New Zealand Archivist Vol XV No 3 September/Spring 2004 ISSN 0114-7676 Public Records Bill introduced into Parliament
Rosemary Collier
Archives New Zealand has announced that the Public Records Bill was introduced into Parliament on 1 September, and the first reading took place 011 Thursday, 16 September.
Let us hope that this time the unborn child reaches Further information full-term, and is not aborted while it is still in gestation. Copies of the Bill are available from Bennetts NZSA welcomes the introduction, and hopes the Bill Bookshops. Electronic copies are also available from will have a speedy and uncontroversial passage into the Knowledge Basket at http: / /www.knowledge- law, with sufficient teeth in it to see it implemented basket, co.nz / gpprint / docs / welcome.html and observed. Information will be available also from the The statement from Archives New Zealand, dated forthcoming issue of Archives New Zealand's 6 September 2004, goes on to say: newsletter, Outreach Kia whakakautoro, and from the website, http://www.archives.govt.nz/about/ Significant policy changes legislation.html There have been two significant policy changes since December, which are: Statement of Intent - A deferral of the transfer of sensitive information All of this was foreshadowed in the April 2004 has been incorporated in the Bill. This means Statement of Intent. Dianne Macaskill's Introduction that records that contain sensitive information said, under the heading "Public Records Bill": "During that would be likely to be prejudicial to the the year the Public Records Bill has made substantial security or defence of New Zealand, or to the progress. The policy and legislative process is a entrusting of information to the Government of complex exercise, shifting the focus of archives New Zealand on a confidential basis, or to the legislation from being exclusively concerned with maintenance of the law, can be deferred from preservation of archives, to a whole-of-govemment transfer to the Chief Archivist. This continues approach. The primary reason for new legislation is the provision enabling the deferral of sensitive that, given technological and administrative changes information within the Archives Act. Such a over the last 30 years, different interventions are now deferral is a serious undertaking and requires the needed. This is to provide the archives for future responsible Minister of the government agency generations and, more immediately, to ensure reliable to certify that the records contain sensitive and authentic records exist at all." information of the type described above after In the "Capability" section of the statement, under consulting with the Minister responsible for "Strengthening of national leadership role and support Archives New Zealand. of community archives" there is the sentence: "The - The second change is to reflect the unique records Public Records Bill will confirm a leadership role for created by the five-yearly Census. Archives New Zealand in archives, and recordkeeping These records may not be destroyed and are generally, within New Zealand." Further on, under transferred to the Chief Archivist after a period "Implementing the Public Records Bill" it is stated: of 100 years for permanent safekeeping. The "Effective implementation of the Public Records Government Statistician provides access to this Bill will require additional skill sets within Archives information in accordance with the Statistics Act. New Zealand. A proposed new function is a regular The Statistics Act is being amended to ensure audit of recordkeeping in public offices." Census information is available for researchers Inter alia, the Statement of Intent also says, regarding to use for statistical purposes, such as research the Government Locator Archival Documentation and into demographic or economic trends after the Information System (GLADIS) "It is expected that the records are transferred to the Chief Archivist. system will be made available in our reading rooms during the year." Select Committee Following its first reading, the Bill will be referred to a Select Committee for consideration. Parliamentary Debate on first reading of the Mr Peters endorsed Ms Te Heuheu's comment Public Records Bill on what he called "a properly constructed purpose Seven MPs spoke in the debate. First was the Hon. clause about the Treaty of Waitangi, at long last. New Marian Hobbs, Minister responsible for Archives New Zealand First has called for this over the years and has Zealand, who moved that the Bill be read a first time. talked about the Treaty of Waitangi clause... We have It is disturbing to read that following these worked through the functions and duties which are part introductory remarks by Ms Hobbs, the Speaker had of this Bill and it seems to us to be eminently sensible, to say: "Order. Please keep...leave quietly." Does straightforward..." this mean that numbers of MPs thought "This isn't Ian Ewen-Street, speaking on behalf of Keith Locke interesting; I'm going"? for the Greens, and Ms Te Heuheu both referred to the Ms Hobbs introduced the first reading of the Bill Bill setting Archives New Zealand up as a Crown entity, by explaining that "public records provide evidence but this is not the case; it is clearly a "department of of government activities and are a key component State" in the definition of "Archives New Zealand" on of public accountability." She said that "[archives] page 4, and elsewhere. enhance democracy by informing citizens about Mr Ewen-Street, in supporting the Bill, thought issues, decision-making processes and results. They nevertheless that it gave "too much leeway to ministers also contribute to who we are as a nation by recording to withhold documents from the Archives". He alluded people's experiences with government." to access to archives, and said that "researchers get She went on to note the new challenges from very frustrated when key materials are either not in electronic records and the erosion of former record the Archives or they are shut out by restrictive access keeping practices. She said these matters would be rules. He applauded the mandatory transfer of public addressed by new record-keeping requirements for records after 25 years, but was concerned about the public offices and local authorities. Archives "enhance Minister's power to defer it. He thought there was New Zealanders' sense of national identity by enabling little that would prejudice security 25 years after the us to piece together the ever-changing story of who we fact, other than "the identities of still undercover are and how we got here" Ms Hobbs continued. government operatives". The Minister stressed the independence of the He recalled that 25 years before, "the cold war was Chief Archivist on matters of disposal of records, still raging and Muldoon was still in power". His i.e. independence from the Minister. Nevertheless, concern was that material may be restricted "not for the Archives Council is granted the power to advise real security reasons, but to protect their departments the Minister on this matter, which could leave room from embarrassment." for partisan views to be proposed, and possibly, if He then went on to describe a letter he had obtained politically expedient, to be granted. After commending under the Official Information Act, written by a Foreign the Bill to the House, Ms Hobbs was followed by the Affairs employee "on behalf of the Secretary of Foreign Hon. Georgina Te Heuheu, National. Affairs dated July 28, 1975." This letter reported on Ms Te Heuheu stated that National would support a meeting the writer had had with the then Fretilin the Bill going to Select Committee "but we certainly Secretary-General, Jose Ramos-Horta, who later became want to have a good look at it when it's there." the Foreign Minister of East Timor after independence. She commended the fact that the clause concerning The purport was that Horta was lied to about the the Treaty of Waitangi was specific to the purposes of intentions of the Indonesian government to make the Bill, and not a generic clause which "could mean armed intervention in East Timor. Four months later nothing at all". Ms Te Heuheu also found it of interest the Indonesians did that very thing. that there was provision for iwi-based or hapu- Mr Ewen-Street used this example to show that the based repositories in which public archives could be agony of violence and loss of life in East Timor could deposited. Finally, Ms Te Heuheu expressed concern have been avoided if the New Zealand and Australian that there may be too much restriction on access in Governments had not collaborated with Indonesia, but the interests of privacy: "There may be in this Bill an had used their influence on behalf of East Timor. attempt to try and restrict access to the point where The fact that Mr Ewen-Street had to ask for these privacy issues unnecessarily impinge upon legitimate documents under the Official Information Act showed archival research." that they had not been declassified and deposited at Next was Jim Peters of New Zealand First. He Archives New Zealand. referred to the fact that it was 20 years before that He went on: "...where this bill is dangerous...in "such a Bill was in the House and it may be that this that one of the grounds for a minister not transferring Bill has got a similar fate, because I'm told that 20 years documents is that doing so might 'prejudice international ago in this House, in 1984, this very matter was being relations of the government of New Zealand'. I argue discussed and someone called a general election and that making public documents .. .on our disastrous past fate intervened and 20 years later it's back here with us. relations with the Indonesian dictatorship [Suharto] So I'm ... I'm not necessarily saying that this is going actually improves our relationship with the modem to be the fate of this Bill, because... this Bill deserves a democratic forces in that country. Bureaucrats in the much better fate than that." Ministry of Foreign Affairs might have the opposite view and a minister may well act on their advice. Whatever the outcome of that argument the minister history might actually be quite irrelevant if, in fact, can fall back on a third reason in the Bill for refusing we are too immaterial a people or too irrelevant a transfer of documents, that the transfer might 'prejudice people for anyone, including our children, to even the entrusting of information' to New Zealand by a stay around." foreign government. After citing regions of the world where he thought nothing of history is remembered compared with the ".. .any undue restrictions might be countered by the United Kingdom or Rome [where it is remembered] Chief Archivist's right under the Bill to inspect records he said "or the history of many of the countries that held by a department. However, the Chief Archivist's are effectively dominant in the world today is simply access to any classified or restricted material can be that history is irrelevant if the people who think it's vetoed by the head of the relevant department...the important are no longer relevant. And I worry that Security Intelligence Service.. .says that information on we will put a great deal of effort into keeping archives SIS staff cannot be released until 100 years after their when we've in fact lost respect for the truth, respect for death. Technical information on SIS operations also has the idea that it does really matter what it is that we're a 100-year time limit and subject files, a 50-year limit. storing. Even the casual phrase that the Minister used "It is precisely the most embarrassing and in introducing this when she said 'the ever-changing controversial parts of our history that we can learn story of who we are and how we got here', it's been the most from. An error understood is an error not changing because of political correctness. repeated. How can we really learn from what the SIS "It's been changing because parts of our history may have done wrong if we have to wait 50 or 100 years are inconvenient and it doesn't matter how good our by which time all the people who could enlighten us archives are, if we think, as Dr Michael Bassett has are well in their graves. We need procedures to stop recently told us, the Waitangi Tribunal thinks that unnecessary delays in transferring material to the history should be at the service of modern politics, Archives. that re-writing the story is okay if it serves a valuable "The Australian Law Reform Commission, for purpose, that we can decry the efforts and the good example, has proposed independent review bodies intentions of our forebears because we now hold to stop material staying classified well beyond the different values, then there isn't much point in having normal Archives deadline. It says these reviews should a real flash Archives Act or Public Records Act and continue at five-year intervals. The Commission has hit storing it all. If we really have become insignificant our the nail on the head when they say that 'Information songs and stories will pass into dust whatever we do to should not be classified for extraneous reasons, for try and preserve them. I'm [sic] also worry about this example, to conceal breaches of the law, inefficiency, because I wonder who will ever bother to read most administrative error or to prevent embarrassment to of this stuff. The attention span of our audiences is a person, organisation or agency'. [He must have about 15 seconds for most items of what are considered read the UK News extracts we have included in News important news. I contrast that when you look at say Items. Ed.] The Dominion of 50 years ago which could have tens of "You might argue that we have the Official column inches reporting a debate on a significant topic Information Act process with recourse to the and properly reporting the nuances of each Member's Ombudsman which applies to most information still debate. held by government departments and that is a useful "We were a more serious people and maybe the fallback, but for historians it is always of limited use paper's right. If we are going to spend our time on because it is often hard to know exactly what to ask playing sport and being entertained well then there for in documents you've never seen, and departmental isn't much point in keeping enormous records. officials are used to playing sophisticated games with "Worse, we don't believe in history when we the inquirer, and in any case someone writing an pass Bills like the Clean Slate Bill that was passed interesting history is looking for the unexpected, this year... What use is a Public Records Bill and a something he or she didn't know about and think to pretended respect for history when a government ask for. Open archives are much more valuable for such will pass a Bill ...that says to 700,000 New Zealanders research. Hopefully, we will see several contributions when asked about a criminal record 'lie and say you from researchers, historians and lawyers in the don't have one’. ...Re-writing history in that way Select Committee process to address any of the Bill's simply because - and here's the justification that was weaknesses in this respect." offered - is that it showed compassion. That it was Stephen Franks (ACT) then spoke of "a Bill that proper to forgive. Now how significant is it? What most members would consider very technical, dry worth is it to be obliging local authorities all over the and non-contentious...I have to say I enjoy history. country to keep their records for 25 years when if it ...I worry about this Bill and I worry about the becomes inconvenient and offends someone the ethos preoccupation of New Zealand with its history. And of a government that we have now will be wipe it, I worry about the claims that it shows some form of suppress it?...the history doesn't matter. maturity because exploring a contentious past or a "So the Public Records Bill...does show a deep glorious past, examining our navels over and over hypocrisy in the elite...they can pretend such respect again and taking enormous care about recording our for history for things that don't matter and then pass a law to instruct people to lie about things that do matter. - the Yugoslavs come to mind. I also sound a note of caution that there are some pretty "Another one that might be worth looking at.. .is the broad discretions in this Bill to declare things to be dealing with penalties.. .1 wonder if the.. .maximum of compulsorily stored and we should remember just how $5000...is an adequate deterrent...I think that values hard it is now to store things. Really interesting things system there should be looked at." disappear. I'm sure we've all had the experience of The final speaker was Lindsay Tisch (National). He losing a document you've worked on for a very long promised his party's support, and said they had no time and it vanishes because electronic storage is difficulty with it. He said that they would look closely simply hard for us to understand and control... [Yes, at the Treaty of Waitangi clause. His approach to this it happened in the compilation of this issue of Nezv seemed a little different from his colleague Georgina Zealand Archivist. Ed.] Te Heuheu's was. He thought that the definitions of "How accurate will our future records be of what we official information and public records seemed to really thought and meant when the electronic records overlap. [Surely it would be surprising if they did not! will be so easily culled. For good reason, people will Ed.] He hoped that issues raised in submission to the simply not want ever to dredge through an awful lot of proposed Bill in 2000 and 2001 would be considered. the material that is now being generated in a modem He is correct in pointing out that the new legislation bureaucracy...So I do ask the Select Committee...to does not require the preparation of schedules of records consider and keep in mind the realism of actually trying for destruction. Perhaps that was omitted since the to require people to guard and protect records that they Official Information Act would allow access to any don't think are important at the time when it's quite record of what was intended to be destroyed. possible that the records that...show what was really The motion was then put and agreed to, without thought and why things are really being done, will be objection, and then Hon. Marian Hobbs moved that ephemeral, transitory when they can be removed or it be considered by the Government Administration when they may not even be kept. Select Committee, which was agreed to. "I was struck by the Green Member's contribution, Thanks to Archives New Zealand for supplying the the unintended consequence of trying to force more transcripts of the debate. openness than the actors in an event want, is that they simply don't keep records, and the Official Information Editorial comment Act, of course, has already had something of that effect. There were submissions and consultations on the People don't keep minutes that they don't want to have Bill in 2002, so there is perhaps not a lot that is still disclosed...I think the record...of the deliberately contentious, despite the Parliamentarians' views. deceptive comment to the Fretilin member in East Two points that might provoke further thought are (a) Timor...wouldn't be kept today because it would be whether the local authority provisions are better here, known that a record like that would be accessible under or in the Local Government Act, which is the legislation the Official Information Act...we shouldn't think that with which local government staff are most familiar, there are costless solutions. and with which they work constantly, rather than an "I hope the Select Committee...remember that if Act which has not had to concern them in the past, they impose any significant or too heavy obligations, and (b) whether universities are rightly brought under the likely result is that the record will either never be this Bill. created or will mysteriously disappear and the difficulty A few years ago the universities went to considerable of telling whether it's a mysterious and unintended lengths to avoid the then National government's disappearance or a deliberate disappearance will be efforts to exercise more control over governance of the too great for anyone to reopen. So I hope there'll be universities, and to remove some of the democratic realism in looking at this Bill, worthy although its representation on their Councils. Universities are intentions are." governed in the broadest terms by public legislation, United Future followed, in the person of Bernie but are they part of the legislative, judicial or executive Ogilvie. Mr Ogilvie said that his party supported the arms of government? The current funding regime Bill, and was "by and large, quite impressed by both for universities is such that the University of Otago the content and purposes of [the Bill].. .an appropriate now receives only 40% of its funds from central update and empowerment to bring it into the 21st government. Other moneys are by way of student century in terms of record keeping... fees, contestable funding for research, endowments "I would like to bring to the attention of the and gifts. Universities are not mentioned in the text Minister and the Select Committee...the composition of the Bill, though State-owned Enterprises are, but of the [Archives] Council...people with a knowledge in the Explanatory note (p.4) the definition of public of tikanga Maori to which I don't...have any problem offices says: "These include departments, all Crown about. But I am concerned that that may be limiting... entities (including universities, State school boards of There are other great languages...and people here. trustees, and district health boards), and State-owned For instance...the Chinese population...If I recall Enterprises." correctly...we wanted to honour them...we need The Bank of New Zealand used to be owned by people on this Council...who can understand some the government, but it was never part of these arms of the other groups that have settled in New Zealand of government, despite being a government-owned business. It did not make a report to Parliament. Some are urged to read the Public Records Bill, and to send in state enterprises may make a similar objection, especially any thoughts for a New Zealand Society of Archivists those that have been in private hands in recent times, submission to the Government Administration Select and still are in part, e.g. Air New Zealand. Perhaps Committee. We had input into the preparation of the the greater concern should be the non-availability of Bill; now is our chance to comment on the Bill that has records from the periods when these enterprises were been introduced to Parliament, after such a long time government departments; such records are part of since new archives legislation was first considered, in the history of the nation, and of the accountability of 1974, and since it was last introduced, in 1984. government for public policy and expenditure at those times, and should be available. It is to be hoped that Please mail your concerns and thoughts to: the 25-year provisions of the Bill will see more of these President records of former administrations, which can hardly NZSA still be required for the SOEs' day-to-day work, come PO Box 27-057 into Archives New Zealand. Marion Square Other provisions that possibly could be seen as WELLINGTON contentious are those requiring public notification or e-mail: [email protected] of intentions to dispose of public records (s.20), and section 15, which gives the Archives Council (to be STO P P R E SS appointed under the proposed Act) power to give the As we go to press, Archives New Zealand has just Minister advice over the authorisations to dispose of released a statement about the Bill. It says that public records under s.20. It could be argued that archivists are submissions close on 5 November 2004. professional at their jobs in the same way as engineers, The statement explains that a new Act is needed doctors, lawyers etc. and with proper training and because of changes in the past 47 years, including procedures, they can carry out their tasks regarding official information and privacy laws, new forms of disposals without the nuisance value of public government agencies such as SOEs and Crown Entities, notification or non-professional oversight. and new technology, e.g. electronic records that require However, the mood of greater accountability is upon approaches and solutions not catered for in the 1957 us, and that probably requires that, in addition to the Act. The new Bill needs to ''reflect new values, current five-yearly audit of Archives New Zealand provided for archival 'best practice', and anticipate technological in the Bill, section 20's notification provisions (which challenges ahead." were in the 1957 Archives Act but seldom exercised), are There is more focus on new and current records brought forward. The better definition of public records and recordkeeping practices in government agencies and public archives will mean that the provision, if in the new Bill. This includes a clause (17) on creating passed, will be mandatory, whereas in the 1957 Act the and maintaining records. use of the term 'public archives', too widely defined, The Bill, according to the statement, covers "all meant that it could be legitimately argued that this activities in which the Crown has an interest": provision seldom needed to be used. the legislative, executive and judicial branches of It is a little curious that the Bill shies away from the government; agencies and their branches; departments; term 'destruction'. Archivists use the term 'disposal', Crown entities including tertiary institutes and or 'disposition' in North America, to mean both the universities, state school boards of trustees, district transfer of records as archives and their destruction, health boards, and state-owned enterprises. and indeed the Bill uses it in this way too. But the Bill Standards, both mandatory and voluntary, are seems shy of saying that some public records will be mentioned, although public offices may be exempted destroyed, which perhaps is behind the assumption in from all except the requirements to create and maintain one or two of the parliamentary speeches that far too records, and to obtain the authority of the Chief much will be kept, including records of little value. Archivist for disposal. The only time the word 'destruction' occurs is in the Public offices will be subject to audit 5 years after definition of 'disposal' in s.4: Interpretation. It is not the Bill is passed and every 5-10 years thereafter, and mentioned in the explanatory notes. It should surely an annual report on the results and on "the overall be made clearer that large quantities of public records state of recordkeeping" will be presented to Parliament (not public archives) are destroyed, and therefore public annually. money is not expended on keeping them longer than Some 'historic' electronic records will be maintained is necessary. in public offices, not at Archives New Zealand, but the The Bill provides that the ensuing Act would bind latter will pay the costs. the Crown, a provision long sought by archivists and The makeup and role of the Archives Council is others interested in archives. Since offences against outlined, the definition of 'disposal' in the Explanatory the Archives Act were more likely to be committed Notes to the Bill is given, and also the provisions that by government servants than by anyone else, it was continue the Chief Archivist's role in determining the ludicrous that there were no penalty provisions for disposal of records. them. The transfer period of 25 years is continued, with Members of the New Zealand Society of Archivists provision for variation under agreement. The sensible Spring 2004 proviso is given that records may have disposal The statement gives details on how to make a authorisation before 25 years is up. A new variation submission. For more information see the Archives on that is that records will be classified as open or New Zealand website: http: / / www.archives.govt.nz / restricted regardless of where they are held, and that about/legislation.html The New Zealand Society of records transferred to Archives New Zealand before Archivists encourages members to contribute to a that period is up will similarly be open or restricted, i.e. Society submission, but if you wish to make your not in a limbo not covered by the Act. Access is free. own, or your employing organisation does, there is a Other records such as those of Parliament [but surely lengthy URL for the clerk at Parliament which gives they're records of the legislative arm of government, so a pdf document on how to make a written or oral already covered? Ed.], Ministers' papers [and they're submission: part of the executive arm. Ed.] and private records http://www.clerk.parliament.govt.nz/ can be accepted if they 'complement the Archives' NR/rdonlyres/53DE9B28-CADA-409F- holdings'. A9 FA-4 7 A 7E2CE9B30/0/MakeSubE.pdf Various exemptions, variations and exclusions Whew! are then outlined, and the process for public offices to The document concludes with a statement of the appeal against decisions to the minister. consultation that has taken place already, a brief The next important clauses are on local government description of what will happen after the Bill has been records. The provisions are moved here from the Local passed, and the support for the transition to the new Government Act 1974, but are less prescriptive. regime. It is stated that the Bill will take effect when The Chief Archivist is to have a community archives it has been passed. role: 'facilitating and coordinating archival activities', Further information: e-mail addresses given include capacity, and access to archives. The Minister, as at that for the Planning and Policy team at Archives NZ present, may approve repositories to hold public ([email protected]) and for general enquiries to archives, but not limited, as under the current Act, to the Communications Adviser Hazel Dobbie (comunic archives that are surplus to requirements. [email protected]), telephone 04 495 6219.
Council News Survey of
It was a considerable disappointment to Council local authority that the Annual General Meeting was not able to proceed on 25 June as planned, because a quorum archives was not present. We have traditionally held meetings on a Friday in order to allow out-of-town members to attend, and indeed there were two such people The survey was conducted in early September, present. However, this day does not appear to find with the aim of publishing the results in this issue of favour with Wellingtonians, so this time we aim for a Neiv Zealand Archivist. Many thanks to all those who midweek early evening for the deferred meeting. See returned the survey forms. flier in this issue. However, the analysis of the data supplied, and the David Retter is the NZSA representative on the article planned to be derived from that data is delayed, planning committee for the joint ARANZ/AS A/NZSA for two main reasons: Conference to be held in Wellington next year. Planning 1. the lateness of some of the returns from local is well advanced, with an experienced event-organising authorities, which nevertheless deserved to firm, Paardekoopers, responsible for all the detailed be included to make the coverage as wide as logistics. Meanwhile, a joint committee representing possible. the three organisations is working on programme, 2. The introduction of the Public Records Bill into the sponsorship and other matters. Parliament on 16 September has meant that that The planned dates are 6-8 October 2005, and the main subject has gained greater priority for coverage in venue is to be the Wellington Town Hall. The theme this issue. is 'Archives and Communities'. The communities are We expect to have the analysis and article in the identified as 'Professional communities', 'Empowering Summer/December 2004 issue. The issue will be sent communities', 'Documenting communities' and to all local authorities that responded, whether or not 'Australasian communities'. More on this in future they are members. issues of New Zealand Archivist. Forthcoming Events
Sound and Light: Challenges for Audio-Visual Abstracting Oral History A rchiving Saturday & Sunday 13 and 14 November 2004, 8.45am- lpm NZ On Air is holding an Archiving Symposium on Wednesday 3 November at the New Zealand Film The abstract is a comprehensive time-coded Archive, 86 Taranaki Street, Wellington. The day starts summary which serves as a guide to the oral history at 8.30am, and goes to 5.30pm. researcher. Here is an opportunity to practice [sic] The objective of the Symposium is "to consider the comprehension and editing skills needed to trends, changes, problems and opportunities impacting compile a reliable and usable abstract. Completion of on audio-visual archiving in NZ today and tomorrow a [sic] Essentials of Oral History Research or a recent and to seek new possibilities for coordination and equivalent introductory course is recommended but cooperation between interested parties." not required. The keynote speaker will be Sam Kula from Canada. Fee: $180 (140) Sam is one of the world's leading experts on audio Limit: 8 visual archiving, and has been active for over 30 years in developing archives and in preservation programmes For further information concerning registration or throughout the world. funding contact the Oral History Centre, 04-474-3163 Registration for the Symposium costs $50 pp (excl or [email protected] GST), if registering before 8 October, or $60 pp (excl GST) if registering after that date. Morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea will be provided. To register, or for SWIM Limited Courses Update further details on the day's programme, please email We are pleased to announce that due to demand we Robyn Andrews on [email protected] will be running our Information and Records Systems Course in Auckland later this year. This two day course will be run on the 9th and 10th of November. The venue Oral History Workshops will be in Central Auckland. For more information The Oral History Centre of the Alexander Turnbull about the course content please see the Training Page Library is offering workshops for people considering on our website: www.swim.co.nz using oral history in their work, community or personal We are also accepting registrations for the Retention projects. The workshops are taught by Judith Fyfe, and Disposal Scheduling Course in Wellington which lawyer and oral historian, and held in the National will run on 9th November. Library building, Aitken Street, Wellington. For queries please contact: Kerri Siatiras The Essentials of Oral History Research Director, SWIM Ltd Day Two: Taping Seriously Ph 04 472 3305 Saturday, 6 November 2004, 8.45am-4.30pm Cellphone 027 544 5062 Fax 04 472 3306 Taping Seriously builds on Day One: Introduction to Oral History, reviewing work completed and covering in See also Council News regarding next year's joint more detail interview techniques, equipment standards, conference. project planning and ethical and legal issues. Some experience in recording or processing oral history is necessary. Completion of an earlier Essentials course or a recent equivalent introductory course is required. Fee: $150 (110) Limit: 14 Archives Archipelago
There are a couple of additions to the Wellington Archives Archipelago published in the March issue of New Zealand Archivist. Both are on the right-hand side of the map: The Marist Archives at 88 Hobson Street, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington Archives, in Hill Street, behind Parliament. The New Zealand Theatre Archive
Rosemary Collier
In the Autumn 2000 issue of New Zealand Archivist, March 2000, we published an article describing the work of The Neiv Zealand Theatre Archive Puranga Whakaari o Aotearoa. Noiv we bring that story up to date.
Currently, the Trust However, most of the Board is finalising a new NZTA database entries have brochure, for distribution to recently been downloaded theatre groups, and through to the National Register of libraries and other means to Archives and Manuscripts people who may be aware of and can be accessed through theatre archives which need NRAM (nram.org.nz) or to be better looked after, or through the link from the who may wish to undertake NZTA website. research using theatre Recently, an exciting archives. new development has been The Board is also the making of oral archives completing a manual for use recordings of prominent New by those who may look after Hagley Theatre Co. Christchurch, performing 'Divine' Zealand theatre people. Copy theatre archives that are still tapes and transcripts of the held by the theatre companies. The recordings will shortly be available. manual also advises on depositing This programme is continuing. theatre archives in established Readers of New Zealand Archivist repositories. If you or someone else who know of the existence of theatre you know could use the brochure or the archives which may be in danger of manual (for which there will be a small damage or loss, or who are aware charge), please contact NZTA. of theatre archives not listed on the The New Zealand Theatre Archive NZTA database are urged to get in has a website and a database which touch with the Theatre Archive. lists hundreds of theatre archives. The database is currently accessible New Zealand Theatre Archive only through the New Zealand Theatre PO Box 6065 Archive office at Victoria University Wellington. of Wellington (appointments may be www2.vuw.ac.nz/ nzta made by telephoning Laurie Atkinson on 04 568-5883) and in the library of Toi Whakaari the New Zealand Drama School in Wellington. Local authority web-sites and archives
Rosemary Collier
While trawling through local government web-sites site, but I did sample the main centres, and some of the in the course of preparing to send out the survey on northern local authorities' web-sites. Most of the latter local authority archives, I made notes on some of them did not mention archives, i.e. 'archives' was not a term for comparison purposes. The principal items I was in the A-Z search index which the majority of them had. seeking for were the names of chief executive officers, Among these were the Manukau City Council site, and whether or not there was anything on the web-sites where I could not find any mention of archives, despite about archives. the city being the third-largest, in terms of population, in New Zealand. Archives A number of the local authority sites examined It proved far too time-consuming to look at every showed that the holdings of archives were in libraries or museums. It was easy to transfer to their sites and searching.
NR AM News
Kay Sanderson and Rosemary Collier
New developments for NRAM involvement with the National Register of Archives and In the last issue we notified readers that Archives Manuscripts. Building on the good work already done New Zealand would be taking over the National by volunteers on this project, Archives New Zealand Register of Archives and Manuscripts, thanks to new will assist further to ensure that NRAM is an effective funding from Government. This was foreshadowed tool for community archives into the future." in the 2004/2005 Archives New Zealand Statement of Now we amplify our previous brief notice, with Intent, issued in April 2004. In the Chief Executive's information from Archives New Zealand's news Introduction, under "National Leadership" it said: "As release, and from Kay Sanderson's story in the July part of this community role, Archives New Zealand will issue of Library Life. work to promote systems such as the National Register The Government's budget announcement of 27 May of Archives and Manuscripts (NRAM). Additional contained nothing but good news for NRAM. Archives funding has been made available for progressing this New Zealand received more than $200,000 per year to role from 2004/05 onwards." increase its community leadership role and to foster In the "Access to Government Archives" section nationwide archival capability. Part of this funding under "Strengthening of national leadership role and will be used to mange and develop NRAM. support of community archives" the document said: The news release outlined briefly some of the history "Another initiative that is progressing is our increased of NRAM, and noted that it is both a ready-made documentation system for many organisations, and the Medical Journal, published in 1887, a collection of the means of getting information about their collections to Journal's first 20 volumes, and histories of various researchers. It also gives many an Internet profile that Canterbury hospitals, including a history of the they might not otherwise have. Christchurch Hospital Board written and published The news release notes that since December 2001 the by Dr P. Clennell Fenwick in 1926. website has had over 279,000 hits. Dianne Macaskill, Pat Cotter describes himself as a "squirrel". His Chief Archivist, believes Archives New Zealand can father, who was also a surgeon in Christchurch, had build on the foundations that have been laid, and a major collection of New Zealand history books and develop NRAM. served on the board of the old Canterbury Medical Archives New Zealand's first priority will be to Library. Pat himself was foundation chairman (1972) migrate the NRAM database to their own servers, of the Christchurch School of Medicine Library so that the technology and programming language Committee, and helped plan the new medical library. that support NRAM can be upgraded. In the long This collection is an exciting addition to the NRAM term, the objective is to develop common standards database, and drives home the importance of providing between organisations, so that New Zealanders can an easily identifiable access point for New Zealand's access information about the nation's archival resources small archives repositories and collections. It also through a single point of access. demonstrates the importance of ensuring that NRAM Kay Sanderson, the NRAM Administrator, is is widely promoted: a medical librarian who does working with Archives New Zealand to ensure volunteer work with the trust learnt about NRAM a smooth transition. Since the receipt of the first through articles and news items in Library Life, the government funding for NRAM in July, Archives New monthly magazine published by the Library and Zealand has been working to redevelop the NRAM Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa. website. The initial focus has been on streamlining To enquire about NRAM or to make contributions, the process by which new entries are contributed, to contact: reduce processing time and to ensure that there is no Kay Sanderson risk of data loss. NRAM Administrator and Training Co-ordinator The "new look" website was launched on 22 ph. 06-379-9333 September. It has less of a spartan look and feel, but e-mail: [email protected] the functionality and ways of obtaining information, 23 Connolly's Line, plus the content itself, remain the same. There is use of Carterton colour, though the sample 'archive' picture looks rather Website: www.nram.org.nz like a printed book, not a unique, original document. An improved online form for use by contributors is available.
The Cotter Medical History Trust A fascinating collection of medical archives has recently been reported to NRAM. The Cotter Medical History Trust, held in the Hagley Building at Christchurch's Public Hospital, has begun to add pConsteruatum entries to NRAM which ultimately will describe the papers of approximately 5000 New Zealand Archival & Conservation Materials doctors, radiologists, nurses, dentists and medical Contact: Jim or Margaret Morrison administrators. Included among the papers are Phone: (09) 425 7380 • Fax: (09) 425 7385 correspondence, diaries, photographs, minutes, ’O Box 646, 81 Great North Road, Warkworl newsletters, and lecture notes. These records, some | Email: [email protected] j of which were created as early as the 1880s, span all LWebsite: www.conservationsupplies.co.nzJ aspects of New Zealand's medical history including the experiences of medical practitioners serving during the Boer and First World Wars. The Cotter Medical Trust was established in 1998 Archival Quality • Acid Free Adhesives • to collect, preserve and display artefacts of a medical Board • Card • Paper • Boxes • Envelopes nature and to hold and collect old and historic medical Folders • Polyester Film • Enclosures • books and other written material. The trust has Photographic Storage • Tapes • Tissue • acquired and built on the private collection of retired Resin • Cleaning Materials and more... surgeon Patrick William Cotter. The Trustees are: Canterbury District Health Board, the New Zealand Medical Association, Canterbury Medical Research Foundation, and the Royal Australasian College of 09 425 7380 Surgeons. PO BOX 646 • WARKWORTH The Trust holds the first issue of the New Zealand New Zealand experience with wax cylinder sound recordings
Mervyn McLean
Following her receipt of the news story published in this issue in News Item s under the heading "Scientists bring back voices from the past", the Editor wrote to Dr Mervyn McLean, concerning his involvement with making wax cylinders playable. In reply, Dr McLean outlined his work on cylinders.
The earliest surviving collection of wax cylinder put us right back to square one in terms of historical Maori recordings, comprising 175 cylinders, was attempts at resurrecting the Maori cylinders. recorded between 1919 and 1923 in a series of The Library of Congress, which is sponsoring the expeditions from the then Dominion Museum (later new technique, has a long history of work on old National Museum, and now Te Papa). For a long cylinders, and six of the Maori ones were sent there time it was in the custody of the Turnbull Library, for processing by the Turnbull in the 1950s. All of them whose head librarian, Johannes Andersen, had been were smashed in transit, resulting in permanent loss a member of the expeditions. The second collection, of the cylinders chosen for the experiment. It is clear of 200 cylinders, was recorded mostly by Sir Apirana that the new technique is highly specialised and likely Ngata in his parliamentary office, when he was Minister to be extremely expensive, with no prospect that it will of Native Affairs during the 1930s, to assist compilation be available here in the short term. I hope profoundly of his anthology Nga Moteatea. The first collection was that Te Papa, where the cylinders presumably now are, eventually transferred into the custody of the National will not contemplate repeating the early mistake of the Museum, and the later one followed in 1975. In a joint Turnbull by sending cylinders abroad for processing. initiative with the museum, a custom-built machine Experience has shown that the cylinders are far too was constructed and used by the Department of fragile to be risked in this way. They have been waiting Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) to transfer since early last century to be heard again like the voice both collections of cylinders to tape, and I compiled of Queen Victoria, and will come to no further harm if an illustrated catalogue of the contents. The catalogue they wait a while longer. is available in most public libraries, and includes a full history of the collections. It makes for interesting reading. The catalogue reference is as follows: McLean, Mervyn and Jeny Curnow, Catalogue of Museum of New Zealand Recordings of Traditional Maori Songs 1919-C.1935, Auckland, Archive of Maori and Pacific Music, 1992, ii, 295pp. The Archive of Maori and Pacific Music at the University of Auckland has computer-based equipment that can significantly enhance old recordings from tape or disc, and this has been used on selected items from both the cylinder collection and later ones recorded on tape. The results are not good enough, however, to justify attempting this for all of the cylinder recordings, many of which are too badly worn to be salvageable using this technique. Iehu Nukunuku ofNgati Porou recording a flute made from It could well be that the method described in the a gas pipe at Waiomatatini (East Coast) in 1923. Bending newspaper article would be capable of salvaging over the dictaphone is Johannes Andersen. Reclining on the the currently unplayable cylinders, doing so from lawn behind him is Elsdon Best. The man on the right is Te the cylinders themselves rather than the tape copies Kani, son-in-law of Apirana Ngata of them as must currently be done. It is fortunate, though, that the technique is still experimental and Photo: James McDonald; Alexander Turnbull Library, not yet generally available. Were this not so, it could Wellington, 1/2-015842. Display of early sound recordings dormant for the next eight years. It was not until 1885 Currently, there is a display of wax cylinder when Bell & Tainter produced the graphophone where recordings at the Music Room (formerly Sound and the recording could be removed, and Edison his 1887 Music Centre), lower ground floor, National Library, 'new' phonograph, that sound recording became viable. Molesworth Street, Wellington. Included in the display The removable recording was the wax cylinder. are descriptions of each type of early recording medium. "The Music Room display includes a significant The following is a brief summary of the history of early number of these early cylinders (brown wax, black sound recordings, written by Music Room staff to wax, and celluloid). A 1904 phonograph for playing publicise the display to National Library colleagues: these cylinders can also be viewed." "Edison's speaking voice first engraved Mary had a Along with the display in the display case, there little lamb on tinfoil in December 1877. However, the are enlargements of several relevant photographs inventor exploited the cylinder 'phonograph' only as mounted on the walls. One is a 'sister' photo to the a toy from 1878 to 1880 before turning his attention to one reproduced here, showing Iehu Nukunuku playing the electric light. The cylinder 'phonograph' remained his flute to a group of Maori boys.
Book Review
Chris Maclean: John Pascoe. Craig Potton Publishing, Nelson, in association with The Whitcombe Press, Wellington, 2003. ISBN 0-473-09443-6. Hardback, 344 pp, $59.95. Reviewed by Rosemary Collier.
This book is a heavy read - not in terms of content, Partly through his tendency to dominate morning and but because it is a very heavy hard-back volume; not afternoon tea conversations. easy bed-time reading. However, this is all in a good Maclean's biography is affectionate, but certainly cause: to enable good-quality reproduction of the many not uncritical. His subject inspired him because of his photographs, and several artworks and maps, on semi similar interests in mountaineering and photography, glossy paper. I found it a slow read also; not being and in writing historical-cum-geographical books. familiar with the details of Southern Alps topography, Some thought JDP a self-publicist, but I would agree I needed constantly to consult maps in order to fully with Maclean that it was rather an urge to write, to understand the text. That some large-scale extracts photograph, perhaps to prove himself and to enthuse from maps were included was a bonus. others with a love of New Zealand, and particularly I began reading at the end of December 2003 (shortly of its mountains. after the book's publication), while holidaying in Accounts of clearing parts of his bush section at Arthur's Pass, and frequently consulted the detailed Eastbourne, of active holidays, mountaineering trips, map of that area which we had purchased in order to work, writing, photographing, amply illustrate that JDP plan our trip. This was entirely appropriate (though was not a person to take life easy. not planned that way), since John Pascoe begem his The book celebrates Pascoe's colourful prose style; mountaineering in that region. for example, it quotes JDP writing in his book Land I have to declare my interest: I worked with John Uplifted High (Whitcombe & Tombs, 1952): "For sheer Pascoe; he was my boss for approximately half of his miserable monotony of contour, rigour of weather, and time at National Archives, and found him an interesting, bleakness of outlook it is hard to beat the Tararuas. mostly considerate, informative and personally very They are to Wellington hampers what oatmeal is to likeable man. He treated his staff as his extended Scottish people; dull, solid fare which gives them staple family, as Judith Homabrook says in the book, in notes virtues. It is no defence for the Tararuas to say that they of an interview Chris Maclean had with her. Judith had have their fine days. As with shrews, their nicenesses known JDP for seven years in the War History Branch are unpredictable." (p.8) before meeting up with him again when he came to Pascoe wrote well: lovely images, great use of National Archives, where she was already by then a words. These skills were complemented by his member of staff. His problems were shared with us, outstanding photography. Dunedin photographer but so, too, he took an interest in our problems and was Gary Blackman said that Pascoe's The Mountains The supportive of us - particularly the females. At one stage Bush and The Sea (Whitcombe & Tombs, 1950) "was the John Pascoe (JDP hereafter) had comparable problems first New Zealand book of photographs to capture the at home and at work; a staff member (not mentioned in feel of the country I knew from family holidays.. .Here the book) had similar psychological problems to one of were the unpretentious images that captured the unique the Pascoe daughters. He told us a lot about himself, qualities of New Zealand mountain country without his family, associates, opinions. How was this done? resort to pictorialist artifice." He said the book had ■ ■ influenced his own work (p.189). JDP's skill as an for more than one person to be interviewed. More space historian is more debatable. is given to JDP's job as secretary for the Historic Places Maclean's own style is also skilful, though quite Trust, where he served for a much shorter time. different from Pascoe's. An example: “Both John and In his excellent Introduction, Chris Maclean relates Paul worked tirelessly to objectify their lives, Paul in how Sara Pascoe, the second of the four daughters, had buildings, John in books. In the end, when the detail of intended to write a biography of her father. Maclean their lives has fallen away, that is what remains" (p.ll). says "I feared her account might be rather uncritical" Paul was JDP's twin brother, a Christchurch architect, and "I was also concerned because Sara seemed to focus younger than JDP by half an hour (p.16) or three hours almost entirely on her father as a mountaineer. Even (p.10 and elsewhere). I remember Paul Pascoe coming with my limited knowledge, I realised that.. .there was a to Wellington, as Chris Maclean relates, and how like lot more to John Pascoe.. .the archivist who had battled JDP Paul looked, even when they were in their fifties, to introduce new ideas, such as an oral history archive, and how even more similar they sounded on the to the conservative civil service of the 1960s?" telephone. That is rather ironic, since Sara had obtained consent The text gives social and historical background to to interview both Judith Homabrook and myself, and Pascoe's times and activities. Among the pieces is an did indeed interview Judith. Maclean interviewed interesting description of the Home Guard, in which Judith only, in regard to JDP's archives career. Far JDP served, and of photographic activities during worse than not interviewing me, was that he neither World War II. The social and political setting of the interviewed nor even mentioned Pamela Hall (nee period of the final chapter is particularly strong. Cocks). He quotes Ian Wards commenting on Judith The problem for Maclean was not that of having as JDP's "number two", but Pamela was "number two" insufficient Pascoe material, but rather finding to JDP for a longer period (six years compared with enough other sources to corroborate or refute Pascoe's Judith's four), and had worked at National Archives sometimes controversial assertions. But he has for nineteen years before she left to be married in late succeeded magnificently, as the extensive footnotes 1968. Maclean implies that Judith Homabrook was his prove, creating a balanced biography, certainly in the deputy from the beginning of JDP's time there. mountaineering segment , which describes Pascoe's Ian Wards's derogatory views of JDP are quoted, main claim to fame. A great deal of the text is in but no-one is quoted from outside of National Archives Pascoe's own words, i.e. he tells his own story, thanks with a different view as a balance to them. to his being a writer, and keeping carbon copies of all his John Daniels is quoted "who had known Pascoe at correspondence, which was typical of his meticulous the Historic Places Trust", but it would be more correct and orderly way of working. I heard some later trips to say "who had known Pascoe when he (Pascoe) was described by JDP himself; here, I learned about earlier at the Historic Places Trust", since Daniels did not work exploits. With the accompanying excellent maps and there until well after JDP's HPT period. photographs, I was given a real feeling of action and A few errors about accommodation for archives: the atmosphere. archives were originally held in the attic of the General Maclean does not dwell on the tragedy of JDP's Assembly Library, not the basement. Borthwick House early death; the untimely passing of a man with so premises certainly did not put archives "all under one much eagerly planned for his retirement: climbing in roof" (p.275); there were still the Parliament House the Patagonia region of South America. basements, the Aitken Street cellar, and many archives For archivists, however, this book is a big were still housed in the Lower Hutt and Auckland disappointment. It is not Chris Maclean's writing Records Centres, which were really designed for semi which is at fault, but his coverage of JDP's career. The current departmental records. The Nash Papers, which book is very strong on mountaineering and writing, and are mentioned, "...the remaining 8 tons was [were?] is liberally illustrated with JDP's own fine photographs, shifted to Archives in a single Saturday"(p.288). In fact, (the latter the subject of a current exhibition at the the Archives premises could not possibly accommodate Museum of Wellington City & Sea). It is also detailed so much, and JDP hired a floor of a building in Vivian on Pascoe family matters. Street (to which street National Archives was later to It has less to say on JDP's career. People will say move), which another government department had "Well, it's his climbing, his writing and his photos that recently vacated. Census records are mentioned, and he is known for. Who wants to know about a boring it is implied (p.290) that those of the 1966 Census were public service career?" not microfilmed, but they were. However, I understand Yet those parts of the text that describe JDP's various that some of the microfilm has deteriorated through posts in Internal Affairs show that it was not, for the poor storage. most part, boring. The last ten years of his life were Another administrative area that is mentioned spent as Chief Archivist at National Archives. Yet not in the book, but not in detail, was JDP's work on much more than three pages of text; a little over two the Geographic Board. How many place-names did in the inappropriately-named chapter "Administrative JDP have a hand in creating? One I know of was the Man" (it is mainly about family and holiday trips) and evocative "Windwhistle" in Canterbury. This could one in "When I'm sixty-five" are about his work there. have been an interesting line of enquiry, even if worth One would have expected more about this period, and only a few paragraphs at most. Other errors and typographical mistakes are few. the more interesting for that, e.g. one regarding Moana One I found was the misspelling of the name of a river Ngarimu VC, whose posthumous VC presentation at as 'Pelorous', though the Sound is correctly spelt in Ruatoria was photographed by JDP in his official both the text and the very excellent index. capacity of photographing New Zealand life during There's a description in a photo caption (p.68) of a the war (p.151). trip JDP made with climbing friends to an ice plateau The extensive captions are also highly informative; that had been discovered in 1911 by Teichelman in many historical publications they often lack accuracy and others. "Further exploration did not take place, or are too brief, but not here. A few photographs are however, until a new generation of young climbers took rather small for clarity, but the magnifying glass brings an interest in the area more than 20 years later." This them up, and also the detail of the maps. was shortly before JDP and his party went there in 1934. Some of the content is topical. In a year which saw Yet later the text speaks of "Teichelmann's [now with a spate of mountain fatalities in the early 1930s The two 'n's] exploration 10 years before." I suspect that Press (19 August 1933) said: "In the last few years better either the '10' is a typing error, or the '1911' is. roads and cheaper fares have brought the mountains One of JDP's numerous activities was radio within easy reach of many hundreds of young men and broadcasting. Included amongst his broadcasts were women who know nothing of the hazards of climbing". sessions for Broadcast to Schools. These were not a Then, legislation was introduced for the regulation 'children's session' as described on p.238, but were of climbing; it never became law. JDP was always heard by pupils in schools, as part of their curriculum against any restriction of people wishing to climb the learning. Another statement I have to take issue with mountains. In January 2004 there was the same call is that 'all places of employment closed for several for the same reason, at a time when the newspaper's weeks' in the summer, in 1960 (p.252). That is simply assertion is again true. not true. Public servants only got three weeks' annual The biographer does not attempt to evaluate leave when they were quite senior; most only had two John Pascoe or his writings, except through the weeks. It was common for offices to be open, with words of others, apart from some evaluation of his perhaps just a small staff, between Christmas and New mountaineering role. This is a descriptive biography, Year. They opened again on 2 January; that day was with much of its strength in the way its subject's own not a public holiday then. words bring him alive. JDP was a warm, generous The volume is beautifully designed and profusely character, who touched those he met and worked with; illustrated, with very informative insert boxes on this is amply portrayed in Maclean's biography. His historical or other information on people or places energy and enthusiasm seemed to keep him always mentioned in the text. This magazine-style device on the go; what Maclean calls "his unquenchable zest avoids huge endnotes or lengthy deviations in the main for life" (p.ll). body of writing. They are often digressive - and all
News Items
Fourteenth-century on the web and studied by anyone with an interest in history. The manuscript can be viewed at www.nls.uk/ manuscript reveals roots of auchinleck The manuscript ws produced in the 1330s. It English nationalism comprises a collection of mostly secular texts, expressing a burgeoning sense of 'Englishness'. It In a collaboration project involving the Centre for includes one of the earliest histories of England to be Editing Lives and Letters at Queen Mary [College, written in English, crusader narratives and romances University of London], the National Library of Scotland featuring English heroes. an the University of Sheffield, a digital facsimile edition Widely considered to be the most important of the Auchinleck* Manuscript has been reproduced collection of English secular texts before Chaucer, the online, accompanied by a transcripts and supported manuscript, which was produced in London, gives a by a search facility. While the volume itself can only unique insight into the language and literature that be viewed in special circumstances, due to its age Chaucer would have had access to during his formative and rarity, the project enables it to be freely viewed years in the capital. The Auchinleck Manuscript also reveals much about grounds for withholding information such as that the nature of fourteenth century popular culture. The prejudicial to the security interests of New Zealand or texts would have been read by ordinary men, women damaging to the economy by premature disclosure of and children living and working in London, and include financial policy, the decision to take that step involves basic moral instruction used by mothers to teach their the exercise of discretionary power. children, a social satire and a poem celebrating women. Does the case fall within one of the specified The manuscript is also the earliest example of book exceptions to public disclosure? What the bill proposes production in England, which was lay and commercial, will effectively protect highly relevant and potentially providing evidence of professional scribes collaborating damaging material from public scrutiny. Worse, the on what was primarily a commercial venture. relevant select committee will not even know the Dr Alison Wiggins of CELL, commented "This existence of the material. The officials will have made unique collaboration - between academics, archivists the prior decision to conceal any trace of its existence. and web experts - means that the Auchinleck Project Under the standing orders of Parliament the will preserve, present, and bring to life this key moment obligations of an official or a minister are clear. If they in the development of English language, literature and are giving evidence before a select committee they are popular culture." obliged to answer questions if they are relevant and the * The manuscript acquired the name "Auchinleck" committee presses for an answer. If they refuse, there from its first known owner, Alexander Boswell, Lord are [sic] a range of consequences, including critical Auchinleck (father of James Boswell, biographer media comment. of Samuel Johnson), who gave his collection to the Ministers also face written and oral questions in National Library of Scotland in 1744. Parliament. Standing orders require (subject to limited QUAD, (Alumni magazine of Queen Mary College, exceptions) answers to be given if they can be given University of London,) March 2004. consistently with the public interest. If the proposed legislation is enacted a new ground of non-answer may arise, both before select committees and possibly Bill boosts secrecy powers in the critical question and answer processes available to MPs. Legislation If the ground is established that information can be withheld for the reasons set out in the Official If the government had trumpeted the hallmark of Information Act, then a curious constitutional transparency and accountability in its political dealings, position will arise - the committee may have to resort the probability is that the UK assay offices would not to an appeal to the Ombudsman. So we would have approve its continued use of the mark. a Parliament dependent on the will and whim of In a proud boast reported in Hansard on the an officer of Parliament to overturn the decision to first reading of the Public Finance (State Sector withhold relevant information. Management) Bill, Finance Minister Michael Cullen This sacrifice of such a clear constitutional said it would "improve transparency and accountability convention and principle can never be justified. by strengthening the reporting to Parliament by Richard Worth (shadow minister for justice), departments and Crown entities on their intended National Business Review, 21 May 2004. and actual performance." Turgid though the legislation may be, it represents a review of the public management systems that govern National Library gets $24m the finances and management of the state sector. The bill prompted the Clerk of Parliament to identify some for digital repository of its provisions as a "Trojan horse" with significant THE Government has allocated $24 million over constitutional consequences. four years to help the National Library store digital The point is a simple one. There are two clauses in the documents such as material gathered from websites bill that if passed would enable departmental officials and CDs. National Library Minister Marian Hobbs says to hide information from parliamentary scrutiny if the the spending will let the library create a "trusted digital information could be the subject of objection under the repository". Ms Hobbs says the volume of material Official Information Act. To date, officials have not had produced by publishers in print form is still on the rise, that protection; nor should they. but electronic material now makes up about 93 per cent Departments and other agencies are obliged to co of "original output". operate with the House and select committees. That "An enormous amount of material stands to be relationship rests on constitutional grounds, not on lost if we don't protect it now," she says. "In 20 years' the Official Information Act. One assumes Dr Cullen time someone researching, for example, New Zealand's had read it but nevertheless chose to misrepresent its hosting of the 2003 America's Cup, will be able to see contents. entire websites about the topic, viewable just as they The Official Information Act is an important looked at the time." weapon in the armoury of keeping the executive and The National Library Act, passed last year, gave the the ministers honest. Although the legislation provides library controversial new powers to demand free CDs London. Tucked away at the end of Exhibition Road, from publishers and assistance gathering information up from the Natural History Museum and the V&A, is from any websites nominated by the minister. one of the world's largest collections of geographical "In the future CDs and DVDs will become obsolete, knowledge. or so physically damaged that we can't read the On June 8th, for the first time in our 174-year material stored on them," says Ms Hobbs. "Websites history, there will be full public access to study the are also continually changing. If they are not archived Society's heritage resources. This includes two million now, they'll be gone. Establishing a digital repository items - maps, photographs, artefacts, artwork, books will ensure that this information does not simply and documents - that tell the story of 500 years of disappear." geographical exploration and research. With support Ms Hobbs says the digital archive will contain from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the project is called electronic documents, unpublished material and 'Unlocking the Archives'. "targeted material" from the National Library's existing Who will use the archive? It might be for scholarship collections. and research, education or tracing family history. It Dominion Post, 31 May 2004. might be for researching a book or documentary, or helping to plan an expedition or travels both near and far. But the levels of access that will now be available Negligent midwife falsified will impress both habitues of the collections and those who have never been here before. records An online catalogue is also going to transform access to the collections. Over 210,000 catalogue cards AN AUCKLAND midwife has been disciplined have been painstakingly transferred from paper to an by the Nursing Council after being found guilty electronic system for the first time. This will enable of professional misconduct when she "seriously historians and other users anywhere in the world to compromised" the safety of a baby. search the heritage holdings for free via the internet. Fetuao Fretton, a registered general and obstetric The greatest strengths of the collections are in nurse and midwife, was found guilty on the grounds the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in the that she was negligent during a birth and later falsified so-called 'golden age of exploration' with which the records. Society was closely associated. It would be fair to In a written summary of the decision, the council say that the history of the Society itself is nothing less said Ms Fretton failed to provide safe or effective care than the history of British geographical exploration for her client because she failed to take action when during this period. There are so many classic images, the heart rate monitor showed the baby could be in maps and documents from this time that it is hard to distress. It said Ms Fretton then went on to falsify pick a favourite. The photograph by Frank Hurley of the mother's clinical notes by documenting that the Shackleton's Endurance crushed in the ice during the heart rate monitor readings had been reviewed by a 1914-16 Trans-Antarctic Expedition is one of the most specialist. frequently requested images. The image of Tenzing In making its finding, the council noted evidence Norgay and Edmund Hilary [sic] on the summit of that, while Ms Fretton was concerned about her client's Everest in 1953 has gained similar iconic status. progress, she did not recognise or understand the The Society also has an extensive collection of David significance of "prolonged tachycardia [irregular heart Livingstone manuscripts, maps and other material, rate] and high baseline foetal heart rate, she did not including his watercolour sketch of Victoria Falls in recognise or understand the significance of [it]...and 1860. Livingstone's travels in Africa culminated in his failed to fully inform the medical practitioner of the reaching the Victoria Falls on the Zambesi River. This seriousness of the situation or specifically request that sketch has become a symbol of the significance of the he attend the client." Society's holdings from the nineteenth-century legacy She admitted making the false entry in the patient's of British exploration. notes. But there are many other remarkable records that have not gained fame. We have probably the richest Fran Tyler, Dominion Post, 3 June 2004. photographic archive of old Arabia in the world, at least 3,600 images. This includes the first ever Unlocking the Archives photographs of the Holy City of Medina, taken by an Egyptian army officer, Colonel Muhammad Sadiq, Dr Rita Gardner, Director of the Royal Geographical in 1861. The Muslim officer also went on to take the Society (with The Institute of British Geographers) earliest known photographs of Mecca, the holiest city introduces a new initiative to make its holdings of Islam, in the early 1880s. Some of Sadiq's extremely accessible to all. rare photographs found their way into the RGS-IBG THE COLLECTIONS OF THE ROYAL archive. GEOGRAPHICAL Society (with The Institute of In the year that the RGS was founded, photography British Geographers) - to give it its full name - have was in the process of being bom. It is not surprising been described as one of the best kept secrets of that the photographic archive is so important, therefore. Photography rapidly became a vital tool of geography, the science by which the Victorians sought to document Submissions result in and study the world around them with 'objective' changes empirical authority. In the nineteenth century the Society was fortunate to Rangitikei District Council met on Tuesday to review have John Thompson, a famous English photographer, the final draft of the Council's Long Term Community as instructor of photography. Fellows were encouraged Plan [LTCCP] and changes made to the plan as a result to take pictures, and give the Society any photographs of submissions and the Council's considerations and they had taken or collected. In the 1860s and 70s a judgments on them. large number of photographs were donated that form the basis of the collection today. We now have around • Archives and Artifacts. half a million photographs and images. During the next ten years, management of the The collections include rich documentation of Council's archives and artifacts will be progressively cultures, societies and environments in areas that upgraded so that they are identified, preserved, known were, or became, parts of the British Empire. There and accessible and the Council complies with statutory has rarely been an occasion when we have not been requirements. The proposal to fund an ongoing able to find a picture of anywhere in the world that a programme was supported by District Historical visitor has requested. Societies. The Council confirmed project funding for What is fascinating is how throwing open the doors 2004/5, with a review for 2005/ 6. of the archive to a range of new audiences encourages Francesca Lowe, District Monitor [Rangitikei], 1 reinterpretations. For example, the Pepper Pot Club, July, 2004. a London-based Caribbean community group, have recently shown how a caption to a photograph by the colonial officer and explorer Harry Johnston was Out of the blockhouse and factually incorrect. (Johnston's photographs provide a rare record of everyday life in the Caribbean after into history slavery in the early twentieth century.) Education is a key part of the project. It was a WHEN Sir Douglas McLean received his knighthood pleasure to see a group of school children, visiting as in London in 1927, he engaged H Poole and Co, army part of the programme for the National Academy for and navy tailors of Saville Row, to ensure he was Gifted and Talented Youth, excited to learn how the appropriately attired. They did the prominent Hawke's oxygen tanks were used on the first ascent of Everest Bay farmer proud with a lavish jet black velvet and in 1953. As well as opportunities for activities like this silk suit, complete with three-quarter pants, [i.e. knee in the new buildings, there are also online learning breeches Ed.] waistcoat, jacket and hat. Nothing less resources to support all UK schools with teaching would have done for the son of Sir Donald McLean, one and learning in the geography, history and citizenship of 19th-century Hawke's Bay's most notable people. [In curriculum. fact, it was required court dress at the time Ed.] The opening up of the Society is symbolised both Sir Donald, who died in 1877, was a Hawke's Bay physically - in terms of easier access - and intellectually provincial superintendent, Napier MP and Native - by making it easier to use its resources - by a glass Affairs Minister. Sir Douglas was also a Napier MP. 'pavilion' on Exhibition Road, which is the new public No record exists of what Sir Douglas did with the gateway to the Society. This also houses a spacious suit after the ceremony, but he probably wore it only display area in which to show a programme of once before packing it in a metal case, with the sword he exhibitions. had worn at his side. And there it stayed, stored first in This is a world-class resource and we continue a block house on a Hawke's Bay farm and later - when to make acquisitions to maintain our international the block house was destroyed in the 1931 earthquake standing. For example, we recently obtained some - in the cellar. It was found a few years ago, with a host formerly classified Soviet maps of Mongolia. The secret of historically important documents and photographs, maps were classified within Russia until the 1990s. It by the property owner. will be interesting to see what future generations He moved it to a carport - where it would be make of the political distortions these Soviet maps today were it not for retired builder Alan Scarfe. Mr bear witness to. Scarfe, who is completing a masters thesis on the big When the Royal Geographical Society was founded Maraekakaho Station developed by Sir Donald in the under Royal Charter in 1830, it had a clear mission to 1860s, approached the property owner in March for promote 'that most important and entertaining branch anything to help his research. The result was a historical of knowledge - geography'. I think that the founding treasure trove that archivists believe will paint detailed fathers of the Society would be just as proud of this personal pictures of the McLean family. project as we are. "I was just speaking to people and ringing them, and this farmer mentioned he had some stuff outside there Dr Rita Gardner, History Today, June 2004. and would I like to have a look at it," said Mr Scarfe. "There were stacks and stacks of chests in this carport, about eight or ten of them. I opened this metal box and A piece of Dargaville's there was this court dress." The same property owner had a collection of rare family history returns newspapers from 1877 in near-perfect condition. Mr Scarfe contacted Hastings District and Napier City Bidding in an online auction on the site Trade Me has councils archivist Chris Johnson. resulted in the Dargaville Museum picking up a piece The artefacts - which include personal papers of Sir of town history and pictures of the town's founding Donald and Sir Douglas, 19th-century photographs and family. The museum bid and bought the photo album swords from the late 1700s - are being cared for by the of the Dargaville family, for $288.50 including courier Hawke's Bay Cultural Trust. Curator of archives Gail from Antiques International, Christchurch who had Pope said the most important find was the personal bought it from a houselot in Auckland. papers. Locals Sue Taylor and Ray Paxton both gave "We know a lot about Sir Donald's public life, but donations towards the cause. hardly anything about him privately, and these will give Half the photos are of the New Zealand-based us some insight into his mind," Ms Pope said. members of the Dargaville family and most of the The newspapers were also important, as they were others are of the Australian-based members. Included the only known copies of Hawke's Bay newspapers is a family wedding invitation and a birth certificate. from 1877, she said. The album joins the Dargaville family Bible and is to Cleaned and preserved items - including Sir go on display at the museum soon, says secretary/ Douglas' suit - can be viewed by arrangement at the administrator Pene McKenzie. Hawke's Bay Museum in Napier. "It's a valuable addition," she says. Museum Martin Kay, Dominion Post, 6 July 2004. president Don Elliott says he wants to encourage people to visit the museum to see the album. He says people will be able to examine the book under supervision. Archivist could not believe The museum was bidding against another bidder in the auction, also. his ears Anne-Marie de Bruin, Dargaville & Districts News, Hastings District and Napier City council archivist 7 July 2004. Chris Johnson said he could hardly believe what he was hearing when he was telephoned by historical researcher Allan Scarfe saying he had come across a New web-based system for collection of papers of early Parliamentarian Sir Donald Archives McLean at a family home in New Zealand's Hawke's Bay district. But he said his disbelief soon diminished A new web-based management system developed when he saw the collection with his own eyes. by the Archives Office of Tasmania will make it The "major" collection of Victorian material with easier for Tasmanians to access information about the some earlier material from at least 1820, along with a state's history. Tasmanian Archives Online has been rusty thin metal case which contained a black velvet designed to provide public access to information about court dress and a court sword, was legitimate as were the the state's archives without having to visit the archives Parliamentary papers and reports dating back to 1840. office personally. Most of the material was found in a roofed shelter "It means people can do most of their searching without walls, piled up in a collection of old trunks using their home computer and will only have to visit with Sir Donald McLean's name on them. Included the archives to view the records they have identified are photos of Sir Donald, who was bom in Scotland in online," Education Minister Paula Wriedt, whose 1820 and died in Hawke's Bay in 1877. portfolio takes in the Archives, said at the launch. Mr Johnson said the finding was significant for Information about the records of the last 200 years Hawke's Bay and New Zealand. The collection, of colonial, state and local government in Tasmania, as gifted to the council by a Hawke's Bay family who well as many non-government records of individuals wish to remain anonymous, is badly infected with and organisations, are now available online. silverfish and other insects and will not be open "The website replaces many thousands of pages for public viewing until it has been preserved. of the existing paper-based lists which could only Sir Donald was a prominent civil servant and politician previously be searched separately in a very time- in 19th century New Zealand. He was elected consuming exercise in the Archives Office search superintendent of Hawke's Bay province in 1863 and room," Ms Wriedt said. "The Archives Office of MP for Napier in 1866, which he held until his death. In Tasmania has approximately two and a half million 1869 he became Minister for Native Affairs - a portfolio physical items in its total holdings. To date 450,000 of he held for the rest of his life except for one brief period. these records have been entered into the new system. His term as Native Affairs Minister was notable for A further 25,000 items will be entered into the system achieving peace between Pakeha and Maori. in the next year." Australian Library News, 15 July 2004. Ms Wriedt said the Archives Office engaged local software developer StudioQ to work with it to The founding shareholders were Brooke McKenzie develop a product which compares favourably with and Roger Swolf. Top Cat builder Incat became a similar facilities being developed both nationally and shareholder in June, 1999. internationally. "We now have a New Zealand example of an Enron- "The Archives Office of Tasmania has a vital role like destruction of corporate information," commission to play in preserving Tasmania's history through general manager Geoff Thom said yesterday. The its holdings of traditional paper-based records and, commission's report said that in October or November increasingly, digital records as well as photographs, 2000, former Tranz Rail chief financial officer Mark posters, maps, architectural drawings, films, videos and Bloomer directed the destruction of e-mails and other sound recordings. The Archives act as a 'community documents containing references to Top Cat and Tranz memory' and knowledge base and help us to explain Rail's arrangement to charter a ferry, Hull 057, from the present by understanding the past. Tasmanian Incat. Archives Online will contribute to enhancing the rights Mr Bloomer, who now lives in Australia, was not of all citizens to have access to their government's and available for comment yesterday. the State's archives." Mr Thom said that "the fact of the matter is that we Australian Library News, 8 July 2004. will now never know the extent of that evidence and how it might or might not have been relevant to our investigation". PAUL HARRIS The commission concluded there was insufficient evidence Tranz Rail acted anti-competitively in breach FELLOWSHIPS of the Commerce Act and at the end of last month abandoned the investigation. Rotary recognition Tranz Rail's new owner, Toll Holdings, said the One of Rotary's top awards has been presented events happened before Toll took over late last year. to three Kumeu Rotary Club members. New club "We had no involvement, so there'll be no comment president Lance Williams, Graeme Woodfield and John from Toll," spokeswoman Sue Foley said. Birkbeck received the Paul Harris Fellowship Awards. The commission has now warned companies not All three are charter members at Kumeu. to destroy documents. Mr Thom said it would not Mr Williams was secretary for two years and is the hesitate to use search warrants when investigating club archivist. A former poultry farmer for 14 years, allegations of anti-competitive behaviour. Mr Thom Mr Williams is described as being a quiet achiever who did not think Tranz Rail's destruction of documents completed a huge amount of work for the club behind was illegal. The e-mails and documents related to the the scenes, with an eye for detail and organisation. charter deal and were destroyed while the commission was investigating the predatory pricing allegations. It Nor-West News [Auckland], 15 July 2004. later started investigating the charter arrangement. If a company destroyed documents the commission had asked for under the Commerce Act "there may be Tranz Rail action 'Enron- an issue there we could deal with" about misleading like' the commission, which was an offence. But the commission had not asked for the documents that Watchdog reveals e-mails destroyed were destroyed. TRANZ RAIL has admitted destroying e-mails and The report said Tranz Rail confirmed to the "possibly documents" related to a competition inquiry commission: "It is not known that documents/e- over rival fast ferry Top Cat. The revelation came mails were required to be deleted from the desktop yesterday in a Commerce Commission report about computers of Messrs Beard, Coom, Cockram and/or its investigation into whether Tranz Rail tried to put their personal assistants. So far as is known, e-mails Top Cat out of business in 1999 and 2000. and possibly documents were required to be deleted The commission called Tranz Rail's action "Enron- from those others mentioned. Mr Bloomer directed like destruction of corporate information" - referring this. The reason why he did this is unknown." Michael to the United States scandal in which documents were Beard was the managing director of Tranz Rail at the destroyed. It was investigating two main allegations: time. • Tranz Rail used predatory pricing to try to eliminate The report said: "In the circumstances, the Top Cat. commission is very concerned about the destruction • Tranz Rail entered into a deal with Incat, part of documents relating to the charter of Hull 057, owner of Top Cat, to charter a fast ferry from Incat especially given a comment from an informant that to on the condition Incat withdrew Top Cat from Cook his/her knowledge no similar document destructions Strait. had occurred within Tranz Rail in the previous several Started in May 1999, Top Cat offered a ferry service years." carrying passengers, commercial vehicles and trucks in Tranz Rail told the commission on March 6 last competition to Tranz Rail's ferries across Cook Strait. year: "It is not presently known which documents (etc) were deleted from the desktop computers of those mentioned. However, documents and e-mails (which Commission investigation into the company's alleged were temporally [sic] relevant) which have been deleted anti-competitive practices, the commission said from desktop computers are irretrievable." yesterday. Unnamed Tranz Rail employees ordered The commission executed a search warrant in March the destruction of emails, and possibly documents, in 2001 at Tranz Rail's Wellington offices and seized October and November of 2000. documents, but Tranz Rail challenged its warrant. The The commission revealed the "Enron-like" commission was not able to look at those documents document destruction for the first time yesterday as it and had to return them under orders from the Court closed a probe that failed to prove Tranz Rail abused of Appeal in October 2002. its market power against rival Top Cat ferry, which Top Cat struggled financially from the outset and on operated on the Cook Strait in 1999 and 2000. During October 31, 2000, Fast Cat Ferries announced Top Cat that probe, Tranz Rail challenged the use of a search was being withdrawn. The fast ferry service stopped warrant. on November 3. The Court of Appeal ruled in October 2002 that the On the same day, Tranz Rail announced it was warrant was invalid and that the documents seized chartering Hull 057 from Incat to start a service on could not be used. December 10. "Since receiving the Court of Appeal judgment, PAPER TRAIL the commission uncovered, and Tranz Rail confirmed, • May 12, 1999: Fast Cat Ferries launches Top Cat that one of its employees in October or November on Cook Strait route, competing with Tranz Rail's 2000 directed the destruction of emails and possibly Interisland Line. documents relating to ferry service negotiations that • End 1999: Tranz Rail starts cutting prices on were being investigated by the commission at the time," Interisland services. said commission general manager Geoff Thom. "We • May 2000: Tranz Rail cuts rates 25 per cent to $45 will now never know the extent of that evidence, and on sailings competing directly with Top Cat's how it might or might not have been relevant to our sailings. investigation." • Aug 2000: Australian ship builder and Top Cat Document destruction has become a potent issue owner Incat tells Fast Cat Ferries to withdraw Top for investigators since the Enron scandal in the United Cat from service. States. • Oct 2000: Tranz Rail agrees to lease fast ferry Hull 057 from Incat. Thom said the commission was committed to the • Nov 2000: Commerce Commission starts use of search warrants, particularly after Tranz Rail's investigating complaints of predatory pricing by admission that its employees destroyed emails. Tranz Rail. "This example of destruction will be used by the • Oct/Nov 2000: Tranz Rail chief financial officer Mark commission in the future when applying for warrants," Bloomer deletes e-mails. he said. "We now have a New Zealand example of an • Nov 3 2000: Top Cat ceases operating Cook Strait Enron-like destruction of corporate information." service. The commission eventually concluded that there • Dec 2000: Tranz Rail introduces Hull 057 on Cook was no evidence of below-cost pricing against the Top Strait service. Cat ferry, which competed against Tranz Rail's ferries. • Aug 2001: Fast Cat Ferries put into liquidation. Commission general counsel Peter Taylor said the Top • Mar 2001: Commerce Commission searches Tranz Cat ferry business suffered difficulties for all sorts of Rail offices. reasons. • Apr/May/June 2001: Tranz Rail challenges validity "We could find no apparent evidence of anything that of search warrant. was in the way of an anti-competitive arrangement." • Oct 2002: Court of Appeal rules search warrant Tranz Rail revealed the destruction in response invalid. to questions put to the company by the commission • June/July 2004: Commerce Commission abandons last year. Taylor said that even when the commission investigation, reveals destruction of e-mails by Mr learned of the document destruction, a lot of factors in Bloomer. the investigation pointed the other way. Source: Commerce Commission "On the information we could see, we could not see Marta Steeman and Bernard Hickey, Dominion Post, a contravention of the legislation." 16 July 2004. Tranz Rail has since been taken over by Toll Holdings of Australia. Since the Court of Appeal judgment, the commission Emails destroyed in rail has been careful, when applying for warrants, to establish the necessary grounds. Warrants executed inquest against Carter Holt Harvey saw mills have not been challenged by the company in the courts. REGULATION: Watchdog cites "Enron-like" Pam Graham, New Zealand Herald, 16 July 2004. behaviour [Your Editor has a copy of the Commission's Tranz Rail destroyed emails relating to a Commerce Summary Investigation Report on this matter. If you would like to see it, please write c/- NZSA, PO Box hard drive. The police electronic crimes laboratory 27-057, Marion Square, Wellington.] has offices in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin, with 11 "cyber-cops" combing computer records for evidence. Beware the MAIL TRAIL "We regularly recover e-mails from computers that people thought they had deleted," Maarten Kleintjes, FOR many e-mail users, the delete button has national manager of the laboratory says. He cites always seemed much safer than the send button. But one case where a Canadian gang member e-mailed a experts say the events of the past week show how New Zealand gang member to question his ability to dangerous deleting a sensitive e-mail can be in an age carry out a contract murder. "You'll read about it in when computer forensics specialists can hunt down tomorrow's paper," the gang member boasted in reply. most files and corporate watchdogs increasingly see The time stamp on the e-mail was used as evidence in e-mails as a juicy source of evidence. his conviction. In an unusually severe public attack, the Commerce The second lesson is that investigators of corporate Commission has accused Tranz Rail of deleting crime are increasingly using e-mail records to uncover sensitive e-mails almost four years ago - something a company's deepest thoughts about its competitors the competition watchdog says amounted to "Enron- and their own business practices. like" destruction of corporate information. NEW YORK Attorney General Eliot Spitzer hit the The Tranz Rail revelation set off a firestorm of legal motherlode when he uncovered e-mails from analysts and regulatory action that could include a Serious of United States investment banks and brokerages that Fraud Office investigation and the reopening of a betrayed how biased their research was. Commerce Commission probe into allegations that "It's a piece of shit," Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Tranz Rail used its dominant market position to drive Blodget e-mailed to a colleague when talking about fast ferry firm Top Cat out of business. 24/7 Media, an Internet company that Merrill Lynch Experts say e-mail users in a wide swathe of rated as a buy. Merrill Lynch eventually agreed to pay government and business organisations should think a fine of US200 million (NZ$312.5 million) in a global more than twice before hitting the delete button. Here's settlement with US regulators over biased research. why: Blodget was fined US$5 million and banned from First, e-mailers will almost certainly fail to cover Wall Street. their tracks when they delete an e-mail and often The latest twist is for prosecutors to use evidence of the deletions serve only to raise the suspicions of deletions to prove obstruction of justice. Credit Suisse investigators: why delete something when there is First Boston investment banker Frank Quattrone was nothing to hide? convicted in May this year after he reminded colleagues COMPUTER Forensics managing director Brian they needed to delete sensitive e-mails, days after Eardley-Wilmot specialises in recovering data from learning of an investigation into the bank's activities. corrupted or broken hard disks or storage tapes. He Closer to home, the Australian state of Victoria is says recovering deleted e-mails is never easy, but most considering changing its laws to make it a criminal can be recovered. E-mail files on Microsoft's popular offence for companies to destroy documents wanted Outlook programme are never actually deleted from in court hearings - even if they destroy them before a hard drive, Mr Eardley-Wilmot says. Only the the discovery process of gathering documents starts. references to the e-mail in the programme's folders This follows a case where British American Tobacco's are removed, leaving the core file untouched. Australian arm WD & HO Wills destroyed documents "In the trade, we call them tombstones. They're on research about the addictive nature of cigarettes and there forever," he says. "We've got data back that's six the strategies used to entice people to smoke. The or seven years old." documents were sought years later by a Melbourne Computer Forensics often searches for e-mails woman, Rolah McCabe, who had lung cancer and was and other documents that have been deleted from the suing the cigarette maker. computers of disgruntled staff, or those who have just Ms McCabe was awarded A$700,000 (NZ$777,800) been poached by competitors, for signs of corporate in damages by a jury in a potentially precedent-setting espionage. Experts say e-mails are a particularly rich ruling, but it was later overturned on appeal because vein for investigators to mine because their ease and the documents were destroyed before the court case speed lulls e-mailers into a false sense of security. and therefore WD & HO Wills was judged not to have "It's the informality of it that encourages people to obstructed justice. put their deepest thoughts down," Mr Eardley-Wilmot If such laws were adopted in New Zealand, it would says. mean that deleting apparently innocent e-mails - even Surprisingly, many people use e-mails to boast about before an inquiry showed they were not innocent their misdeeds. "The bad people love to gloat about - would amount to a criminal offence. their naughtiness and most bad people are generally [It all sounds like work for the working appraisal stupid people. E-mails are an absolute treasure trove of archivist to do. Ed.] wrong-doing and deleted e-mails are that too." Legal experts say it is safer for companies to simply Police investigators also go straight to a suspect's keep any documents that may be called for in any future inquiry, even if they are not needed for tax reasons or until 2034. are not official company documents. Among others that remain hidden from historians, Graeme Crombie, a senior associate at Minter researchers and journalists are Customs documents Ellison Rudd Watts and an expert in technology law, giving the names of shipping agents in 1941, the said anyone sending an e-mail should treat it as if it Ministry of Transport's appointment of members to were an official letter. the board of commissioners of Poole harbour in 1951 "It's just another way of doing business. You're and a Colonial Office discussion of the insignia of the actually doing something that has legal consequences," late Queen Sulote [sic] of Tonga in 1967. he says. "You have to ask: 'Am I happy for a binding A pre-D-Day visit by Winston Churchill to Supreme contract to be created by an informal e-mail using Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in 1944 is colloquial language that I just wouldn't do if I was detailed in a file too sensitive to be opened to historians, writing a letter?' It's a bit like sending a contract on as are a 1966 file on desalination work in Israel and a the back of a postcard." 40-year-old document on the sale of training aircraft DO NOT DELETE to Indonesia. • E-mails related directly to company accounts Maurice Frankel, the director of the Campaign for the required to comply with the Companies Act. Freedom of Information, said he was astonished by the • E-mails needed for tax records. These must be kept number of files still held back by the Government. for seven years to comply with tax laws. "It is a fantastic proportion and it is very valuable • E-mails including personal information to meet work to have disclosed it," he said. "The Government's privacy laws, unless received accidentally. reaction to this will show if it is true to its commitment Source: Minter Ellison Rudd Watts to get rid of the perception of secretiveness in Whitehall. There may be anodyne explanations for some of these Bernard Hickey, Dominion Post, 24 July 2004. decisions but, on the face of it, there is some explaining to be done. In particular, the existence of so many files Caution keeps the secret where you cannot even tell what is in them is seriously worrying because it represents a black hole into which state alive great parts of our history can fall." The analysis of the hidden records shows up 76,000 closed files belie open government numerous inconsistencies and reveals that bureaucrats pledge often turn to concealment as a first reaction despite the THE Government's passion for secrecy while it instructions contained in a Conservative White Paper talks about openness has been revealed by a Daily on openness as long ago as 1992 that it should be only Telegraph study that raises serious concerns about the a last resort. new Freedom of Information Act. The Government believes that the Freedom of It shows that more than 76,000 files which have Information Act will solve all those problems, though passed the normal 30 year closure period laid down critics such as Mr Frankel point to inherent weaknesses by the Public Record Act remain hidden on the Lord in the legislation. Chancellor's instructions. More than a third - 27,000 A spokesman for the Department for Constitutional - are seen as so sensitive by the Whitehall departments Affairs said: "The Freedom of Information Act will which produced them that even a description of their introduce a statutory right of access to records held by contents has been suppressed. The 76,000 files represent public authorities, including those held by the National almost 0.8 per cent of the 9.5 million documents Archives. It does contain exemptions and where it is preserved in the National Archives, a process that not in the public interest to release information it will began with the Domesday Book. be exempt from disclosure. Each request will have to be The secrecy surrounding the 27,000 anonymous considered on a case-by-case basis. The Act will place files threatens to undermine the effectiveness of the rights of access on a statutory footing and balance the Act when it is implemented in January as historians right to know with the public expectation of effective and researchers will not know which documents are government." worth applying to see. The continuing atmosphere of secrecy in Whitehall With the news that the Treasury has insisted on is a cause for concern among staff at the National search fees of up to £575 for Freedom of Information Archives, which was formerly the Public Record Act requests, it casts doubt on Labour's declared Office. commitment to open government. A member of the archives staff, who asked not to Descriptions of many of the 49,000 other closed files be identified, said: "We are as frustrated as anyone else suggest that their contents are often so harmless as to by the staggering number of files that remain secret, question the entire way in which the system of retention many with no explanation at all. Last year there was is administered. For example, a 1933 Home Office file a great hoo-hah because of the release of details of the details the application of a now-closed mental hospital atomic bomb project Blue Danube and I can understand in South Wales to name one of its wards after George people being surprised that you can see a drawing of V's eldest daughter. [That's curious; he only had one. how to make a nuclear weapon in the PRO. But when Ed.] Under the present system, that file will be closed you see the titles of some of the files that have not been released, it does leave you kicking the floor in But it is hard to understand the need to protect the frustration. We have to tell readers that such and such 1960 document "Vulnerability of V Bomber force", a file is unavailable but that we are at a loss to explain when the last Vulcan bomber was phased out soon why. It seems that in Whitehall the prevailing view is after the Falklands conflict, and why should a 1955 that you can't get a genie back in a bottle, so it is better document dealing with the "British naturalisation not to let it out at all." of Prince Ernst of Hanover" who died 17 years ago, Examples of inconsistency abound in the treatment damage the national interest? of public records. While MI5 has released many files of The story made headlines at the time because of a its wartime activities and the Ministry of Defence has court ruling that Prince Ernst August IV of Hanover, opened up the records on the work of secret agents of a German officer in the 1939-45 War, was British by the Special Operations Executive, more than 250 files virtue of being the great-great-great-great-great-great- about floodworks that were drawn up in the early 1950s great grandson of the Electress Sophie of Hanover, by the old Ministry of Agriculture, are apparently still granddaughter of James I of England and VI of considered too secret for release. Scotland. But his file was deemed so sensitive that it Efforts by successive governments to force was closed until 2058. bureaucrats to trawl through their files and release Another closed file is a Cabinet Office document closed documents seem to have met with limited called "Ways and Means of reinforcing British claim to success. Historians point out that those are the same sovereignty over Rockall", the piece of rock jutting into bureaucrats who will be dealing with the public on the Atlantic 300 miles west of Scotland that is Britain's Freedom of Information Act inquiries. most remote borderland. Ben Fenton, UK NEWS; The Weekly Telegraph, 21 A file dealing with the order of carriages for George July 2004. V's visit to Cardiff in 1927 is closed for 100 years and the Ministry of Defence retains a file on the 250th anniversary celebrations of the capture of Gibraltar Mystery and absurdity of despite the fact that we have just had the 300th anniversary. Consultations of the Working Party on what Whitehall doesn't want Dairy Products in 1971 are still retained, as are the Home Office files on disturbances in Britain dating revealed between 1916 and 1919. BRITAIN'S mountain of secret documents, a pile The ancient Customs files are merely the most that would stand taller them Nelson's Column, contains extreme example of why the system is so badly in need information that is genuinely dangerous, mysteriously of an overhaul. Some 397 of the retained documents obscure and just plain absurd. date to before the Second World War and 81 are pre- For the most extreme example of files retained 1900. beyond all imaginable use, credit must go to HM Perhaps the most obscure document retained like Customs and Excise, which has kept secret a file this belongs to the Department of the Environment, dating back to 1674. The papers, copies of letters patent Food and Rural Affairs. The file was crated by the granted by Charles II to two Customs inspectors in forerunner of the Ministry of Agriculture and rejoices Kent, are kept in one of 11 files dating from before the in the name of the "Wapentake of Ouse and Derwent 1914-18 War still retained by the department. Drainage Act, 1854." Others refer to the purchase of a revenue boat for Ben Fenton, UK NEWS; The Weekly Telegraph, 21 Customs in 1902 and the investigation of Customs July 2004. agents for undocumented offences, dated 1885. That these documents are still retained means they must have undergone the scrutiny of the Government's How to keep documents appointed watchdog, the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives. hidden for 100 years Asked twice to explain the reason for retaining the UNDER the current system, only one to two per cent files, Customs did not reply. of documents generated by government departments There are other files kept from public view where are selected for permanent preservation at The National it is easier to see the justification for caution on behalf Archives (TNA) under the Public Record Act 1958. The of civil servants; it is not difficult to understand why it rest are burned. might be necessary to hide a document called "Nuclear The majority of these files are kept at their warhead technical data", even if it was last opened in departments until, shortly before the 30th anniversary 1963. of their last being used, they are transferred to TNA It might well be a bad idea to release a file dating at Kew, south-west London, where they will be open back to 1972 called "Contingency planning for direct for public inspection after the expiry of the 30-year rule in Northern Ireland", especially when the Saville period. inquiry into the Bloody Sunday shootings of that year But there are two main exceptions. In the first is still sitting. case, known as "extended closures", some papers are subject to a document known as a Lord Chancellor's 200 years before being bought by a private collector in Instrument (LCI), which means that instead of 30 years, the 1980s. A Christie's spokeswoman says the log has they are not to be opened for 40, 50, 75 or even 100 never previously been up for public sale. years after use. "It is a very rare document, and very evocative. This is normally done for reasons of confidentiality Very few logs of this type have ended up in private affecting businesses or people or because of a perceived hands," she said. threat to national security. The voyage of the Marquis Cornwallis was Saving the blushes of previous governments or the particularly brutal even by the standards of the time, Royal Family is not supposed to be a sufficient reason when thousands of British and Irish prisoners were for the issue of an LCI, although it often seems to be shipped to Australia as punishment for sometimes used as such. very minor crimes. There are now at least 48,682 files under extended A month after leaving Cork, on the sough coast of closure, of which 11,811 are known to researchers as Ireland, the convicts - described by the then-governor "CDCDs" or "Closed Document, Closed Description", of New South Wales as "a desperate set of villains" which means that even the file title is secret. - rose up in mutiny. They hatched a plan in conjunction The second exception is that known as "retentions". with one of the ship's guards to seize the vessel and Section 3, sub section 4, of the Public Record Act allows take it to the newly-independent America. However, bureaucrats to apply for an LCI "if, in the opinion of the the plans were leaked and Captain Michael Hogan and person who is responsible for them, they are required his officers brutally quelled the rebellion by shooting for administrative purposes or ought to be retained for convicts as they tried to storm the deck. any other special reason". The informer was later strangled by the enraged There are 25,592 files retained under Section 3 (4), conspirators, and retribution for the mutiny leaders was 12,979 of them CDCDs. There are also 1,873 files listed severe. Forty-two of the male convicts were flogged, as "temporarily retained" by their departments, 420 of six females punished in other ways, and eight people them anonymous. were killed during the incident. Under the Act, which comes into full force on Jan Despite the violence those being transported, 1, 2005, the 30-year rule and the category of extended including 70 women, were by no means all hardened closure will be scrapped. All files will theoretically be criminals. They included political prisoners from open to anyone. But government departments will be Ireland, a 12-year-old boy convicted of highway able to refuse to release them if they believe that the robbery and women sentenced to transportation merely contents are covered by any one of 23 exemptions under for stealing gloves or sugar. the Act, including confidentiality, personal information Much of the early part of the log, covering sections and national security. of the outward voyage, has been lost. It is assumed to This decision can be appealed to the Information have been used in evidence at a Court of Enquiry held Commissioner, but if he orders the document to be in Sydney when the Marquis Cornwallis arrived. The opened, the secretary of state of each department can surviving pages cover events such as the landing of still veto that decision. the convicts at Sydney Cove along with cargo such as Matthew Jones, professor-elect of international dried fruit, two large cheeses and spare handcuffs, leg studies at Nottingham University, said: These figures irons and thumb screws. illustrate why it is so difficult to get at useful files in Later voyages are also documented. Captain Hogan, the archives and I think they also show that the first after being cleared of wrongdoing by the enquiry, took instinct of Whitehall is to preserve secrecy." his ship to India. Ben Fenton, UK NEWS; The Weekly Telegraph, 21 July 2004. ABC Online http://w\vw. abc.net.au. 11 A ugust 2004. Log documents convicts' mutinous passage Language analysts delve It is a tale of flogging, mutiny and death: Britain's into archives policy of transporting convicts to Australia was never Auckland University researchers are developing a a pleasant business. A newly-uncovered ship's log computer analysis to measure how the pronunciation recounts the full horror of the experience. of Maori language has been modified by English. The stained, linen-covered book recounts the voyage Catherine Watson, a lecturer from the university's of the Marquis Cornwallis, which set sail from Ireland electrical and computer engineering department, is in August 1795 carrying 244 prisoners to uncertain analysing Maori spoken 50 years ago and held by the new lives in Australia. The log is being sold by British Radio New Zealand sound archives, and recordings auction house Christie's next month, when it is expected of modem Maori. to fetch up to 150,000 pounds ($US275,000). "An analysis of the recordings will enable the team It stayed in the family of the ship's captain for almost to describe accurately the pronunciation of Maori speakers born in various regions in the North Island Mr Goff then issued a small portion of a report of the in the late 19th century - something that was previously meeting, which included the "lunchtime" comment but thought impossible," she said. "While changes in the little else. He has refused to release the note under the English language and many other languages have Official Information Act, and will also not show notes been recorded, no such study has been done analysing of the meeting he held with the same six senators, citing spoken Maori." the confidentiality of the Americans. PA/Watiganui Chronicle, 26 July 2004. National has accused the Government of politicising the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade by making the claims public to score political points. 'Gone by lunch' papers Ministry officials keep records of diplomatic meetings, but by convention they remain confidential. destroyed It is not thought they have been publicly issued before, POLITICS: National MP says he is stunned and the Herald understands it is also rare for original notes to be destroyed. Mr Belgrave said it was in the and suspicious public interest that MPs should be able to conduct free Foreign Affairs has destroyed its contentious notes and frank discussions with overseas politicians. of a meeting between Don Brash and six American "Disclosure is likely to deter future participants from senators in which an official said the National Party openness." Revealing what was said in such meetings leader promised to scrap the ban on nuclear-propelled would also deter MPs from telling the Government ships "by lunchtime". what was discussed. And in a blow to the Government's decision to make "This again I consider to be likely to prejudice the public the details of the normally secret diplomatic talks, public interest." He also said revealing material from Chief Ombudsman John Belgrave has provisionally meetings might prejudice future talks. ruled that revealing such conversations is not in New Who said what Zealand's best interests. Mr Belgrave told the Herald • January: National leader Don Brash meets six US the notes written by a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and senators. Nuclear policy is discussed. Trade official who sat in on the Brash meeting had been • May 3: Helen Clark accuses Dr Brash of privately destroyed. The only written record of the meeting now promising to scrap the nuclear ships ban. is a report prepared some time later. • May 4: Phil Goff cites the "gone by lunchtime" A Foreign Affairs spokesman said last night that memo in Parliament. It was a note written by a he could not confirm the notes had been destroyed, or Foreign Affairs official at the meeting, which would say when it happened. But he said destroying original usually have been kept secret. notes would not be unusual. • May 6: Dr Brash says he cannot recall the remark A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff and asks Mr Goff to issue the full memo. said it was up to the ministry to decide whether to • May 14: Mr Goff issues an edited version after two keep original notes. Mr Goff, who sparked a political of the senators question its accuracy. storm by revealing the "lunchtime" remark, quoted Helen Tunnah, New Zealand Herald, 27 July 2004. from the written report and not original notes. He had previously said he checked with the official who took the notes and the staffer stood by the accuracy of his report. Brash nuke notes destroyed Dr Brash described the loss of the original notes THE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has as "regrettable", but National's trade spokesman, confirmed it destroyed an official's handwritten notes Lockwood Smith, who was also at the meeting, said he that recorded National leader Don Brash as saying his was stunned and suspicious about the disappearance party would scrap the ban on nuclear-powered ships of the notes. "by lunchtime". The Herald has been seeking the original notes However, the ministry said this was not unusual as under the Official Information Act since a row erupted there was no need to retain the notes because a formal between Labour and National in May about what was record - in this case a cable - had been made of the said at the January meeting in Auckland. meeting involving Dr Brash. Formal communications Prime Minister Helen Clark started the scrap by were the "official record" of a meeting or a conversation, accusing Dr Brash of secretly promising to lift the the ministry said. These had to accurately capture the ban on nuclear ship visits, in contrast to what he was main points raised as reflected in the handwritten saying publicly. She was followed by Mr Goff, and two notes. other senior Cabinet ministers, in Parliament accusing "In diplomacy, formal records are universally Dr Brash of telling the US senators that if it was up to considered the authoritative information source," a him, the ban would be "gone by lunchtime, even". ministry spokesman said. Dr Brash said he could not recall saying it. That Earlier this year, Foreign Minister Phil Goff released was supported by two of the senators. One also told part of the official report on a meeting with United the Herald Dr Brash had made no promise to scrap the States senators in January. The report recorded Dr ban. Brash as saying the ban on nuclear ships would be gone "by lunchtime" if National were elected to government. Because of space limitations, the board contracts National has since pledged to retain the ban unless a Total Records Management to store and retrieve closed referendum supports scrapping it. medical files. Thousands of those files were damaged Mr Goff made the unusual move of releasing part when water got into Total Records Management's of the notes after two US senators said they could not facility in Seaview. They were frozen to prevent recall Dr Brash having made the remark. further deterioration. A special drying process could The notes said: "Dr Brash made the throw-away recover some of the records, Mr Frater said. But that comment: 'If the National Party was in government would cost up to $400,000 and would still leave many today, we would get rid of the nuclear propulsion files unreadable. section today - by lunchtime, even.'" The official The board was trying to work out which records had noted that the remark was made after National were the most important for the continuing care of MP Lockwood Smith explained to the US delegation patients. It was also working with police, the coroner National's study on the anti-nuclear legislation. Such and Health and Disability Commissioner to find out notes by officials are considered classified and are whether they needed any of the records, Mr Frater kept secret. It is rare for them to be used for political said. They would then be prioritised for any drying purposes. attempt. Mr Goff said yesterday the notes had been About 1000 of the records were dated from 1981 shredded in the normal way "long before there was a to 1985 and were due for destruction anyway. The controversy". The notes would have been shredded remainder were for patients not being treated at two or three days after the meeting. present. But there have already been instances in "They were destroyed before I had even read which requested records were not available because the report and months before the matter became they were among the damaged material. controversial. There is no connection." There was May board papers indicated the effect would be no need to keep the notes, as their contents had been greatest for mental health services, as many patients formally recorded. He said that Dr Brash had never could not give accurate details of medication, dosages denied the comments included in the notes and the and diagnosis and these should be checked against subsequent report. patient files. At that time, there had been 14 occasions NZPA/Dominion Post, 28 July 2004. on which mental health notes could not be retrieved. Hutt DHB and Total Records Management are still feuding over who should pay for the damage. Hutt [Historical recordings] believes Total Records Management was paid to look after the records and should take responsibility for the Reel to reel tape recordings of Louis ("Satchmo" damage and pay for the recovery. = satchel mouth) Armstrong, include a speech about Total Records Management director Murray Hobson his hobby of making private recordings, as well as said his company regretted the damage and was doing music. Five thousand photographs, printed music, everything it could to remedy the situation. Files from instruments, and 650 audio tapes were deposited in the several customers had been affected and the company Louis Armstrong Education Foundation. The collection had leased refrigerated containers to store the frozen was later given to Queen's College, New York, and the records. He was talking to insurers to see if they would archives are now open to the public. cover the damage. As far as he knew, the area where Carl Sagan wrote a message for the cosmos that the records were stored had never flooded before. went with Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 in 1977. It Nikki Macdonald, Dominion Post, 31 July 2004. consists o f a two-hour-long metal record, with pictures and sounds as well as speech. The sounds and pictures are o f the environment, nature, people, Weapon that killed and notable man-made structures such as the Mussolini 'found' Taj Mahal and Stonehenge. Messages are in 55 languages, and there is music of all types. ONE of the enduring mysteries surrounding the Sky’ Television’s History Channel, 31 July 2004. death of Benito Mussolini may have been resolved at the weekend when historians said that the sub- machinegun used to kill the fascist dictator had been $400,000 to dry out medical found preserved in Albania. II Duce and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were files captured near Lake Como in northern Italy in April 1945, while fleeing to Switzerland. But historians differ HUTT District Health Board is facing a bill of up to over whether they were shot by Italian partisans or by $400,000 to recover more than 10,000 stored files and British secret agents. 10,000 X-rays damaged in the February floods. The Giuseppe Vacca, head of the Gramsci Institute, a 632 boxes containing thousands of patient records left-wing scholarly foundation, said yesterday he had continued to be held in a frozen state after being no doubt that Mussolini had been executed by partisan damaged, general manager Warrick Frater said. leader Walter Audisio, codenamed "Colonel Valerio", files of "physical holdings" such as the Bill of Rights. who used a French-made 7.65 calibre MAS 38. The whereabouts of this near mystical weapon have always Security Concerns been a mystery. The new system will store data at several sites Professor Vacca said that after World Wat II the sub- around the country and will be accessible through a machinegun was given by Audisio to Enver Hoxha, the single Internet "front door." Security will be maintained communist leader of Albania. Shaban Sinani, head of using an elaborate schedule of user authorization levels, the Albanian state archive, said a recently declassified some of them based on the security clearances of users, letter signed by Audisio in November 1957 confirmed says Ken Thibodeau, Electronic Records Archives the identity of a gun in the National Historical Museum director. in Tirana. It would be displayed to the public. "The security of the new system is a huge concern The Times/Dominion Post, 3 August 2004. to us," Thibodeau says. "The Archives keeps a vast amount of private data, from trade secrets to national security information." How the project finalists National Archives Will Go propose safeguarding the data is key to winning the contract Thibodeau adds. He won't reveal anything Digital specific about the vendors' plans. Historic documents, presidential e-mail, The winning bids came from Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Maryland, and Harris of Melbourne, Florida. weapons systems and more are bound for Both companies will build a system over the next year massive database with some public access from which the Archives will choose a winner. To make WASHINGTON - The National Archives-home the decision, the Archives will work with many of the of the centuries-old parchment bearing the original government agencies, such as the Defense Department Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of and the Census Bureau, that have traditionally entrusted Rights-is getting an electronic filing system. their documents to the Archives. The Electronic Records Archives is scheduled to Mark S. Sullivan, Medill News Service, PC World, open by 2007, offering a huge Internet-enabled system www.pcworld.com/news, 4 August 2004. of databases that will store the growing torrent of electronic government documents. It is expected to be completed in 2011, after the last of seven stages of construction, encompassing several petabytes (a million Scientists bring back voices gigabytes) of data. from the past At a ceremony this week announcing the two finalists vying for the contract, a sign next to the TECHNOLOGY: A microscope more used to podium read: "Two nationally known companies will particle physics research is resurrecting old compete to design a system that will capture electronic recordings information, preserve it forever and make it accessible The voices of Queen Victoria, Florence Nightingale at any time, from any place." and Alfred Tennyson may be heard once again thanks All this work isn't just for posterity's sake. to new technology which could revive old sound recordings. Scientists in California have developed a Eclectic Collection technique which may soon enable them to play aged Aside from the nation's most hallowed historic recordings from wax and tin cylinders, which until now documents, the Archives also keeps such things as were too damaged to function. service records of military veterans, electronic cable files Dr Carl Haber and Vitaliy Fadeyev, of the Lawrence from the State Department, weapons systems designs, Berkeley National Laboratory, are using technology and documentation on homeland security issues. It is usually reserved for particle physics research to responsible for any kind of record created by any entity resurrect the lost voices from the mouldy and broken in the federal government. cylinders. And increasingly, these records are made of bits and So far they have managed to replay a 1912 bytes-like the two (total) e-mail messages President recording from a worn wax cylinder featuring a Bill Clinton wrote while in office: one a test and the barbershop quartet singing a tune named Just Before other responding to an e-mail sent to him from space the Battle, Mother. Dr Haber believes that before by Senator John Glenn. long the procedure could allow tens of thousands of "The fact is that much of the electronic information previously written-off cylinders to be heard. American of the late 20th and 21st centuries will be lost historians dream of hearing the voices of their colonial or unusable if the problems of saving electronic predecessors recalling the days of cowboys battling information over time aren't solved," said Reynolds Native Americans. A recording made by Germany's Cahoon, the Archives chief information officer, at the World War 1 leader Kaiser Wilhelm is also captured finalist announcement. The agency now uses standard on cylinder. magnetic tape to store the growing number of electronic The recovery technique uses a special microscope records. These records also include document imaging called the OGP SmartScope, to scan the grooves. Because nothing physically touches the cylinders, Collections of cylinders have been kept around the risk of damage is minimal. Once the cylinder is the world. One of the biggest is at the US Library of scanned, computer software is used to analyse the Congress in Washington. "We've lost as many cylinders groove shapes and interpret them into sound. to mould damage as to breakage. The mould literally "The computer can be programmed to recognise eats the wax," said Sam Brylawski, head of the library's dirt, scratches and debris and delete them from the recorded film section. The library is supporting the image," Dr Haber said. But he cautioned that the research. technique is still in its infancy. Resurrecting voices Mark Sage in New York, New Zealand Herald, 16 from an age passed [sic] is "possible" he said. August, 2004. "But as a scientist I'm shy to state more than has been (See separate story in this issue, entitled "New measured, or to be too speculative," he added. Zealand experience with wax cylinder sound Recording sound onto wax and tin cylinders was recordings") pioneered around 130 years ago by Thomas Edison, via phonographs.
In this Issue want revealed; How to keep documents hidden for 100 years; Log documents convicts' mutinous Public Records Bill introduced into Parliament. passage; Language analysts delve into archives; Rosemary Collier 'Gone by lunch' papers destroyed; Brash nuke Council News. notes destroyed; [Historical recordings]; $400,000 Survey of local authority archives. to dry out medical files; Weapon that killed Forthcoming events. Mussolini 'found'; National Archives Will Go The New Zealand Theatre Archive. Rosemary Digital; Scientists bring back voices from the past. Collier Local authority websites. Rosemary Collier Rosemary Collier, Robin Griffin, Michael Hodder, NRAM News. Kay Sanderson and Rosemary Jane Rawlings, David Retter, Frank Rogers, Collier Noelene Wevell. New Zealand experience with wax cylinder sound recordings. Mervyn McLean Book Review: John Pascoe, by Chris Maclean. About the Contributors Rosemary Collier News Items: Fourteenth-century manuscript Rosemary Collier is Editor of New Zealand reveals root of English nationalism; Bill boosts Archivist and a semi-retired archives consultant. secrecy powers; National Library gets $24 for Mervyn McLean was founder/head of the digital repository; Negligent midwife falsified Archive of Maori and Pacific Music, and Associate records; Unlocking the archives; Submissions Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of result in changes; Out of the blockhouse and into Auckland until his retirement in 1992. He recorded history; Archivist could not believe his ears; A traditional Maori music from extensively and has piece of Dargaville's family history returns; New published catalogues of recordings and numbers of web-based system for Archives; PAUL HARRIS books, including this year To Tatau Waka: In Search FELLOWSHIPS; Tranz Rail action 'Enron-like'; of Maori Music, telling the story of his field work. Emails destroyed in rail inquest; Beware the Kay Sanderson is NRAM Administrator and MAIL TRAIL; Caution keeps the secret state alive; Training Co-ordinator. Mystery and absurdity of what Whitehall doesn't
New Zealand Archivist (ISSN 0114-7676) is the quarterly journal of the New Zealand Society of Archivists Incorporated. It is published each year in: Autumn/March; Winter/June; Spring/September and Summer/ December. It is compiled by the Editor: Rosemary Collier. Copyright © NZSA and contributors, 1999. Views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the NZSA. The editorial address is PO Box 27-057, Wellington, NZ. All other correspondence to Secretary, NZSA, at the same address. Contributions for publications are invited. The journal is available through membership of the Society (personal $45.00 in NZ, $55.00 overseas, or institutional $100.00) or separately by subscription at the same rates. Overseas rates include airmail postage. All charges payable in New Zealand dollars only. NZ Archivist is listed with EBSCO Publishing Inc., who make content available to their subscribers.