Hikoi and Chris Szekely Maroma A Directory of Maori Information Resources (David Green) 45 Derek Dow Annotated Bibliography for the History of Medicine & Health in New Zealand (Patricia A Sargison) 47 Megan Hutching and Orai History in New Zealand a Bngid Pyke Directory of Collections 1992 (Theresa Graham) 51 Hylton Tuckett GRINZ Yearbook i994 (Bruce Ralston) 52 Reg Birchfield and Ian F Grant Out of the Woods the Restructuring and sale of New Zeafond's State Forests (Alan Henderson) 53 Malcolm Templeton Ties of Blood and Empire (James Eayrs) 56

m Archives and Records Association of New Zealand Inc POBox 11 553 Manners Street Wellington, New Zealand

Patron Her Excellency Dame Catherine Tizard GCMG DBE Governor General of New Zealand

Council President Sheryl Morgan c/ Waikato Polytechnic Library Private Bag 3036 Hamilton Vice Presidents Jan Gow Ñ O Box 25 025 Auckland 5 Jim Traue 16B Hadfield Terrace, Wellington Secretary and Membership Secretary Therese Angelo c/ Royal NZ Airforce Museum RNZAF Base Wigram Private Bag, Chnstchurch Treasurer Michael Hoare Police Centennial Museum, Royal NZ Police College Private Bag Ponrua Council Anna Blackman c/ Dunedin City Council Archives Ñ O Box 5045, Dunedin Alison Fraser Ñ O Box 2907 Wellington Barry Jordan c/ National Archives Ñ O Box 91 220, Auckland Tiena Jordan Whakatane District Museum Ñ O Box 203, Whakatane Rachel Lilburn c/ Dept of Library & Information Studies Victoria University PO Box 600, Wellington Brad Patterson 20 Khyber Road Seatoun Wellington 3 Margaret Tomsett 191AWai itiRoad Timaru 8601

w Guest Editoria l

As this editorial is being written the upswell of public anger at the government's ill conceived plan to 'reform' National Archives continues to grow There is no evident public support for the proposals floated by the Secretary for Internal Affairs (Dr Roger Blakeley) and by his Minister (Hon Warren Cooper) to restructure the institution into mini business units, to transfer real power to the hands of the Secretary himself, and by passing the Chief Archivist, to place the effective custody of the nation's archival treasures in the hands of the Secretary's nominee, a commercial general manager In examining the supposed logic of the scheme, an editorialist in the Centre for Business History's Newsletter has aptly summed up the reaction of most 'Pull the other one1' Since late August National Archives has had unprecedented publicity Public meetings have been reported in the press and on radio Leader writers and columnists have expressed misgiving There have been letters to newspapers Electors have made approaches to politicians There have been tense discussions between the Sectetary for Internal Affairs and opponents of the scheme And the previously inconceivable has become reality Pickets at the National Archives head office have been mounted by deeply concerned supporters Visiting National Archives to spread his message, Dr Blakeley has been compelled to slip m by the back door A littl e less radically the evening of 26 September witnessed the rejection in the House of Representatives of the Estimates Report of the Internal Affairs Select Committee, the opposition parties combining to defeat the government Opposition members continue to table questions So far, with the exception of a trickle of personal responses from Dr Blakeley to published criticisms, none explicit about how his efficiencies will be achieved, the debate has been curiously onesided Apart from a rambling radio contribution from a former Cabinet Minister, no support fot the proposals has been expressed After a near month's silence, Cooper's sole recent statement has been a regrettable personal attack on senior officers of ARANZ Clearly, for the newly elected Mayor of Queenstown, the old principle of damn the message, kill the messengers, remains an article of faith The restructuting exercise appears to have been clumsily handled from the outset In announcing Dr Blakeley's appointment as Secretary

í m April, State Services Commissioner D Ê Hunn lauded his outstanding administrative abilities But for Dr Blakeley the transition from the relative comfort of heading a small policy ministry to directing a diverse operational department has been less than smooth It is uncertain just who, or which agencies, had input into the Blakeley proposals What is certain is that the proposals were formulated within weeks of Dr Blakeley's taking office While it has been retrospectively asserted that the 1994 McDermott Miller review constituted a consultation phase, this is unsustainable Moreover, it was suggested on 8 August, by Deputy Secretary Joel George, that the resulting seriously flawed document had been shelved because of incomplete costings and inadequate analysis It is strange then, given the expressed concern about efficiencies, that the restructuring scheme should have been placed before Cabinet without a cost benefit analysis or even indicative costings Why it was approved by Cabinet without such basic data remains a mystery The whole affair raises serious questions when it is realised that the present proposals, though purporting to be based on the McDermott Miller review, bear littl e relation to the reviewers' recommendations Despite a plethora of 'justifications', Dr Blakeley has been unable to convince critics his plans possess either merit or logic Significantly, at a meeting with stakeholder representatives held on 26 September, the Secretary could provide no hard evidence that his plans either should or could, work Instead, those assembled were enjoined to have faith New Zealand led the world in public sector reform and where New Zealand led others would ultimately follow The situation has been further confused by contradictory statements, by Dr Blakeley himself, and by Dr Blakeley and his Minister Even the status of the proposals has been in doubt On Checkpoint, on 23 August, Hon Warren Cooper stated "this is a possible change at Cabinet we decided to have a look at the thing They (Internal Affairs) are going to report back' Dr Blakeley, however, has consistently maintained that the restructuring is carrying out government policy, which he may not change In terms of how the new structure would operate, Dr Blakeley, however, has consistently maintained that the restructuring is carrying out government policy, which he may not change In terms of how the new structure would operate, Dr Blakeley is, at best, hazy For instance, while he early argued that appraisal decisions, the determining of which archives should be kept and which not, would devolve to his policy unit, he assured stakeholders on 26 September that this function would remain (as the present law requires) with the Chief Archivist Yet here are indications that he is already having third thoughts Even the vexed question of

vi whether a user pays regime will be instituted remains up in the air While Dr Blakeley gave stakeholders an absolute assurance this would not be so on 26 September, on the following day, on Radio Pacific, the Minister stated that he would not 'skirt round' the fact that user charges might be considered The performance of Minister and Secretary has not been one to engender public confidence It is arguable that in criticism to date too much emphasis has been placed on possible outcomes of the projected restructuring, on the privatisation of archives services and the introduction of user charges for access, rather than on root constitutional infringements While these are very real concerns, and the implications are deeply disturbing, concentration on what are still possibilities has tended to obscure certain damage to accepted constitutional conventions As Brian Easton has eloquently argued (The Listener, 30 September), the keeping of archives is 'integral to our constitutional processes, holding politicians and bureaucrats to account by the record of their deeds' For National Archives to adequately fulfi l this role, it is essential that the integrity of the public record be maintained, that it be beyond manipulation, and that to ensure this the custodians of the public record be distanced from undue political or bureaucratic interference This cannot be guaranteed under the Blakeley proposals Given his enthusiasm to devolve archives keeping to othet agencies, his readiness 'not to rule out any option' for savings, Dr Blakeley is unable to provide credible assurances that the integrity of the public record will be maintained There are sufficient documented cases of past irregularities by departments to stimulate concern There must be strong suspicion that the Secretary's preferred market environment will lead to an escalation of illici t destructions and withholdings Dr Blakeley's determination to demolish the administrative structures erected by the 1957 Archives Act, or to circumvent them, simply compounds the problem Forty years ago decision makers deemed it necessary for custody of the public record to be entrusted to a semi independent statutory officer Dr Blakeley considers this no longer desirable, arguing that there are 'conflicts' in the Chief Archivist exercising several roles In his frequently reiterated words, the Chief Archivist cannot be 'referee, coach and player' in his market environment The Secretary apparently sees no incongruity in assuming all of these roles himself, for this will be the practical effect of the restructuring, all three units' created reporting directly to him As Easton rightly points out in his article, this is a Clayton's funder provider split Moreover, to overcome the difficulty that, in the absence of legislative

Vll amendments, professional responsibilities legally remain with the Chief Archivist, Dr Blakeley insists that he has the legal right to 'direct' the Chief Archivist to delegate those responsibilities to other individuals of his choosing This is clearly contrary to the intent of the framers of the 1957 Act The reasoning is positively Orwelhan1 A great deal of energy has already been expended challenging Dr Blakeley's proposals Unquestionably, a great deal more will be required Users and supporters of the National Archives must continue to oppose this ideological experiment As one critic has suggested, National Archives is too important to become a bureaucrat's (or Minister's) plaything Nothing is irreversible until the new structure is enshrined in law, and even then statutes can be repealed A clear statement from opposition parliamentary parties that the status quo would be restored after a change of government would be welcome Yet if there is one positive result from this whole sorry business, it is that interested community groups have coalesced in opposition as never before There has been a realisation that only combined strength can effectively oppose ignorance and phihstinism It is a lesson that may have longer term ramifications for politicians and public administators More than 15 organisations met on 23 August to express their dissent, which was conveyed to the Prime Minister Representatives of those same organisations met with Dr Blakeley on 26 September The outstanding feature of that meeting was the unity of purpose, the determination of the organisations to continue the fight Individually those organisations might be dismissed by decision makers as of littl e account Collectively, however, their memberships comprise tens of thousands While it might be ingenuous to suggest that the future of National Archives could become a major 1996 electoral issue, the arrogance exhibited by those controlling the institution's destiny may well influence some voters in their decisions What is even more likely is that henceforth the government's advisers will have less leeway in slipping such proposals through by stealth Distress over the proposals to dismember National Archives has conceivably forged a new cultural coalition Dr Blakeley, and his like, will be closely watched But support for National Archives should not be expressed as criticism of the present proposals alone It is also necessary to state unequivocally what alterations to the status quo would win widespread approval The first would require littl e effort Two immediate minor amendments to the 1957 Archives Act were suggested at the 26 September meeting One would state (Section 8, Clause 17) that public archives transferred to the custody of the Chief Archivist would be 'held in trust in perpetuity

vm on behalf of the people of New Zealand' Such an amendment would help allay fears about the future sale or culling of holdings The other would add an unambiguous statement to Section 20 that no fees would be charged for access This would reinforce the Secretary's assurances and provide a partial safeguard until new archives legislation is introduced A second, and more critical, innovation would be the introduction of the long delayed Archives Bill Promised for 20 years, and most recently circulated in draft form in 1992, the draft would remove anomalies, provide for modern archives management, and at the same time ensure the protection of National Archives and its holdings from uninformed interference And there is a third There is now virtual unanimity, at least amongst stakeholders, that the time has come for National Archives to be removed from the Department of Internal Affairs, with it being established, as the McDermott Miller review recommended, as a separate Crown entity Such a step is needed to ensure that National Archives is not again subjected to a whim of a Secretary for Internal Affairs who— against all reason—is given authority by a Cabinet seemingly unaware of the inherent implications of its decision Hocken Librarian Stuart Strachan spoke for significant sections of the community when he reproved Dr Blakeley on 26 September 'You have sold Cabinet a pup, and you are now trying to sell us a pup It's ridiculous I'm very angry'

Ian Wards Hon Lif e Member

Who's Who? A Biographer's Problems

Vincent Orange

Reader in History University of Canterbury

Geoffrey Elton is one of Britain's most eminent historians He regards biography even at its best as 'a poor way of writing history', and I confess that it is hard to disagree with him A biographer, wrote Elton, 'should give much weight to those private relationships and petty concerns which have littl e to tell the historian, in particular, if he is to understand his subject's personality, he should deal thoroughly with those formative years during which the history of the age is likely to be quite unaware of the growing man n It is certainly true that a serious weakness in most biographies concerns the 'formative years' As a rule, littl e is known even about young princes expected to become kings, let alone young men of humble origins who become outstanding military commanders Their biographers must eke out a few scraps of information with a great deal of imagination Worse, some famous persons have subsequently rewritten their formative years either to increase the height of their rise from low beginnings, or to show themselves aware at an early age of their future mission in the world, or to eliminate from the record inconvenient actions opinions or relatives Even when deliberate lying is not an issue, the problem remains that littl e is known about our motivations The influences of opportunities that guide our fortunes are not all felt in youth The child is not always father of the man, a fact for which I at least am very grateful To illustrate this last point—the child is not always father of the man—let me use the example of Sir Keith Park, one of New Zealand's most famous airmen When the Great War began in August 1914, he was already 22 and loved the sea, he loved horses, and he was a keen part time artillery man And yet he did not become famous either as an admiral or as a cavalry officer or as a general He was employed as a purser with the Union Steam Ship Company, and no one had him marked down as a future Captain of Industry Although Park had rarely

1 GR Elton The Practice of History Sydney 1967 pp 169-70

J Archifacts seen an aeroplane, let alone flown one himself or dreamed of telling others what to do while they were flying, he quickly realised that the new world of aviation offered exciting prospects, prospects that m his case were abundantly realised 2 What practical problems did I face in attempting to write his biography7 Above all, those of oral evidence I interviewed or corresponded with many men and women who told me things about Park that books, articles, boxes of documents and even microfilm readers could not I found oral evidence sometimes essential, often disappointing and always taking up far more time than any other source It was essential in that members of Park's family, his friends and acquaintances told me things not independently recorded Only by meeting them or writing to them could I get hold of their letters and photographs—and also advice on who else to approach Only they could give me any grasp at all of the man behind the letters and photographs, the man who once had the same buzzing between the ears that you and I have But oral evidence was disappoinüng in that many men and women could have told me much had either died or lost their memories Those still alive were often too junior to Park in years or rank to be in his confidence They told me what he was like as a boss, they had no idea what he was like either as a young, ambitious man or as a contemporary who could be joked with, argued with or told to shut up because he was being boring or stupid Death having so arbitrarily selected my sources for me, I often wondered how accurate, how well informed, how balanced were the opinions that I heard or read Moreover, the survivors knew that Park was dead and that most of his contemporaries had also joined the majority they knew how difficult it would be for me to check much of what they said Their opinions changed not only with time but also with hindsight, and were influenced by whatever they had read or been told about Park and his career They also forgot, remembered or revised according to variables about which I could do nothing Such variables included the state of the weather on the day of my interview with them, the condition of their health, the recent public antics of politicians'or media personalities, the success or failure of their favourite sports team and, perhaps most important of all, their responses to my manner, knowledge, age and sex We are all multifaceted You behave differently towards me

Vincent Orange A Biography of Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park GCB KBE MC DFC DCL London 1984

2 Who's Who7 A Biographer's Problems than towards each other, your parents or children, those for whom you work, those whom you love And oral evidence took such a lot of time letters, making telephone calls, travelling, taking tea and (most of all) being a captive audience The ex serviceman or businessman had me at his mercy He was retired, he had time to spare, and he knew that I had not called out of any interest in him, but only in someone he used to know and what he used to do I was therefore obliged to listen to whatever I was told with an alert expression, and dared not interrupt After a sufficient monologue, I would be granted an opportunity to ask questions I then found, in some cases, that my interview knew littl e of Park, that he had muddled or invented memories of htm, and having had his own say, was too tired to bother with me any longer There were of course, incidental pleasures For example, I visited Windsor Castle to meet the Governor, who had served with Park m Burma On speaking a magic password, 1 drove past the tourists, acknowledged salutes from the policemen, parked where it said 'no parking', was gently ushered into a seventhenth century apartment (a prison cell, actually, no longer used as such) and invited to hang onto one end of an enormous gin and tonic which was pressed into my grateful hand by a uniformed butler All historical study is, fundamentally, a quest for self knowledge, and I discovered that afternoon that I would corrupt myself totally if given the chance A quite diffetent problem arises if the subject of a biography is dead If long dead (say, 50 years7), anything can be said about his or her drinking or sexual habits or unfortunate relatives If very long dead (say, over 100 years7), a cattle thieving, murdering, grasping tyrant in the family may be a matter for pride, presumably as evidence of virilit y But Park died in 1975, only four years before I began work on his biography I learned of a few incidents that would have caused distress or resentment if revealed I decided what should be public knowledge and what should remain private Did I show wise restraint or moral cowardice or indulge in cheap shots7 Who can say7 Mine is the only biography, and on every page I decided what to put in, what to leave out Barbara Tuchman, an outstanding Ametican historian, was interviewed about this dilemma in Time in 1979 'The major change in the writing of recent years,' she said, 'is the belief that the public has a right to know about a public person's private lif e I don't think the public has that right 'J Tuchman was therefore faced with a problem when

Time 2 July 1979

3 Archfacts working on her lif e of Stilwell He had written 'None of your damned business' on the top of his diaries Nevertheless, she read them and used them How could she not7 How could she then decide, years later, to destroy her own papers7 But she did This problem, that of the biographer's judgement, leads on to another It is that for many commanders, Park among them, we are stuck with information that may be deliberately distorted to suit some current purpose Hannibal of Carthage is a prime example As Sir Gavin de Beer wrote, 'nothing whatever has come down to posterity written by him or by his own people Everything that is known about him has come from, or through the hands of, his deadly enemies the Romans It is as if a history of Napoleon were written solely from British sources H Unused material about Hannibal may one day be discovered, but even in the case of Park, although the papers I consulted survive, a number of the people I spoke to are now dead They cannot be asked to correct my interpretation of their comments, or to amplify them in response to more searching questions than those I thought of Robert Wright published biographies of two Air Marshals who played important parts in Park's career Sholto Douglas and Hugh Dowding5 Both were alive at the time and both co operated with Wright In the former case, unfortunately, Douglas deceived Wright, withholding information on sensitive matters and, more subtly, guiding the interpretation of complicated matters about which Wright could then (in the 1960s) get littl e independent confirmation, given the reluctance of British authorities—service and civilian—to release documents to the public In the latter case, Dowding co operated as honestly as he could, but by the sixties he was very ill , much influenced by the spirit world, and had brooded too long on old grievances Again, though, Wright's opportunities to get independent information were severely limited Both his biographies appeared before many crucial files were opened to researchers at the Public Record Office in London Writing a decent biography is hard enough when you have unrestricted access to all surviving documents, and is arguably not worth attempting when you have not On the other hand, the appearance of both books provoked other officers and historians into valuable critical comment that would not otherwise have been made One day new biographies of both Air

Gavin de Beer Hannibal The Struggle for Power m the Mediterranean London 1974 ñ 8 Sholto Douglas Years of Combat and Years of Command London 1963 & 1966 (both books were m fact writte n by Robert Wrigh t see Douglas s papers in the Imperial War Museum London) Robert Wrigh t Dowding and the Battle of Britai n London 1970

4 Who's Who7 A Biographer's Problems

Marshals will be written, and these will be all the better for Robert Wright's pioneering works and the reactions they provoked 1 never met Sir Keith Park He could have told me a thousand things in a single day that I would love to know A few of them I gathered from many sources over many days-—with more or less certainty that I understood them correctly However, there are many papers of his that I did read which I am sure he would never have permitted me to see Park was a most reserved man unfailingly courteous, even talkative, but one could know him as well after a couple of meetings as one would after ten years He had few close friends, he was not keen to gossip about the old days, he never kept a diary, he rarely wrote intimate letters, he began (but did not complete) his own lif e story, and he wriggled out of a determined attempt by an old acquaintance—Air Vice Marshal Stanley Lee, author of several very good books—to write it for him Although many accounts of the Battle of Britain had been published, wrote Lee in November 1957, 'we have yet to hear from the commander who actually fought and won the main battle ' Lee himself had the background necessary to understand the issues, and he had not been in Fighter Command in 1940 and so had no personal axe to grind, although he was already on Park's side º should aim deliberately to present you as the Air Force Commander who, more than anyone else, held the fate of this country, and indeed of Europe and the world, in his hands over those vital weeks of 1940 ' I certainly sympathise with Lee's sentiments, but I think he was wrong to begin 'on Park's side' and form such a deliberate aim about his performance in 1940 even before exploring the written record and gathering oral evidence A biographer must at least try to be objective and allow himself to be guided by what he finds Verdicts come after the trial, for biographers as well as judges In addition to problems already mentioned, official papers cause biographers plenty of exasperation Those at the Public Record Office in London may usually be seen when they are 30 years old The British Ministry of Defence has its own Air Historical Branch, also in London, which receives all service documents no longer in current use These are sifted into (a) those of no permanent interest (to be destroyed) and (b) those of some permanent interest (to be preserved) As they come up to the 30 year release date, they are sifted again, into (a) those which may be read by you or me and (b) those which may not The Ministry is not the sole judge in this decision The upper echelons of the entire Whitehall machine, civil and military, have their say in deciding what may and what may not be released The files at the PRO have many other gaps, apart from those caused

5 Archifacts by deliberate destruction or official discretion We may suppose that some material was lost or destroyed 'in the field', before it could be sent to London a fact helping us to remember that in wartime officers and men often have more to do than consider the interests of subsequent historians Even so, thousands of papers dealing with Park's career survive to be studied by anyone in the PRO, given plenty of time (because the open hours are few and the essential computer is available for even less time) and given plenty of money (because travelling to the PRO and living somewhere in London cost a breathtaking amount) One must also expect to master the systems (and appeal to the personnel) at other institutions for example, the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth, the RAF Museum in Hendon, the House of Lords Record Office in Westminster, and the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives in King's College in the Strand Outside London, the archives at Churchill College, Cambridge, are particularly attractive In 1992, while working in Washington DC and Abilene, Kansas, I noticed that American archives were open for longer than those in Britain, that facilities for copying records were more plentiful and cheaper, and that the peculiarly southern English affectation of superior disdain, of polite contempt, for customers was blessedly absent In my experience, archives and their staffs in Canberra, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch are also more pleasant to work in than those of England The Great War records at the PRO are relatively plentiful, but permanently muddled, because they have been placed in standard size boxes with no systematic regard for content There is, however, a seductive index It leads you on, by its brief, tempting suggestions, to order a great many files Only when you have them in your arms (after a long, anxious wait) do you realise that you have been deceived They are not at all what you wanted Occasionally, however, the index will lead you to something all the more delightful for being totally unexpected Records for the inter war careers of Park and other commanders ate very scarce because some anonymous official long ago decided that documents of this period lacked permanent interest Records for the Second World War are better organised than those for the Great War, and since 1975 (that is, 30 years after 1945) thousands have been released Unfortunately, anyone seeking information about how RAF officers were selected for promotion or command, a subject of crucial importance for biographers, will usually be disappointed There are no PRO files known to me in which the merits of various candidates are canvassed or

6 Who's Who7 A Biographer's Problems assessed Some tantalising glimpses of the ups and downs, ins and outs, of very very senior officers will be found in the papers of Lord Portal (Chief of the Air Staff, 1940-45) preserved at Christ Church, Oxford These papers may only be consulted with the permission of the head of the Air Historical Branch in London A great deal of information about officers' career prospects and achievements is held at the RAF Staff College in Bracknell, but these files are permanently closed Even official documents should not, of course, be accepted at face value As Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Tedder observed in the preface of his memoirs º expect that most of us have seen, sometimes with amusement and sometimes almost with anger, reports and orders obviously worded with an eye to the future historian, or, as we used to call them, "for the record" The wording of signals and orders "for the record" is a very fine art and well calculated to fox the historian '6 As a senior commander in the Mediterranean and European theatres for most of the Second World War and later Chief of the Air Staff, we may be sure that Tedder knew what he was talking about Diaries may seem to be a safer source, but David Fraser (biographer of Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke) warned us that diaries 'do not argue— they assert, with brevity and exaggeration, the emotion and the prejudices of the minute ' Fraser went on to claim that ¢ reader of Alanbrooke's diary and nothing else would find an emotional, hasty and intolerant man, immoderate in expression On the contrary, in his professional dealings, Alanbrooke was an excellent listener, calm, rational and persuasive 7 Here, of course, we have a common enough example of a biographer disliking what his subject has written and attempting to persuade readers that the subject didn't really mean what he actually wrote Those who write about Montgomery and Patton, two other notorious diarist generals of the Second World War, are put through the same exercise Fraser had in mind diaries of the traditional line personal, private records not carefully laundered for publication—at least not for publication in the immediate future, as with the diaries of many politicians If we are sure a diary has not been written with publication in mind, it will certainly be a valuable indicator of the subject's personality and may be more revealing than the diarist intended A diary is also a precious, labour saving aid in fixing chronology the subject is in this place at this time meeting these people, and the biographer

Lor d Tedder Wit h Prejudice The War Memoirs of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Tedder GCB London 1966 preface David Fraser Ahnhrooke London 1982 ñ 533

7 Archifacts experiences a brief glow of satisfaction at having got something indubitably right When all is said and done, however, collecting material is the easy part of writing a biography One can't build a house without a pile of bucks, a heap of timber or a pour of concrete, but it takes a deal of careful planning, as well as much labour, to translate those materials into something visibly and independently useful Even then, there may be cracks or leaks in the structure and the overall design may be faulty I am now at work on my sixth biography, and hope this time to get all the doors, windows and ceilings to fit snugly I was lucky to latch onto Sir Keith Park as my first subject, because in his career I found no fewer than eight qualities which I believe are common to all the men about whom I have written

The first ïß( these qualities is personality It is a quality easy to recognise, hard to define One man in a white coat may betaken for a house painter, another for a brain surgeon Personality is a quality based on physical carriage (not necessarily personal beauty, though that helps) and on self confidence (not necessarily based on knowledge or wisdom, though these too help) German intelligence officers, who never met either Park or Leigh Mallory, his great rival in 1940, came to perceive a difference between them Park, they thought, had earned the title 'Defender of London' in that fateful summer, whereas Leigh Mallory was known to them as 'The Flying Sergeant' A second quality common to all great commanders is professional knowledge Park was first employed in Britain's air defence system as early as August 1926, and spent the next six years—some of them under Dowding's command—in posts that required him to study that system Ideas about air defence, set down on paper m 1926-7, had not changed in principle when war came a dozen years later Not even Dowding's driving force, thought Park, could have got Fighter Command ready in time for the Battle of Britain without the decade of effort before 1936 In July 1938, two years before the battle began, Park became Dowding's right hand man at Bentley Priory and shared all his hopes and fears for the command's organisation and efficiency In April 1940, recognising his professional knowledge, Dowding had Park appointed to head the most important of the four groups into which Fighter Command was ! divided ( t A third quality is the ability to talk and listen Park was tireless in visiting squadrons everywhere from Scotland to Singapore throughout his career Whether in Britain, Malta, the Middle East or South East Asia, Park always wanted to see for himself what conditions were like at

8 Who's Who7 A Biographer's Problems

'the sharp end' He could also explain what was going on in ordinary language, and actually listened to what he was told A fourth quality is ruthlessness As early as October 1938, Park had told Dowding that Leigh Mallory 'shows a misconception of the basic ideas of fighter defence' If the decision had been his to make, Leigh Mallory would have been fired there and then Dowding had cause and opportunity to get rid of Leigh Mallory long before the battle began, but chose instead to hope for improvement In this he was disappointed, and both he and Park suffered for this weakness As late as May 1944 Tedder would speak of educating Leigh Mallory up to school certificate standard 8 A fift h quality is loyalty In Park's case, that of Dowding above him (to protect him from officers in the Air Ministry and in other commands), that of Douglas Evill, his successor at Bentley Priory, on the same level (to act as a referee in disputes with Dowding or with other groups), and that of sector commanders and controllers below him (not merely to obey, but also to understand and so interpret his orders intelligently) Loyalty, in Park's view, was to be given as well as received A sixth quality is luck I offer an example from Park's career The Air Ministry decided in May 1938 to send him to Palestine and Arthur Harris to Fighter Command Park, however, had fallen ill , in April and was temporarily unfit for service abroad Harris was newly married to a wife eager to see the Holy Land, and so a swap was arranged If Park had gone to Palestine, it is most unlikely that he would ever have become a great fighter commander If Harris had gone to Fighter Command, it is most unlikely that he would ever have become a great bomber commander A seventh quality is strategic sense Dowding and Park recognised that their task in the Battle of Britain was strategically simple (though operationally difficulty) All they had to do was avoid defeat until bad weather made an invasion impossible in 1940 When good weather returned, at least six months later, the British Army should be reorganised and re equipped, coastal defences should be in place, and the whole Air Force should be stronger in experience, benefiting from the large scale production of improved or new aircraft and the elimination of inadequate types In a word, their task was defensive Critics who urged them to be offensive failed to appreciate that Fighter Command had had littl e opportunity for realistic combat training in peacetime, and had then lost a great many experienced pilots in France, pilots trained slowly and

Vincent Orange Contngham London 1990 ñ 191

9 Archifacts carefully to handle their modern, high performance aircraft skilfully Their replacements were not only less capable pilots, but inevitably green in battle A final, eighth, quality is success As Winston Churchill once told Sir Charles Portal 'in war you don't have to be nice, you only have to be right '9 If Portal had not come to realise that Park's tactics in the Battle of Britain had been correct, he would not have rescued him from a training post and sent him to so vital a theatte as the Middle East in January 1942 By then, Portal had settled into his high office and had had time to observe the actual performance—as opposed to the dramatic proposals—of Fighter Command's new managers, Sholto Douglas and Leigh Mallory Whether we write proper history or improper biography, our intention must always be to hold the reader to our pages This is never easy, not even for the most gifted writers, and it is only possible if we put as much effort into choosing the right words for each sentence as we more willingl y do into finding the last available record or witness We should all work as hard at composing an absorbing narrative or argument as Sheherezade did She, had of course, the inspiration of knowing that should she deliver a single poorly reasoned rambling tale, her fate would be not merely a D from her teacher, a rejected manuscript from her publisher or a stinging review from some critic, but a swift, silencing scimitar Though execution may be thought a trifl e drastic, the permanent threat would at lest help the biographer to concentrate his or her attention on solving the problems I have outlined as neatly and thoroughly as possible

Denis Richard Portal of Hungerforá London 1977 ñ 185

JO Catholic Archives in New Zealand

Rev Michael O'Meeghan SM, Wellington

Even though the two countries are sometimes linked under the one name Australasia, Catholic Archives in Australia and New Zealand hold littl e in common While both countries developed during the 19th century as colonies in the British Empire, their Catholic starting points were quite diverse Australia was never included in Propaganda's plans for evangelising the Pacific Islands After several earlier ad hoc arrangements, in 1819 Australia was included under the umbrella of the English Benedictine mission centred at Mauritius till 1834 when New Holland and Van Dieman's Land were established as Vicariates Apostolic Australia's Catholic development was prompted by the need to provide pastoral care for the Catholics among the colonists and convicts who began to settle Australia from 1788 onwards In contrast, New Zealand was included in Rome's concern to send Catholic missionaries among the indigenous peoples of the Pacific to counter the Protestant missionaries already active there In 1830 New Zealand was included in the Prefecture of the South Sea Islands which was to be administered from Reunion Island near Madagascar/Malagassy This plan depended on a French naval supply ship making a round the world voyage after supplying French bases in South America, and collapsed when the French navy withdrew its offer of co operation In 1833 the Vicariate of Eastern Oceania was erected to provide more room to move for the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (Picpus Fathers), they had been expelled from Tahiti where they had made a beginning with a Prefecture Apostolic in 1827 In 1836 a matching Vicariate of Western Oceania was created and this included New Zealand A new congregation that had been growing in the dioceses of Lyons and Belley in France, the Society of Mary (Manst Fathers), was invited to accept responsibility for evangelising it Its first bishop, Jean Baptiste Pompalher, made the prolonged journey out a reconnaissance of his vast territory, and eventually decided to make New Zealand his base He arrived in northern New Zealand on 10 January 1838 with a Manst priest and a Manst catechist brother, other Marists followed when Europe learned where he had settled Initially

11 Archifacts there were comparatively few European settlers, and the mission was to the indigenous Maori people When he left for Europe on his first ad hmina in 1846, Auckland was emerging as the mam European settlement, but the mission to Maori was still the predominant apostolate So the bishop took to Propaganda a projection for an Archdiocese of Auckland with a cluster of Polynesian and Melanesian suffragan dioceses to its north The documentation recording this growth is scattered through many archives A remarkably comprehensive book has gathered and linked these sources, The Founding of the Roman Catholic Church in Oceania 1825 to 1850 by Ralph M Wiltgen, Canberra 1979 It is really a portable archive for any student interested in the Catholic Church in New Zealand as it was originally envisaged, that is, integrated with the Pacific Islands, instead of what it became as an Irish outpost at the farthest edge of the British Empire, "half the world from Home" Students eagerly await Wiltgen's projected second volume that will bring the story on another 25 years North of New Zealand an indigenous Church grew slowly in the Pacific till the mid 1960s when many Vicariates were erected into dioceses With New Zealand's six included, there are now 42 dioceses in Pompallier's original Vicariate of Western Oceania But New Zealand was the exception with immigration providing it with an almost instant transplanted Church In 1848, with a broader vision than Pompallier's, Rome drew a line across the middle of the North Island, everything within New Zealand north of it became the Vicariate Apostolic of Auckland, with Pompallier as residential bishop being responsible for finding his own clergy, everything to the south of the line became the Vicariate Apostolic of Wellington, with French Manst Philippe Viard as bishop with Manst clergy Both Vicariates became dioceses in 1860 While in Rome in 1869 for the First Vatican Council, Viard arranged for Otago and Southland to be detached from his territory By then the pressure from Ireland and Irish bishops for the Irish diaspora around the British Empire reached New Zealand Irish Patrick Moran, Vicar Apostolic of Cape Colony, was translated to be installed as bishop of the new diocese of Dunedin Pompallier, also at the Council, tendered his resignation His successor was Irish Thomas Croke, later of Cashel and remembered as a famous Irish patriot This development started to bring New Zealand into the orbit of Australia, the three New Zealand bishops attended the first Plenary Council of Sydney in 1885 However, by the time of the next Council in 1895, New Zealand had its fourth diocese, Chnstchurch, (erected in 1887) At the same time Wellington

12 Catholic Archives in New Zealand was named an archbishopric Instead of travelling to Sydney for the 1895 Council, the New Zealand bishops organised their own Synod in Wellington in 1899 The statutes that resulted included some rules their Lordships made for themselves about keeping archives, today's historians regret that these directives were not implemented more methodically , As a developing country struggling to outgrow its colonial status, New Zealand at large was too pre occupied in making its own history to be concerned for recording it carefully, Catholics reflected this national attitude In recounting the nation's origins the mam stream of Protestant tradition tended to ignore Catholics, just 15% of the European population Catholics preserved their own history mostly as hagiography, looking to the dogged faith of pioneers as an inspiration to later generations Because 90% of Catholics were of Irish origin, inevitably this loyalty to Church meant perseverance in the face of English discrimination The hymn "Faith of our Fathers, living still, in spite of dungeon, fire and sword" had lively echoes in New Zealand into the 1930s The ideals of the groups that had begun the methodical colonising of New Zealand were very liberal, offering freedom of opportunity and religion But ideals could not filter out the inherited baggage of social attitudes and prejudice that immigrants brought with them Religious bigotry became institutionalised in the 1870s with the establishment of Orange and Hibernian societies After World War Two Irish affairs ceased to be a major concern of the Church in New Zealand In the country's idiom, "going Home" dropped out of usage as an expression for a visit to the British Isles Instead New Zealanders found that they were looking at the world through bi focal spectacles with a segment of each lens made in the USA instead of in Europe As Pacific Asian nations began to develop the glasses have become tri focal As a spin off from this national refocussing, Catholics are rediscovering Pompallier's vision of a Pacific Church An earnest of this is the Federation (formed m 1990) of four Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania Its first President is Cardinal Thomas Williams of Wellington, the bishops of 31 Australian dioceses are included in this Federation In parallel with this weakening of political, commercial and emotional ties with the British Isles has come a search for roots, both at national and family level, plus an increasing awareness of Catholics as a formative influence in New Zealand's national character This has put pressure on Catholics to open their archives to serious researchers, with varying responses A general openness is tempered by embarrassment that records are not as well ordered as might be, plus some fear of what might be unearthed 13 Archifacts

A Diocesan Archives The results of this pattern of growth in the New Zealand Church is four diocesean archives Except for Auckland in more recent years, none has ever had the blessing of a full time archivist The collection of material has been rather haphazard, its arrangement mostly the work of priests for whom it was more a hobby interest than a serious concern All four archives hold the expected items of land titles, registeis, etc, but the personal material that makes archives come to lif e is very uneven Over the years very littl e money has been available to spend on equipping their premises, let alone on salaried help

1 Auckland Auckland has by far the best of the four The basic division of material is into episcopates which have ranged from two to 40 years The present bishop is the eleventh, so there are also ten matching interregna which lasted from six months to nearly four years The National Register of Archives and Manuscripts in New Zealand summarises "Each of these groups contains the major administtation papers and records that have survived They include correspondence with Rome, with overseas and New Zealand bishops, and with priests, parishes, societies, orders and laity within the diocese, papers relating to official appointments, synods, conferences and councils, diocesan accounts, plans and financial documents regarding church, school and other buildings and property in the diocese, correspondence with Catholic orders regarding their foundation and administration personal papers of bishops, clergy, religious and some laity An incomplete sequence of parish registers of baptisms, confirmations, marriages and burials, and marriage papers dates from 1836 There are photographs of and other pictorial matters of church occasions in various parts of the diocese, photographs of bishops, clergy, religious and laity " The organisation of the Auckland archive was sparked by the canonisation in 1954 of Father Peter Chanel, the Manst Protomartyr of Oceania Stories had risen round the site of a supposed grave in northern New Zealand where his remains were said to have been re buried, when they were recovered from Futuna Island m 1842, till their return to France (via Sydney) in 1849 In 1967 Ruth Ross was commissioned by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust to do a quick re write of a pamphlet used to guide visitors through the sole building remaining from the early Catholic mission in the far north A distinctive Lyonnaise pise structure, it had come to be known as Pompallier House Three years later the revised pamphlet was published, its modest fot mat giving littl e hint of the intensive and extensive research that went into its

14 Catholic Archives in New Zealand preparation, nor of the bulky unpublished fil e that resulted Truth about the Chanel grave was isolated from the previous myths and uncertainties But the spin off from this exercise was that Ross was distressed by the state of the diocesan archive she had used in the course of her research, and she offered to her expertise to its reorganisation Over close to 15 years she methodically gave a day a week to the project with the enthusiastic co operation of the diocesan Chancellor, Father Ernest Simmons, who became a dedicated archivist The attic space of the Bishop's House was cleared and adapted to hold the archive Each fil e contained its own inventory, and the collected copies of the inventories provided an index Additional finding aids were planned, but have yet to be completed When the basic work was completed, other organisations pointed to this archive as a model of what could be achieved with patience, dedication and minimal outlay Sources up till 1930 are generally available to a researcher This means that the voluminous and well ordered papers of Henry Cleary, the fift h bishop (1910-1929), are open He was journalist, controversialist and pamphleteer, his episcopate spanning World War 1 and its aftermath, a period he described as"a cycle of sectarian epilepsy", fuelled primarily by Irish political events There is also considerable material copied at different times from overseas archives (especially from Propaganda) relating to the early years in New Zealand This complements the extensive collection that remains from Pompalher's administration Moderate in size but well chosen, a heritage from several bishops, the attached library includes many rare books about early New Zealand and Oceania So as well as providing the diocese with a well ordered archive, the Simmons Ross work established a valuable resource centre One immediate result was Simmons publishing two books, the first objectively critical presentation of segments of New Zealand Catholic history In Cruce Salus—á History of the Diocese of Auckland 1848-1980 (Auckland 1982) and Pompalher, Prince of Bishops (Auckland 1984) Several recent theses have used this archive, particularly to assess the impact the missionaries made on the Maori, and the problems French missionaries had with a British colonial administration In 1989 the archive was boxed for transfer to new premises in a new diocesan administration building Simmons' declining health and his death in March 1992 delayed arrangement of the material in its new location The new archivist, Father Bruce Bolland, has since completed the transfer and the archive is now fully accessible Address The Archivist, Pompalher Diocesan Centre, Private Bag 47-904, Auckland 2

15 Archifacts

2 Wellington The archive of the Archdiocese of Wellington is still in the course of preparation Preliminary identification and arrangement was undertaken in the early 1950s, but lack of facilities and staff impeded development On two occasions burst water pipes flooded the basement where much of the archive was stored, and material had to be hurriedly rescued and packed without regard for proper order These years of part time spasmodic work in a catacomb ended in 1990 when a new diocesan administration building allocated generous space for an archive However, the part time archivist and assistant are still in the early stages of the work The material has not been catalogued, and the archive is not open to researchers Requests for information and assistance may be made to the archivist, and are researched by staff on behalf of the enquirer When Viard died in 1872 the missionary era of the diocese was coming to an end In his first decade Mansts had made a painful but encouraging beginning among the Maori whom Viard regarded as his primary pastoral responsibility By 1860 New Zealand's European population had outnumbered the Maori, and the wars that had already begun further north spilled over into his diocese, his second decade saw the Maori mission destroyed and the Maori people largely alienated from European influence Viard found himself presiding over a settler Church Among the autograph material that remains from this era are Viard's letter books Before writing a letter m copper plate, he scribbled a rough copy in ledger type volumes of which several survive His writing in these, sometimes in English sometimes in French, is often difficult to decipher In his diaries, written for himself in French, the writing is consistently difficult All known Viard material was carefully sifted by Lillia n Gladys Keys for her biography Philip Viard—Bishop of Wellington (Christchurch 1968), and she developed a charism for interpreting his hand Miss Keys bequeathed to the Archdiocese her accumulated notes and transcriptions, and a number of boxes and cartons are awaiting sorting Viard's successor was Francis Redwood who was aged three when his family arrived in New Zealand from Staffordshire to settle near Nelson At 15, under Manst auspices, he went to France and Ireland to complete his secondary education, found his vocation to the priesthood in the Society of Mary, and returned at 35 as second bishop of Wellington At the time of his consecration in Whitechapel, London, he was the youngest Catholic bishop in the world, at his death 61 yeas later he was the oldest He arrived at the end of 1874, m the middle of the decade that saw the European population double In contrast, the Maori

16 Catholic Archives in New Zealand population was in an obvious decline , Redwood's priority had to be the mission to the settler Church, developing parishes before fragile faith was lost in the scramble to get established in a new land By then Irish Marists had begun to arrive', reinforcing the French in parish ministry Then with five young French Marists he made a start on rebuilding the abandoned Maori mission Surprisingly littl e remains from this long and involved episcopate There are two squeeze copy letter books dealing with the years 1875-93, two other letter books, only partially used, have a few letters and some handwritten articles and/or sermons There is a lot of paper that relates to his family and his travels, but everything else is very fragmentary As Viard had had to do, Redwood acted as major superior for Marists until a New Zealand Province of the Society of Mary was established in 1889 But soon after his arrival he arranged legal recognition for the Society as a corporation sole, so it could own property in its own right By having ten parish areas permanently allocated to the Society he planned to limit its parish responsibilities so it could develop its own proper ministries, especially in education and parish missions But by the turn of the century thete were still only ten diocesan clergy to 40 Marists, so inevitably administration records tend to be held by Marists rather than the diocese His coadjutor, Manst Thomas O'Shea, was consecrated in 1913 at 43, but was past his best at 65 when Redwood died in 1935 It was not till 1926 that O'Shea was able to set up an independent diocesan Chancery and administration office From then on there are the makings of a distinctive diocesan archive In 1947 O'Shea was given a coadjutor bishop from the ranks of diocesan clergy, but the Manst era did not officially end till O'Shea's death in 1954 Given this late start m formal diocesan organisation, the content of archival boxes (labelled according to persons, parishes and organisations) tends to run over into more recent times, making it problematical to leave it open to general researchers Address The Archivist, Catholic Centre, Ñ O Box 1937, Wellington

3 Dunedin European settlement of the Provinces of Otago and Southland began under the aegis of the Free Church of Scotland with the first ships arriving at Dunedin in 1848 The few Catholic families m the founding years were visited from time to time by Marists from Wellington Any hope of maintaining an exclusive Presbyterian settlement disappeared in mid 1861 with the discovery of gold in the interior, by the end of the year 14,000 had arrived seeking their fortunes This influx peaked at 22,000 by 1864, and had six Marists ministering

17 Archifacts to the considerable number of Catholics in a very mobile population By the end of the decade Dunedin was established as a prosperous town of 20,000 This became the centte of a diocese The new Bishop arrived m early 1871 with his own clergy, and the remaining Marists returned to Viard's territory > In 1965 Msgr Peter Mee was appointed Chancellor of the diocese, and took a keen interest in the archive Over the years he has collected historical records and photographs for safe keeping, patiently piecing together from fragments of archival evidence the history of the parishes that resulted from the shanty town beginnings of the gold digging era At present archival material relating to the diocese is housed in four locations Anything relating to property—land titles, plans and specifications, land valuations, rates, insurances etc, is in the archive of the Diocesan Property Services All records and matters pertaining to marriage are kept at the Tribunal Office All the Baptismal, Confirmation, Marriage and Death Registers not still held in parishes are kept in the strong room of the Cathedral Presbytery Everything relating to the history of the diocese—parishes, bishops' correspondence, circulars, clergy, religious, laity, organisations, etc—is properly filed in an archive which is located in the Chancery Office attached to the Cathedral presbytery Two years after his arrival m Dunedm Moran launched a weekly paper, The Tablet, to foster unity among Irish Catholics and promote the cause of Catholic education It is still in print Covering nearly 120 years of Catholic New Zealand, it can prove a mine of information for researchers, especially during the long years when it included news from parishes from all over the country The archive holds a meticulously detailed, cross referenced index to the first 30 years of The Tablet, compiled by Miss Mary Hussey as a labour of love From the archive it is a 10 minute walk to The Tablet office which holds a complete set of the journal, the return walk uphill takes twice as long1 In recent years, with the assistance of Sister M Duchesne Ferguson RSM as archivist, an efficient filin g system has been introduced, and a Register binding programme commenced Sister Fergusson is presently handling requests for information 'Address The Archivist, c/ Bishop's House, 277 Rattray St, Dunedin C2

4 Christchurch The Diocesan Archive is still housed at the top of a spiral iron staircase, in what was originally a choir robing room in a gallery of the stone Cathedral Till the late 1980s the cathedral presbytery

18 Catholic Archives in New Zealand was an ageing, much altered wooden building that was a considerable fire risk The present building, adapted as a presbytery, is brick but lacks the space needed to bring the archive down from its aloof fire proof eyrie in the cathedral tower The creation of a diocese in the centre of the South Island from the province of Canterbury and Westland (initially called West Canterbury) was proposed unanimously by the bishops assembled at the 1885 Council of Sydney A majority vote also recommended that its bishop be an Irish diocesan, but Pope Leo XIII , advised by Propaganda, made a very unpopular decision when he appointed an English Manst, John Grimes, as first bishop of the new diocese Grimes arrived in Chnstchurch 1888 If his nationality did not enthuse his largely Irish flock it suited the civic mood Canterbury was founded in 1850 with the first of a measured flow of English migrants who were to develop a structured pastoral and agricultural farming society modelled on England's, with the Anglican Church providing cohesion Catholics were comparatively few and scattered till the national drive for immigrants in the 1870s broadened the criteria for selecting assisted settlers On the far side of the Southern Alps lay rugged Westland, practically uninhabited In 1865 the discovery of gold brought an invasion that in three years reached over 30,000 Roughly a quarter of these mostly temporary settlers were Catholic, for the majority, their loyalties lay with Victoria (Australia) which was more accessible across the Tasman Sea than was Chnstchurch over the wild mountain passes or by coastal shipping These early years are reflected in Wellington archives, but there is enough in Chnstchurch archives to show that it took several generations for these disparate halves to grow into unity as a diocese Redwood's earlier allocation of permanent Manst territory remained unchanged, and became a source of friction The Catholic population did not grow as quickly as Wellington's to absorb incoming diocesan clergy who complained that Marists were preventing them from normal advancement in the diocese They reacted to the situation as if it were an extension of English political discrimination against the Irish The problem simmered for 80 years, erupting to boiling point at regular intervals Enough paper remains to piece together a reasonably coherent account of the problem As an aside, this archive (like Wellington's) contains letters from a surprising number of priests seeking employment in the diocese, giving evidence of an unsuspected number of peripatetic priests moving round the English speaking world The archive contains about 40 boxes, plus a miscellaneous collection of photos from diocesan occasions, along with some memorabilia from

19 Archifacts several bishops The boxes are labelled after bishops, parishes and religious congregations, with the content of each box being arranged chronologically but, as yet, without an inventory Their content is mixed and uneven A lot of letters to Grimes remain, annotated in the top margin with the date he answered them, but he rarely kept copies of his replies His successor, diocesan Matthew Brodie,left practically no correspondence after an episcopate of 27 years Occasionally a searcher finds gold For example, a notebook Registre de actes de baptêmede mariage, et de sepulture la mission de l'Oceanie occidentale établie a Akaroa (Nouvelle Zélande) It is a relic of the abortive French attempt to colonise the South Island Despite its French title the entries were in Latin in tiny script and included confirmations The first entry by a resident priest is dated 9 Sept 1840, the last 9 Nov 1842 when the mission foundered, later entries record the bishop and priests occasionally visiting from the north till 1860 when a priest was based at Christchurch Another rich lode is the fil e of letters to Grimes from five successive Manst Provincials, the second of whom had been his mentor and close friend during the bishop's student days in Ireland, they reveal very vividly the growing pains of evolution from a fluid missionary situation where a religious congregation has charge, to a stable local church centred around a bishop and his diocesan clergy Address The Archivist, Cathedral House, Ñ O Box 10 069, Christchurch 1

5 In 1980 two more dioceses were created in the centre of the North Island Hamilton diocese was created from the southern part of Auckland territory, Palmerston North diocese was created from the northern part of Wellington territory Each has begun its own archive, but material prior to 1980 has been left with the parent diocese

 Archives of Religious Congregations Various religious congregations have been invited to New Zealand at different times to meet needs as they arose Most have grown with local vocations to the status of Province, and so have developed their own archives of correspondence, contracts, council meetings, etc Many have been engaged in teaching, and this apostolate generates its own records of pupils and their progress, year books, publications celebrating various jubilee milestones, etc By and large, women religious have been better than men in faithfully keeping the house journals recommended in the constitutions of most religious Vatican 11 's insistence that religious look to their origins as a basis of renewal has been an added

20 Catholic Archives in New Zealand incentive to care of archives, in this context the lives of pioneers who brought from overseas the spirit of an Institute have a special relevance There is a sizeable body of well organised Catholic archival material scattered around New Zealand, each unit limited in scope to the interests and apostolate of the Institute, but taken together forming a sizeable complement to diocesan archives It is just a selection from these that is listed below

1 The Society of Mar y (SM) holds the most significant of these archives as it has been longest on the New Zealand scene, its archive is attached to the residence of the Provincial in Wellington There is littl e autograph material from the first 30 years of Manst endeavour m New Zealand The lives of Manst priests and brothers were mostly too fluid to expect much to be saved Moreover, under the then rules for a mission territory, ownership of all property had to be vested in the Vicar Apostolic so what has been salvaged tends to be in diocesan archives From the beginning to the mission in 1838, however, there was a steady flow of letters and reports back to Europe, and it is there that facts must be sought A New Zealand section is part of the Oceania material referred to in Catholic Archives 1988 (pp 15-16) in Fr Tony Ward's article, The General Archives of the Manst Fathers The Turnbull Library holds 12 microfilm reels of papers relating to New Zealand between 1838 and 1870, selected from these Manst holdings in Rome In the mid 1870s, Redwood made a beginning in distinguishing between Manst and Diocese, and the archive reflects this With the establishment in 1889 of the New Zealand Province of the Society of Mary, Provincials kept their letters and paper work fairly methodically Within a year a scholasicate had been founded, to be followed in due course by a noviciate, and the usual records were kept by these formation houses In spite of several shifts over the years, and cramped quarters, the accumulated record of 100 years of Manst work as a Province has survived reasonably mtact In 1991 a new Provincial House brought with it more adequate archival working and storage space The transfer brought to light some forgotten account books from the 1840s in Auckland, from Viard's Wellington and from the decade of Manst activity in Otago and Southland during the 1860s, they added considerable detail to previous knowledge of these sectors Through the 1950s and 1960s several semi retired priests in turn had worked on putting some order into the archive, but the project was tackled seriously in 1968 with the appointment of Fathet Vincent Butke as part time archivist As any original order had long since been lost, he

21 Archifacts settled on about 20 basic categories of subject matter, and within these built up files arranged chronologically Within each fil e each page was numbered, and listed in an inventory As well as the collected inventories providing a detailed table of contents, a card index of persons and places provided a finding aid to this system by listing references to page numbers of various files Sensitive personal papers were removed to supplementary confidential files with restricted access, with a note left in the main fil e to indicate where the missing pages were stored The then current state of the art method was used—binding blocks of papers together in Pre- V Dex punched hole files This practice ensured nothing would be lost, but did not allow for the advent of plain paper photocopiers, so most of these files have since been dismantled with the papers now being kept loose in filin g boxes Before his death in 1977 Burke had taken the archive to 1970 More recently, after some discussion it was decided that his system was not going to meld easily with more modern archival methods It has been left as an independent unit and a new approach has been adopted based on an accession record from 1971 onwards For the past six years there has been a full time archivist Address The Archivist, Manst Fathers "Cerdon", 78 Hobson St, Wellington

2 Iris h Sisters of Mercy (RSM) Their history is a very tangled skein as in the beginning Mercy foundations depended on the community from which a founding group stemmed The first band (from Carlow) arrived in Auckland in 1850 with Bishop Pompallier returning from his ad limina Further groups came later from Ireland to make a beginning in other parts of the country as the Church developed Some communities came from Australia, some were off shoots from houses in New Zealand By the 1940s, with encouragement of the New Zealand bishops, the sisters were organised into four diocesan congregations In the 1970s a loose federation was formed,but each Mercy diocesan centre has retained its own archive, the origin of each community carefully traced and records of personnel in teaching and nursing apostolates One address will provide a lead to the other Mercy archives Address The Archivist, Sisters of Mercy, Guilford Terrace, Wellington 1

3 Congregation of Our Lady of the Missions (RNDM) French Sisters came to Napier in 1865 and Christchurch in 1868 in the wake of the Manst Fathers As teachers they flourished in New Zealand By the 1880s

22 Catholic Archives in New Zealand they had begun their own noviciate for local vocations, and grew into two Provinces which merged in 1982 With the merger two separate archives were dove tailed, and the unit now provides detailed coverage of their work in many parts of New Zealand Various convent log books and sctap books can be mines of information about local church events Address The Archivist, Sisters of the Mission, 35 Britannia St, Petone

4 Manst Brothers of the Schools (FMS) The French brothers who accompanied the Manst Fathers to early New Zealand were trainees of Marcellin Champagnat At that early stage his Institute of teaching brothers had not yet been approved by Rome, so those pioneer catechist brothers came to New Zealand attached to the Society of Mary It was not till 1875 that the first group of brothers amved in Wellington as members of a distinct congregation At first they were attached to the Australian Province, but grew to independence in 1917 They hold well organised records of their schools and personnel from this time onwards, and have filled the gaps of earlier years with copies of records kept in Australia and France For their own use the Brothers have printed a necrology containing a potted biography of all their confreres who have worked in New Zealand Address The Archivist, Manst Brothers Province Centre, 52 Onslow Avenue, Ñ O Box 24 400, Royal Oak, Auckland 3

5 Sisters of St Joseph (RSJ) were founded in South Australia in 1866 by Mary McKillop, known in religion as Mother Mary of the Cross In the early years of her lif e and work she was encouraged and guided by Father Julian Woods who is acknowledged as co founder The introduction of her Cause for Beatification in 1973 (successfully completed in January 1995) has given added impetus to concern for Josephite archives in New Zealand as well as in Australia Because some bishops in Australia in the 1880s would not accept these sisters as a congregation of pontifical right, they developed in two parallel streams, and in this way crossed the Tasman Sea (a) The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart of pontifical right, known colloquially from their habit as Brown Josephites, arrived in Temuka in South Canterbury in 1883 when it was still part of Wellington diocese They grew to over 30 communities thtoughout the country Records of their century and more m the teaching apostolate are held at their Provincialate Address The Archivist, Josephite Sisters' Provincial House, 30 Holgate Rd, Kohimaramara, Auckland 5 23 Archifacts

(b) The Sisters of St Joseph of Nazareth of diocesan right and dubbed Black Josephites, came to Wanganui in Wellington diocese in 1880 from Bathurst diocese in New South Wales They established their own noviciate, were blessed with local vocations, and staffed primary schools within the diocese In the 1970s a loose federation was established with the four Australian dioceses where the sisters became established Address The Archivist, Mount St Joseph, Ñ O Box 777, Wanganui

6 The Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion (DOLC) grew from an unsuccessful attempt to transplant the Third Order Regular of Mary from France to an isolated Maori mission station in 1883 When the parent house in France was reluctant to accept into the family this unattractive sibling as it grew, in 1892 Bishop Redwood established it as a diocesan congregation It won recognition as a congregation of pontifical right in 1917, New Zealand's only home grown religious institute The hope of promoting the cause of theit remarkable foundress, Suzanne Aubert (known in religion as Mother Mary Joseph), has resulted in a well appointed archive room that documents her lif e and her Sisters' apostolates in a variety of fields over 100 years Their centennial celebration in 1992 was featured nationally because Aubert, who arrived in Auckland in 1860 aged 25, has come to be recognised as one of the country's outstanding pioneer women Address The Archivist, Home of Compassion, Island Bay, Wellington 2 In 1990 Canadian Professor Donald Akenson published Half the World from Home—Perspectives on the lnsh in New Zeafond 1860-1950 It was the fruit of a two year stint as Stout Research Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington In the concluding chapter Jobs Undone, he commented on the gaps in New Zealand ethnic studies "And that is where the Irish Catholics are so helpful Decade after decade, they have simply refused to go away, and thus they force social historians to remember that ethnicity has been an enduring fact in New Zealand society, from the mid nineteenth century to the present " For all their imperfections, New Zealand Catholic archives have much to offer scholars Not just for a comprehensive history of the Church which still remains to be written, but in the wider fields of social history

Note This is an edited and updated version of one published in Catholic Archives No 13, 1993

24 Archives at the University of Canterbury

Philip Jane

MacmiUan Brown Library University of Canterbury

Archives at the University of Canterbury are now at the stage where new acquisitions can be vigorously pursued, and those managing the archives feel able to take a more active role in the affairs of the professional body of the region's archives organisations This exciting development for archives in the Canterbury area has come about through two events, the provision of purpose built accommodation for archival material, and the control of archives now belonging to the Macmillan Brown Library The Macmillan Brown Library is the University of Canterbury's research level library of materials mainly from the social sciences and the humanities The geographical scope is restricted to the areas of New Zealand and the Pacific Islands The library was established in 1935 with a bequest of 15,000 books by one of the foundation Professors of Canterbury College, John Macmillan Brown Nowadays, the library has over 70,000 books and journals, numerous other special collections, and over a kilometre of archival material In 1993 the Macmillan Brown Library entered a new phase in its development with the start of a public service Prior to this the Macmillan Brown collection was a "phantom library" administered from within the Central Library Now with a permanent staff of four, and up to seven casual staff during the academic year, the Macmillan Brown Library includes among its services the administration and control of the archives collection of the University of Canterbury Library Until 1993 the archives collection was administered by the Central Library Reference Department This task was additional to its main responsibilities, and meant that the archives were serviced by a large number of different people, and often included the job of sorting and arranging some of the collections There was also the difficulty of providing access to a collection that was dispersed around the campus because of space constraints When the Macmillan Brown Library

25 Archifacts

assumed this task, it became essential for library staff to know what was held, and where it was located Over the long vacation of 1993-94 a casual worker processed all the archives Sorted collections were checked against their inventories, while unsorted ones were identified, reboxed into standard sized fil e boxes, and then measured All archives had their locations noted This information was then entered into a WordPerfect fil e which can be sorted and output in a number of different ways As part of this reorganisation, another collection that the Macmillan Brown Library administers, the Manuscnpts Collection, was also rationalised into one location The Manuscript Collection is closely related to the Archives Collection in that it is archival material, it contains a number of items that could more properly belong to the Archives Collection Items will remain in whatever collection they have been put into until a clear policy or definition is formulated to deal with this As part of its 1993 building programme, the University extended the Library Warehouse This, building is situated some distance from the rest of the library's buildings, and is used for storage of materials used infrequently It was also only one of the locations fot some of the archive collections The extension was built during the long vacation of 1993-94, and increased total storage area available to 870 square metres Of this area, 420 square metres was allocated for Macmillan Brown Library to store archival material Four blocks of Lundia mobile shelving give a total of 4160 linear metres of storage in the new extension This high quality storage has been organised so that each shelf can be uniquely identified by block, row number and shelf number All the archives were moved into this area over the two week break in May 1994 With the combination of this new storage and the improved control of both sorted and unsorted collections, the Macmillan Brown Library is able to offer users a service that processes requests when received, with the items then being available for use the following day However, this time between requesting an item and tecetvmg it for use will improve to an on demand service in 1996-97 when the Macmillan Brown Library shifts from its present premises to the building adjacent to the Library Warehouse All sorted collections have an inventory prepared as part of the sorting and arranging process, and this provides users with detailed information on the contents of the collection Also, all sorted archives have a bibliographic record on the University Library online system, which provides access by a number of different points, usually including subject access This holding is also reported to the National Register of

26 Archives at the University of Canterbury

Archives and Manuscripts The location of each archive is not included in either the inventory or the bibliographic record, but is extracted from the WordPerfect files compiled when the archives were shifted These WordPerfect files have also been used to produce two lists in alphabetical order, or sorted and unsorted archives Access to unsorted material is not permitted, even though these constitute 450 metres of the total 1162 metres of the University of Canterbury Archives Collection It is a high priority to sort and arrange this portion, and Macmillan Brown staff are liaising with interested members of academic staff as to which collections should be sorted first This sorting will be done by a contract archivist, as it is felt that an archivist's professional expertise will provide a more efficient job The Macmillan Brown Library's strategic plan envisages that a permanent position for an archivist should be the next one established The strategic plan also places importance on the formulation of a collection development policy, which will include archival materials, and this will be used to prioritise the acquisition of new material The sorted archives are a diverse and interesting collection They include extensive holdings of trade union records, records of other organisations, such as the National Council of Women, the New Zealand Refrigerating Company, some of the University of Canterbury, and many collections of personal papers Among the personal papers are some large holdings from various politicians, for example Labour's Sir Geoffrey Palmer and David Caygill, and National's Detek Quigley and Ruth Richardson It should be noted that while some archives may have access restrictions placed upon them, this is more common with politicians' papers, with the researcher often having to obtain the permission of the donor before consultation is permitted This permission, however, does not allow access to Cabinet Papers that may be within these collections Permission to see individual Cabinet Papers must be obtained from the Cabinet Office, a lengthy process that is administered by Macmillan Brown Library, and for which the Cabinet Papers must be obtained from the Cabinet Office, a lengthy process that is administered by Macmillan Brown Library, and for which the Cabinet Office may charge a fee The Acland Papers is the most complete set of personal papers held The Acland family is now into its sixth generation as large scale sheep farmers in South Canterbury on the Mount Peel Station The Aclands arrived in New Zealand m the 1850s, and their records contain diaries, letter books, maps, photographs, etc, that date from their arrival until the present day This important farming family has also been involved in politics, and its records, which provide a very interesting social

27 Archifacts ' commentary, have been used extensively by a number of researchers Examples of this use are an exhibition of their watercolour paintings in 1993, an ongoing project to transcribe an index the contents of the diaries and letter books into electronic format for easier access, and the planned use of this collection for material to mount a major exhibition to mark the shift of the Macmillan Brown Library to new premises The Macmillan Brown Library does not have the resources to undertake research, or to service extensive mail inquiries relating to these archival collections The importance of archival material as primary source material for social science and humanities researchers and scholars makes it fitting that this material is now administered by the Macmillan Brown Library With new and tightened bibliographical and physical control, users should receive improved access and service As one of the larger repositories in the Canterbury region, with plenty of space for expansion, it looks forward to the acquisition of. more material The sorting and arranging of the new material, and of the unsorted material already held, is a high priority While at present this resource is being managed by librarians, it is felt most strongly that a professionally trained archivist is essential in order to provide the experience and the correct procedures in appraisal, processing and the general direction that this archive requires

28 Urban History and the Milleniu m - Chnstchurch 2000 Project

G W Rice

History Department University of Canterbury

On 16 December 1850 the first settlers of the Canterbury Association scheme arrived at Lyttelton A littl e simple arithmetic shows that the year 2000 will be the sesquicentennial of that event, effectively the founding of the Canterbury Colony and its capital city, Chnstchurch In July 1992, University of Canterbury Department of History staff conceived the Chnstchurch 2000 History Project as a way to commemorate this event Although I will later refer to some areas of ambiguity, the focus of the project has been placed deliberately on Chnstchurch, and not Canterbury When the province celebrated its centenary in 1950, provincial history was given comprehensive coverage with the publication of the three volume A History of Canterbury Chnstchurch, on the other hand has not fared so well Histories of suburbs, schools, parishes, institutions and buildings in Chnstchurch have been published in some quantities Even so, there remain notable omissions, especially the city's business history But no comprehensive general history of the city has been published in recent decades We still lack a good analytical history of Chnstchurch With this in mind, the primary goal of the project is the publication of a book of essays addressing aspects of Chnstchurch's history At present probable topics are identified only in fairly broad terms, under four headings Environment—pre 1850 Maori, water, air, impact of topography Material life—the building of the 19th century town, housing, transport, business Mental structures—Wakefield settlement, town planning, the 'garden city', religion, radicalism, sport Social relations—town & country, the Maori, elites As well as this 'scholarly' work we intend to produce an illustrated history for the popular market To support this publication we plan to undertake a public photograph search, using as a model the National

29 Archifacts

Library's very successful 1990 Wairarapa Historic Records Search We envisage that this public appeal, to be undertaken in collaboration with the Canterbury Historical Association, will take place during Christchurch's 1996 Heritage Week Obviously it will require additional resources and we are endeavouring to gain extra funding to cover costs, particulatly the extensive publicity required The Project does not intend to set up its own archive collection We are working with Joan Woodward, Canterbury Museum Pictorial Archivist, to ensure that any donated photograhpic material will be deposited in the Museum's Pictorial Archive Any documents which come to us will be deposited in the appropriate archive Ideally, the publicity generated by the photographic search will raise the general level of historical awareness and encourage people to think about the future of material they hold One issue we intend to address in late 1995/96, is the collection of oral histories which would form the basis of a further publication The tapes and abstracts from this work will be of ongoing interest to researchers and will need an appropriate home Perhaps a city philanthropist may be persuaded to celebrate the city's birthday with an Otal History Archives7 These, then, are the envisaged outcomes of the Project The current focus, the aspect of the Project most closely involved with the use of archival material, is the compilation of a computerised database of research sources Although initially envisaged as a tool with which to support the planned book of essays, and to encourage the production of urban history by the department's students, the database is being seen increasingly as an important community asset, which will be of ongoing use to anyone researching aspects of Christchurch's history The funding for this research stage has been through generous grants from the University of Canterbury Research Committee In addition, the History Department has provided funding and accommodation and jointly Purchased the necessary computer software The first step in the process of building the database was selecting the computer hardware and software After investigating several options, we chose to run an Image II database supplied by Contec System which could provide support facilities here m Christchurch Although basically a library database, Contec adapted it to suit our needs While we have had problems from time to time, it is a powerful tool and the options which it offers for searching information make it very suitable to our needs The database is run on a University Computer Services network system through a Cyclone 486 PC In addition we use two Compaq

30 Urban History and the Millenium - Chnstchurch 2000 Project

Contura 486 notebook computers for "fieldwork", downloading the material by disc to the main system This brings me to a matter to which I think archivists might give some attention, the increased use of laptop and notebook computers by researchers and the provision of accommodation for this new technology Although portables can run on batteries, battery lif e is limited, often only about one and a half hours This is no problem in the new repositories such as the National Archives here in Chnstchurch and the Turnbull, but many older buildings do not have accessible power points in their reading rooms Although archivists and librarians usually go out of their way to accommodate users, it is not always easy for them to do so The first priority in budding the database was given to identifying sources among material not readily accessible through other bibliographic aids We started with university theses and research essays Drawing on the published Union Lists, all those theses which appeared to have some relevance to Chnstchurch were identified These were then read, and, if relevant, were entered into the database with a fairly comprehensive abstract of the contents So far over 200 theses and essays have been entered They cover a range of disciplines with significant numbers from Geography and Art History Treasures continue to come to light, including a 1948 Otago Medical School thesis, Environmental Sanitation in Chnstchurch 1875-1884, unearthed recently in the Canterbury Museum Archives Journal articles were tackled next Working through the Index New Zealand, in print form, microfilm and latterly on CD ROM, articles were identified, located and where possible read and entered There are still some articles particularly in older journals which I am trying to locate Although we have entered over 200 articles, the quality is variable, ranging from learned scientific journals to the New Zealand Women's Weekly Books are in many respects the most easily identifiable material We have given priority to older publications, particularly those from the 19th century We have also entered a large number of parish histories, and smaller publications, such as the Tramway Historical Society's Chnstc/rurcri on the Move series We have a category identified as biography, the first group of entries for which have been taken from the DNZB We will later return to this group using the Cyclopedia of New Zealand Canterbury volume and the Scholefteld Dictionary of New Zealand Biography The group with which we have the most difficulty is that of

31 Archifacts newspapers We have built up a fil e of articles on historical topics, but the problem of how we will handle "historical newspapers" remains Do we concentrate on articles or commentary of historical analysis7 Or do we take our broad headings and index articles relevant to these7 Or is this essentially reinventing the wheel in view of the existing Press indexes at the Canterbury Public Library and the work which has been done by the Canterbury Museum Library on the Lyttelton Times7 The real heart of the database is, however, the archival material, paper, fil m and sound Something over two thirds of the 3500 entries fall into this category, plus "associated" categories of maps, plans and photographs To date we have visited eight Christchurch archives Some require follow up work, for indepth examination of material and to keep up with new acquisitions In a brief visit to Wellington, I spent time at the Turnbull, barely scratching the surface it seems, and also visited The New Zealand Film Archive Future Wellington trips will see me return to the Turnbull and visit National Archives As with newspapers, methodology has been an important consideration in our work with archival matetial Because time constraints largely prevent us from making our entries at item level, work from accession lists, catalogues, indexes, making occasional forays into material which lists indicate might bear further investigation While this method works reasonably well, the number of times it brings to light data that might other wise be overlooked makes a good case for more detailed exploration The selection of material has not always been straight forward The urban focus on the Project notwithstanding, Christchurch was settled under the Canterbury Association Scheme and drawing the line between Canterbury and Christchurch, particularly during the first decade of settlement, has required some fairly arbitrary decisions For the first few years, Lyttelton not Christchurch, was the commercial centre Henry Sewell, arriving in the colony in 1853 to wind up the affairs of the Canterbury Association, saw littl e future for Christchurch, "Christchurch and all its surroundings are detestable The Peninsula is quite a different thing "' It was not until the Municipal Council Ordinance of 1862 provided for the establishment of local government in towns that real growth began m Christchurch, remembering that the area under the control of

Mclnryr e WD (¸.Ü) The Journal of Henry SeweU ¡853-7 Volume II Whitcoull s Christchurch 1980 ñ 135

32 Urban History and the Millenium - Chnstchurch 2000 Project the first council was that which is bordered by the four avenues The surrounding region was controlled by five Road Boards, all still under the wing of the Provincial Government With the abolition of Provincial Government in 1876 there was a burgeoning of local bodies in the Greater Chnstchurch area Sydenham Borough ( 1877 ), St Albans Borough (1881), Linwood Town Board and Woolston Town Board (1882), Sumner Town District (1885), Sumner Borough ( 1891 ), Linwood Borough and Woolston Borough ( 1893 ), and New Brighton Borough (1896) One local body had jurisdiction over much of the area covered by these boards and councils The swampy nature and poor drainage of its site left Chnstchurch particularly vulnerable to watet borne disease In 1875, fear of a possible typhoid epidemic, and the failure of local bodies to adequately address the problems of drainage led to the formation of the Chnstchurch Drainage Board Relations between the Drainage Board and the local councils were, however, never easy Not only did the Act give the Drainage Board power to set rates over the whole drainage district, from November 1876 to June 1885, in addition to its prime function of drainage, the Board fulfille d the role of Local Board of Health This was another area for disputes between the Board and other local bodies The importance of drainage m the development of the city is reflected in the fact that the now defunct Drainage Board is perhaps one of the best researched and recorded Chnstchurch institutions In considering further the Chnstchurch/Canterbury relationship we needed to be aware of the role played in Chnstchurch civic, commercial and social lif e by those families who are more usually associated with rural Canterbury Many large runholders spent considerable periods of time in town where they had business interests and served on the boards and committees of local organisations Although many owned houses in the city, The Chnstchurch Club, established in 1856, provided accommodation for pastorahsts visiting town One individual who illustrates this point of urban/ruralties is Sir John Hall Hall was a member of both the Chnstchurch Club and the Canterbury Club (1872), the membership of which was more closely allied to the mercantile community Hall owned property and houses in Chnstchurch In addition to running Terrace Station at Hororata where the family took an active part in community affairs, Hall was a member of Provincial and Central Governments, serving as Premier 1879-1882 In 1862-3 Hall was Chairman of the first Chnstchurch City Council, a position he was invited to assume again as Mayor in 1906-7 when the

33 Archifacts city hosted the New Zealand International Exhibition He served as a Governor of Canterbury College, 1873-75, 1876-79, took an active interest in Anglican Diocesan affaits, was on the committee of the Fidelity Guarantee Association and a trustee of the Christchurch Gas, Coal and Coke Company In their separate ways, the Drainage Board and Sir John Hall demonstrate how the database, while primarily concerned with Christchurch, sometimes needs to go beyond the city limits The Christchurch 2000 History Project is already being used by some postgraduate students and we hope that this use will increase in the next few years This may well in turn increase the number of students visiting archives as they become aware of the untapped potential of the city's history

34 Electronic Records: Terra Incognita in the Modern Office?

The Playing for Keeps Conference Canberra, Australi a

"Above all, the public needs to see the evidence of its past If not, legal security, equality before the L·w, and eventually democracy, will be in severe danger "

Hans Hofman, Conference delegate

The age of the 'information superhighway' has created great opportunities in communications and learning, enabling people to access data banks anywhere in the world from their own homes or offices Never has there been so much information so readily available In government and business, professionals now regularly create their own electronic records This vast array of electronic information, however, has created unique challenges for those who have to create viable, permanent and accessible records and archives Information is the basis of government accountability In many countries demands are increasing for governments to be accountable and for the information they hold to be readily accessible If electronic records management problems are not addressed adequately, valuable information will be lost in vast quantity, and government actions, decisions and transactions could fall beyond the scope of public scrutiny For three days in November 1994, professionals from all over the world met at Canberra to grapple with the problems associated with managing electronic records, to assess the current situation and chart the course ahead It was the first international conference held in Australia on the management of electronic records Conference delegates recognised that electronic records are here now — they are not a far distant possibility to be deferred because their implications are distasteful to the traditionalist In the USA, for example, the Clinton administration is pressuring federal agencies to transfer their business to electronic commerce Several speakers at the conference raised the issue of cultural lag within organisations, or how thinking is

35 Archifacts still behind technological development, but the large attendance at the conference is an indication that many people are already facing records issues and problems on the 'electronic interface' Steve Stuckey, the Assistant Director General of Records Standards and Access at the Australian Archives, argued that archivists need to make rigorous disposal decisions with electronic records and not to keep vast quantities of records in the first place 'Admittedly', he said, 'there are certain types of records where retention is a much more attractive prospect because of the electronic environment But how much of this is the stuff of a government archives and how much might be retained because it can be retained7 We need to be more careful that we do not overwhelm our future researchers by an outburst of unabashed collecting ¢ further issue that is causing the Australian Archives to rethink some of our principles is the responsibility of advising what records should actually be created by agencies of government This is central to our role as the protectors of the long term government corporate memory, and beyond the shorter term needs of the agency that creates the record Some archival traditionalists see this as threatening, and opening us up to the criticism of 'making history' If we are conscious, however, of our primary role as an archives for the national government and ensuring that its rights and obligations and those of the people are protected, then we need to be ready to argue against this criticism ' Margaret Hedstrom, Director of the Center for Electronic Records at New York State Archives and Records Administration, suggested that archivists have a broad role to help guide society toward the 'big picture' of what records must be kept In her summary she expressed a fear that archivists may have created and perpetuated completely unreal expectations of the level of resources that society will allocate to preserve the records that need to be kept 'And we have done so at the grave expense of not being sure that all of the records that society needs will be kept Just some examples the location of nuclear waste sites, and records that document the rights and obligations of citizens Think about preserving DNA maps that will contain in them for generations to come the clues to genetic diseases 'To deliver, we have to shift our mentality from paper defined issues to a new electronic record keeping culture So what would the shift really involve7 First, it is a recognition and an acceptance that in more and more settings records are electronic and paper is ephemeral We have to recognise that it will be too expensive to keep paper records, even if it were possible And because of that alone, organisations will

36 Electronic Records Terra Incognita in the Modern Office7 stop doing it We have to look at electronic records not as a problem, but as an opportunity to do what we have been trying to do in the paper world much more effectively And in doing this we have to rediscover some basic principles We need to focus on the value of functions, not just records, the relationship of records to transactions in business processes, and the critical role that archives play in ensuring both continuity and accountability ' Accountability was an issue addressed by many speakers Lack of accountability can raise questions of corruption or mismanagement The rights of individuals need protection and breaches of rights need to be justly and equitably examined in accordance with the law Hans Hofman, Director of the Electronic Records Project at the General State Archive of The Netherlands, stressed the crucial need for societies to have evidence of their past readily available 'If not', he argued, 'legal security, equality before the law, and eventually democracy, will be in severe danger Implementation of a new infrastructure for archives demands much time and effort, and will be achieved only one step at a time 'If archivists do not succeed in this mission, they will lose their jobs, or merely become keepers of old paper Information technology brings a major challenge, but also the danger of loss of valuable information that gives evidence about government actions, decisions and transactions If the archives (together with the responsible authorities in government agencies) fail to solve it, then society will return to the dark ages 'There is much to do to arrive at the desired destination Politicians have to be convinced, resources, knowledge and expertise have to be acquired, archivists have to be made aware of the impact of information technology on their jobs and need to be educated 'The archivist stands on the threshold of a new world The landscape is new and unknown It looks like a jungle, but it could turn out to be a desert Furthermore, what is beyond the horizon of time is terra incognita The archivist has become an explorer instead of the owner of the same hotel for many years' Among the international speakers were Margaret Hedstrom, Director, Center for Electronic Records, New York State Archives and Records Administration, USA Hans Hofman, Director, Electronic Records Project, General State Archives, The Netherlands David Bearman, President, Archives and Museum Informatics, USA John McDonald, Director General, Government Records Branch,

37 Archifacts

National Archives of Canada, and Kenneth Thibodeau, Director, Center for Electronic Records, National Archives and Records''Administration, USA The Australian context was placed firmly on the agenda with speakers such as Steve Stuckey and Stephen Ellis from the Australian Archives and Maggie Jones from the Council of Library and Information Services The Playing for Keeps Conference Proceedings are available from Public Programs, The Australian Archives, PO Box 34, Dickson, ACT

38 Letter to the Editor

Dear Sir Sarah Dalton's review of Kate Sheppard A Biography (Archifacts, October 1993) requires a response She has misinterpreted my statement that I hoped the book would 'provide a reliable account of Kate Sheppard's lif e which can be used as a starting point for further study' I used the word reliable to show that I was providing a factual account of Kate's lif e as opposed to the fictional portrayal of her lif e in Rachel McAlpme's novel Farewell Speech I was writing for the general reader not the academic It is true that I started my research in 1978, but I made it clear that wotk on the book was very much part time When I discovered that 1985 that Tessa Malcolm was working on a biography and had asked her relatives not to give me any help, I virtually decided not to publish my book until after Malcolm had written hers Towards the end of 1991, however, when I was asked to write a biography of Kate in time for the beginning of Suffrage Year, I agreed and rather naively accepted a deadline which was too tight to allow further research to fil l in the gaps in my knowledge Hence the lack of interpretation and the lack of detail about the many other women mentioned in the book I vigorously deny that I suggested that Kate 'single handedly' led the struggle for the vote or for any other reform Kate Sheppard A Biography is the first draft of the first book I have ever tried to write As such it has many faults, most of them obvious to me before publication It was my first serious attempt to make sense of the mass of material I had and the best I could do at the time I deliberately described Kate's role in the franchise campaign in some detail, as this was the first thing which struck me when I began my research—the tremendous amount of time and energy which she devoted to the campaign I made the point frequently that she did not work in isolation but with a network of women throughout New Zealand One thing which may not be so obvious post-1993 is that every time I wanted to know anything about the women who worked with Kate and the organisations they formed, I had to go out and do the research myself in newspapers and manuscript collections One of the most successful parts of Suffrage Year was the amount of research done

39 Archfacts on women and the number of books and articles written If I was writing today I would write a very different biography I have often wondered if I was right to attempt a biography before I was ready to do so From a personal point of view it has been a disappointment, but many women came up to me at conferences during Suffrage Year and at suffrage garden parties, to tell me how much they had enjoyed the book One woman told me she was unable to put it down until she had finished reading Many people in official positions told me it was a must for Suffrage Year, and whether they meant it or not many feminist historians told me they were glad I had written it It filled a gap, however inadequately I plan to return to Kate Sheppard one day Meanwhile my work on Anna Stout and other women is a preparation I regret the spelling and other errors Dalton spotted They were a result of the haste with which the book was written and my tiredness at the time

Judith Devahant Auckland

40 Book Reviews

Errat a

We regret the following typographical errors in the book reviews section of the April 1995 Archifacts ñ 38 In the sub title, 'Wahino' should read 'Wahne' ñ 42 The ISBN number is 0 908912 43 9 ñ 44 The Controller of the Wildlif e Branch was Henry Kelly ñ 45 The ISBN number is 0 908577 21 4 ñ 46 Fyffe House became an Historic Reserve in 1985 ñ 47 The Goodalls were 'functionaries' of an expanding state

Playing for Keeps ".VSooJ—,,.. s ; An Electroni c Record s Managemen t Conferenc e J yfgf"^Ë Ë ' a¿?S¿ ° " I organise d by the Australia n Archives , Canberra , 8—10 Novembe r 1994 i Australian Electronic records are ivitli us now! ^Archives

he proceedings from a major pubkc PHONE YOUR ORDER to (06) 209 3933 with conference on electronic records man your credit card details agement are now available FAX mim ORDER by faxing the order form TFor three days m November 1994 pro below to (06) 209 3931 fessionals from all over the world converged ORDER FORM ' on Canberra to grapple with the problem of managing electronic records International ex Please send me copy/íes of Playing for perts with years of experience and leading ar Keeps @ $24 95/copy (O/seas add $A10) chivists contribut e to the fascinating debate on Name the key issues mvolved with recordkeeping in Address the age of the informatio n superhighway Postcode This important ground breaker will be an I enclose a cheque in Australian currency invaluable reference for librarian s public serv (made payable to Collector of Public ants ÃÃ managers archivists recordkeepers Moneys Australian Archives) for and all managers of companies that need to $A keep their own records m an age when paper Please charge my is being rapidl y overtaken by bytes of infor Bankcard /Visa/Mastercard (circle one) mation Card number Order your copy now by sending your Expir y date ! payment with this order form to Public Programs Australian Archives Signature - Date- POBox34 Dickson ACT 2602 Australi a (Dtscounts available for bulk purchasers)

41 Book Reviews

Judith Elli s (editor-in-chief ) Keeping Archives, 2nd edition Port Melbourne, Victoria D W Thorpe in association with Australian Society of Archivists, 1993 xiv, 491pp $A40 Available from D W Thorpe—New Zealand, 203 207 Victoria Street, Wellington Fax (04) 382 9265 ISBN 1 875589 15 5

To only point out an increase of 100 pages on the first edition of Keeping Archives would not do justice to this new edition of an already internationally acclaimed publication It is to the Australian Society of Archivists' credit that they have not been content to rest on their laurels, and have revised rather than simply reissued Keeping Archives The new edition also represents an extraordinary effort by the writers, primarily practising archivists leading busy professional lives Much has happened since 1987, when the first edition was published, due in large part to the influence of electronic record keeping on the theory, methodologies and practices of archivists The preface states that 'collectively, the chapters sit as a reasonably integrated whole between the old world and the new they have something to offer those grappling with immediate day to day challenges of keeping archives, without denying the force of the front end thinking in an era where archivists can become involved with the records long before they are transferred to archival custody'1 One needs to ask how successful the new edition is in achieving this goal7 Moreover, does it meet the needs of its intended audience7 The first edition was intended as an introductory manual for new or potential archivists in either in house or collecting archives environments This edition states that it is intended for many new and practising archivists, as well as students of archives The result has more of a textbook flavour Would I prescribe Keeping Archives as a text for my students7 The answer is yes Instruction in current best principles and practice in the Australian archives profession is well blended with discussion of new developments and current issues Keeping Archives is, in my opinion, better than any othet text on the market Bradsher's

Keeping Archives ñ xui

42 Book Reviews

Managing Archives and Archival Institutions1 does not achieve this blend It is also seven years old and lacks currency Keeping Archives' manual/text combination will still not completely meet the reading requirements of archives students It would need to be supplemented by other more 'leading edge' publications and journal articles discussing archival theory and principles for example, Australians Sue McKemmish and Frank Upward's Archivai Documents^ and American David Bearman's contributions to the literature on electronic record keeping 4 What are the implications of the changes noted on the book's readability and usefulness for beginner or part time archivists71 find it difficult to step into their shoes, except to say that it is possible that the second edition's increased theoretical content might overwhelm some members of this audience (There may even be a market for an abridged version ) But in the absence of a regular programme in New Zealand to meet the education and training needs of this audience, Keeping Archives meets two needs Firstly, it gives practical guidance Secondly, its helpful synthesis of current debate provides access to a wider body of literature, which can be explored by referring to the lists of further reading at the end of each chapter These are more detailed than in the first Keeping Archives, reflecting this edition's textbook approach The second edition, like the first, also seems to be reasonably successful in covering practices and processes from two points of view, those of the collecting archives and the in house archives Thus Keeping Archives will not suit everyone's needs all of the time, but perhaps it should not do so What eventually may be a desirable option and has been suggested by one archives educator in Australia, is the separation of best practice and theory into discrete publications At present, the theoretical advances being made are only beginning to evolve into practices, and the content of Keeping Archives reflects this For example, electronic records are primarily covered in the new chapter titled 'Managing Records in Special Formats', rather than their management being integrated into the discussion of'core' technical areas The future oriented view of the role of archivists and their relationship

James Gregory Bradsher ed Managing Archives and Archival Institutions Chicago University of Chicago Press 1989 Sue McKemmish and Frank Upward eds ArchivalOocuments Providing Accountability Through Recordkeeping Melbourne Ancora Press 1993 See David Bearman Electronic Evidence Strategies for Managing Records in Contemporary Organisations Pittsburgh Archives and Museums Informatic s 1994 This is a collection of major articles by Bearman on electronic record keeping and its implications for principles and practices in the record keeping professions 43 Archifacts with records managers described in the other new chapter, 'Introducing Archives and Archival Programs', points to ways in which the archivist will become involved with the records long before they are transferred to archival custody However, another text remains to be written in which the activities and roles of archivists and records managers are integrated, rather than portrayed as discrete as they are under the presently predominant lif e cycle model and as described in the preface ..to this edition of Keeping Archives This text would be based on the new continuum model which in five to ten years should have supplanted the lif e cycle model The continuum model undoubtedly underlies the comments made by some writers in Keeping Archives about the archivist's involvement with records management What would persuade you to replace your copy of the first edition of Keeping Archives, if you consider yourself to be a member of the category of'seasoned professional'7 There are three completely new chapters, as well as revision of the content of other chapters In addition to the two new chapters mentioned above, there is one on 'Legal Responsibilities and Issues' This may, however, be of limited practical use to New Zealand archivists because of its Australian focus (pointing to a need within our country's professional literature for a similar piece) Acquisition, previously covered in conjunction with appraisal, has been expanded into a separate chapter, reflecting the increased importance of the topic to archivists in collecting institutions Revised chapters include 'Preservation', 'Appraisal and Disposal', and 'Using Computers and Imaging' Some chapters, such as 'Arrangement and Description', appear to be carried over from the previous edition with littl e updating, but these are in the minority 'Seasoned professionals' should therefore benefit as much from the content changes as aspiring archivists, because we should always be open to incorporating new approaches into our practices If you have fallen behind in your professional reading because of day to day work pressures, this new edition should help you catch up Features retained from the earlier edition which continue to be strengths of Keeping Archives are the tables summarising points made in the text, checklists, case studies, diagrams, and examples of forms and other illustrative material The quality of the photographs is reasonable, although there seem to be fewer of them (I long for the day when colour photographs appear in an archives text as they do in management texts ) Some tables have also disappeared, presumably because they were not considered essential by the writers One negative is that the index is

44 Book Reviews anything but extensive It is, therefore, not easy to dip into Keeping Archives for quick answers Despite this, it is still one of the essential reference sources to have on your bookshelves, whatever your level of experience, to turn to for basic advice when, for example, you are considering computerising information about holdings To sum up, the new edition of Keeping Archives is a stimulating mixture of discussion of accepted practices versus newer practices Keeping Archives is also excellent value for money—it provides comprehensiveness and quality of coverage at a reasonable price for archivists in this part of the world, particularly when compared with the Society of American Archivists' Archival Fundamentals series

Rachel Lilburn Department of Library and Information Studies Victoria University of Wellington

Frank Rogers (compiler) Archives New; Zealand 4 Directory of Archives and Manuscripts Repositories in New Zeafond, the Cook Islands, FIJI, Niue, Tokefou, Tonga and Western Samoa 43 Garden Road, Plimmerton Archives Press, 1992 73pp $21 posted ISBN 0 9597777 4 1

Chri s Szekely (compiler) Te Hikoi Märama A Directory of Maori Information Resources Wellington Bridget Williams Books, with Te Röpu Whakahau, 1993 144pp $17 95 ISBN 0 908912 51 X

These two extremely useful directories of archival resources are both updated editions of successful publications Frank Rogers' Archives New Zeafond originally appeared in 1985 The format has changed littl e Descriptive entries for each repository are arranged by regional government area, and within these alphabetically Each entry gives postal and street addresses, telephone (and now fax) numbers, opening hours and/or restrictions on access, and a brief description of major holdings Any publications which detail collections are listed A practical addition is information on the on site or nearby availability of refreshments' Significantly more institutions are represented than appeared m the first edition, although the extent of this change is masked by the

45 Archifacts

(sensible) deletion of most of the repositories which failed to supply entries That there were few of these is a tribute to the diligence of the compiler, and the success of the first edition Educational, and both central and local government institutions are more strongly represented State owned enterprises, government scientific research institutions, and the archives of medicine and public health are specifically excluded (The last named were covered separately in Archives New Zecdand 3, reviewed in the October 1992 Archifacts ) The general index to collections has been expanded considerably, including by identifying collections by the claim to fame of the subject and the type of holding rather than just his or her name (eg, 'Wray, C A has become 'Wray, Captain C A , Patea Quartermaster'), and by naming the repositories which hold particular types of material (eg 'maps and charts') rather than simply providing a list of page numbers The intention was to complement the National Register of Archives and Manuscripts Instead, this invaluable publication seems to have outlived NRAM The second edition of Te Hikoi Marama builds on the solid foundations of the first, which was reviewed in Archifacts in October 1991 The involvement of Bridget Williams Books in this edition can be seen in its mote professional production, including a less cluttered layout and clearer typeface The mam body of the book gives updated contact details and brief descriptions of the relevant holdings of some 100 institutions (about half the number surveyed by Rogers, but including nearly 40 different ones), about 20 more than appeared in the first edition (30 odd are new entries) These too are organised geographically Thanks to enlarged descriptions of important collections, the text has expanded in length by about 40 percent There is a new Maori language Foreword by Te AhukaramO Charles Royal A new section on 'Resource Agencies' gives contact information and brief details of the work of 34 publishers and distributors of Maori material There are now three indexes—general, subject, and organisations—in place of a single index which included no subject entries Both compilers are to be congratulated for producing reliable publications in which essential information is made conveniently accessible Today's researcher would be ill advised to leave home without them

David Green Wellington

46 Book Reviews

Derek Dow (compiler) Annotated Bibliography for the History of Medicine & Health in New Zealand Dunedin Hocken Library, University of Otago, 1994 322 pp $39 95 ISBN 0 902041 59 2

Comprehensive annotated bibliographies of source materials on aspects of New Zealand history are rare Such publications are a godsend to researchers because they direct the hunt for information and thus save much valuable time Researchers in the burgeoning field of the social history of medicine will therefore welcome Derek Dow's compilation of the relevant published material Dow has adopted an inclusive policy in his selection of material, which embraces the broad spectrum of medical social history as well as 'traditional' themes He therefore lists publications on social welfare, demography, anthropology, and philately and numismatics, as well as on public health, diseases, Maori, children's, women's and mental health, hospitals, disability (incorrectly labelled 'handicap' here), medicine and surgery, ancillary services, the medical, nursing and dental professions, alternative medicine, military medicine and the Cook Islands é Particularly welcome is Dow's decision to include a large number of local histories containing references to local doctors, nurses and hospitals, and organisations like Plunket, St John's and the Red Cross As a researcher who spent an inordinate amount of time searching these volumes for nursing information a year or two ago, I can only wish that Dow's list had been available earlier1 Dow has also rummaged through an extraordinary large number of journals, which are usefully listed at the beginning of the work, although unfortunately without annotations The resulting periodical entries include many obscure items not listed in general New Zealand periodical indexes No bibliography can ever be complete, but the only major published omissions which struck me were Elizabeth Murchie's Rapuora Health and Maori Women (1984), and Sandra Coney and Philhda Bunkle's influential article on the 'unfortunate experiment' at National Women's Hospital, published in Metro in June 1987 (This is a curious omission, since several other items on the issue are included ) Dow has not listed archival or manuscript sources, but the bibliographies section at the beginning notes several guides to archives and manuscripts, including Frank Rogers' Archives New Zealand 3 Medicine and Public Health (1990) More regrettable is the exclusion of official publications The Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives in particular are a rich and invaluable source of medical

47 Archifacts history material, and the bibliography might usefully have listed major Royal Commissions, conference reports and departmental annual reports, with brief annotations on their coverage If these items were excluded for reasons of space, a note in the introduction would have alerted students to the importance of the material to be found in them About 10 percent of the 1950 items listed in the bibliography are theses and research essays written in partial fulfilment of university degrees Dow comments in his introduction on the striking amount of New Zealand scholarship which lies buried m these works, and his bibliography provides an essential guide to this important material In this connection, I very much regret that Dow has not included more of the research essays done by Otago University medical students for Diploma of Public Health and Department of Preventive Medicine courses in the 1930s-1960s period This littl e known collection, which is held at the Otago Medical Library, can be a gold mine for medical history researchers Margaret Tennant, for example, found a large number of studies on health camps in the 1940s and 1950s, none of which appear to be listed by Dow Again, if there was a reason for excluding this material, a note in the introduction would have been useful Dow has organised his material thematically into 24 topic chapters, most with several subdivisions Within each section, works are listed chronologically rather than alphabetically, a feature which will greatly aid students doing historiographie research It is necessary to be aware of several peculiarities m the organisation Nursing sources, for example, are very widely scattered There is a separate chapter on the nursing profession and sections on nurses, nurses—collective and doctors, nurses, etc —collective in the biographies chapter, but my bibliography, From Candles to Computers (1986) is placed in the bibliographies chapter, and nursing items also appear m the sections on Maori health, Plunket, occupational health, women's health, tuberculosis, mental health, philately and numismatics, and military medicine The latter chapter has a separate section on nursing, but nursing items are also to be found under World War 1, World War 2 and the Spanish Civil War Other areas which might confuse are obstetrics and gynaecology, which appear in both the women's health and nursing profession chapters, and mental hospitals, which appear in the mental health chapter, not in the hospitals chapter Maori demography is in the Maori health chapter, not in the demography chapter, and items on Te Puea are in the biographies chapter, while other Maori health leaders' such as Whina Cooper, appear in the Maori health chapter

48 Book Reviews

These peculiarities, perhaps unavoidable, would have been easier to cope with, especially for inexperienced readers, if Dow had made greater use of cross referencing between sections Most problems, however, can be overcome by using the book's detailed indexes There are three of these, an author index, a persons index and a general subject index Some cross referencing has been included, although it is by no means comprehensive 'Nursing', for example, is not cross referenced to 'New Zealand Nurses' Association' Nevertheless, careful use of the indexes should enable researchers to find most of the material on any topic, except for the 13 items listed in the addenda which are not indexed This list includes a number of 1993 and 1994 publications and theses By annotating each item in the bibliography, Dow has made the work of far greater value to students and thesis writers The annotations are brief and in most cases deliberately non judgemental, but usually give a sufficient indication of the item's content Particularly useful are the brief biographical details about many authors,which inform the reader of the writer's credentials and perspective This is important in a field where many sources have been written by amateurs for general rather than academic purposes All persons mentioned in the annotations have been indexed, and it is therefore a pity that Dow has not always listed the individuals included in collective biographies He gives the names of the New Zealanders included in a collection about the Royal College of Obstetricians, for example, but not those in collections about the Royal Colleges of Physicians or Surgeons 1 The rush to meet a publication deadline no doubt caused the proofreading lapses which mar the bibliography m'places The title on the cover differs from that on the title page, print types are not always consistent, and some running headings are incorrect Nevertheless, Dow has done a sterling job in bringing this compilation together, and the Hocken Library must be congratulated for its support of the project and for bringing it to a wider audience Medical and health historians at all levels will find it an essential guide for their work, and even the most experienced are sure to seize upon some exciting new item of which they have previously been unaware

Patricia A Sargison University of Canterbury

49 Archifacts

Oral History in New Zealand A Directory of Collections 1992 Wellington National Library of New Zealand, 1992 174pp ISBN 0 473 01535 8

This Directory was produced jointly by the National Oral History Association of New Zealand and the Oral History Centre, Alexander Turnbull Library Its publication was undoubtedly a landmark in the development of oral history collections in New Zealand Although published three years ago, the directory remains not only a useful finding aid but a 'good read' for those interested in locating personal histories in New Zealand Based on responses to a questionnaire sent out in the mid 1980s, it specifically excludes the 'many treasured Maori oral history tapes held by iwi' 1 as well as the major repositories of the Oral History Centre, Alexander Turnbull Library, Radio New Zealand Sound Archive and Te Reo Aotearoa's Tape Archive/Nga Taonga Korero Publication is firmly attributed to the enthusiasm and co operation of many individuals and organisations The listing is in alphabetical sequence by organisation, and in general information is presented as it was supplied to the Oral History Centre by respondents The availability 'shortly' of the oral history database via Kiwinet is acknowledged in the introduction Readers are thus alerted to the option of a more current electronic listing Within the limitations of the print format, how does the Directory meet its objective of locating interviews not held in the Oral History Centre or broadcasting archives7 In all, 65 institutional and individual collections are listed as 'contributing organisations and persons' I found the mix of private and public collections intriguing,and was more curious about those interviews held in private rather than public hands, perhaps because I work in a large institution Dr Michael Bassett, Lynley Hood and Anne Else are just some of the individuals whose collections are cited Predictably, perhaps, the collections of public libraries, historical societies, tertiary and government institutions predominate The geographic range extends from the Far North to Gore, and there is great diversity in the quantity and type of collections described The Amun Historical Society lists one item as its archive, while Auckland City Libraries has 111 discrete collections included There is diversity too in the annotations for each item—from the bare bones of interviewee and

Paul Mahoney Foreword

50 Book Reviews title to descriptive paragraphs In some cases the quality of the recording is given The browser-friendliness of the Directory is appealing Not having a particular research query in mind, I dipped in and out of the contents list and the subject and name indexes at tandom Gems such as the description of historic material held at Wanganui Public Library and an interview with Mrs Anne Mason (mother of the writer Bruce) in the Beverly Shore Bennett collection intrigued me So too did the large collection of tapes (304) relating to pre First World War childhood reminiscences held at the History Department of Waikato University Minor quibbles one of the two entries m the subject index under 'Music—New Zealand' appears to be incorrect, Wystan Curnow is referred to in three entries by two different repositories as Wynstan, Bruce Mason doesn't appear in the subject index at all My library has increased its Oral History Archive by some 30 items since publication of the Directory, and not all are on Kiwinet I wonder how many other organisations would like to add to their listings7 Let's hope that another edition is in the offing

Megan Hutching and Brigi d Pike (editors) Oral History in New Zealand Volume Six Wellington NOHANZ, 1994 42pp ISSN 0113 5376

The editors are to be congratulated on the latest issue of this annual publication The design cover and layout are excellent the content diverse and challenging to the reader Included are articles written from the historian's" perspective (such as 'Writing it Down The Historian and Oral History' by Ian McGibbon and Ben Schräder, and 'Tribal History in History' by Monty Soutar) through to interview format contributions ('Just Women Interviewing Women in the Justice Department' by Megan Hutching and Judith Fyfe, and Miranda Harbour's ¢ Walk in Someone Else's Shoes' ) Despite the appâtent diversity of the material, there are thematic links between the contributions, which in the main explore the perspective of minority groups in society Maori, women, gay and bisexual men, and prison inmates Groups, perhaps, whose voices have not always been heatd in written histones Advice to the practitioner of oral history is also here, as in Peggy Crawford's article on 'Oral history and Genealogy'

51 Archifacts

Inclusion of the 'Code of Ethical and Technical Practice' and 'Objectives' of NOHANZ is to be commended My favourite in the realm of practical advice, however, is the opening sentence of Tony Hiles' 'Video Checklist—helpful hints for video virgins' 'Turn on the power and take the lens cap off 1 There is plenty in this journal to satisfy both the enthusiast and the theoretician in the field of oral and video history The journal's aim of publishing 'articles on the theory and practice of oral history' was well met in 1994 I look forward to the 1995 annual

Theresa Graham Auckland City Libraries

Hylton Tuckett (editor) GRINZ Yearbook 1994 Lower Hütt Genealogical Research Institute of New Zealand, 1994 80pp ISSN 0113 2431

When I reviewed the GRINZ Yearbook 1989 (Archifacts, October 1990) I commented about how it illustrated the positive directions in which family history was proceeding Some of the best genealogical articles published in New Zealand have appeared in previous issues Five years and several editors later the Yearbook still has some good material, but has littl e of that earlier dynamic content and seems a medley of articles from GRINZ essay competitions and members These include Ian Church's 'Frederick Tuckett The Father of Otago' and Jennifer Pierson's 'Boom or Bust A Businessman on the Goldfields' The latter is a well researched essay on Charles Pierson, cordial maker of Stafford and Kumara Some of the articles would have been better suited to other publications Patricia Frykberg's 'South African Connections', about researching in South Africa, would have had a better audience in The New Zealand Genealogist (circulation 7000), and Robert Matthews' 'The Master Genealogist Software Review' (software reviews date so quickly) would sit more usefully in GenCom News, the quarterly newsletter of the Genealogical Computing Group

1 ñ 27

52 Book Reviews

Readers of Archifacts may Uke to know of Charmaine Manaena's 'The Treasures at Wairarapa Archives', which describes its origins, scope and conditions of access I found the annual report as interesting as anything It is one of the only ways to gauge what is happening in a presumably small but valuable component of the genealogical 'scene' in New Zealand It would be useful to know how many Yearbooks have been published Fortunately, all issues have been abstracted and indexed by staff of the Alexander Turnbull Library for Index New Zealand, so access to the contents is very good, even if its distribution is not widespread (about 20 libraries report holdings)

Bruce Ralston Wellington

Reg J Birchfiel d and Ian F Grant Out of die Woods The Restructuring and Sale of New Zeafond's State Forests Wellington GP Publications, 1993 250pp $34 95 ISBN 1 86956 087 6

In an era of rapid change when events are quickly overtaken by new developments, and institutions and ideas can be short lived, the need to chronicle the recent past takes on a particular urgency Reg Birchfield and Ian Grant provide a welcome account of the tumultuous experience of corporatisation and subsequent privatisation of New Zealand's commercial state forests They explain, day by day and blow by blow, the evolution and implementation of policy, and show how the process of radical change developed its own momentum, with results not entirely predictable by even the central participants Birchfield and Grant describe the former Forest Service as an institution with a unique and curious culture, part public service, part boy scouts At once an exploiter and conservator of forests, an employer as well as a social agency, the department failed to deliver a financial surplus in all its 68 years of operations This was partly due to political decisions that, for example, held the price of logs supplied to the domestic market far below the export price, effectively subsidising private sector timber processing More fundamentally, the Forest Service's responsibility for 'multiple use' forest management complicated its commercial operations, yet at the same time enraged environmentalists, who regarded

53 Archifacts the department more as poacher than gamekeeper So the Labour government's decision of September 1985 to disestablish the Forest Service and divide its functions between the prospective Conservation Department and a commercially oriented Forestry Corporation had obvious environmental—and political—as well as commercial appeal An establishment board for the proposed Corporation was set up in February 1986, chaired by free market zealot Alan Gibbs, with John Ferny hough as his deputy The Director General of Forests, Andy Kirkland, who initially strongly opposed the disintegration of the Forest Service, somewhat reluctantly became a convert to the cause of corporatisatton He left his department in August 1986 to become interim then substantive Chief Executive of the New Zealand Forestry Corporation, inaugurated on 1 April 1987 During the establishment phase Gibbs was largely free to 'get on with the job', but later, as Chairman of the Corporation itself, he was increasingly at odds with Treasury officials and, to a lesser extent, Cabinet ministers Gibbs come across as a determined and domineering personality, and to those characteristics are attributed much of the success and some of the difficulties encountered by the Forestry Corporation Gibbs became bogged down in a long running argument with the Treasury—effectively the shareholders' representative—over the book valuation of the state forest asset to be transferred to the Corporation This dispute was never resolved, and the Corporation never took formal ownership of the state forests, though it managed them successfully on an interim basis Whereas the old Forest Service in its final year had reported an operating deficit on commercial forestry operations of $71 million, a year later the new Corporation was able to deliver a surplus of $63 million A remarkable turnaround, but not without a cost The loss of some 4300 jobs had a severe impact on forestry communities, as described m some detail by Birchfield and Grant The authors argue that before the 1987 election there was no plan by the Labour government to proceed from corporatisation to privatisation of the state forests From late 1987, however, the fiscal pressure to realise the value of state owned assets was weighing on ministers Gibbs and Kirkland aimed to consolidate the Corporation's operations with a view to public listing of a successful, vertically integrated 'going concern' This proved impracticable for several reasons, including the failure to agree on valuation, the time and expense needed to place the Corporation in a position for public listing, and the implications of Maori land claims on the sale of the Crown land managed by the Corporation The Timber Industry Federation also sought to

54 Book Reviews influence the fate of the Forestry Corporation Industry lobbyists had opposed the establishment of the Corporation from the start, fearing that it would ultimately become dominant in timber processing, while also controlling the latgest source of logs for its private sector competitors The eventual decision to sell forests individually, rather than perpetuate or privatise the Corporation itself, was welcomed with some relief by the industry The Corporation's operational control of the state forests was ended in November 1990 By then, around 45 percent of the Crown's exotic forests had been sold to New Zealand and overseas buyers for over $ 1 billion The remaining forests were vested in three new or reconstituted SOEs, in one case on a residual basis pending further sales which would realise $365 million in 1992, now under the National government The book results from the foresight of the Forestry Corporation's Boatd, which in its dying days established a trust to enable the publication of a history of the Corporation's brief but frenetic lif e The authors tap into the thinking of the key protagonists, and the tone of the story reflects the enthusiasm and commitment of those involved in prosecuting what, for some, amounted to a crusade Both in its proximity to the events described and in its style, Out of the Woods has much of the immediacy of journalism Indeed, it falls into an intermediate genre somewhere between journalism and history, and as such will be of considerable help to future students of an almost bewildering period of New Zealand's history Although much of the book is based on interviews, it is unfortunate that the lack of references or a bibliography will detract from its utility to other researchers It may in future be difficult to identify much of the primary material consulted by Birchfield and Grant One concern is that it is not clear exactly who made up the group of 'nearly 20' individuals interviewed in the course of research In the first half of the book, dealing with the dissolution of the Forest Service and the corporatisation process, the State Services Commission, the Public Service Association and 'Forest Service traditionalists' are collectively accused of resisting change, and doing so due to vested interests This is a serious charge but one which seems to be based mainly on the common but glib notion that government officials or union leaders are, by their nature, motivated primarily by concern for maintaining the scope and influence of their respective organisations It would have been helpful to know whether the authors interviewed the individuals whose views and motives they seem too readily to dismiss On the subsequent issue of privatisation, the book explains how the practical obstacles to sale of

55 Archifacts the state forests were overcome, but the public and political opposition to privatisation is virtually invisible Notwithstanding these reservations, the book's accomplishment in recording and explaining a complex series of developments remains impressive This is an important story, and the authors have told it with verve and, by and large, with clarity

Alan Henderson Wellington

Malcolm Templeton Ties ofBhod and Empire New Zealand's Involvement in Middle East Defence and the Suez Crisis 1947-57 Auckland Auckland University Press, in association with the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, 1994 xi, 278pp $34 95 ISBN 1 86940 097 6

The reviewer on short space rations should be grateful for 'Suez', a four letter word from a vocabulary of world affairs more commonly employing words of four syllables For 'Suez' connotes not so much a single climacteric as a host of crises, diagnoses not an isolated wound but multiple lacerations upon the global body politic and a compound fracture of the international system Ensuing shoots of pam were felt as far afield as London and Washington (but notably not Moscow, where 'Suez' shielded Soviet leaders from 'Budapest'), Delhi and Karachi, Canberra and Ottawa And Wellington If New Zealand was 'a bit player only in the Suez drama' (p 1 ), even that (minor role allowed—indeed compelled—its policy makers to run a gamut of emotions from A to V or W if not from A to Æ This thoroughly researched, richly informative and lively study—a case history in the diplomacy of humiliation—shows why 'For the first time, New Zealand was faced with a clear conflict of policy between Britain and the United States For the first time, it found itself in a small minority in the United Nations The reaction of the New Zealand Government and the New Zealand public was one of disillusionment' (p 179) Malcolm Templeton, from 1954 to 1957 a member of New Zealand's Mission to the United Nations and thus positioned to glimpse the fray in that diplomatic cockpit, was a bit player himself only many years later, as a scholar immersed in documents rather than as a practitioner

56 Book Reviews swapping gossip, has he been able to make out the forces—so much more ldiosyncratically visceral than vastly impersonal—that shaped his country's response His criticism of that response is (to use his favouted adjective) robust 'QJudged by the standards adopted by the Nuremberg Tribunal, Britain and Fiance could have been convicted of an international crime, to which New Zealand came, within a hair's breadth of being an accessory' (p 178) Upon 'Suez' New Zealanders were bound to be riveted, for its two principals had long been at the centre of their world view Great Britain (to Pakeha anyway) was 'home' No state has more protractedly—and raptly—identified its national interest with another's On Prime Minister Sidney Holland's mattet of fact assertion that ' "Petsia has just kicked us out and confiscated our valuable oil industry" ', Templeton comments 'The "us" and "our" are significant New Zealand belonged to the Empire and what belonged to the Empire belonged to New Zealand' (p 20)—liabilities, it would prove, as well as assets What New Zealanders cherished as a destiny entwined was however seen by others as sheer supmity Mana cotrespondmgly declined ' "New Zealand is virtually a colony" ', John Foster Dulles told the US National Security Council on 1 November 1956, ' "and almost invariably followed the lead of the United Kingdom" ' (p 190), British leaders, hardly less condescendingly, thought as much themselves Along with the national crush went the national grudge—a contempt for Egypt and its people held over from frustrating shore leaves during two world wars 'For generations , "to gyp" was common New Zealand usage for commercial cheating' (p 2) In bringing these prejudices to bear on 'Suez', Prime Minister Holland 'was faithfully reflecting the sentiments of the vast majority of New Zealanders' (p 181) for whom Anthony Eden could do no wrong, Colonel Nasser—'"this power drunk bounder'^' (p 3)—no right (Not all Egyptians could be thus disparaged, and the New Zealand foreign minister confided to a conference of Suez Canal user states his wish that ' "the fellaheen at work in the fields" ' might have ' "their skill and unremitting industry fittingly rewarded" ' [pp 74-5], but not as Canal pilots ) Holland was unencumbered by Middle Eastern expertise Moreover, he hated reading memoranda (' "The London papers like the Daily Express have developed the art of condensation Can't we do the same with state papers7" ' [p 56]), and was consequently obliged to ask officials ' "What is the Baghdad Pact7" ' (p 31) and 'Has Israel access to the Meditetranean7' (His 'Did New Zealand support British/French action7'

57 Archifacts

[ñ 186] in 1957 seems, sadly, evidence of failing mind rather than of invincible ignorance ) He showed more application in his mastery of parlour tricks such as removing 'waistcoats from startled guests while leaving their jackets in place' (p 56) But such legerdemain could not be turned to removing those vestments of sovereignty and international control worn so tightly by 'Suez' negotiators, more's the pity The first three (of eleven) chapters recount New Zealand's Middle Eastern concerns between 1947 and 1955 from the perspectives of 'Egyptian Nationalism and the Suez Base' and 'Jewish Nationalism and the Suez Canal' In 1953 the British government, trying to save money, sought to close the base and withdraw as many as possible of its 80,000 troops '"Winston says the Middle East today is of littl e impottance" ', Holland wrote to his ' "Dear Cabinet" ' from the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference at London, adding in a rare display of national assertiveness brought on by recalling that only the year before he had pledged New Zealand to defend the region with a division ' "I however do not subscribe to his views" ' (p 29) Churchill's drastic downgrade (is that, too, evidence of failing mind7) could more properly have come from himself New Zealand's oil supply, unlike Britain's, passed, with most of its trade, through Panama No matter as the senior diplomat Allster Mcintosh would comment, New Zealanders were ' "determined to stand by Britain through thick and thin, the more so if she is wrong, which however they do not believe" ' (p 181) Eden's strikingly different assessment reached Holland while he was returning from yet another Prime Ministers' Conference three years later ' "We cannot allow [Nasser] to get away with this act [of nationalising the Suez Canal Company] and we must take a firm stand If we do not, oil supplies of the Free World will be at his mercy and Commonwealth communications and trade will be greatly jeopardised' ' That was more like it Holland instantly responded from Los Angeles—without any 'Dear Cabinet/Dear Team' consultation, though he told Parliament otherwise—that New Zealand would provide ' "full support" ' for ' "any steps" ' (p 57) Had he realised that Eden, already preferring force to peaceful settlement, was more concerned ' "to knock Nasser off his perch" ' (as Field Marshal Montgomery put it) than with contriving a new canal regime, he would still have signed and sent this blank cheque—perhaps with even more celerity Back in Wellington, he restated the commitment publicly ' "The Suez Canal is vital to Britain and Britain is vital to New Zealand [whose] people will stand as partners with the United Kingdom" ' (p 67) Now conspicuously alone, New Zealand had become Britain's only

58 Book Reviews comrade in whatever Eden's 'Suez' adventure might turn out to be It received precious littl e in return for such blind loyalty 'All Holland wanted for his support of Eden was the public appearance of junior partnership' (p 81) He did not get it His treatment verged on the sadistic He was kept in the dark and out on a limb Robert Menzies, in galling contrast, became the fair haired boy And Australia had refused to send a warship' The sage of HMS/HMNZS Royalist, untold until the full chapter here devoted to it, begins, ironically, with the brazen 'gypping' of New Zealand by a British government Shopping in London for frigates in early 1955, Holland was smoothly sold by the First Sea Lord on ' "an embarrassment to the Admiralty" '—the description is that of its future commander—' "which is relieved to be rid of it No ship could be more unsuitable" ' After listing the weapon's defects—useless equipment, wrong type of ammunition, poor crews' quartets, insufficient cruising range—Captain Phipps astutely reported ' "[T]he fact that we have this white elephant (which costs £2 per head for every New Zealander) must influence our strategic thinking" ' (p 124) As it did In August 1957 Royalist was due to leave Malta for Devonport when the Egypt Committee (an inner Cabinet formed by Eden for 'Suez' crisis management) asked for and received Holland's 'off the cuff' (p 126) permission to have the cruiser join the RN Mediterranean fleet If ot rather when (as External Affairs officers had finally begun to fathom) that fleet attacked Egypt, New Zealand was liable to be condemned as an aggressor by the UN General Assembly As these bleak implications became evident, the ' "ties of blood and empire" '—Holland's phrase— were strained and frayed almost beyond endurance Eden's importuning came 'close to blackmail' to take Royalist back could 'in hostile quarters' imply 'a lack of support on New Zealand's part for Britain's policy' (p 128) Consequently the cruiser lay only 50 miles off Port Said, crew at battle stations, when on 4 November Eden (advised by the Admiralty that nullification of Egyptian air power had ended the need for fleet protection) released Royalist from RN command—to the ' "savage resentment" ' (p 136) of her ship's company and ' "much to the dismay" ' (p 138) of the 'Dear Team' A British suggestion that New Zealand offer the cruiser to a United Nations force being improvised to undertake what would be known as peacekeeping—' "Mik e Pearson has been magnificent," ' Mcintosh would acknowledge, ' "and I do envy the Canadians in being able to follow the line they did" ' (p 185)—was in no way practicable 'The Egyptians had boggled at accepting the Queen's Own Rifles as the Canadian contribution How they would have reacted

59 Archifacts to Royalist can only be imagined' (p 136) The dismal tramp through the valley of Humiliation to which 'Suez' led the New Zealand people was more arduous for them than for any other they bore not just their own but 'the humiliations that were to rain down on the British [which], because they were British humiliations, were New Zealand humiliations too'(p 45) Even so, their leader's streak of masochism was still unsatiated ' "[Y]o u are not without friends" ', Holland assured Eden on their behalf ' "We have an abiding faith that all will end well and that you will be thanked for all you have done We do not forget Lady Eden at this time" ' Perhaps this 'sycophantic message' (p 112) epitomises New Zealand's 'Suez' stance 'What would have happened if New Zealand, instead of reacting with cries of "ready, aye ready", had joined with Canada in steadfast opposition to the use of force7' (p 181) Wisely, the author does not stay for an answer history is hard enough without going in for hypothetical history Errors are few (India and Pakistan attained independence during 1947, not 1948) and blemishes minor We are told that neither 'Ministers [n]or officials had taken aboard the stresses and power shifts (nowhere more evident than in the Middle East) that had taken place in the Anglo American relationship' (pp 31-2), only to be reminded that the 'stresses and strains that had been developing m Anglo American relations, nowhere more than on Middle East issues, and the great power shift from one to the other, had not been taken on board' (p 46)—neither formulation a model of concinnity Material relegated to Appendices I, II and IV belongs, as does material m some footnotes, in the text And the self conscious stylist who portrays a Sidney Holland 'psittacme of visage' (p 56) should try harder and can do better than 'The Storm Gathers' or 'The Cloud Bursts' for chapter titles Still, Ties of Blood and Empire seems exactly right for this absorbing book

James Eayrs Toronto

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