1991 Archifacts

OBJECTS OF THE ASSOCIATION The objects of the Association shall be: i. To foster the care, preservation, and proper use of archives and records, both public and private, and their effective administration. ii. To arouse public awareness of the importance of records and archives and in all matters affecting their preservation and use, and to co-operate or affiliate with any other bodies in New Zealand or elsewhere with like objects. iii . To promote the training of archivists, records keepers, curators, librarians and others by the dissemination of specialised knowledge and by encouraging the provision of adequate training in the administration and conservation of archives and records. iv. To encourage research into problems connected with the use, administration and conservation of archives and records and to promote the publication of the results of this research. v. To promote the standing of archives institutions. vi. To advise and support the establishment of archives services throughout New Zealand. vii. To publish a bulletin at least once a year and other publications in furtherance of these objects. ARCHIFACT S Published by the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand October 1991 ARCHIFACTS Editor: Jane McRae. Editorial Committee: Stephen Innés Bruce Symondson Jane Wild. Reviews Editor: David Green. Archifacts is published twice yearly in April and October. Articles and correspondence should be addressed to the Editor at: Te Hukatai, Maori Studies Library, University of Auckland, Private Bag, Auckland. Intending contributors should obtain a style sheet from the Editor and are urged to provide their texts on a 5V4" DOS formatted disk or Apple Macintosh diskette, in Word, Word Perfect, Macwrite or an ASCII text file. Printed by Uniprint Copyright ARANZ 1991 ISSN 0303-7940 ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ASSOCIATION OF NEW ZEALAND INC. P.O. Box 11-553, Manners Street, Wellington, N.Z. PATRON Her Excellency Dame Catherine Tizard, GCMG, DBE, Governor-General of New Zealand COUNCIL PRESIDENT Bruce Symondson Auckland City Council, Private Bag, Wellesley Street, Auckland. VICE Massey University Library, Private Bag, PRESIDENTS Sheryl Morgan Palmerston North. 20 Khyber Rd., Seatoun, Brad Patterson Wellington. Royal NZ Airforce Museum, SECRETARY Thérèse Dowman RNZAF Base Wigram, Private Bag, Christchurch. TREASURER Jan Gow P.O. Box 25 025, Auckland 5. EDITOR Jane McRae Maori Studies Library, Auckland University Library, Private Bag, Auckland. MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY Thérèse Dowman Royal NZ Airforce! Museum, RNZAF Base Wigram, Private Bag, Christchurch MEMBERS Mary Donald Taranaki Museum, Box 315, New Plymouth. Donjamieson Medical Library, University of Otago, P.O. Box 913, Dunedin. Rachel Lilburn 59 Hankey St., Mt Cook, Wellington. Pauline Porteous 144A Upland Rd., Kelburn, Wellington Bruce Ralston P.O. Box 5063, Wellington. David Thomson History Department Massey University, Palmerston North Jane Tucker 53 Moana Rd., Kelburn, Wellington CONTENTS PETER OETTLI TWO Early Maori Travellers in Germany 1 PETER HUGHES The Papers of Augustus Hamilton in the Auckland Museum Library 12 MEGAN HUTCHING Auckland Public Library's John A. Lee Papers 28 ALA N SMITH The Acton Report ~ Right Message, Wrong Timing? 31 RUTH STODDART The Local Government Archives Schedule 38 BRUCE BUCHANAN Records Management & Administrative Change at the Thames-Coromandel District Council 43 COLIN KROPACH Technology, its Potential Use and Related Applications 47 TREVOR CHEER Microfilm: The Present and the Future 55 Shorter Article s SIMON VILL E Boardrooms and Balance Sheets: Recording New Zealand's Business Past 61 THERESA GRAHAM Look Ma! NOHANZ Celebrates the Lives of Women 63 REBECCA HAYTER Northern Archives & Records Trust Board 1991 Historic Records Search 66 BILL ANDERSON The Role of Records Management 67 BRUCE RUSSELL Presbyterian Church Archives in New Zealand 69 Tomorrow' s History PETER DUREY 72 J. E. TRAUE 74 JANE WILD 77 News & Notes 79 Books and Book Reviews 84 Accessions 100 Editoria l Conflict or Co-operation? This issue of Archifacts highlights an inherent tension in the world of archives - the conflict of interest between the custodians of archives and their users. What is interesting is the way in which potential conflict is handled, in the one case by challenge and debate, and in the other by integration and consultation. The first instance is the continuing debate surrounding James McNeish's article on the threat posed by the literary manuscript trade to our cultural heritage. Appearing in this issue are the responses of two custodians (we eagerly await more!) who rather than react to the claim McNeish has made, use his challenge in a positive way to describe the breadth of their collecting activities and the problems faced by their institutions. At the same time, they come up with some real solutions to the problem including tax-deductability for donations and the worthy proposal that an offshoot from the Literary Fund could finance acquisi- tions of manuscripts. Thus although James McNeish has challenged the custodial community, in many respects we have him to thank for alerting us to a true area of concern and for stimulating an appraisal of our activities. So often in the past institutions have been inclined, perhaps because of low morale, to accept their poor funding levels and backlogs as inevitable. Sometimes the outsider looking in can provide a fresh and impartial analysis. In contrast to this adversarial process it is pleasing to note in the same issue an example of co-operation and mutual support in the report on the 1991 Stout Research Centre symposium on business history. The symposium had as speakers both archivists and researchers, including Simon Vill e who was the founding chairperson of the University of Auckland's Centre for Business History (regrettably Simon has now moved to the Australian National University). The Centre should be applauded for its early recognition of the need to foster co-operation between custodians and users, as it has included an archivist on its Policy Committee and, more recently, added a Dunedin base to its network which includes Stuart Strachan - surely a pioneer in the field of New Zealand business archives. In addition, it has been keen to consult with librarians and archivists in a number of its activities. Such an approach will facilitate communication between the custodians of archives and their users, so that although their roles may have potential for conflict they are more likely to work within an environment of mutual respect and understanding. Stephen Innes Two Early Maori Travellers in Germany Peter Oettli University of Waikato While the European sealing and whaling activities on the New Zealand coast in the late eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century led to an active and growing trade relationship between Maori and Europeans and also provided a measure of local employment in the European enterprises,1 the number of Maori who travelled beyond Honolulu, Sydney or Hobart as crew on whaling ships was probably small.2 Nevertheless the few whose names are recorded, among them the chiefs Ruatara, Hongi Hika, Waikato, Te Pehi Kupe, all of whom visited London before 1830, bear testimony to the adventurous spirit of the early Maori sailors. They were followed later by other visitors to Europe, such as young boys sent by missionaries to be educated in England, and, in the case of German speaking Europe, by the two chiefs Toetoe and Rerèhau, who were taken to Vienna by the members of the Austrian 'Novara' expedition in 1858/60.s Ferdinand Hochstetter, a member of the expedition who describes their visit to Vienna,4 cannot have been fully informed however, when he states that this was, to his knowledge, the first visit of Maori to 'Germany' (by which he means German speaking Europe). The overseas destinations of those Maori whalers who went beyond Honolulu or Australia must have been the home ports of the whaling ships on which they served. In the twenties and thirties of the nineteenth century, these were mainly British and American, with some French, but in the late thirties and early forties they were joined by North German ships from the port of Bremen. The traditional fishing grounds for the Bremen fleet had been the coast of Greenland, but by 1836 the import of American whale oil from the South Seas had passed the production from the Arctic,5 and Bremen shipowners and merchants were looking to this new field for increased profits. The first Bremen whaler, the 800 ton brig Virginia, was sent to New Zealand by her owners, Gloystein and Gevekoht, in 1836 and she departed from Bremen on July 27 of that year.6 She sailed to New Zealand via the Cape of Good Hope and Fremantle. The Three Kings were sighted on March 27,1837, and the ship cruised on and off the coast of both main islands of New Zealand, looking for whales, until April 18, when she entered Cloudy Bay. After some coastal fishing she returned to sea on October 7, and spent the summer offshore, on the East Coast of New Zealand, between latitudes 36° and 46°. On March 17,1838, she returned to the northern coast of New Zealand, but had to tack for a whole fortnight in order to enter the Bay of Islands. She finally suc- ceeded on April 1. There the crew of the Virginia found eight other whalers, two English, two French and four American. The stop at the Bay of Islands was for taking on provisions, caulking and re-fitting before setting out on the voyage home. The Virginia set sail for Cape Horn on April 23, 1838, and the Bremer Zeitung of August 17, 1838 reports: Bremerhaven, 15 August 1838. On the River Weser, arrived with destination Bremen, Virginia, Captain J. D. Krudop, from New Zealand with 55 fish, full ship.7 On board, apart from the valuable cargo of2,800 tons of whale oil, and 20,000 pounds ofbaleen, were two Maori sailors who had joined the ship in New Zealand and had decided to return with her to Bremen.

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