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 journal at least once a year and other publications in furtherance of these objects. MEMBERSHIP Membership of the Association is open to any individual or institution interested in fostering the objects of the Association. Subscription rates are: Within New Zealand $45 (individuals) $75 (institutions) Two individuals living at the same joint address can take a joint membership $55; this entitles both to full voting rights at meetings, but only one copy of Archifacts. Overseas NZ$75 (individuals) NZ$95 (institutions) Applications to join the Association, membership renewals and correspondence on related matters should be addressed to: The Membership Secretary ARANZ PO Box 11-553 Manners Street Wellington New Zealand Application forms are available on the ARANZ home page: www.aranz.org.nz ARCHIFACTS Published by the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand October ARCHIFACTS Editor: Kevin Molloy Editorial Committee: Philippa Tucker John Roberts Reviews Editor: Stuart Strachan Archifacts is published twice-yearly, in April and October. Articles and correspondence should be addressed to the Editor at: PO Box 11-553 Wellington Or submitted electronically to the Archifacts Editor, via the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand (ARANZ) home page: www.aranz.org.nz. Intending contributors can obtain style guidelines at the above site. Printed by McKenzie Thornton Cooper Ltd, Wellington. © Copyright ARANZ 2005 ISSN 0303-7940 ii Contents Editorial iV Articles David Colquhoun "The pioneers are steadily passing to the great beyond": Early Collecting and the National Historical Collection 1 Gillian Oliver The Role of an Electronic Discussion List in Community Formation: A Case Study of NZRecords 19 Shaun McGuire The Finnsburgh Fragment and Provenance: A Recordkeeping Discussion 27 Classic Archifacts Stuart Strachan The Nash Estate 37 Gnashing of Teeth 41 Book Reviews Helen Laurenson Going Up, Going Down: the Rise and Fall of the Department Store (Susan Butterworth) 49 Deborah Love in Time of War: Letter Writing Montgomerie in the Second World War (Amy Coleman) 52 Len and Shelley Anthony Wilding. A Sporting Life Richardson Edmund Bohan The House of Reed 1907-1983- Great Days in New Zealand Publishing (Stuart Strachan) 54 Roberto Rabel New Zealand and the Vietnam War: Politics and Diplomacy (David Colquhoun) 58 Editorial A healthy journal relies on the continued input from members of the association, and it is a timely reminder to the membership that this is your journal and requires your support. After witnessing the success of the combined Archives and Records Association of New Zealand and Australian Society of Archivists conference in October, it is obvious that we have an able and articulate membership that is capable of showcasing its knowledge and expertise when called upon. The success of the Archives and Communities conference was an undoubted high-point on the archive and recordkeeping calendar for 2005 and all credit is due to the organising committee for making it the memorable and enlightening experience it was. This ability to pass on professional knowledge and experience to the wider archive and recordkeeping community in New Zealand is crucial if that community is to continue to grow. Equally, it is a sign of the profession's knowledge and maturity that it is able to tackle archive and recordkeeping issues, both nationally and internationally, on the conference floor, through the listserv and in print. Our organisation needs to be continually supplementing its body of knowledge, and safeguarding its "institutional memory," and this can only be achieved by the membership putting pen to paper, "exercising their digits," and articulating, for the membership, their ideas, challenges, research projects, and business goals. Archifacts is an open forum: it requires ideas, your ideas, to enable it to continue to present to its readership information that is professionally sound, useful, that makes us think, and that documents how far we have come. As you nibble on your Christmas and New Year fare, or down another glass over the coming weeks, perhaps ponder on the possibilities of that article you once started and hoped to see in print, that issue you wanted to debate, that story to tell, and make a resolution, "this year," to do it. The current number opens with a timely and long-awaited study by David Coluqhoun on the development of the National Historical Collection in New Zealand. Covering the genesis of our national collections and revealing many forgotten moments, the paper explores the vicissitudes of early collecting, the evolution of this country's cultural perceptions and values, and the persistence, by many individuals, that led to the building of a national collection of documents. Many of us now live and operate within a work environment where the listserv, as a professional tool, is ubiquitous. Gillian Oliver, founder iv of NZRecords, presents an intriguing insight into the development of this listserv, and its role as a discussion forum in forming, and informing, a community of practice in the archive and recordkeeping world in New Zealand. When is a record not a record? Perhaps never. Shaun McGuire, in a thoughtful rumination using the Finnsburgh Fragment as example, deconstructs our perceptions, both personal and professional, on content, context and provenance, with some surprising results. We end this issue with two extended pieces from our "Classic Archifacts" files which raise issues that are still relevant to the archive and recordkeeping community. Dating from February and September 1977 both editorial commentaries tackle the then thorny issue of the Nash estate papers, an historian on the loose in the stacks, and the intervention of a government agency in the business of the then National Archives. The editorial board wishes all our members the best over the Christmas and New Year, and, as always, welcomes feedback and letters. Kevin Molloy ν Archifacts vi "The pioneers are steadily passing to the great beyond": Early Collecting and the National Historical Collection David Colquhoun Alexander Turnbull Library The story of the National Historical Collection is a little known episode in New Zealand's archives history. It was started just before the First World War, and was eventually made redundant with the opening of the Alexander Turnbull Library in 1920 and the appointment of a Controller of Dominion Archives in 1926. Its main purpose was to build a collection of the private papers relating to early settlers, but its founders were also keen to improve the management of the Government's own archives. This article tells the story of the Collection.1 It begins with a brief look at early private and public collecting, before giving a more detailed account of the history of the Collection itself, and finishes with some concluding comments about the significance of the Collection in the wider history of New Zealand archives. While previous writers have looked at the history of the National Collection in the context of the history of Government archives,2 this paper is more concerned with the Collection's significance in the less researched story of New Zealand collecting archives. In the early years of colonisation there was no institutional interest in archives, nor was it a concern of libraries and museums that were established in the new towns. New Zealand was a raw new colony, a place to start a new life. History to most new colonists meant the history of home, back there. Of course numerous individuals, families and organisations did preserve records of their own activities. The many settler and Maori letters, journals, whakápapa books, photographs and other records that have eventually found their way into our collecting archives today is evidence of that. A registrar of records was appointed by the new Government in 1840,3 and the Colonial Secretary's Department did take some responsibility for some 1 Archifacts records of defunct agencies through the nineteenth century. However, there was little early settler concern for the documentary evidence of New Zealand history. But attention to such collecting did slowly develop. There were two strands; one was the emerging interest in settler history, the other an interest in Maori ethnography. The same people, from the small circle of New Zealand intellectuals, were often involved in both activities, but ethnographic collecting was seen as scientific, and carried out separately from activities around the preservation of settler history. Initially this attention to the collecting of Maori history and traditions arose out of the interest of missionaries, frontier officials and others to learn as much as possible about Maori so as better to convert, or otherwise influence them. The most notable example is the collection of Maori documents compiled by Sir George Grey, particularly those provided by the Arawa leader Wiremu Maihi Te Rangikaheke.4 It became a scholarly fascination for many, however, influenced increasingly by nineteenth century ideas of ethnology and ethnography. The Polynesian Society and, later, the Board of Maori Ethnological Research, built up manuscript collections as part of their activities.