ARCHIFACT S Published by the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand October ARCHIFACT S Editor: Susan Skudder Editorial Committee: David Green Michael Hoare Gavin McLean Bruce Ralston Reviews Editor: David Green Archifacts is published twice-yearly, in April and October. Articles and correspondence should be addressed to the Editor at: National Archives P.O. Box J2050 Wellington Intending contributors should obtain a style sheet from the Editor. Printed by Otago University Printing Department Copyright ARANZ 1993 ISSN 0303-7940 Contents Editoria l Business and Archives Brad Patterson Board Rooms and Balance Sheets 1 S.R. Strachan Business Archives in New Zealand 5 Joanna Newman Precedents and Public Relations 21 PR. Miller From Minute BooL· to Ledgers 27 Brian Easton Why we Need Business Histories 32 Gavin McLean Commissioned Business Histories — Pitfalls and Prospects . 44 M.M. Roche Business History in Wider Context: a View From Historical Geography 49 S.R.H. Jones The Role of the Centre For Business History 61 Tomorrow' s History Ellen Ellis Preserving Ourstory 65 Jane Tucker Ôá Keita I Mahi AilWhat Katy Did 69 Belinda Battley Suffrage Year in the North 72 Dorothy Page Suffrage Year in the South 77 Book Reviews 79 Accessions 100 Archives and Records Association of New Zealand Inc. P.O. Box 11-553, Manners Street, Wellington, New Zealand. Patron Her Excellency Dame Catherine Tizard, GCMG, DBE, Governor-General of New Zealand Council President Brad Patterson 20 Khyber Road, Seatoun, Wellington. Vice Peter Miller 114 Evans Street, Presidents Opoho, Dunedin. Sheryl Morgan Massey University Library, Private Bag, Palmerston North. Secretary Thérèse Angelo Royal NZ Airforce Museum, RNZAF Base Wigram, Private Bag, Christchurch. Treasurer Jane Tucker 53 Moana Road, Highbury, Wellington. Editor Susan Skudder National Archives, P.O. Box 12050, Wellington. Membership Thérèse Angelo Royal NZ Airforce Museum, Secretary RNZAF Base Wigram, Private Bag, Christchurch. Members Philippa Fogarty National Archives, P.O. Box 12050, Wellington. Jan Gow 18 Modena Crescent, Auckland 5. Michael Hoare 77 Spinaker Drive, Whitby, Wellington. Margaret Morgan 46 Skibo Street, Kew, Dunedin. Pauline Porteous 144A Upland Road, Kelburn, Wellington. Mark Stoddart 4/1 John Davis Road, Mt Roskill, Auckland. Andrew Thompson Rotorua District Council, Private Bag, Rotorua. Editoria l Welcome to the first issue of Archifacts produced by your new Wellington-based editorial team. After thtee years of sterling work, the Auckland team have finally said — enough! We have committed ourselves to producing three issues, after which we will review our energy levels. We are: Susan Skudder (National Archives), Michael Hoare (Police Centennial Museum), David Green (Historical Branch, Internal Affairs), Bruce Ralston (Alexander TurnbuU Library) and Gavin McLean (Historic Places Trust). You will hardly have failed to notice that we have made some changes to the format of Archifacts. As well as introducing a new look for the cover, we have also returned the size to a standard paper cut. The content may look different as well. However, the absence of 'News and Notes' is only a temporary consequence of the thematic nature of this issue. In 1991 a symposium on business archives and business history was held at the Stout Research Centre in Wellington. It was hoped that the proceedings of this conference could be published, but lack of finance precluded this. Archifacts now publishes a selection of papers from the symposium. A generous donation of $500 from Fletcher Challenge has enabled us to exceed our normal page limit. We did not, however, want to overwhelm either our new printer or our readers, and so have omitted the 'News and Notes' section this time. It will return in the April 1994 issue. Any contributions for this section are welcomed, as often news about archives in regional newspapers and other publications may not come to our attention in Wellington. Accessions lists from the Turnbull Library and National Archives, Wellington, only appear in this issue. Archifacts has always relied on the editor of the National Register of Archives and Manuscripts to send out requests for accessions lists, and NRAM, sadly, is no more. By the time we knew that we would have to do the mailout ourselves, and obtained a copy of the mailing list, we felt that it was too close to publication to ask contributors to prepare their lists. You will be hearing from us in plenty of time for the April 1994 issue. The editorial team regrets that the publication of NRAM is to cease, and that the National Library did not consult the archival community in this matter. Finally, far be it from Archifacts to overlook Women's Suffrage Year. A lot of work has been done this year in researching, uncovering, displaying and otherwise publicising the wealth of records relating to women held in repositories of various kinds throughout the country. We publish here some shorter articles that look at the work done in a few areas. We hope to bring you more discussion of what suffrage year has meant for archival collections and vice versa in the future. ARCHIVE S OF WOMEN' S ORGANISATION S A register of collections held at New Zealand archives institutions, libraries, museums and historical societies. The register is a special edition of the National Register of Archives and Manuscripts, published by the Alexander Turnbul l Librar y in association with the Preserving Ourstory project. It contains 325 entries from 57 institutions. Price: $27.00. Available by post from: Subscriptions Officer Publications Unit National Librar y of New Zealand Ñ O Box 1467 WELLINGTO N Board Rooms and Balance Sheets: Recording New Zealand's Business Past Brad Patterson Wellington A quickening of interest in the study of New Zealand business history has been apparent since the early 1980s. This has been evidenced by the publication of an increasing number of enterprise studies, by the appearance of commercial biographies, by the floating of the first tertiary courses in business history. Yet, somewhat incongruously, there are strong grounds for believing that, relatively unprotected by legislation, many bodies of business records, the raw materials upon which future histories should be based, are at risk. It was concern about the related issues of the future preservation of business archives and the best ways in which they might be utilised by researchers that motivated ARANZ, in association with the Stout Research Centre, to organise a two-day symposium at Victoria University on the weekend of 29-30 June 1991. It was never intended that the gathering would throw up conclusive answers to long-standing problems. For that the time was too short, the questions too wide- ranging. But- it was hoped that by bringing custodians and users together to discuss mutual problems a foundation for future dialogue might be provided. With over 60 attending, that objective, at least, was met. It was a further promising sign that this was one of those rare occasions where littl e coercion was necessary to secure speakers; one, in fact, where more papers were offered than could eventually be accommodated. In the two years since the symposium was held there has been surprising interest in the proceedings. Repeated requests for copies of the papers delivered have been received. In response, Council initially intended that a special volume, one incorporating all the papers delivered, be published. Despite strenuous efforts, however, this eventually proved impossible. At its May 1993 meeting Council therefore resolved that the possibility of a thematic issue of Archifacts be explored with the incoming 1993-94 Editorial Board. Happily, this 1 Archifacts was a Suggestion with which the Board readily concurred. The generosity of the Fletcher Challenge Corporation, which made a grant to assist with publication costs, has enabled the page length of this issue to be extended. Less happily, it has not been possible to present more than a selection of the papers. In several instances, because of length or format, it has been deemed more appropriate for papers to be published separately. In others, given the passage of time, the whole or part of papers delivered has already appeared elsewhere. In yet others again, papers promised have failed to materialise. It is nevertheless believed that those finally selected impart some flavour of what took place. It is futther believed that points made in 1991 are no less valid two years down the track. The first day of the symposium, devoted to discussion of the state of business archives, opened with two keynote addresses: the first by Stuart Strachan (Hocken Library), surveying the historical develop- ment of collections of business archives in New Zealand; the second by Michael Saclier (N.G. Butlin Archives, Australian National University), outlining parallel efforts in business archives preservation in Australia. What emerged was that, while the Australians had had a more vigorous start, progress had been hampered by regional antagonisms and competitions between collecting institutions. There was agreement that in both countries restructuring and corporate retrenchment from the mid-1980s had placed many accumulations of business records at great risk. With this in mind, the focus moved from the general to the particular, with custodians discussing the place of business records in specific repositories. Joanna Newman (Fletcher Challenge) made the case for retention of archives within originating organisations, demonstrating how archives operations could be combined with records management. Peter Miller (Hocken Library) and David Retter (Alexander Turnbull Library) then addressed the importance accorded business papers in their respective institutions. While specialist research libraries recognised the value of the documents, the ability to collect vigorously was being curbed by competing priorities. The limited involvement of university libraries was stressed by Sheryl Morgan (Massey University). A survey revealed that only Massey and Otago held significant collections, and these more by serendipity than deliberate policy.