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ARCHIFACTS Otago Sesquicentenary Issue

Published by the

Archives

and Records

Association

of New Zealand

98

ARCHIFACTS

Editor: Brad Patterson

Editorial Committee: David Green Tiena Jordan Gavin McLean Brad Patterson John Roberts

Reviews Editor: David Green

Archifacts is published twice-yearly, in April and October.

Articles and correspondence should be addressed to the Editor at:

PO Box 11-553 Wellington

Intending contributors should obtain a style sheet from the Editorial Committee.

Printed by McKenzie Thornton Cooper Ltd, Wellington.

©Copyright ARANZ 1998

ISSN 0303-7940

Contents

Editorial κ

Articles

Yvonne Wilkie One out of the Box: Papers of the Otago Religious and Educational Uses Trust 1

Leeann Williams After the Gold Rush: The Archives of the Robert Harold Lawrence Warden's Court, 1861-1949 18 Peter Miller Kevin Molloy

Bruce McCulloch The Evolution of a Community Archive: The Story of the North Otago Museum Archive 43

Hamish James A Database for all Seasons: Building the Caversham Database for Historical Research 57

Reviews

Jane Thomson (ed) Southern People: A Dictionary of Otago -Southland Biography (Brad Patterson) 72

Sean G. Brosnahan To Fame Undying: The Otago Settlers' Association and its Museum 1898-1998 (Gavin McLean) 76

Malcolm McKinnon New Zealand Historical Atlas: Ko Papatuanuku e Takoto Nei (Jim McAloon) 79

Editorial

Pride in the South

This issue of Archifacts marks the 150 t h anniversary of organized European, primarily Scots, settlement at Dunedin in 1848 - overlooking, of course, the 40 or so settlers who came with Johnny Jones on the Magnet to Waikouaiti in 1840. Otago's history since has been rich, with one extraordinary period of great prosperity and national pre-eminence, the 50 or so years from the early 1860s to the First World War. This has left the province well-endowed in its architecture and in its institutions, not least its archives. These are remarkably complete and varied, Dunedin being blessed with no fewer than five major archives repositories - the Hocken Library, the Dunedin Office of National Archives, the Otago Settlers' Museum, the Dunedin City Council Archives, and the Presbyterian Church Archives at Knox College. Further afield are the North Otago Museum Archives in Oamaru and the Lakes District Museum in Arrowtown.

Dunedin was also the home of Dr T. M. Hocken, who, it has been credibly argued, was New Zealand's first archivist, and, by a short whisker over Wellington, of the first regional branch of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand. It was in Dunedin, too, that the first issues of Archifacts were produced. This wealth of archives and of archives activity is well paralleled in the strength of the region's historical writings, which in extent and depth are the equal of any other area in New Zealand. Witness, for example, the publishing achievements of Otago Heritage Books.

The contents of this issue are accordingly unashamedly Otago and retrospective in their ambit. Yvonne Wilkie's article goes to the very roots of the New Edinburgh settlement, showing that even now discoveries on fundamental issues can still be made. The National Archives Dunedin Office's contribution on the archives of the Lawrence Warden's Court touches on the single most influential movement in Otago's history, the goldrushes, and exemplifies yet again the importance of administrative history to the understanding of archival sources. Bruce McCulloch, in his frankly subjective exposition, illustrates the tribulations of getting an archive off the ground in a small centre, and the sensitivities of staking out a new archives claim. Finally, Hamish James in describing the Caversham Database reveals complex issues of source

utilisation in the construction of virtually a second level archive as an automated database, of a kind rarely considered by archivists.

This Otago repast is completed with reviews of Southern People, a remarkable regional project given the severe constraints of time and resources; of a history of the Otago Setders' Museum, the story of which is at the heart of the Scots Otago experience; and of the New Zealand Historical Atlas, by a South Islander with an intimate knowledge of Otago and Canterbury business history.

As restaurateurs say these days, enjoy! Stuart Strachan

One out of the box: Papers of the Otago Religious and Educational Uses Trust, 1847 to 1875

Yvonne Wilkie

Archivist, Presbyterian Archives

Knox College, Dunedin

There is nothing quite like coming across documents by chance. Recently, when collecting some plans from the offices of the Otago Foundation Trust Board in Dunedin, I noticed two tin trunks stacked on the top shelves in a storeroom that had the distinct look of a by-gone era. On investigating the contents, there emerged a confused collection of early leases, small scraps of paper with what appeared to be written memos to the writer, and a mixed bag of correspondence, all folded legal fashion and most tied into bundles with string. A closer look proved the papers to be of far greater significance than could have been imagined. Covering the period 1847 to 1900, the documents not only complement the Otago Foundation Trust Board collection already on deposit, but also offer researchers of early Otago history primary sources not before known to exist. This essay describes my attempts to understand the contents of the two trunks and considers why such a mixed collection of papers had been stored together in one place and apparently not viewed since the turn of this century.

Historical Background The arrangements in 1843 for the establishment of a further colony in New Zealand under New Zealand Company aegis have been covered in a number of histories of Otago.1 Of special significance for this essay, however, was the establishment of the Religious and Educational Uses Trust together with the writing of its Deed of Trust and its constitution, the Institutes for Church and School. These documents finalised arrangements with the New Zealand Company for the management of

the anticipated £36,150 that the Trust expected to receive from land sales. Under the Terms of Purchase, the New Zealand Company had agreed to hand over all rights for the disposal of the land in the Otago Block to the Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland.2 One-eighth of the revenue from the sales would be set aside in a Trust for the establishment of churches and schools. The documents were signed and approved by the General Assembly of the Free Church on 6 November 1847, almost on the eve of the departure of the first ships to Otago.

The Deed of Trust and Institutes for Church and School The Deed, with its companion document, the Institutes, are the founding legal constitutional documents for the Presbyterian Church of Otago. With the Terms of Purchase they can also be described as founding documents of the Otago Colony.3 A fourth founding document is the Bond for the Rev. Thomas Burns, which confirmed his release from the Presbytery of Edinburgh and his re-appointment as Minister to the Free Church of Otago.4 Together, these documents outline the various obligations of the New Zealand Company and the Presbyterian Church of Otago with regard to the secular, educational and religious management of the Colony. 5 As Ernest Merrington noted in his biography of Thomas Burns, these documents safeguarded the legal and moral interests of the Settlement in so far as paper guarantees could secure the future course of events.'6

The Institutes highlight the ideals of the Lay Association and the confidence of the colonists in the existing structures of church governance familiar to them in Scotland.7 The new Colony would be managed within the constitution of the Free Church of Scotland, as outlined in the Institutes, with a Presbyterian based public education system in which societal values and education were to be soundly founded on biblical and godly truths. As Burns notes in his address at the formation of the Synod of Otago and Southland in 1866:

At the outset of the Otago enterprise we started as an avowed and recognised brand of the Free Church of Scotland: a church that has been honoured beyond any other Church in modern times to lift up in the face of the Christian world a signal testimony for Christ, and the liberties of Christ's church. 8

That Free Church evangelicalism demanded self-discipline and self-help is evident in the clauses of the Institutes. Godly order', they believed, could be best served in small congregational communities where each community would provide a parish school attached to the church. The poor would not be forgotten. The Institutes outlined provisions for free pew rentals, and free education, and the church leaders had the

authority to 'appoint special collections' for charitable purposes.9 Their concept of the Establishment principle, fundamental to the Church of Scotland doctrine, is evident in their goals for a national church supported by a national fund. Further, 'Ministers shall have a stipend and schoolmasters shall have salary allowed out of the funds contained in the said Trust Deed."0 The Deed recommended a stipend of £300 for Burns and an undefined amount for the schoolmaster.

As with the Institutes, the authority for the Deed of Trust lay within the Terms of Purchase.

Whereas, by article seventh of arrangements, bearing date 14 t h May 1847, between the New Zealand Company and the said Lay Association for the establishment of said settlement at Otago, there is appropriated out of the purchase money to be received for properties, for Religious and Educational Uses, to be administered by Trustees, thirty-six thousand one hundred and fifty pounds ..."

The Deed provided for the appointment of four trustees, they being authorised to control the monies for religious and educational purposes. The Trustees, specified in the Deed were: the Rev. Thomas Burns, minister of First Church; Mr. Edward Lee, gentleman, Otago; Edward McGlashan, of Salisbury Place, Edinburgh; and Captain William Cargill, agent at Otago for the New Zealand Company. The first call on the Trustees was the building of schools, churches and manses, and the payment of the minister's stipend and teacher's salary. The Deed empowered the Trust, in conjunction with First Church (or until a Presbytery was formed), to purchase and lease out land, invest surplus monies, and appoint a factor to be paid an adequate salary. In allocating funds for 'churches and schoolhouses', it was declared that the Trustees shall have regard always to the proper accommodation required by the settlers at the time.'1 2 The question of the division of funds between religious and educational purposes was to become a bone of contention between the settlers and the Trustees.

Administrative History Today's Otago Foundation Trust Board descends from the Religious and Educational Uses Trust. The initial Trust Deed has undergone several legislative redrafts and numerous amendments over its 150 years. The two major revisions of the Act administering the Trust, in 1866 and 1962, occasioned a renaming that reflected the change in the Trustees' financial activities. With the Act of Incorporation, in 1875, the Trust was renamed The Otago Presbyterian Church Board of Property. Almost 100 years later, in 1968, it became known as the Otago Foundation Trust Board'.

Dissolution of the New Zealand Company, 185115

When the New Zealand Company was dissolved in 1851 its assets were handed over to the British Government. This placed the Lay Association, now known as the Otago Association, and the Trustees, in a predicament. Their 'financial cushion' had been removed, and the viability of the Trust was now in doubt. The scheme had realised little of the predicted income as only a portion of the land had been sold. Just the one parish school, attached to First Church, served the population, with little prospect of the Trustees seeing their way to building others. Moreover, the Trustees had borrowed heavily from the New Zealand Company for establishment costs and Burns' stipend, casting further doubt on the ability of the Association to continue its scheme.

In London John McGlashan, Secretary of the Otago Association, attempted to safeguard the Association's role in the colonisation scheme, but to little avail. In 1852 the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Sir John Pakington, notified the Otago Association that their charter would not be renewed. McGlashan's last letter to the Trustees in his capacity as Secretary, dated 7 May 1853, informed them he was sailing out to New Zealand on the Rajah.u

Meanwhile, in Dunedin, the Trustees began to take control of their funds. Edward McGlashan accepted the position of Factor, but without remuneration.15 John Hyde Harris began to act as the Trust's lawyer, the Trustees authorising him to call up the unpaid rents and to sue where necessary.16 A 'system of regular leases' between the Trustees and the tenants was entered into and regular Account Books began to be maintained.17 A recommendation put by Burns that he step down and further Trustees be appointed did not proceed at this time. 1 8

The Colonial Government in 1852 approved an extension of a further four years for Trustees to continue to sell land under The Terms of Purchase of 1849. The receipt of the one-eighth share of the monies from land sales, however, proved illusive. The Trustees made regular approaches to the Commissioner of Crown Lands for the payment due to them, but with little success. A small part payment made to the Trustees in 1855 would be their last.19 A letter received in 1856, from the Government refusing further payments, caused considerable angst within the Presbytery:

The conclusion at which her Excellency's Government arrives is that her Majesty had not the power to direct payment of one-eighth of land fund to the Trustees and their claim is inadmissible.2"

The Presbytery's submission, on behalf of the Trustees, to the local Commissioner of Crown Lands expressing opinion that refusal of the

Trustees claim for the refund was neither 'just nor equitable', cut little ice with him.2 1

Legislative Redraft, of Trust Issues surrounding the security of the Church lands and the legality of the Deed under the new political regime compelled the Trustees and the Presbytery of Otago to attend to the status of the Deed of Trust in relationship to the funds they managed.22 Redrafting the trust deed became urgent but it would take twelve years from the time the Presbytery of Otago perceived the need until the Deed was reconstituted as the Presbyterian Church of Otago Lands Act, in 1866.

Ascertaining the reasons for this delay requires more research than could be undertaken for this essay. The most obvious was the delay in receiving the Crown Grants and Titles for the Church lands from the Crown Lands Office and how best to describe the Trust's properties.2 3

Further, the longer the delay, and the more involved in the process the Presbytery became, the more questions were raised as to the precise relationship between the two bodies. In 1862 a legal opinion was sought from C.W. Richmond, but he declined to give an opinion without offering reasons. Harris was then requested to prepare a case on behalf of the Trustees for submission toT.B. Gillies, Richmond's partner.24 Gillies urged a Committee be set up to co-operate with the Trustees in obtaining a proper constitution for the Trustees through the medium of the General Assembly'2 5

Investigation by Provincial Council, 1860 Popular attitudes towards the Presbytery and the Trustees deliberations during this period were negative to say the least. As early as 1849 a small group of settlers had challenged the right of the Presbyterian Church to sole authority over education. With the winding-up of the New Zealand Company, the establishment of the Provincial Government, and the introduction of public education, critics began to demand that a portion of the monies the Trust received should be handed over to the Government for public schooling. The Trustees, it was argued, would better serve the people, who had contributed to the fund through the purchase of land, by allowing the monies to be converted to secular uses. There seems to have been little public awareness that returns from the Trust endowments in the first decade had been paltry.2'' By April I860 public criticism and anger reached such a peak that the Provincial Council authorised an investigation of the Religious and Education Uses Trust.

The Committee concluded that the Church was entitled to the benefit accruing from that portion of the Trust property applicable to

Religious uses.' But it further reported that, due to the changed circumstances of the original intent of the Trust, 'some portion of the Trust Property ought to be and may be made available for the cause of education.' 2 7 Its recommendation that a Commission be set up to consult with the Trustees over the adoption of the new arrangements, so avoiding possible litigation, was not, however, acted upon.

The issue remained dormant until the November 1865 Session of the Provincial Council when Charles Edward Haughton, member for Queenstown, moved that a Copy of the Deed of Estate for Religious and Education Uses be presented to the House'. 2 8 This was provided on 4 December.2 9 On 15 December, Haughton successfully sought to have the I860 report 'carried into effect without delay'.3 0 Haughton pushed the issue still further on 22 December, moving,'that an Address be presented to His Honour, the Superintendent, requesting him to appoint a Commission, in accordance with the Resolution of 15 December.'31 The knowledge that the Trustees were now proceeding to have a Private Member's Bill presented to the General Legislature may well have reached Haughton.

The Presbyterian Church of Otago Lands Act, 1866 The Trustees were anxious to have some finality regarding their legal

position and in 1863 had taken steps to secure a decision. The joint consultation recommended by Gillies finally resolved that a proper allocation of funds would be one-third for educational uses and two-thirds for ecclesiastical uses. A proposal that educational funds be spent on literary and theological chairs at a University to be established in Dunedin found favourable support among the critics.

The Trustees agreed that John Hyde Harris be requested to draw up a new Trust Deed, 'in order to its being sanctioned by an Act to be passed by the General Assembly' By return mail he agreed to undertake the task.3 2 By April 1866 Harris believed that the redrafted deed was ready to be forwarded to the General Assembly.33 He had begun to gather the required documents and the Trustees had approached T.B. Gillies to supervise the Bill through Parliament. Gillies, however, declined for reasons not given. 3 4 Instead, D'arcy Haggitt, who had recently arrived in New Zealand, agreed to see the measure through Parliament. His meticulous presentation of all available documents of evidence greatly contributed to the Select Committee's favourable report on the Bill. 3 5

At the Select Committee hearing both Haughton and Major J.L.C. Richardson objected to the Bill on the grounds that the Provincial Council investigation had not been completed. Richardson believed the

intent of the new Bill to be at variance with the original Trust, particularly in relation to the proposed endowment to set up literary and theological chairs at the University. Haughton stated to the Select Committee that, the Private Bill in question is opposed to the feeling, and to certain proceedings of the Provincial Council of Otago.'Thomas Dick, Superintendent of the Otago Provincial Council, gave an opposing opinion, indicating that the Provincial Council had carried out investigations into the uses of the Trust monies on several occasions, and 'in each case it had decided that no claim existed'. 3 6 The Provincial Council supported the Bill and the proposal of establishing chairs in an institute of higher learning.3 7 The new Act came into force on 6 November 1866.

The Trust and the Trustees' authority were now firmly grounded in New Zealand legislation. The Act confirmed their right to their property and to the administration of it. The Act, however, introduced a new source of friction between the Synod of Otago and Southland and the Trustees by giving the Trustees power to appoint replacement Trustees and a Factor without seeking the Synod's approval. 3 8

The Otago Presbyterian Church Board of Property An important amendment to the Act in 1874 entitled the Trustees to sell land and to also reinvest the monies accruing from the sale of Trust property.39 The Presbyterian Church of Otago Incorporation Act was passed in 1875, at which time the 'Religious and Educational Uses Trust' was renamed The Otago Presbyterian Church Board of Property'. Incorporation resulted in the Trustees assuming even greater responsibility in the administration of the Trust's funds than intended by the original architects. The Act of Incorporation also tidied up the right of existing trustees to appoint new trustees without Synod authority.40

As the Synod of Otago and Southland continued to be responsible for distributing the annual income from the Trust funds there were regular debates on how the monies should be invested, who could or could not lease Church property, and the overall purpose of the funds. Friction between the Synod and the Trustees was so continual that by the 1950s, some 90 years after the first redraft, demands for a revision of the Church Board of Property Act (1866) came from both sides. This led to a new Act in 1962. Although tensions were far from obviated, both bodies agreed to alter the name from the Church Board of Property to the Otago Foundation Trust Board'.The Factor of the day, Colin Melville, believed the name Otago Foundation Trust better represented the original intention of the Deed of Trust of 1847. 4 1

D i s c o v e r y o f t h e o r i g i n a l Deed a n d Institutes A most exciting discovery among the papers was the three original documents signed by the Lay Association members in Scotland, dated 6 November 1847: the Deed of Trust, Institutes of Otago Church and School, and the Bond for the Rev. Thomas Burns. Researchers had previously to depend upon the printed copies found in William Gillies, The Presbyterian Church Trust - Historical Narrative, or in the New Zealand Company papers.4 2

A search through the Trust's minute books makes it apparent that neither Burns nor Cargill held the original documents on their arrival in New Zealand. Copies existed, however, and were distributed around the lawyers, Trustees and Presbytery officials during the various discussions over redrafting.43 Copies of the documents were also submitted as evidence to the I860 Select Committee hearing, but the Committee expressed some doubt as to the documents' validity.44 Just where the copies originated is not indicated.

Not until October 1863 did the Trustees make reference in the minute book to the need to locate the original documents. At that point the Factor wrote to the Scottish lawyers Crawford and Auld, requesting them to forward to Dr. Burns the original Deed of Trust of Church Property and the Deed of Institutes in a registered letter'.4 5 The meeting of 11 March 1864 had confirmation from Auld and Chalmers that the original Trust Deed would be forwarded by the next mail.'46 The exact date of arrival is not indicated in the minutes, but the Factor wrote a letter dated 17 June 1864, expressing the Trustees considerable obligations' for the efforts Mr. Auld had undertaken on their behalf', and enclosing part payment to Auld and Chalmers, Edinburgh.47

While the Deed and Institutes were amongst the listed documents tabled at the 1866 Select Committee's inquiry it seems these were from the New Zealand Company's records. However, the original documents held by the Trustees were also required proof. Haggitt reported that he had received the Deed and Institutes as evidence for the Select Committee's enquiry in mid July 1866, but they appear to have been returned to Dunedin during August.18 A witnessed annotation reads: This is the deed or paperwriting marked A' ['Β'] referred to in the annexed Declaration of Thomas Burns taken before me this twenty-seventh day August 1866.' Haggitt requested during the hearing that he place before the Committee supplementary proof, in the form of 'Attested copies of the Deed of Settlement and the Deed of Institutes, the declaration of the Rev. T. Burns and attested copies of the minutes of the meeting of the Association.'4'' It is likely that this affidavit was the final proof required by the Committee as to the authenticity of the documentation

in relation to the establishment of the Trust, and to the authority of the original Lay Association.

Administrative Significance of the Documents Found A number of the papers and documents found in the trunks relate to the redrafting of the 1866 Act. D'arcy Haggitt requested to view as many of the papers as were relevant in support of the Trustees' case. Important to the case were the Certificates of Selection and the Land Orders. These are in two bundles. In the first are the original Certificates of Selection and Land Orders issued in Scotland through the Lay Association dating from 16 November 1847, signed and sealed by the New Zealand Company. The second bundle comprises copies of the original Certificates and Land Orders that went astray during postage. Schedules supporting these documents and outlining the rents are also included, along with the original leases by the Trustees to the settlers.5" Correspondence relating to properties under dispute, along with the receipts from the Waste Land Board from 1857-1865, form a further file. Of considerable importance are letters from D'arcy Haggitt to the Trustees as he prepared his case while in Wellington. It was among this last set of papers that the Deed, Institutes and Bond were found.

Overview of documents and papers John McKean in a personal letter to the writer queries the possibility that the original Trustees went about their work in a 'slapdash way'. His fears can be allayed. When the environment in which these early men lived and worked is considered, and their limited ability to provide legal and secure protection is recognised, the condition the papers are in, as well as the amount retained, is surprising. It is all the more so when it is remembered the Trust's business was generally carried out by the Factors from their offices, and that the papers were passed on from Factor to Factor.51

The Trustees clearly took their responsibilities very seriously, particularly Thomas Burns, who was meticulous in his recording of the minutes, collating of accounts and his retention of a considerable number of small pieces (scraps?) of paper. These small pieces of paper may appear to be of little consequence, but a closer inspection reveals them to be invoices and/or receipts for building materials, school books, rent payments and minute extracts on the confirmation of leases.

From 1851, on the withdrawal of the New Zealand Company, the manner of record keeping alters with the appointment of Edward McGlashan as Factor. Burns continued to be responsible for the keeping of the Minute Book until 1856. Account Books such as Rent Books for

the three different forms of property lease - Suburban, Town and Rural - and a ledger were introduced in 1851.These were in use until 1864, when Edmund Smith was appointed as Factor. Smith had considerable familiarity with the financial arrangements of the Church, working closely with William Reynolds, who was the treasurer of the Presbytery/ Synod, a responsibility that Smith took over.52 From this date he kept a comprehensive set of records which are deposited at the Presbyterian Archives, Knox College (see Appendix 2).

The discovered papers created considerable excitement. Of particular fascination were the tenders for the first parish school, dated 3 June 1848. Two of the tenders had been opened, and three remained intact, their wax seals unbroken. The opened tenders are from Thomas Courtis and John Ferguson, who won the tender, and William Henry Monson. Thomas Courtis and John Ferguson's tender is scant in information, hence a second tender dated 4 July 1848 outlining further details of their costs. Interestingly, the tender is dated the day on which the Trustees met to make their decision.

What should an archivist do with unopened material? It is now 150 years on. Whether one should open them and note the fact they were still sealed, or whether they should be left intact, is an interesting dilemma. Perhaps the name would give a clue as to why they were not opened and considered by the Trustees. Possibly the tenders were handed personally to Thomas Burns and he made a decision as to the tenderers' suitability from the outset. Did the Trustees reply in writing to those who did not win the tender to build the school? There is no evidence of replies either in the minute book or the papers. Not all the unopened tenders were addressed. The next small pile of papers had tenders addressed to William Cargill, dated 23 June 1843. It is possible that the unopened tenders are for the building of a flat-bottomed dinghy.

There is no evidence that the Trustees called for tenders to build a dinghy but Burns and Cargill had a dream that Dunedin would be built in stone. Land for a quarry had been set aside at Anderson Bay, but punts had to be built to bring the stone across the harbour. The successful tender went to James Adam, who built a 35 feet by 16 feet dinghy amidst public mirth and criticism. The collective wisdom was that the timber would be too green and heavy for the purpose. A successful launching took place, and we are told 'it skimmed the water with an eight inch draught.' Adam writes, 'the critics returned to their hotel, wiser then (sic) when they left.' No mention is made, however, as to the ultimate success or otherwise of Adam's dinghy, and there is further evidence that other similar dinghies were built.5 3

The question remains: should the tenders be left sealed, or should they be opened for the information they might contain? In the meantime, they will remain sealed.

Significance for Research How many researchers have ever had access to these papers, and if so when? Some of the letters, such as school teacher James Blackie's appeal for an increase in salary, as well as his resignation, are to be found written in full in the Religious and Education Uses Trust Minute Book. Mention is also made in Burns' diaries, held at the Otago Settlers Museum. The final statement of accounts relating to the New Zealand Company is recorded in the First Church Deacons' Court Minute Book, as is the cancellation of Thomas Burns' Bond. Correspondence in connection with the legislative changes in I860 and 1866 is printed in the Votes and Proceedings. However, the majority of the correspondence relating to the schools is new, as is the correspondence in connection with the purchase of land and the building of manses at Waihola, Balclutha, and Kaitangata, to mention a few. The inwards correspondence relating to Crown Land Grants, the removal of the top of Bell Hill, and the widening of Princes and Cumberland Street, may have extant copies in the Otago Provincial Council records.

It seems likely, however, that access to the majority of these papers and documents, including the Trust Minute Books, has not been available previously to researchers. William Gillies may well have used them for the writing of his narrative on the history of the Trust in 1876, but there is no certainty that this is so. In fact, to date, I have been unable to trace any information as to who authorised him to write the narrative or who paid for it. Thomas Hocken makes no reference to the Trust papers. Neither does McClintock, whose research covers an extensive number of primary sources. There is no indication in the later writings of Brooking or Olssen that they accessed this resource. The excellent condition and well-defined order of the papers and documents also suggests that few have laid hands on them. It would appear that the immediate past Factor was unaware of the collection, otherwise John McKean would have utilised the papers for his recent book (published 1994).

I have not referred in this discussion to the second trunk of material. The papers therein relate more to church properties, and date from the mid-1880s to 1940s. In due course these too will be appraised and made available.

An overview of the collection provides fascinating insights into changing 'print culture', in the context of the growth and wealth of

Victorian Dunedin. The initial leases, written by hand on very small pieces of paper, change in the 1860s to the exquisite hand-written leases expressed in a formalised legal rhetoric. Then come the more sophisticated printed documents of the 1880s. The same is also true for the invoices and receipts in the collection.

Research Use The research significance of these papers and documents lies in their administrative, legal and financial value. The discovery of the early leases and rent schedules, along with the rent books, will be of interest to social historians undertaking community research, such as Eric Olssen's study of Caversham. There is considerable potential for the study of public and business history, covering 150 years. Rural historians will find useful material through the rural land rent books, along with material relating to rural parishes. With a full set of accounts and tax books dating from 1848, a complete set of correspondence from 1863, and with access to the Minute Books, the Otago Foundation Trust collection can provide a number of worthwhile topics for PhD students. Church historians will find valuable information relating to parishes in the Otago and Southland regions. They will also be able to pick up and develop further John McKean's work on the relationship between the Synod and the Trust. An analysis of the uses made of the allocated grants over the years, particularly with the changes of the 1980s, may also be of interest. Significant information for genealogists is also available.

Conclusion The Otago Foundation Trust collection is on deposit at the Presbyterian Archives, Knox College, Dunedin, and there is open access to material up to 1950. Researchers wishing to use post 1950 documents from the collection will require permission from the Factor.

This is a unique collection. It has been barely touched and offers considerable potential for research on a variety topics. Such research will add to our knowledge of the growth of Dunedin and the continuing development of the Province of Otago. It can also offer opportunities to examine changing business, financial and investment practices over the past 150 years. Last, but not least, there continues to be a need for academic research exploring the relationship between the Church and the local community, and its contribution to the ongoing development of Otago and Southland.

1. Discussion o n the d e v e l o p m e n t o f the ideas for a Scottish Colony and its progress

c a n b e found in J a m e s Barr, The Old Identities: Being Sketches and Reminiscences

During the First Decade, Dunedin, 1 8 7 9 ; T. Hocken , Contributions to the Early

History of New Zealand (Otago), London, 1 8 9 8 ; E. Merr ington , A Great Coloniser,

Rev. Thomas Bums, Dunedin, 1 9 2 9 ; A.H. McClintock, History of Otago, The Origins

and Growth of a Wakefield Class Settlement, Dunedin, 1 9 4 9 ; T o m Brooking, And

Captain of their Souls: Cargill and the Otago Colonist, Dunedin 1984; . E. Olssen,

History of Otago, Dunedin, 1 9 8 4 ; and J o h n McKean, The Church in a Special Colony:

A History of the Presbyterian Synod of Otago and Southland, 1866-1991. McKean

is the first to a t t empt an in-depth and analytical history o f the Synod o f Otago and

Southland.

2 . Full title The Association o f Lay Members of the Free C h u r c h o f Scotland, later known

as the Otago Association.

3 . Clause 2 4 o f The Terms of Purchase: '. . . t o p r e p a r e a Deed o f Const i tut ion for

Church and Schools; t o the Trustees appointed by this deed, the funds for Educat ion

and Religious Uses to b e handed over as col lected, on comple t ion o f e a c h party . . .'

William Gillies, The Presbyterian Church Trust with Historical Narrative, Dunedin,

1 8 7 6 , p . 2 4 .

4 . T h o m a s Burns had b e e n first appo inted as Minister t o t h e co lony in 1 8 4 5 . Wi th the

delay in finalising the arrangements wi th the N e w Zealand C o m p a n y Burns was

required to re turn to a parish until plans b e c a m e m o r e definite.

5 . T h e Terms of Purchase of Land in Otago b e t w e e n the Lay Assoc iat ion and the

N e w Zealand Company has not c o m e to hand. Since the original ( 1 8 4 7 ) is published

in W M . Gillies' Historical Narrative, it suggests that h e had a c c e s s t o a c o p y in

1 8 7 6 . Details o f the disposal o f land and the obligations o f e a c h body are outl ined

in Gillies, Historical Narrative.

6 . Merrington, p. 1 5 0 .

7. 'It being o u r desire and intention that the Church of this set t lement wi th the schools

a t tached thereof, shall b e formed u p o n the model o f t h e F r e e C h u r c h o f Scot land,

and in c o n n e c t i o n therewi th , dec lare that the same is p lanted as a b r a n c h o f the

said Free C h u r c h , t o b e governed a c c o r d i n g t o the doc tr ines , polity, and discipline

thereof , o f w h i c h Free C h u r c h the Confession o f Faith and o t h e r s tandards are

framed by the Westminster Divines, for the fundamental standards.' Clause 1, Institutes

for Otago C h u r c h and Schools .

8 . Proceedings of the Otago Presbyterian Synod of Otago and Southland, 1866, p . 9 .

9 . Institutes, Clauses 5, 7, & 8 .

10 . Institutes, Clause 6 .

11 . Preamble, Deed of Trust, the Lay Association of the Free Church and Otago Settlers,

in favour of the Rev. Thomas Burns and other Trustees, 6 N o v e m b e r 1 8 4 7 . Italics

in original.

12 . Deed of Trust, in Gillies, p . 3 9 .

13 . M c C l i n t o c k deals wi th the w i thdrawal o f the N e w Zea land C o m p a n y a n d t h e

position of the Lay Association both in Edinburgh and Dunedin in considerable detail.

See p p . 2 9 8 - 3 4 9 .

1 4 . Letter from J o h n McGlashan to T. Burns , 7 May 1 8 5 3 ( found in p a p e r s ) .

1 5 . Trust Minutes, 2 4 March 1 8 5 1 .

16 . Trust Minutes, 11 September 1 8 5 1 .

17 . Trust Minutes, 9 July 1 8 5 2 .

18 . Trust Minutes, 2 5 February 1 8 5 3 . Rev. Mr. Burns took the o c c a s i o n to e x p r e s s his

desire to w i thdraw from the Trust o n the ground o f t h e r e being n o w a sufficient

n u m b e r o f qualified p e r s o n s being laymen to b e had for office.'

19. C o r r e s p o n d e n c e to Pe ter Proudfoot 2 3 O c t o b e r 1 8 5 5 , w h i c h informs him s o m e

m o n e y has b e e n paid over (found in n e w papers ) ; to J o h n McGlashan, 13 September

1 8 5 6 ; Presbytery Minutes, D e c e m b e r 1 8 5 7 , p . 1 2 3 .

2 0 . Let ter C.W. R i c h m o n d to J . Macandrew, 13 S e p t e m b e r 1 8 5 6 ( found in p a p e r s ) .

2 1 . Presbytery Minutes, February 1 8 5 7 , ρ . 1 2 3 ·

2 2 . W i t h t h e arrival o f t h e Revs . Wil l iam Will and Wil l iam B a n n e r m a n in 1 8 5 4 , a

Presbytery could b e formed taking over legal authority from the First c h u r c h Session

and the Deacons ' Court . T h e formation o f the Presbytery o f O t a g o also m e a n t that

First C h u r c h w a s no longer responsible t o the Presbytery o f Ed inburgh .The m o t i o n

agreed to at the Presbytery first meet ing 1 8 J u n e 1 8 5 4 s tates , 'That t o t h e Trustees

shall be long all matters c o n n e c t e d wi th titles, c o n v e y a n c e s and transfers' . Presbytery

o f Otago Minutes, 1 8 J u n e 1 8 5 4 , p . 1 6 .

23. Presbytery Minutes, 2 2 D e c e m b e r 1 8 5 7 , p . l 2 1 . T h e c o n c e r n t o have the C r o w n

Grants and titles issued for the Church's proper t i e s w a s raised as early as 1 8 5 3

w h e n it w a s put forward by t h e T r u s t e e s as a reason t o delay T h o m a s B u r n s '

resignation as a trus tee in F e b r u a r y 1 8 5 3 - T r u s t Minutes 2 5 F e b r u a r y 1 8 5 3 .

2 4 . Trust Minutes, 2 5 O c t o b e r 1 8 6 2 , p . 3 9 . Let ter t o William B a n n e r m a n from Factor ,

1 6 S e p t e m b e r 1 8 6 4 . Trust Let ter Book, p . 8 5 .

2 5 . Trust Minutes, 1 8 March 1 8 6 3 , p . 1 2 1 .

2 6 . Trust Let ter Book, F e b r u a r y 1 8 6 6 , p . 3 5 2 . T h e y ranged from ± 3 8 . 1 1 . 0 in 1 8 5 2 t o

± 1 0 6 . 1 1 . 3 in 1 8 5 9 . T h e Presbytery conf irmed grants from the funds for parish use

mainly in t h e s e years w h i c h provoked further ammunit ion for the cr i t i cs .

2 7 . Provincial Council, Votes and Proceedings of the Provincial Council, 'Report o f

t h e Select C o m m i t t e e o n Trust P r o p e r t y for Religious and Educat ional Purposes ' ,

Session IX, April 1 8 6 0 , pp .xx i -xx i i . Interestingly, the Chairman o f the C o m m i t t e e ,

T h o m a s Gillies, worked closely with the Trustees o n issue o f Congregational proper ty

o w n e r s h i p throughout the late 1 8 5 0 s into the 1 8 6 0 s .

2 8 . Votes and Proceedings, 22 N o v e m b e r 1 8 6 5 .

2 9 . Votes and Proceedings, 4 D e c e m b e r 1 8 6 5 , p . 3 1 .

3 0 . Voters and Proceedings, 15 D e c e m b e r 1 8 6 5 , p . 5 5 . T h e vote w a s 12 in favour and

8 against. O f those voting against the m o t i o n many be longed t o the Presbyter ian

C h u r c h . J . Adam, A. Burns , J . Clark, G. Hepburn, W Reynolds. T h e n u m b e r o n Counci l

w a s 3 8 . D 'arcy Haggitt argued at the 1 8 6 6 Select C o m m i t t e e m e e t i n g that the

antagon i s t i c feeling t o w a r d s t h e Bill w a s by a minor i ty o f t h e C o u n c i l . Se lect

C o m m i t t e e Evidence , Gillies, p . 4 9 .

3 1 . Votes and Proceedings, 22 D e c e m b e r 1 8 6 5 , p . 7 1 .

3 2 . Letter t o J . Harris from Factor, 4 July 1 8 6 5 , p . 2 3 0 . Minutes, 2 0 July 1 8 6 5 , p . 6 6 . McKean

states ( p . 6 8 η 3 1 ) that Harris turned d o w n the Trustees request t o redraft the Deed.

However , the minute is c lear that J .H. Harris offered t o under take the drawing-up

o f t h e p r o p o s e d Trust Deed and the Trustees authorised the F a c t o r t o hand o v e r all

p a p e r s and d o c u m e n t s in his possess ion that Mr. Harris may require. M c K e a n also

m a k e s the assumption that William D o w n i e Stewart w r o t e the n e w Deed. T h e r e is

no e v i d e n c e that this w a s the case . Stewart's n a m e does not a p p e a r in any o f the

p a p e r s , c o r r e s p o n d e n c e o r minutes relating to the redrafting. Although h e later

b e c a m e the Synod and Trust Lawyer (and the firm cont inues that role today) , in

1 8 6 5 h e w o r k e d for J . P r e n d e r g a s t w h i l e a s t u d e n t o f law. In 1 8 6 7 , w h e n

J . Prendergast b e c a m e Attorney General, Stewart went into his o w n pract ice . In 1 8 7 5

h e did undertake the drafting o f the Act o f Incorporat ion free o f c h a r g e . W h e n

Stewart arrived in NZ in 1 8 6 1 , at the age o f 1 9 , h e w o r k e d as a c lerk for R i c h m o n d

and Gillies. McKean further support s the suggestion that Stewart d r e w u p the Deed

from a minute in relation to the cos ts incurred ( p . 7 0 , n . 9 8 ) . T h e minute o f 15 January

1 8 6 7 states, 'Trust Deed Solicitor's Bill o f Costs. In c o n n e c t i o n w i th passing the

land A c t t h r o u g h t h e G e n e r a l A s s e m b l y at t h e r e c e n t Ses s ion a m o u n t i n g t o

£ 5 0 2 . 1 7 . 1 1 w a s laid before the meet ing' and authority t o pay given ' w h e n e v e r it

shall have b e e n duly taxed ' . T h e Cash Book shows the a m o u n t o f ± 2 1 9 t o have

b e e n paid t o Harris, Macassey & Turton, Cash Book, 2 5 J a n u a r y 1 8 6 7 . Stewart w a s

still w i th Prendergast at this date .

3 3 . Le t terbook , 13 April 1 8 6 6 .

3 4 . Le t terbook , 1 0 May 1 8 6 6 , Schedule o f Proper t i e s p u r c h a s e d wi th Trust funds and

rece ip t s from those obta ined by Government .

3 5 . N o ment ion o f Haggitt act ing in this role is found in the c o r r e s p o n d e n c e o r the

Trust minutes . D'arcy Haggitt w a s the father o f Brian Ceci l Haggitt from the legal

firm Haggitt and Haggitt.

3 6 . T h e Commiss ion repor ted b a c k t o the Provincial Council in J u n e 1 8 6 6 . It cons idered

that the 'Presbyterian body' w a s entitled t o the funds a c c r u e d t o t h e m u n d e r the

original t e r m s o f the se t t lement . McKean's c o m m e n t that the Commiss ion had not

m e t before the enquiry in August 1 8 6 6 , in his n 8 5 , p. 7 0 is mistaken, conf i rmed by

Dick's r e s p o n s e above .

3 7 . Evidence taken before the Select Committee on the Presbyterian Church of Otago

Lands Act. In Gillies, p p . 4 4 - 5 1 .

3 8 . By 1 8 6 6 the Presbytery o f Otago had divided into four Presbyteries and w a s replaced

by t h e Synod o f Otago and Southland.

3 9 . T h e Provincial G o v e r n m e n t wi shed to p u r c h a s e 1 0 a c r e s at Hillside for rai lway

deve lopment , from the Trustees . T h e 1 8 6 6 Act did not give the Trustees p o w e r t o

sell o r t o re-invest m o n e y from land sales.

4 0 . Clause 1 0 o f the Act states:'In appoint ing Trustees under sec t ion twenty-four for all

p u r p o s e s o f the said Act o f 1 8 6 6 , it shall b e sufficient for all p u r p o s e s t o e n t e r in

a b o o k o f t h e said Board a minute in the form o f o r t o the effect set forth in t h e

First Schedule hereto; and such a minute , if attested by at least o n e witness , shall

b e conc lus ive ev idence o f such appo in tment . . .'

4 1 . M c K e a n , p . 1 8 1 .

4 2 . Gillies; T h e N e w Zealand C o m p a n y papers , Vol .32.

4 3 - Trust Minutes, 2 January 1 8 5 8 , p . 3 1 ; 12 O c t o b e r 1 8 6 3 , p . 4 6 . T h e r e is o n e manuscr ip t

c o p y o f Deed and Institutes a m o n g the p a p e r s under discussion.

4 4 . Votes and Proceedings, 1 8 6 0 , p . x x i .

4 5 . Trust Minutes, 12 O c t o b e r 1 8 6 3 , p . 4 6 .

4 6 . Trust Minutes, 11 March 1 8 6 4 , p . 4 7 .

4 7 . Trust Letter Book, 17 J u n e 1 8 6 4 , p . 4 3 . McKean, n 3 1 , p . 6 8 , mistakenly dates this letter

as 2 5 May 1 8 6 4 .

4 8 . Le t t er t o B.C. Haggitt d i r e c t e d through J .H. Harris , 21 July 1 8 6 6 ( found in n e w

p a p e r s ) .

4 9 . Minutes o f Evidence , Select C o m m i t t e e , 1 8 6 6 , p. 1 3 .

5 0 . T h e main condit ion o f these leases is that o f fencing. The tenant would immediately

e n c l o s e the w h o l e al lotment with a fence approved by the Trustees . T h e y required

the f ence to be 'strong e n o u g h to keep out cat t le and c lose e n o u g h t o keep out

pigs and d o g s ' . T h e tenants w e r e t o hand o v e r the fence' in good condi t ion at the

e n d o f t h e lease.

5 1 . L e t t e r from R o b e r t C h a p m a n t o J . M a c a n d r e w act ing for t h e late F a c t o r , P e t e r

Proudfoot, 14 D e c e m b e r 1 8 5 7 . ' Y o u will b e so kind as to hand over t o m e all papers ,

d o c u m e n t s and o t h e r m a t t e r s c o n n e c t e d wi th the Trust n o w in your hands.' He

then goes o n t o arrange a conven ien t p lace and t ime for t h e transfer t o h a p p e n .

5 2 . Smith not only t o o k on the Factor 's role in 1 8 6 4 but also b e c a m e m a n a g e r o f the

n e w Dunedin Savings Bank. He w a s an agent for the AMP, and held the a g e n c y for

t h e Public Trustee . He w a s ordained an e lder at K n o x C h u r c h , Dunedin, in 1 8 6 6 .

His son, Fred Smith, s u c c e e d e d E d m u n d as F a c t o r o f the Otago C h u r c h Board o f

P r o p e r t y and m a n a g e r o f the Dunedin Savings Bank, on his death. Early Adventures

in Otago, Edmund Smith, edited by W. D o w n i e Stewart , Dunedin, 1 9 4 0 .

5 3 . 'Initia', J a m e s Chisholm, in the Christian Outlook, 2 April 1 8 9 8 , p. 1 1 9 .

APPENDIX 1 Arrangement o f Papers and Documents of recendy discovered papers and Documents o f thé Religious and Educational Uses Trust, 1848 to 1875.

The papers and documents in the trunks are arranged in a manner that can be defined. As already suggested, the 1866 redraft of the trust deed drew together an interesting collection of archives. Other clearly defined files are:

• First Minute Book, 1848-54 (this is a copy, the original being held at the Otago Foundation Trust Office);

• Draft minutes of the above;

• Schedules of accounts in relation to the New Zealand Company, 1847-51;

• Account Books - Rent, and ledger, 1851-64;

• Correspondence dating from 1849-54 in connection with the first schools in North East Valley, Port Chalmers, East Taieri, Green Island Bush and the Female School in Walker Street;

• Material in connection to the first school - purchases for books, correspondence received from James Blackie, accounts of money spent, and School Stock Book 1847-52;

• The cancellation of the Bond between the Trust and Thomas Burns, 1851;

• Correspondence relating to the one-eighth monies due, 1855-57;

• Material on Crown Grants, 1857-1858;

• Correspondence in relation to the removal of the top Bell Hill and the rebuilding of First Church Manse, 1862-67;

• Correspondence relating to the purchase of property for churches and manses, 1853-79;

• Correspondence involving the widening of Princes Street and Cumberland Street and the exchange for other land, 1874-77;

• Single letters including: letter to Thomas Burns from John McGlashan including the accounts for all the materials and list of books being transported on the 'John Wycliffe', 1847; and John McGlashan's last letter as Secretary of the Lay (Otago) Association and advising of his arrival in NZ, 1853;

• Maps of North East Valley, Glen Road area, Caversham, with details of properties and leaseholders names. Probably date from 1870.

APPENDIX 2

Collection of the Church Board of Properly and Otago Foundation Trust Board

• Minute Books; (rough) 1880 to 1974

• Letter Books; 1864 to 1980

• Leases; 1851 to 1955

Church Hill Reserve, College Reserve, Manse Reserve, Town District; Suburbs - Andersons Bay, Caversham East, North East Valley, Upper Kaikorai; Outlying Districts - Deborah Bay, East Taieri, West Taieri, Stuart Town, Mosgiel, Port Chalmers, Sawyers Bay and lower West Harbour, Portobella;

• Cash Books

College Reserve Fund; 1877 to 1988

Manse Reserve Fund; 1862 to 1988 Factor; 1866 to 1980

• Balance Sheets; 1894 to 1971

• Cheque Register; 1895 to 1958

• Rent Books; 1864 to 1949

• Journal; 1865 to 1959

• Land Tax Returns; 1908 to 1949

• Ledgers; 1865 to 1933

• Payments Received Ledger; 1935 to 1951

• Reports on Rural Properties; 1919 to 1943

• Stewart Island sub-division; 1895 to 1945

After the Gold Rush: The Archives of the Lawrence Warden's Court 1861-1949

Leeann Williams, Robert Harold, Peter Miller & Kevin Molloy

National Archives, Dunedin Regional Office

W h y L a w r e n c e ? The archives of the Lawrence Warden's Court, held by the National Archives Dunedin Regional Office, are the largest of any such Court in Otago and Southland. Lawrence and the Tuapeka gold fields saw the appointment, in 1861 , of the province's first Wardens, and the subsequent growth of an administrative structure that reflected the changing fortunes of the gold industry and its workers. Its administrative history is complex, involving the General and Provincial Governments, and the Justice, Mines, and Lands Departments.

The constant removal of the Wardens' Court records from courthouse to courthouse, as the gold fields expanded and contracted over the decades, led to their fragmentation and disorganisation.1 Alexandra was the site of the final Warden's Court for Otago. With the disestablishment of the Wardens' Courts in 1971 2 the remaining records were retained by the Alexandra Magistrate's Court, most being deposited in the Hocken Library in 1975. In 1993 these records were transferred to National Archives in Dunedin. For these reasons, and because they are the subject of considerable public interest, it was decided to undertake preliminary arrangement and description work on the Lawrence records, as a pilot for further work on the other Otago and Southland Wardens' Courts records. This article concentrates on the early years of gold mining administration in Lawrence.

Beginnings At the end of May 1861 gold was discovered in the Tuapeka region of Central Otago by Gabriel Read, the eponymous Tasmanian miner of Gabriel's Gully.3 The region was officially proclaimed as the Tuapeka

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Gold Field on 17 July of that year.4 Following the later discovery of gold in Weatherston's and Munro's gullies, the Waitahuna Stream and Waipori River, the Tuapeka field was extended at the end of October 1861 . Woolshed Creek was added to the declared gold field on 21 July 1862. 5

Initially, police and mining Commissioners were responsible for the gold field's administration, with A.C. Strode becoming the first Commissioner.6 Appointed by the Otago Provincial Government, the Commissioners acted under the provisions of the Gold Fields Acts of 1858 and I860 with delegated authority from the Governor. They were not Wardens in the full sense of the term, since the Wardens' Courts were yet to be established. They did, however, enforce the Tuapeka Gold Field Regulations enacted by the Provincial Council and promulgated on 7 October 1861. 7

The next step in establishing some sense of control on the Tuapeka gold field was the setting up of a Mining Board. On 5 March 1862 8 the Gabriel's District Mining Board, a self-governing board of miners, was established under the Gold Fields Acts. It was organised as a democratic committee of eight members elected by one hundred or more holders of a Miner's Right - an entitlement to prospect and work a claim -within a declared gold field district. The Board had power to frame rules and regulations relating to mining', and issued their first set of 'Rules & Regulations' on 6 May 1862. 9

Proclamation by J Hyde Harris, Superintendent of the Province of Otago,

15 September 1863. OPGG, VI 1863, p.353.

Tuapeka Gold-Field, (that is to say): commencing at the junction of the Scrub Burn and the Clutha River, thence by the Scrub Burn to its sources; thence by the water-sheds of the Tuapeka Stream and Clutha River to the Lammerlaw; thence by the water-sheds of the Waipori and Lee, and Traquhar Streams to Maungatua; thence by the boundary of the West Taieri and North Tokomairiro Hundreds to the north branch of the Tokomair i ro River; thence by the Tokomairiro River to the Main South Road; thence by the said road to its intersection with LovelPs Creek: thence by Lovell's Creek to the boundary of Run numbered 5 4 ; thence by the boundary of the said run to a point situated north-east of the sources of the Crook Burn; thence by a southwesterly line to the sources of Crook Burn; thence by the Crook Burn to its junction with the Clutha River; thence by the Clutha River to the starting point.

At the end of 1862, the Otago Provincial Government established a Gold Fields Department, appointing Vincent Pyke, a miner from Victoria, the first Gold Fields Department Secretary. His memoirs, published in 1887, provide an insight into the rapid administrative changes that took place

during the early period of the Otago rush. They also express strong reservations about the collective miners' administration of the self-regulating Mining Board:

the first and only Mining Board in New Zealand framed and issued Rules and Regulations for conducting their business . . . On the 2 8 t h October following they were relieved of their functions, by the revocation of the Proclamation instituting the Gabriel's Mining Board District . . . Having had very considerable experience of the working of Mining Boards in Victoria, I hold the opinion that we have escaped much trouble and great confusion by the early collapse of similar institutions here . . .

While on a visit to New Zealand in pursuit of health, overtures were made to me by the Provincial Government to organise the Goldfields Department. I accepted the office, resigning my seat in the Victorian Parliament to do so, and on 28th May 1862, I was formally gazetted as a Goldfields Commissioner' an office and title entirely unauthorised by law, but which, for some incomprehensible reason, was greatly favoured by the Provincial Government at the time. In my own case, it was subsequently changed for that of 'Goldfields Secretary' an office which I held until 1867; when, as one result of an unhappy conflict between the General and Provincial Governments, my office was abolished, and I was reduced to the rank of Warden.10

T u a p e k a / L a w r e n c e / G a b r i e l ' s The Warden's Court was not officially established on the Tuapeka Gold Field until 13 October 1862, well over a year after Read's first notification of a gold strike. A proclamation by J.L.C. Richardson, Superintendent of Otago, established Wardens' Courts within the Gabriel's, Waitahuna, Dunstan and Nokomai Districts." The Warden's Court took over from the defunct Mining Board and was based in the new settlement of Lawrence, rather than at Gabriel's Gully. There the various government officers, including the Warden, were housed in makeshift quarters until more substantial structures were erected in the 1870s.

Throughout this period names were interchangeable. The Lawrence Warden's Court was referred to as such because the Court building was situated in Lawrence, the town that had sprung up at the foot of Gabriel's Gully. However, the gold fields district was always officially gazetted as Tuapeka, the name of the area. Quite often the whole district, including the town of Lawrence, was familiarly known as Gabriel's.

W h a t Did T h e W a r d e n s Adminis ter? The 1862 Gold Fields Act had set about vesting the administration of the gold fields solely in the Warden and the Wardens' Courts. However, gold fields legislation received its most coherent expression in the 1866 Gold Fields Act, which established principles regulating the main activities on the gold fields for decades to come. 1 2 The Wardens enforced a reasonably strict code of rules and regulations, such as those printed in the Otago Provincial Government Gazette of April 1 8 6 8 . 1 3 A selection is summarised below:

The Miners Right: it was necessary for every person residing on the gold field, and engaged in mining, to take out a Miner's Right. This 'certificate of temporary title' had to be carried by the miner at all times, and produced on demand for the Warden or any other officer acting on the Warden's behalf.

Types of Claims: four types of claims were recognised: Ordinary Claims, i.e. alluvial claims worked without sluices or machines; Quartz claims; Dredging Claims, along the course of a river or stream; Frontage Claims, on a river bank, lake bank or terrace.

Size of Claims: an ordinary claim measured 100ft χ 100ft for each person. Quartz claims could not exceed 100ft in length along the course of the lode and by a width not exceeding 100ft each side of the course. A dredging claimant was entitled to 100 feet along the course of a river, and not exceeding 800ft. Frontage claimants could hold 100ft along a river or bank with a depth not exceeding 100 yards until such time as workable gold was reached.

The Marking of Claims: claims had to be marked by pegs standing at least 2ft above the surface of the ground, or by trenches at each corner of the claim.

Forfeiture of Claims: any claim not worked for more than 48 hours was deemed to be forfeited. Wardens could however grant restitution under certain conditions.

Water Rights: no water-right could be granted where the water was required for public use or for the miners generally.

The Warden and Protection Notices: the Warden could, without prior notice, grant protection to any claim for a period not exceeding fourteen days, provided sufficient cause was shown. Notice had to be posted on the claim concerned.

Dams and Machinery: any dam or machine not commenced within seven days from the date of the grant or completed within a reasonable t ime, or left unoccupied for one calendar month during a period when sufficient water was available, was deemed to be forfeited.

Public Safety: no person could dig within five feet of any public road.

Blasting: notification of blasting had to be posted on every road and track within

a quarter of a mile, and three hours notice given to all persons residing within

the danger zone. A red flag had to be hoisted during daylight hours, and a red

lamp between sunset and sunrise.

In addition to applying regulations, the Warden had jurisdiction over business and wholesale licenses, retail licenses for the sale of fermented and spirituous liquors, and licences for gambling, billiards and bagatelle (a form of pool). In all cases of mining registration, reasonable time for the performance of work, and validity of objections, the Warden was the sole judge.

An initial difficulty on the Otago gold fields was the lack of adequate supplies, especially fresh vegetables. Under the 1858 Act there was no provision for the sale of land for agricultural purposes or the encouragement of settlement, though this was partially rectified by the 1862 Act. On the Tuapeka field, for example, agricultural leases of ten acres, subject to a yearly rental of five shillings per acre, were established for the growing of vegetables for sale to the miners. Under the 1867 proclamation concerning agricultural leases on the gold fields, the area allowed for agriculture was extended to 50 acres.1 4 The right to enter such land in the search for gold, or any other mineral, was vested in the Governor and his authorised agent. Coal was discovered at Tuapeka and sold on the field. Timber was also occasionally available.15

T h e Multifunctional Warden ' s Court The Warden's Office was responsible not only for the administration of mining law and the resolution of disputes, but also the allocation of residence and business sites, water rights, administration of agricultural and other leases, and the hearing of mining related disputes within the district. The Wardens also acted as Resident Magistrates, hearing civil and criminal suits, though this was a case of a government official wearing two hats, rather than the Warden's position including jurisdiction over civil and criminal proceedings. The multiple jurisdictions of the government officials who administered the Wardens' Courts is well illustrated from the archives of the Lawrence Warden's Court. These contain extensive evidence of numerous official functions, including the administration of mining rules and regulations, the dispensing of justice in the Magistrate's Court, and the work of surveyors in the Survey Office. It is probable that the Warden's office building was used to conduct all manner of government business, since within a mining community the Warden's Office was its major focal point. An 1863 report by the Otago Gold Fields Department illustrates the variety, referring to the following staff in Gabriel's District - Warden, Receiver (of Gold Revenue), Clerk, and Bailiff, plus (for the Tuapeka Gold Field as a whole) a Mining Surveyor and an Inspector of Licences. Gold Fields Department officers, including those of Gabriel's district, filled a variety of roles:

of the thirty-five officers enumerated, ten perform duty in additional districts. All the Wardens act as Resident Magistrates, and three act as Mining Registrars also, and for the issue of Miners' Rights and Business Licences. All the Receivers are Mining Registrars, and one acts also as Clerk. The Clerks and Bailiffs of the Wardens' Courts act also as Clerks and Bailiffs of the Resident Magistrates' Courts. One clerk acts as Mining Registrar, and for the issue of Miners' Rights and Business Licenses. The Mining Surveyors also perform extra duties for the various department of the public service. 1 6

Popula t ion Mobility Changes in the mining population constantly affected staffing. These were not always well received. For example in July 1865:

Tuapeka, Waipori,Waitahuna, Woolshed, and Beaumont were to form one area of jurisdiction under a single warden, and Major Croker of Tuapeka was to be moved to Mt Benger. This proposal was greeted with a popular demonstration in Lawrence. Five hundred miners, many of them from outlying districts, marched down the main street, led by a piper and two flagbearers. The procession halted before Croker's house, praised his 'influence, talent and assiduity', condemned the proposed transfer, and gave him three cheers. The government relented and allowed Croker to remain . . . ' 7

Croker stayed as Warden, but for the larger Tuapeka District, which incorporated the former Gabriel's, Waitahuna and Waipori districts.

Amongst the changes were movement up the Clutha, and travel to new fields at the Arrow, Shotover and Wakatipu. By the end of 1864, approximately 6,000 miners had made their way to the Wakamarina gold field in Marlborough, and in 1865 the new West Coast gold fields attracted a large body of miners from Otago. There was also constant interchange of miners between Australia and Otago. By 1867 the population of the Otago gold fields had fallen from 15,700 in 1864 to 5,518. 1 8

Record-keep ing The many activities carried out by the staff employed in the Wardens' Courts explains the variety of material in the Lawrence archives. However, the attempt to administer several government functions within one business unit' (applicable to present government administration) tended to foster bad record-keeping practices. In 1867, the Gold Fields Commission visited the Tuapeka district and, in the course of its investigations, found the 'various records and accounts' in arrears, 'in a

state of great confusion, particularly as regards Mining and Agricultural Leases'. The Commission concurred with the Warden's view that insufficient staff was the problem: 'The Staff at present consists of one Warden, who also holds the Offices of Coroner, and Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages; one Receiver of Gold Revenue, acting also as Clerk to the Bench, the District Court, and the Wardens' Court; and a Bailiff'.1 9

The Commission recommended the appointment of a Clerk to act also as Assistant Receiver. It also recommended that visits to Waitahuna be gradually discontinued, and that the Warden continue to hold Courts at Waipori at least once a fortnight.20 In 1874 the Tuapeka Warden, E.H. Carew, reported on the work of the Court: 'The number of cases heard in the Warden's Court was 46, and 288 applications were disposed of. In the Resident Magistrate's Court 422 cases were decided within the same period.The total population of the district is now 4,816' . 2 1

W a r d e n s a n d W a r d e n s ' Courts Legis lat ion 2 2

Gold Fields Acts 1858 and 1860 Established the procedure for the functioning of Mining Boards. The Governor could delegate appointments of Wardens to the Provincial Superintendent.

Gold Fields Ac t 1862 (repealed 1866) The Governor constituted Wardens' Courts, appointed Wardens to hear and determine complaints regarding claim boundaries, to enquire into or decide on breaches of rules & regulations of Mining Boards, to entertain partnership questions and generally to hear and determine all disputes between miners regarding gold mining, and to ascertain damages and award compensation. The Judge had to keep a record of decisions made. The Governor could also make rules for Court procedure and business & could delegate powers to the Provincial Superintendent. The Act enabled the proclamation of gold fields, with associated regulations regarding such things as leases and liquor licences. The Governor could grant leases of agricultural or auriferous land and determine rents to be paid to the Receiver of Land Revenue. When powers were delegated to the Provincial Superintendent, costs were to be regulated by the Provincial Council and Superintendent through ordinances.

Gold Fields Act Amendment Act 1863 (repealed 1878) Added provisions to the Gold Fields Act 1862. It gave the Wardens general jurisdiction throughout the Province (i.e. not just in one particular gold field).

Gold Fields Acts Amendment Act 1865 (repealed 1866) Established procedures for appeals from Wardens Court to District Court or Supreme Court.

Milit ia Act 1865 (repealed 1878) Exempted from militia service, Wardens and other officers of a proclaimed gold field.

Gold Fields Act 1866 (repealed 1877) Provided detailed provisions for the Wardens' Courts.

Gold Fields Officers' Salaries Ac t 1869 (repealed 1877) Determined that when a Province made insufficient provision for goldfields' officers, the Governor could direct salaries etc. to be paid out of goldfields revenue for Wardens, clerks, receivers of revenue, surveyors etc.

Gold Mining Districts Ac t 1871 (repealed 1877) Compelled the Warden's Office to record applications in the order received, in a book kept for that purpose. It established Wardens' Courts for administration of justice, where Wardens were to determine questions of fact and law. Their jurisdiction was specified (section 73).

Abolition of Provinces Act 1875 Goldfields revenue was not t o go to a land fund, but was to be applied towards expenses of gold fields in the district.

Mining Act 1926

This Act specified the role of the Wardens' Courts up to their abolition.

Mining Act 1971

Superseded the Mining Act of 1926, and abolished the Wardens' Courts in New Zealand. The functions of the Wardens' Courts, in terms of the granting or issuing of licenses, were transferred to the Minister of Mines.

T h e Archives The archives of the Lawrence Warden's Court were transferred from the Hocken Library, an 'approved repository' under the Archives Act 1957, to the newly established National Archives Dunedin Regional Office in August 1993. They had come from three locations: in 1952, the greatest quantity from the Lawrence Court House; in April 1955 a few volumes that had found their way to the Court in Cromwell; and in 1975 a consignment of registers and applications from Alexandra, the location of the last Warden's Court in Otago and Southland. Of the 194 linear metres of all Wardens Court archives at National Archives in Dunedin, approximately 26 linear metres relate to the Lawrence Court.

The Lawrence Warden's Court archives contain most record types found in nineteenth and twentieth century government departmental archives - leather bound registers, soft bound ledgers, application files, and a miscellany of plans, maps, survey diagrams, and hand drawn illustrations. The generally brittle condition of the paper stems from the dry Central Otago climate. Many bound volumes, through constant opening and a hard working life, have detached spines, and some have missing covers. The dry red calf-skin leather of the covers tends to flake when touched, a condition known as red rot. The current re-boxing

and phase-boxing programme will help stabilise the paper files and minimise further deterioration of the volumes. Recent storage in an appropriate stack environment, with balanced humidity and temperature, will further preserve these fragile documents.

Most applications, notices and transfer documents within the archives consist of single or multiple-sheet fdes, almost always double folded. The three creases, resulting from the double-folding of a foolscap sheet, are prone to cracking, so that many early documents have detached into two or three portions. These will not be available to researchers until further conservation work has been done.

Many volumes have large water stains, evidence of poor storage in damp or leaky buildings, and of travelling mishaps of the Warden in those difficult Otago rivers. Some ends of files, stored as bundles, have a dry-rot condition, most probably from being stored in contact with a damp, outside wall. In short, the archives exhibit 'their' working life, and the hard conditions on the Central Otago gold fields. We are indeed fortunate to have the archives we now hold in the Dunedin Regional Office of National Archives.

1. T h e complex i ty o f the records was noted in the Annual Report o f the Hocken Library

in 1 9 7 5 , w h e n the Library rece ived the archives from Alexandra. See Hocken Library.

University of Otago. Annual Report 1975, p .2 .

2 . See the Mining Act 1 9 7 1 , New Zealand Statutes 1971, Vol. / .Wel l ington: Government

Printer, 1 9 7 2 .

3 . A.H. M c l i n t o c k gives the discovery date as 2 3 May 1 8 6 1 , based on Read's s o m e w h a t

'vague' narrat ive entry. Read passed on the information on 2 and 4 J u n e , and it w a s

relayed t o the Otago Witness for publication on 8 J u n e 1 8 6 1 . See McLintock , The

History of Otago. Chr i s tchurch: C a p p e r Press, repr, 1 9 7 5 , p p . 4 5 0 - 5 1 .

4 . Otago Provincial Government Gazette Vol. IV, 17 July 1 8 6 1 , p . 2 3 1 . Hereafter c i t ed

as OPGG.

5 . Vincent Pyke, A History of Early Gold Discoveries in Otago. Dunedin: O t a g o Daily

Times . . . Ltd. , 1 9 6 2 repr, p . 6 l .

6 . J .H.M. Salmon, A History of Goldmining in New Zealand. Well ington: Govt . Printer,

1 9 6 3 , p . 6 6 .

7 . OPGG, IV, 16 O c t o b e r 1 8 6 1 ; A.H. McLintock, The History of Otago, p . 4 5 6 ; Pyke,

Early Gold Discoveries, p . 6 1 .

8 . OPGG, IV, 5 March 1 8 6 2 , p p . 3 1 9 - 2 1 & Pyke, Early Gold Discoveries, p . 6 5 .

9 . The Gold Fields Act 1858-1860, s e c 14 , & OPGG, W, 17 May 1 8 6 2 , p . 4 5 0 .

10 . Pyke, Early Gold Discoveries, p . 6 6 .

1 1 . OPGGX 1 5 O c t o b e r 1 8 6 2 , p . 1 3 6 .

12 . 'An Act t o Consol idate and A m e n d the Laws Relating to the Gold Fields'. 8 O c t o b e r

1 8 6 6 . Statutes of New Zealand. Wellington: G o v e r n m e n t Printer, 1 8 6 6 , p p . 1 5 2 - 7 9 ·

1 3 . T h e 1 8 6 8 Regu la t ions clarify t h e Gold Fields Act o f 1 8 6 6 & t h e Gold Fields

A m e n d m e n t Act o f 1 8 6 7 , OPGG, XII , 2 9 April 1 8 6 8 , p. 1 4 7 - 4 8 . To see h o w these

regulations differed from earlier ones , see the 1 8 6 2 regulations, OPGG, P/, 2 8 J u n e

1 8 6 2 , p p . 4 7 9 - 8 5 , 'Rules and Regulations o f the Otago Gold Fields'.

1 4 . ' P r o c l a m a t i o n . Agr icu l tura l L e a s e s Regula t ions ' , OPGG, X I I , 1 4 F e b r u a r y 1 8 6 8 ,

p p . 4 8 - 5 0 .

1 5 . R e p o r t o f the Gold Fields Secre tary Vincent Pyke, Otago Votes and Proceedings,

Session. XVII, 1 8 6 3 , Repor t s , p p . 1 5 - 2 0 . Hereafter c i ted as OV&P.

1 6 . Ibid., p . 1 6 .

17 . Salmon, A History of Goldmining, p p . 1 0 4 - 0 5 .

1 8 . Ibid., p . 1 0 2 .

1 9 . 'Report o f the Commiss ion . . . into t h e Management o f the Gold Fields o f O t a g o ,

1 8 6 8 ' . OV&P, Session XXTV, 1 8 6 8 , Counci l Papers , p .2 .

2 0 . Ibid., pp .2 -3 .

2 1 . OV&P, Session X X X I I I , 1 8 7 4 , A p p e n d i x II, pp .4 -6 .

2 2 . Otago Provincial Government Gazette and New Zealand Gazette references relating

t o the Wardens ' Cour t s inc lude the following:

OPGG,V, 15 O c t o b e r 1 8 6 2 , p . 1 3 6 , Proc lamat ion , const i tut ing Wardens ' C o u r t s

within the Gold Fields - Gabriel's District , Waitahuna District ( including Waipor i

and t h e Woolshed); the Dunstan District; the Nokomai District) . OPGG, Γνζ 2 7 J u n e

1 8 6 2 , p p . 4 7 9 - 4 8 5 , Rules and Regulat ions o f t h e O t a g o Gold Fields - Claims,

Prospec t ing , W a t e r Rights and Courses , Dams and Puddling Machines , C r e e k and

River Claims, Roads, P r o t e c t i o n [of c la ims] , Registration [of c la ims] , Licenses [for

sale o f l iquor] , & General Regulat ions. OPGG,W, 15 S e p t e m b e r 1 8 6 3 , p p . 3 5 3 -

3 5 4 , Gold Fields P r o c l a i m e d - T u a p e k a , M o u n t Benger , N o k o m a i , D u n s t a n ,

Wakatipu, Mt Ida. OPGG, VI, 2 8 O c t o b e r 1 8 6 3 , p p . 4 1 7 - 4 1 8 , Order-in-Council by

Governor , W a r d e n s ' C o u r t s c o n s t i t u t e d : Gabriel 's District , W a i t a h u n a Dis tr ic t

( including Waipori and the W o o l s h e d ) , Dunstan District, Nokomai District , Mount

B e n g e r District. OPGG, VI, 2 8 O c t o b e r 1 8 6 3 , p p . 4 1 8 - 4 2 5 , Wardens ' Cour t s Rules

for Prov ince o f Otago , Order-in-Council by Governor regarding officers, minute

books , procedures , jurors , orders , fees. New Zealand Gazette, 15 September 1 8 6 3 ,

p . 3 9 9 , a p p o i n t m e n t o f W a r d e n s within O t a g o gold fields. Order-in-Council by

G o v e r n o r . OPGG, X I , 2 0 N o v e m b e r 1 8 6 7 , p p . 2 8 7 - 2 8 9 , W a r d e n s ' C o u r t Rules

established, appointment and duties for the Clerk o f Court , and detailed provisions

for records and p r o c e d u r e s , a c c o u n t s , compla ints , s u m m o n s and judgments .

Bibl iographic Note & A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s

T h e m o s t relevant bibliographic sources include the following materiaL Otago Provincial

Government Gazettes, 1853-76; Otago Provincial Council Ordinances, 1854-75; Otago

Provincial Council Votes and Proceedings, 1854-76; New Zealand Statutes, 1858-1971.

National Archives in Wel l ington holds the following relevant Legislative D e p a r t m e n t

archives; Le 1 / 1 8 6 3 / 1 0 2 'Proc lamat ions , Rules and Regulations issued u n d e r the Gold

Fields A c t 1 8 6 2 ' ; Le 1 / 1 8 6 6 / 1 1 3 'Return o f Rules and Regulations m a d e u n d e r the Gold

Fields A c t 1 8 6 2 and the Gold Fields A c t s A m e n d m e n t Act 1 8 6 5 ' ; Le 1 / 1 8 6 8 / 1 1 1 'Return

o f Gold Mining Rules and Regulations' . In t e r m s o f theses , published books and articles ,

t h e fo l lowing w e r e c o n s u l t e d : A.P.F. B r o w n e , ' T h e O t a g o Goldf ie lds . 1 8 6 1 - 1 8 6 3 :

Administrat ion and Public Life'. Unpubl i shed M.A. thesis ( C h r i s t c h u r c h : University o f

Canterbury, 1 9 7 4 ) ; J . H . M . Sa lmon, / ! History of Goldmining in New Zealand (Wellington:

G o v e r n m e n t Printer, 1 9 6 3 ) ; W.R. Mayhew, Tuapeka: the Land and its People (Dunedin:

Otago Centennial Historical Publicat ions, 1 9 4 9 ) ; T . J . H e a m . ' T h e Goldfields o f Otago: Old

Records , N e w V i e w s . T h e Archives o f the Wardens ' Courts ' , in The Tartan and the Gold:

Papers presented at the New Zealand Society of Genealogists' Conference, Dunedin,

1989 (Dunedin: NZSG, 1 9 8 9 ) , p p . 2 5 - 5 7 ; V i n c e n t Pyke, History of Early Gold Discoveries

in Otago (Dunedin: O t a g o Daily Times and Witness N e w s p a p e r s C o . Ltd, 1 9 6 2 repr . ) ;

A.H. McLintock, The History of Otago ( C h r i s t c h u r c h : C a p p e r Press . , 1 9 7 5 repr . ) .

W e would like t o thank Cheryl Simes w h o , w h e n working for National Archives in

Well ington, r e s e a r c h e d in-depth t h e administrative h is tory o f t h e Wardens ' C o u r t s in

Otago . Apprec iat ion is also due to Dr Terry Hearn o f Dunedin for helpful c o m m e n t s on

this art ic le .

A p p e n d i x 1

Summary list of the Lawrence Warden's court archives held as at August 1998

The following list summarises the archives of the Lawrence Warden's Court held at the Dunedin Office of National Archives. While much has been done to accurately identify items, more work is required.

This accession is currently the exception to National Archives arrangement and description policy. There is only one accession number (D98) but many agency codes (e.g. AAJC, AAIV, DACV, etc.). When the Wardens' Court archives were incorporated into the National Archives' GAIMS system, the controlling agencies were far from being fully established. The short term solution to this thorny problem was the allocation of many agencies under the one accession. An additional complexity was the subdivision of parts of the D98 accession into further groups under 'Arc G' numbers. Archives within the general 'D98' accession are separate from the Arc G' archives (the latter tending to contain the earliest holdings), resulting in the use of two (or more) codes in the Accession field (see example below). For example, a complete run of Applications Registers is split between AAJC/D98 and AAJC/D98/Arc G7. Although the split is not always apparent in the following summary, at least researchers will know to look at more than one list. Because much arrangement and description has still to be done on this accession, D98 is likely to exist as one accession with many agencies for the foreseeable future.

Layout of list The list organises the various types of archives in a logical manner by series. The Comments field gives individual item references and other additional information. An asterisk (*) is used to link references, dates and comments across the same entry. An example follows:

Agency Accession Series Year Range Comments

General Mining Applications, Licences & Transfers

AAJC •D98 & Applications 1862 - 64, Ref. *9/9 - 9/14; & D98 / Arc G7 1868 -

1885 -•1912

76, 1911, 52

Réf. No .472 - 1061 (bundle numbers non-inclusive); 1067, 1068, 1071, 1072 (includes Waipori / Waitahuna / Glcnore / Havelock WCs).

AAJC •D98 & Applications Registers 1870 - 1933, Rcf. No. 9 9 0 - 999,1030,1031; D98 / Arc G7 •1933 52 & -Ref. 35/5, 35/6, 35/9, 73/4

(includes Roxburgh WC). NB: some volumes contain several series.

List The Summary List of the holdings is appended:

AA

JC

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7,

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D

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18

71,

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4.

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18

99

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1868

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Ref

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10

00

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01

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ncl

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list

of

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s,

loca

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tifi

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s &

dat

es.)

A

AJC

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Nu

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of

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1920

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33

Ref

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A

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Rec

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old

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1069

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NB

: so

me

volu

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in

seve

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AA

JC

D98

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Reg

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erti

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Bu

tts,

18

62

-83

, R

ef.

No.

731

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55

(ce

rtif

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inin

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. 18

97

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non

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1882

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84,

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(in

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W

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1887

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88

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1867

R

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9. N

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vo

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R

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(i

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98

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68

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1864

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1866

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Ref

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AA

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68

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97

AA

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39

5 M

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AA

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1938

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A

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1863

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24

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Ref

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Reg

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L

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19

15

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R

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No

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75

Ren

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18

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No

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9, 4

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. A

AJC

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Gol

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Lic

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18

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Res

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AA

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1863

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23

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35

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4,

44

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app

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cert

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A

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Reg

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18

62

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86

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AA

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1908

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1910

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19

20

1909

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68

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1867

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1887

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92

Ref

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is

volu

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con

tain

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vera

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of

re

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Ref

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76

, 7

77

.

Mis

cell

a n

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AA

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1874

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1898

Ref

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The Evolution of a Community Archive: The story of the North Otago Museum Archive

Bruce McCulloch

North Otago Museum

Introduction In 1987 Oamaru opened the smallest professionally-run archive in New Zealand, serving a borough of just over 12,000 people. Its evolution is an interesting story, one of strong and committed community support against a background of conflict and politics. The institution in question is the North Otago Museum Archive part of the North Otago Museum, currently a department of the Waitaki District Council. This account of its development is the subjective view of one who was closely involved in the process.

Oamaru has always been a fiercely parochial community, one proud of its heritage. The Museum collection had existed since 1863, but it was not until 1977 that the Oamaru Borough Council appointed a professional museum director. Archives may have been mentioned earlier than 1977, when the new North Otago Museum was opened, but had gained little attention. In fact, in 1978 when I started work, the Museum's archives consisted of two small cardboard boxes of papers and some photographs.

In November 1977, Stuart Strachan, then Senior Archivist at the National Archives, wrote to Oamaru Town Clerk, Joe Rudhall, to point out that with the dissolution of the Oamaru Harbour Board, . . . consideration ought to be given to the preservation of potentially useful records for historical purposes.'1 Stachan suggested that, if the Council did not have the facility to preserve such records, 'that you deposit them with the Hocken Library in Dunedin.'2 The Council had deposited some records in the Hocken in 1953, so the suggestion was not without precedent. However, times had changed since the early 1950s. With the

opening of the new museum had come a new enthusiasm for the town's history. Rudhall advised Strachan that he was currently investigating the availability of storage in Oamaru and concluded that there appeared to 'be sufficient storage in our fireproof strongrooms in the North Otago Museum.'3 Rudhall informed the Council of its obligation under the 1974 Local Government Act to make appropriate arrangements for the custody of its documents. He was asked to discuss that matter with the other local authority in town, the Waitaki County Council.

T h e H o c k e n L i b r a r y Shows Interes t In April 1978 Peter Miller, Archivist at the Hocken Library, wrote to the Council explaining that he understood there had been some discussion about the Council's archives. He pointed out the Hocken Library's strong interest in the preservation of local authority records. Miller offered to discuss the matter with the Town Clerk during his forthcoming visit to Oamaru in May, as he was keen to see that the 'permanently valuable records . . . are preserved in the best possible conditions for future researchers.'4 The Borough continued to discuss the matter with the County and Arthur Budd, County Clerk, suggested that the old garage/ workshop behind its Thames Street building might be a suitable building to share. The next mention in Council records came in April 1979 when Peter Miller again wrote to the Council, expressing his willingness to assist in any way and hoping that some action had been taken to alleviate the situation in the basement facilities.5

Here it is necessary to record my first impression of the archive storage when I began work at the North Otago Museum. The Council basement had a clay floor and a few rough wooden shelves. Many rate books were stored direcüy on the clay floor, with the Cemetery Trustees records and a few mixed files forming a pile just over one metre high and 4-5 metres in diameter. While the bottom 50mm of this pile could not be saved, the rest survived the ordeal. Fortunately, the majority of the Council's other archives were stored in fireproof safes. No progress was made on utilising the room behind the County Council office, because the County was asked to lease the premises. It suggested the idea be put off until the lease expired in another three to five years.

Sort ing Begins About this time I began systematically sorting through the Oamaru Harbour Board records, helped greatly by advice from Peter Miller. Workers from a Labour Department employment scheme moved, sorted, cleaned and catalogued the records - not perhaps as a real archivist

would have done, but sufficient to provide better storage and to improve public access.

Over the next two to three years little happened with the archives, although annual reports of the North Otago Museum record:

1978 One of the most time consuming duties carried out has been answering of public enquiries . . . by letter, phone or personal contact . Increased sorting, cataloguing and copying of photographic collection should greatly increase the efficiency of answering public enquiries in the future.

1979 Proper storage of archive material is 'essential if they are to be used as research material in the future' and it is hoped that some day they will be all under one roof.

1980 Majority of enquiries are of a family history nature. Instigation of the Oamaru Cemetery transcript project, using the Student Community Project, should assist answering enquiries.

1981 Dramatic increase in enquiries, particularly family history.6

Of some relevance during this period was a letter from the Hocken Library requesting support for the retention of nineteenth-century government records in Dunedin, and the return of other Otago records from Wellington. The North Otago Museum Committee supported this initiative, with the Borough Council resolving that 'early archive material be returned to the local area where suitable facilities exist.'7 The Council would subsequently use this same principle to recover North Otago records from Hocken Library, but that story later.

In December 1981, the Museum Committee again discussed access to archives in Oamaru and the desirability of transferring them to a central location where they could be made available to the public.8 It recommended referring the question of suitable premises back to the Joint Oamaru Borough/Waitaki County Standing Committee. By February 1982, the Town Clerk had reported that the Joint Committee had deferred any decision until the future of the County building had been finalised.9 It was about this time that the Museum Committee realised that the Oamaru Borough Council would do better to pursue the archive option alone, rather than waiting for a joint decision.

Getting U n d e r Way In 1982 things really started to move. The Museum received more outside archival advice, this time from Rosemary Collier, a private records management and archives consultant. Responding to an article in the Otago Daily Times, 13 February, Collier congratulated the Council

on its decision to retain and house archives from the North Otago region. She questioned, however, the expertise of Museum staff to oversee the archives project and suggested the 'need for an experienced archivist to work for a time on establishing policies and practices, and to initiate professional lines of archival work.'1 0

In April 1982 the Museum Committee learnt of an impending bequest from the estate of K.D. Mitchell. It discussed the use of this and other bequests for some positive purpose, such as the provision of what the Committee called an archive library.11 In June the Museum Committee again discussed bequests and legacies. Worried that in recent years many valuable archives had been lost to the district, the Committee asked me to undertake a preliminary investigation into the amount of archival material in the district, and to assess the size of a building to store it safely. I found that approximately 120 linear metres of archives were held by the Oamaru Borough Council and 80 metres by the Waitaki County Council. I estimated there was unlikely to be more than a further 200 metres in private and business collections. If an expansion of 100 linear metres was allowed, it would bring the total to 500 metres, requiring 125 square metres of floor space. 1 2

A n Opt ions R e p o r t In September I produced a detailed report outlining the possible options for use of bequest funds. It was a rather forceful selling' document, proposing the creation of an archive library for North Otago - noting that 'at present local archives are scattered through Oamaru' - and the provision of additional display space for the Museum.13 It pointed out that many records were being lost to the district through donation to the Hocken Library. Worse, countless records were being dumped because there was no suitable local repository. North Otago researchers had to travel to widely-spread repositories; a local archive would gready assist them. The report continued in philosophical vein:'As our society develops and as leisure time increases, there will be increased demands on archival material . . . Undoubtedly as our community develops, more effective steps for the preservation of archives will take place by the sanction of public opinion. National Archives, in Wellington, is a good example of this. Its recent re-organisation and increase in staff is indicative of the realisation of archival importance.'1 4.

The logical location for an archive was at the rear of the Museum in Steward Street. This would enable considerable savings through sharing existing Council staff and facilities. A new building could also include a much-needed addition to the Museum display area. However, access to the Library and rooms above the Museum was identified as a

problem. Other possible locations included an archive in conjunction with the Forrester Art Gallery, or in surplus rooms at Waitaki Boys' High School.

The report stated that, although there was no guaranteed budget at this stage, 'an empty room would make a much better repository for archival material which might otherwise end up being stored just off Tamar Street' (the town dump). Access to the records would be limited, but at least they would be there when their 'real value was realised.'15

The archives library had the full support of the Oamaru Public Librarian, Joan Blackburn, who had been involved with the idea since its inception.

C o m m e n t o n t h e R e p o r t In September 1982 we received a letter from Michael Hitchings of the Hocken Library. Although assuring that he was 'neither seeking to block the establishment of an archives in Oamaru, nor . . . [attempting] . . . an exercise in self-aggrandizement',16 his letter was not well received in Oamaru. It pointed out that 'proper consideration needs to be given to the basic matter of where archives may be best located' and that there must 'be very compelling reasons indeed for cutting across the recommendations' of Dr Wilfred Smith1 7 towards the creation of regional archive centres. He went on to suggest that 'decisions made now, which will have an effect for generations to come, ought to be made only after the most mature consideration.' Although this letter created some ill-feeling, it was probably a major contributing factor in inspiring the locals to develop their own archive. Correspondence received at the same time from Rosemary Collier was very encouraging. It praised the archive proposal as an 'excellent one.' 1 8

Although the report and subsequent letters had crystallised the feelings of the Museum Committee, Council management and the Council, it was decided not to commit to another local building project until after the new art gallery was finished. The Museum did, however, agree that it would accept archives from local firms, clubs and individuals, and would actively promote the Museum as a local repository. A proposal by the Mayor, Reg Denny, to use Museum bequest funds for the North Otago Art Gallery with space provided for archives was not supported by other councillors. 1 9

Progress was understandably slow in 1983, although the Council received encouragement from a local group. The North Otago Branch of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists pointed out that genealogy was a growing hobby and offered to assist in setting up the archive.2 0

The Council also wrote to all solicitors in Oamaru, bringing to their

attention the possibilities of historical documents and photographs being lost or destroyed when estates were wound up. It confirmed that the Museum would care for such records.

Confl ict a n d P r o g r e s s The year 1983 saw a major conflict with the Hocken Library. In February a letter was sent to the Hocken Library informing it of the Museum's interest in purchasing a local collection of early Oamaru architectural plans. It asked Michael Hitchings to view the collection and provide an assessment of its value. More correspondence, telephone calls and much confusion ensued. The end result was that, despite our interest, the Hocken Library acquired this very important Oamaru collection. From the Museum's perspective, the affair appeared to put the Hocken Library in a bad light. I have to accept some of the blame. Despite being the local professional, I was not experienced enough to sort out the situation. The episode did, however, add weight to the Museum's contention that an archive repository in Oamaru was essential. In a sentimental statement, almost certainly copied from elsewhere, the 1983 Annual Report stated that: 'if we are to be proud of the achievements which make North Otago what it is today, then we should find great value in any records which document these achievements. Archives are a valuable asset, and to neglect them is to neglect a significant part of our heritage.'21

Major progress was made during 1984. First, the Museum agreed to store The Oamaru Mail newspapers, challenging standard archives practice by charging the Mail $500 a year to look after them. Most archivists were astounded by the charge, but it seemed the natural thing to do. The arrangement lasted four years, until the Mail finally donated the newspapers. If an institution provides the right sort of service, payment can be reasonably expected.

The Waitaki County Council, however, was not prepared to support a joint archive initiative. Despite extensive political manoeuvres, the County refused to commit any funds, although it supported the concept. County Clerk Arthur Budd reported: 'At the moment the Council's own archives can be adequately housed in its present building, but it recognises that other records . . . should be brought in to a centralised position and preserved.'22 The Museum Committee recommended that the Oamaru Borough Council seek professional advice to assess options on a suitable building space for an archive library. It agreed to engage local architects McAllum & Warburton, and instructed the Public Librarian, Joan Blackburn, and me to prepare a suitable brief.

P l a n n i n g B r i e f a n d Siting R e p o r t The resulting North Otago Archive Planning Brief23 was presented in July 1984 . Although only thirteen pages long, it incorporated considerable research. It gave specific directions to the architect. It set out the objectives of a North Otago Archive service, suggesting some key site considerations and outlining the physical requirements of the building. Management and operation, as well as costings and time scale, were also discussed. Preliminary drafts were sent to a number of archives institutions. Very positive responses were received from National Archives and Rosemary Collier. Both noted the inappropriateness of our term archive library and also stressed the need for a trained archivist to be involved. Sue Sutherland, of the Canterbury Public Library, was 'impressed and excited by the draft.'24

We were not surprised with the response from Hocken Library, which noted the report had 'a number of deficiencies' and that 'insufficient research has been undertaken, and figures do not reflect reality.'25

In spite of this criticism, it was decided to proceed with a siting report, which the architects, McAllum and Warburton, produced. Submitted in May 1985, this concluded that the building should form part of the Museum/Library complex. 2 6 The required weight loading and the need to allow access to regular customers ruled out existing multi-storied buildings. It also pointed out the obvious problem with this site - difficulty of access to the first floor meeting rooms above the Museum.

About that time another idea, strongly promoted by Museum Committee chair Helen Stead, emerged - that of a National Architectural Archive in Oamaru. 2 7 The concept was discussed by the Oamaru Borough Council, particularly the notion of combining it with the Museum Archive or the new Forrester Gallery. Council recognised the difficulties of combining such a national institution with a local facility, and that it would make the next stage of the Gallery costly. When funds for a feasibility study did not materialise, the idea faded.

By October 1985 the issues had been worked through. Preliminary plans had been produced and approved. Because the new Museum extension would affect the Public Library, it was decided to alter the Library, including a new stack and staff room, utilising Library bequest funds.

T e n d e r Let Council tendered out a 'design and build' contract which attracted five responses. Although the external designs presented varied significantly, internal arrangements were very similar. They consisted of a 120 square

metre storage area with a 40 square metre mezzanine for expansion, as well as a 25 square metre work area for sorting and cataloguing and a 12 square metre public area. New museum display space was also allowed for. Provision was made for fully fire-rated compartments and a fire detection system. (An independent smoke alarm system has since been added.) Other features included a security system, mobile shelving and double glazed UV protected windows.

Tenders varied by as much as 20 per cent. After considerable discussion, the Council accepted LJ. McCullough builder's price of $151,654 for the Museum Archive and display areas, and $36,749 for the Library additions.28 Because the Council did not then receive the expected government subsidy, it removed the floor coverings and internal painting from the contract. McCullough's tender did, however, include provision for a full second floor in the archive store area, rather than the originally envisaged mezzanine. The Waitaki County Council's refusal to contribute financially to the project was a continued irritation.

The Borough Council took pride in the fact that the new institution was being completed 'at no cost to the ratepayer.'29 It also wished to keep running costs down, deciding to 'encourage a financial contribution from donors, towards the storage, conservation and maintenance of donated archives' 3 0 - again not then standard archive policy. Despite minor complications, the contract was officially completed on 15 August 1986, just two days after the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board notified its approval of a grant of $45,000, allowing painting of the interior and installation of mobile shelving.

The Oamaru Branch of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists assisted with the huge task of moving the records into the new Archive, the beginning of a long, mutually-beneficial partnership that has since extended to include assistance with local newspaper indexing, copying school records and providing donations towards the cost of microfiche. The 1986/87 Annual Plan noted this was 'indicative of the co-operation the Archive is trying to engender within the community.'31

T h e O p e n i n g Over 100 people attended a very successful opening on 15 May 1987. The Hon Mike Moore, Minister of Tourism, officially opened the building, stating 'Archives were important because they would help those of European descent to research and discover their origins.'32 He added, As more overseas visitors came to New Zealand seeking cultural experiences such facilities as the Archive were also valuable as tourist attractions.' The Mayor noted the new Archive cost just over $200,000 without any call on ratepayers' money', and called on the Waitaki

County Council to help in its upkeep. 3 3 In this context special acknowledgment was made of the Archive benefactors who had contributed by bequest and donation to the new facility: E. Bolton, J . Brown, M. G. Dewar, H. B. Gardiner, J . Gerrie, G.L. Grenfell, A. Griffin, A. M. Holmes, Η. Ε Malcolm, K. D. Mitchell, J. D. Orbell, H. Richmond, P. J. Robins, K. L. Stewart, and C. E. Stringer. In conjunction with the opening, an agreement was made with The Oamaru Mail newspaper. The Mail would transfer ownership of its complete file, starting in 1879, giving a commitment to binding and donating future copies. It also agreed to donate $2,000 towards shelving, in line with Archive policy.

R e t u r n o f Depos i ted Mater ia l In August 1987 the Council requested the return of material deposited in the Hocken Library in 1953, pointing out that recent publicity had highlighted the Library's limited space. The Hocken seemed reluctant to return the records, and it was not until July 1989 that some Oamaru Harbour Board and North Otago school records were returned. This came only after the Hocken had requested support for the establishment of a National Archives office in Dunedin. The Town Clerk wrote to the Minister of Internal Affairs34 supporting this option, and on the same day wrote to the Hocken Library, again35 with some success.

In August 1989 the Hocken requested a donation towards micro-filming Otago Provincial Government records, and the Acting Town Clerk asked for a report on the current relationship with the Hocken Library. My report summarised recent frustration.36 The 'Hocken have not been particularly sympathetic to the North Otago Museum Archive cause over the last few years. In initial stages . . . they were positively obstructive.' It mentioned that a change in management had considerably enhanced the situation, but they 'still have our Oamaru Athenaeum records which they have agreed to return and our North Otago Times newspapers missing from our 1864-1932 sequence'. It pointed out that things were getting better despite 'numerous hassles'. I noted that the 'only money . . . available would be if we were to offer to buy back the architectural plans!' Despite my comments, the Council supported the Hocken Library's initiative over the Provincial Government records, and suggested a donation be considered at estimates time. It was not until June 1991 that delivery was finally taken of the missing newspaper volumes, more than four years after the initial request.*

Subsequent D e v e l o p m e n t s The most significant development was the appointment of Museum Curator Kathleen Stringer, whose enthusiasm for the Archive has been

crucial to its public success in recent years. In June 1988 the Otago Education Board announced that the North Otago Museum Archive would be the official repository for school records from the district, and in February 1989 the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand agreed to deposit its North Otago church records in the Archive. A request from the National Library to microfilm the bound copies of The Oamaru Mail was eventually agreed to, providing this was done without destroying the integrity of the newspapers.

A June 1989 report showed that 49 per cent of our Archive customers came from within the Borough, 11 per cent from within the County and 40 per cent from outside the North Otago area. 3 7 A suggestion of imposing user-pay charges on written enquiries -from outside the district was implemented later that year. The user pays system was further developed in 1997. Most enquirers now pay a fee. Written enquiries are charged at $35 per hour. Out-of-town personal enquirers pay $5 daily and ratepayers $2 daily. The continued support of the local genealogical group is acknowledged by charging its members only $1 per day, while all educational research is free.

During the early 1990s the Museum Archive began promoting the use of archives to senior school groups. After an initial familiarisation visit to the Archive, students assisted with 'hands on' archival sorting and cataloguing. They were then given the opportunity to do individual local historical research. Other activities have been developed to fit aspects of the school curriculum. For example, Waitaki Boys' High School pupils successfully use the Archive for a 5th form geography assignment.

In November 1990 the Archive received a Conservation award of $11,250 from the Cultural Conservation Advisory Council. The award acknowledged that the Archive had 'achieved standards of environmental control, storage and security . . . [that were] . . . a model for a small region wishing to maintain its historical records securely.'38 The money bought a new thermohygrograph, smoke detectors and a heat pump to allow the maintenance of more stable environmental conditions.

Since its opening the Archive has received many requests for advice from other small districts and museums. It was closely involved with the Waimate Museum Archive, initially in an advisory role and later contractually, developing a database and advising on cataloguing and storage.

Database Deve loped In 1993, after waiting a number of years for a national museum product, the Museum decided to develop a digital database. Investigation of proprietary museum and archive database packages showed that even

the cheapest was too expensive and that development of an inhouse database was the only realistic answer. In November 1993, with two new computers and the newly released Paradox for Windows product, staff began to work through all aspects of database development. Considerable time was spent learning about a relational database and its capabilities. A better understanding of archives was also gained -how to store and catalogue them without loss of integrity and, equally important, how to access the information they contained. A prime object in introducing the digital system was to enable any record to be found in less than 30 seconds. Now, 52,014 records later, public access to the collection has been significantly enhanced.

The input of data, like many other activities at the North Otago Museum, was accomplished using employment schemes. The Museum's use of these schemes is often criticised, but they have proved very successful. Most of those employed have subsequently found full-time work, despite being categorised 'long term' unemployed beforehand.Two are currently undertaking contract work for the Museum on image digitisation and database development. These digital records will be available in the Oamaru Public Library when it upgrades to a Windows database, and through Internet when Council management finally realises the value of such a connection.

F u t u r e N o r t h Otago M u s e u m Arch ive Pro jec t s Contracting out is currently being trialled for different aspects of Archive service, including the answering of written research enquiries and the supply of photographic copies. There is close monitoring, but as better contract specifications are developed and more confidence is gained in the contractors it is hoped that the Archive will become more relaxed with the new arrangements. Digitising the photographic collection is also in train. Such an investment should pay dividends once the images are available through the Internet.

There is growing pressure from the Waitaki District Council for customers to pay for services received. The challenge will be accommodate this requirement without adversely affecting those unable to pay to research their heritage.

C u r r e n t Statistics

Floor area: 277 square metres.

Collection size: 810 linear metres of archives; 5,156 maps and plans; 591,178 photographs.

Number of records on database: 52,014 including 418 provenances on 3,180 subjects.

Subject matter relates to: 1,455 different individuals/families; 593 businesses; 580 societies and organisations; 244 specific subjects; 114 places; 72 schools; 65 local authorities; and 57 churches.

Last year's budget: $107,000 (approximately 50 per cent of Museum's total budget).

Fees collected since August 1997: $1,634.

Hours open: Monday to Friday 8.30am-500pm, Sunday 1.00pm-4.30pm.

Number of letter enquiries last year: 63.

Number of personal enquiries last year: 1,330.

Number of telephone enquiries last year: 852.

A customer survey of the Museum in early 1997 showed that 12 per cent of visitors use the Archive. Of these, 13 per cent use it once a week, 8 per cent once a month, 23 per cent once a year, and 58 per cent only rarely. Ninety-five per cent found the staff helpful, 5 per cent satisfactory and none not very helpful. Sixty per cent found access to the records easy, 38 per cent found it satisfactory, and 2 per cent found it difficult. Although the survey was carried out during a holiday period, the results are still indicative of our customer usage and response. 3 9

T h a n k s I wish to thank those people who significantly contributed to the development of the Museum Archive. Firstly, the Museum Committee (chaired by Helen Stead), who had the original vision, and the former Oamaru Borough Council, which had the courage to embark on such a new and different project. Oamaru Public Librarian, Joan Blackburn, gave professional support, considerable input and encouragement throughout. Greatest credit probably should go to the former Town Clerk, Joe Rudhall, whose management skills and political 'nous' allowed the project to continue to progress, despite numerous setbacks.

I must also mention the Hocken Library, who were at times frustrating and seemed non-supportive.Thanks for making us really think about what we did. You helped make us a stronger institution. We currently have a very good relationship with the Hocken Library.

Lastly, thanks to Kathleen Stringer for assisting in the research of this essay, and to Joan Blackburn, Thomas Heyes and Jennifer McCulloch for reading the manuscript and providing critical comment.

*Editor and Hocken Librarian's note: The position of the Hocken Library requires some explanation. There was no policy of discouraging the development of the North Otago Museum Archive, as there was clearly a large need for such an archive in Oamaru; nor did the Library ever have an active policy of collecting North Otago archives. There were some reservations about the proposed archive in the light of the Wilfred Smith proposal for regional archives; and some North Otago archives were placed in the Hocken Library because that was the preference of some donors and depositors, particularly in the absence of a formed archive in Oamaru. the quantities were not large. The request for the return of deposited archives came after they had been for thirty-five years in the Library's care, thoroughly integrated into its holdings. In any case it was not fully clear who were their present owners. The Harbour Board archives, a small partial holding, presented few problems, but the Athenaeum records were part of the Library's larger Otago holding of such records, which contributed to a wider understanding of the role of our early public libraries. The solution was to copy them before returning the originals to Oamaru. The North Otago Times volumes gave the most heartache, as these were well used by North Otago university students studying in Dunedin and by others undertaking wider research on Otago towns and country districts. Although they effectively filled the Museum Archive's gap, they in fact derived from another sequence. The gap in Dunedin remains. The North Otago school records - of three or four small schools only - had all been properly deposited in the Hocken Library by the Otago Education Board. They were not the Library's to transfer to the Museum Archive without proper authority. It was on the Library's recommendation that the Board sanctioned the transfer and designated the Museum Archive as the formal place of deposit for all North Otago school archives. It is worth mentioning also that Hocken Library members of the Presbyterian Church Archives Committee supported further designation of the Museum Archive as a repository for local Presbyterian church records. Finally, the icing on the cake, it was the Hocken Librarian who, as a member of the Cultural Conservation Advisory Council, proposed and argued the case for the Conservation Award to the North Otago Museum Archive.

1. S.R. Strachan, Let ter to Oamaru Borough Counci l , 2 3 November 1 9 7 7 .

2. ibid.

3 . J .M. Rudhall, Let ter to National Archives, 2 0 D e c e m b e r 1 9 7 7 .

4 . PR. Miller, Letter to O a m a r u Borough Counci l , 2 8 April 1 9 7 8 .

5. PR. Miller, Letter to O a m a r u Borough Counci l , 5 April 1 9 7 9 -

6 . B r u c e McCul loch , North Otago Museum Annual Reports 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981.

7. O a m a r u Borough Counci l Minutes, 2 4 N o v e m b e r 1 9 8 0 .

8 . Nor th Otago Museum C o m m i t t e e Minutes, 17 D e c e m b e r 1 9 8 1 .

9 . Nor th Otago Museum C o m m i t t e e Minutes, 1 8 F e b r u a r y 1 9 8 2 .

1 0 . R o s e m a r y Collier, Let ter t o O a m a r u B o r o u g h Counci l , 1 5 February 1 9 8 2 .

1 1 . N o r t h Otago Museum C o m m i t t e e Minutes, 2 2 April 1 9 8 2 .

1 2 . N o r t h Otago Museum C o m m i t t e e Minutes, 1 9 August 1 9 8 2 .

1 3 . B r u c e McCulloch, Stage III North Otago Museum, p .2 , 2 3 S e p t e m b e r 1 9 8 2 .

1 4 . ibid, p . 3 .

1 5 . ibid, p .4 .

16. Michael Hitchings, Let ter t o Nor th O t a g o Museum, 2 1 S e p t e m b e r 1 9 8 2 .

17 . Wilfred I. Smith, Archives in New Zealand - a Report, Archives and R e c o r d s

Associat ion o f N e w Zealand, Well ington, 1 9 7 8 .

1 8 . R o s e m a r y Collier, Let ter t o North Otago Museum, 21 S e p t e m b e r 1 9 8 2 .

1 9 . O a m a r u Borough Counci l Minutes, 2 2 N o v e m b e r 1 9 8 2 .

2 0 . B. Pullar, Letter t o O a m a r u Borough Counci l , 1 3 July 1 9 8 3 .

2 1 . B r u c e McCul loch, North Otago Museum Annual Report 1983.

2 2 . A. E. Budd, Letter to O a m a r u B o r o u g h Counci l , 1 May 1 9 8 4 .

2 3 . J o a n Blackburn and Bruce McCulloch North Otago Archives Planning Brief, Oamaru ,

July 1 9 8 4 .

2 4 . Sue Sutherland, Letter to North Otago Museum, 6 August 1 9 8 4 .

2 5 . P. R. Miller, Let ter to Nor th Otago Museum, 31 July 1 9 8 4 .

2 6 . McAllum and W a r b u r t o n , North Otago Archives Siting Report, O a m a r u May 1 9 8 5 .

2 7 . Helen Stead, Establishment of National Architectural Archives in North Otago,

O a m a r u 1 9 March 1 9 8 5 .

2 8 . O a m a r u Borough Counci l Confidential Minutes, 1 2 D e c e m b e r 1 9 8 5 .

2 9 . N e w s p a p e r cutt ing, The Oamaru Mail, 7 F e b r u a r y 1 9 8 6 .

3 0 . ibid.

3 1 . B r u c e McCul loch, North Otago Museum Annual Report 1986/87.

3 2 . N e w s p a p e r cutt ing, Otago Daily Times, 1 6 May 1 9 8 7 .

3 3 . ibid.

3 4 . J o e Rudhall, Let ter t o Minister o f Internal Affairs, 2 7 May 1 9 8 8 .

3 5 . J o e Rudhall, Let ter t o H o c k e n Library, 2 7 May 1 9 8 8 .

3 6 . B r u c e McCul loch, R e p o n re H o c k e n Library letter o f 15 August 1 9 8 9 , 2 7 August

1 9 8 9 .

3 7 . B r u c e McCulloch, Nor th Otago Museum Director's R e p o r t J u n e 1 9 8 9 .

3 8 . Mina McKenzie , Let ter t o Waitaki District Counci l , 15 N o v e m b e r 1 9 9 0 .

3 9 . B r u c e McCulloch, Report North Otago Museum Survey 1996/97, 2 4 February 1 9 9 7 .

A Database for All Seasons: Building the Caversham Database for Historical Research

H a m i s h J a m e s

University of Otago

The Caversham Database is the main research tool supporting the Caversham Project, an interdisciplinary social history research project at the University of Otago.1 It maintains information relevant to the Project's historical research, and presents that information in a useful form to members of the Project. A database enables large amounts of data to be analysed. Frequencies, percentages, means, modes and medians can be calculated; associations measured; and the data statistically modelled.

The Caversham Project, known more formally as Urban Society and the Opportunity Structure', is designed to analyse urban social structure by identifying: patterns of social mobility and geographic movement, and the relationship (if any) between them; and patterns of residential differentiation and property ownership, and their interrelationship. In addition it wishes to identify the relationships between social, geographic, and residential patterns, and to examine their cumulative impact on people's access to certain life chances. The Project is also designed to explore the influence of these structural features of urban society on class formation as measured by growing support for, and resistance to, an independent and socialist Labour Party. In short, the Project, planned as the foundation for a larger, on-going investigation, is designed to identify some central structural features of urban New Zealand society and to permit systematic comparisons with urban social structures in other societies.2

The Caversham Project has its origins in the 1970s, when it was conceived in the mould of the urban case studies conducted by American historians as part of the New Social History.3 Seeking to step outside the view of history afforded by narrative documents, such as

diaries and newspapers, the New Social History drew on different sources that provided information not just on those who wrote, or were written about, but on ordinary people.The intention was to 'reconstruct the experiences of common urban dwellers through systematic analysis of mass records newly accessible through the domestication of the computer as a historian's tool'. 4 Quantitative in nature, this type of research was made less arduous by the use of computers, which were able to sort and count the thousands of records collected by researchers seeking to probe the lives of entire populations, rather than a few literate elites.

For the Caversham Project, the selected population was the residents of the Borough of Caversham, a predominantly industrial suburb of New Zealand's then most industrial city, Dunedin. The initial period of study, 1902-22, was chosen because of important social and demographic changes then in train which had not previously been studied in detail. These included: rapid urbanisation; a sharp decline in fertility and mortality; an acceleration of internal migration to the North Island; a dramatic upsurge in immigration from Britain and Australia; the use of new forms of energy and new knowledge in production and transport; and the reorganisation of the nation's economy around the export of dairy products and frozen meat to Britain. It was also expected that such a detailed study would help illuminate major events of the period, such as the rise of an independent Labour Party and the impact of the First World War.

Because the individual census returns, an excellent resource and the most popular source in similar American studies, had unfortunately been destroyed in New Zealand, the Caversham Project began in the 1980s by accumulating electoral roll and directory entries for the Borough of Caversham from 1902 to 1922. 5 These sources provide addresses and occupational information for men (allowing the investigation of male occupational mobility, a central component of the New Social History) and of residential persistence for men and women, a topic later made prominent in New Zealand by Fairburn's The Ideal Society and Its Enemies.6 Since 1995, however, the Caversham Project has been funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, allowing information from other sources to be collected, expanding possible topics and analyses.

Electoral rolls are the most comprehensive source of basic data on the adult population (21 years and older). Information from them continues to form the core of the Caversham Database.7 They also define the beginning and end of the study period, now stretching from 1902 to 1928. In full, the electoral rolls give the name, address and

occupation of adult men and the name, address and marital status of adult women. This data allows geographical movement and occupational change to be measured and analysed. A useful supplement is provided by Stone's Directories, which contain listings of residents by street, alphabetically by name, and a directory of trades and professions. Published annually, they offer useful information additional to that in the, at best, triennial electoral rolls. The Trades and Professions Directory, in particular, helps identify the self-employed and small employers, clarifying status as opposed to occupation given in most sources. The street and alphabetical listings are far less comprehensive than the electoral rolls. 8 Occupational information from the directories and electoral rolls allows almost all men to be assigned to an occupational class (eg. employers, self-employed, skilled or unskilled manual workers), making it possible to determine whether occupational class helps explain geographical movement. Because some studies have found that property ownership helps explain persistence the City Valuer's Private Field Books have been collected to provide valuations and simple descriptions ('House','House and Shed','Bakery and Stable' for example) for all properties in Caversham.

Electoral rolls, valuation rolls and Stone's Directories are deficient in information on age, the occupations of women, men's marital status and property ownership. Marriage and death certificates for Caversham have provided data on age, marital status, and changes of name on marriage. They also help separate those who left Caversham from those who died, dealing with a common problem of electoral rolls. These sources identify only those present at a particular time and place, not from where they came earlier, or where they went to later. For those present in one electoral roll but missing from the next, there are three possible explanations: departure from Caversham, failure to register to vote, or death. Voter registration appears to have been high in Caversham, so identifying those who died effectively identifies those who left. 9 The membership records of friendly societies active in Caversham at the time have also provided additional data on age. Information from two rich sources, the 1895, 1900 and 1905 registers and case books of the Otago Benevolent Society for Caversham and the 1937/38 Housing Survey forms, complete the Database.1 0

In all, the Database now contains well over 50 ,000 records concerning more than 27,000 individuals resident in Caversham at some time during the study period." Handling such a massive amount of data requires much more automation than is usual in historical research as even simple tasks are difficult to perform by hand. There are, for example, 53 entries in the electoral rolls for 'J Smith' and another 23 for

'John Smith'. Add the possibility that the same John Smith is listed in the electoral rolls, street directories and valuation rolls, hidden among other John Smiths, the usefulness of a database simply as an electronic filing cabinet becomes obvious. On a standard desktop computer all records with the name John Smith can be presented on screen in a few seconds. Provide a few instructions to check additional data, such as occupation and addresses, and the hunt for the correct John Smith can be quickly completed.

Construc t ing t h e C a v e r s h a m Database The Caversham Project's use of computers to store and analyse data has evolved with the increasing sophistication and availability of computer technology. Unfriendly command driven, text only, mainframe terminals have given way to personal computers running software with easy to use graphical user interfaces. Technological limitations, which initially restricted the Project to analysing only numerically coded data, have loosened to allow both text and numbers to be analysed directly. Pictures and sound are, however, still poorly supported by commonly available database software.

At first Project data was stored as a number of uncoordinated text files, but the limited ability to manage the contents of these files as data was a major problem. Without any means of managing links between records, each line in a text file had to be self contained, storing an entire record. Similarly, each file needed to be self-contained, containing all records from a single source. From the outset the Project's intention to reconstruct the lives of individual Caversham residents meant that this was inappropriate, as the Project needed to link records from different sources concerning the one person. This (and the other links which members of the Project wished to make) meant the text files could not be treated as self-contained, yet there was no automatic way of handling connections between them.

Inevitably, inconsistencies between files began to accumulate. Changes made in one file would not be reflected in other files containing related data. As more sources were introduced these inconsistencies multiplied - the same identification number could be found to refer to several persons, and different records referring to the one person could have inconsistent information on date of death or gender. The increasing complexity of the Project required a better way of managing data. The solution was to use a Database Management System (DBMS), more simply a database.1 2

A database is a computer software package designed to store, organise, process, retrieve and analyse data. Most database packages offer

a range of features, including means of importing data from other machine-readable forms, and conversely of exporting data to other applications. They also specify the size and nature of each piece of information to be stored, and they will enforce specified rules on entering, accessing and changing data. Finally, to extract information methods are provided to sort, index, filter and aggregate the data by placing it into a framework where it can be manipulated systematically. This framework is called a data model. Like any model, this is a simplified representation of part of the real world reduced to a form which can be easily managed.

The Caversham Database uses the relational data model. 1 3 In this model data is stored as a series of tables. Information is broken into single pieces of data, called fields, which form the columns of the table, each row representing a complete record. For example, a record in the Caversham Database 'residents' table, which stores electoral roll information, contains fields for the year and roll, last name and first name, house number, street name, occupation, and marital status, along with an identification number field (discussed below). Because fields are the smallest unit handled by the database the size and scope of each field decided on are critical to its use. To search for individuals by last name only, for example, first and last names must be in two different fields.

The Caversham Database is an example of a model-oriented database, where the choice of the relational data model has to some extent determined how the data has been organised. The sources used by the Database are well suited to this approach because they are highly structured. The original document entries are already divided into a number of items which translate directly into fields, names become first and last name fields, names of jobs are placed in a occupational title field, and addresses become house-number and street-name fields. The sources are distinct with no confusion about the origin of particular information.

Although the relational data model is appropriate for the sources so far used by the Caversham Database a cautionary note is needed. If the natural structure of the information being placed in the Database is different from that imposed by the model then information will be lost on entry. Little information has so far been lost in this way, because the structure of the sources used closely matches the relational data model. It seldom matters, for example, if information on the dimensions of pages or the colour of ink used in the original records are not transferred into the database. When something like the colour of the ink is important it is usually because of what it denotes, rather than

intrinsic value, and the information can be translated into another form to be stored. For example, the Caversham valuation rolls use black, red and green ink to denote entries made at different times. In the database this information is separated into three fields so that each field effectively indicates an ink colour.1 4

If one danger is that information will not fit the data model, the other is that it will appear to fit too well. Any historical record is particular to a time and place, and will contain assumptions and biases that must be allowed for when the data is analysed. Records may appear clear and unambiguous, with all details neatly placed into categories, but a particular danger with structured sources is uncritical database entry. A case in point is the lack of occupational details for women in many sources. The fact that the street directories and electoral rolls for Caversham do not list many employed women certainly does not mean that few women worked. Another case is the absence of divorced' and 'separated' from most records of marital status (as in electoral rolls), even though some sources, notably the Benevolent Society case books and the marriage certificates, clearly indicate that this was some people's actual standing. More subtly, as the structure of the source is likely to have a strong influence on the structure of the database, research may be pulled along a path originally established for very different reasons. For example, the lack of information on women can lead to concentration on the less sketchy picture of men.

Data E n t r y The transfer of information from original documents into the fields, records and tables of the Caversham Database is an expensive, tedious activity and one prone to error as the data is keyed in. Some types of gross error, such as entering a letter in place of a number for a person's age, are easily discovered and corrections made. Unfortunately, many significant errors, such as the misspelling of names and streets and the incorrect entry of numbers, are not readily detected as the Database cannot tell a valid entry from an invalid one. With names such as 'Grey' and 'Gray', it is easy to miss what does not appear afterwards as a mistake. Given the effort of entering data, checking is essential. Double entry, entering all information twice and comparing the two sets of resulting data, is a good method. Short of this, a sample of records can be double entered or a sample in the Database can be checked against the original document, to gauge the error rate. Checking is never performed by those who entered the original data as they tend to repeat the same mistakes. Data entry errors cannot be avoided entirely, so a measure of the error rate is vital if the data is to be used with confidence.

Though slow and error prone, using research assistants to key in data is the only viable method for hand-written sources. For typed documents an alternative is creating a picture of the original page in the computer's memory by scanning. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software is then used to examine this digital picture of the original page, identifying the letters and numbers by their shape and converting them into a text file, 1 5 the contents of which can be automatically entered into a database. To reduce the time and cost of entering new electoral roll information the Project has begun using this technique with photocopies of original rolls. Scanning and OCR are achieving about 95 percent accuracy. This sounds high, but means that five out of every 100 characters are wrong, enough to play havoc with names and addresses unless each page is proof-read. Even so, this has reduced the time taken to enter an electoral roll page by half (from about one hour to thirty minutes) and errors created by the automatic process tend to be systematic, making them easier to detect and correct.

A data model forces information into a framework and in doing so the information is squeezed, smoothed or truncated to fit the data model. Commonly, databases are the original source of their own information, so it is reasonable to alter the information to fit as it is entered. A historical database, however, though supporting research, is not the original source of the information it stores. It needs to reflect the original source as precisely as possible, so that the chance of differences between the original information and data in the database being given significance in any research findings are minimised. This rule applies to the extent of entering information that is ambiguous or known to be incorrect. This is not to say that research should be based on an unqualified acceptance of all available information, but rather that any weighting or modification felt necessary should take place only after entry into the database, not earlier when data is entered. This post-entry approach isolates the original information from standardisation and categorisation decisions that will further simplify and modify it, potentially altering the meaning given to the information by the researcher. Historical documents often contain ambiguities, omissions, errors and variations of expression, which can interfere with the smooth operation of the database and with the analysis of data, cluttering the results of research with what amounts to 'noise'. At the same time, these flaws (from the data handling point of view) may contain significant meanings for the historian. The challenge is to prevent such flaws from unduly complicating research while ensuring that the data remains faithful to the original source.

Standardisat ion a n d R e c o r d Linkage Once information is in the database, interest turns to integrating the sources. A valuable feature of the relational data model is the way it allows the linking of data in different tables by including the same field in more than one table.The database can establish links between records in different tables by taking a specific value of the common field from a record in one table and looking for that same value in the corresponding field of another table or tables. These linkages rely only on comparing values in a field common to more than one table in the database, so that they are flexible and can be turned on and off at will. One moment the electoral roll and valuation roll might be linked by address, the next by individual. Linking records together in this way allows working with units of data larger than the single record. This makes it possible to step beyond analysing the data one source at a time. Instead it can be retrieved by individual, address or some other criterion that interests the researcher. Standardisation and record linkage are the main methods used to convert historical records from different sources, unrelated except as they cover the same population, into a coherent database from which records can be retrieved by individual or address rather than by original source. 1 6

Standardisation is essentially the art of recognising variations on a theme and reducing them to one form.Typical targets for standardisation in historical databases are names, descriptions of places, and occupational titles. For example, the Caversham Project treats 'domestic duties' and 'household duties' as synonyms, standardising the title as 'domestic duties'.The original text of the source is stored in one field and the standardised version, recorded as a code, is placed in another field. Keeping both the original and standardised version of the occupational description ensures that standardisation decisions can be reviewed at a later time if necessary.

Instead of directly standardising the names of people, streets, suburbs or occupations, the Project uses codes. For example, because street names change each street is assigned a code number which then acts as the standardised street name for all the records concerning that street. Similarly, occupation codes standardise the confusing array of job descriptions given in the sources - the Caversham occupational classification scheme contains 992 standardised occupation codes. Standardisation is facilitated by the use of look-up tables in the database. These contain descriptive text, for instance of occupations to be found in historical documents, and the code to apply when the appropriate text is found. As more data is entered into the database more examples are added to the look-up tables and fewer new standardisation decisions are required.

The interests of the Caversham Project lead to the organisation of the data primarily by person. Separately, each source provides only a few pieces of information about a person, but by unking sources a much richer picture emerges. The electoral roll will give a man's occupation. A check in Stone's Directories will tell if he was self-employed. The City Valuer's Field Books reveals if he rented or owned his home, while his age may be found from a marriage certificate, a friendly society membership record, or worked out from a later death certificate. This process of record linkage works by comparing information common to different records so that all records which relate to a particular person are recognised. Obviously, the more common the information, the greater the chances of identifying a match. An individual's name is the key to matching records, but is not always adequate on its own. Names are shortened (eg. W.M for William), first names are not given (eg. Mrs Alexander) or initialised (eg. Alice M A Allen in place of Alice Matilda Amelia Allen). When supporting evidence is needed, an individual's occupation and address can be used to help match entries from different sources to a single person, but for people with common names and occupations it can be difficult to decide if two records refer to the same person.

Because record linkage is based on inference there is no sure way of knowing if a linkage is correct. Name, occupation and address are in most cases adequate to base a linkage on, but in situations where these are not sufficient, such as fathers and sons with the same name, occupation and address, the wider setting of the records can be used to help distinguish them. For example, sons and daughters can often be identified because their names appear next to those of their parents where in earlier years only the parents' names are listed on an electoral roll. In some cases a good deal can be deduced about a family's structure by tracing changes of address and marital status of members who start out at the same address.

Each individual found in the sources is assigned a unique identification number that is used to tag all records in the database which relate to that individual. These identification numbers perform two tasks. First, they standardise the various abbreviations and spellings of names. Second, they provide the values stored in the identification-number field added to each database record which store information on individuals/These identification numbers provide the common values the database uses to automatically link records concerning the same person in different tables.

The process of linkage is facilitated by ordering and filtering the database to locate likely matches. The researcher then decides whether

to make the linkage. With more initial effort the database could be programmed to look for criteria which suggest a match (same last name and first initial, phonetic similarity, similar occupations, address in the same street). The database can apply rules to judge the likelihood of each possible match and then make automatically the best linkage. This approach, although much faster than having a researcher look at each name in the database, is less flexible, as it is only able to consider the rules for making matches that are included in the program. On the other hand it does ensure a consistent standard of record linkage and allows confidence in the rationale used. For these reasons, and because of the growing number of records needing to be linked, the Project - which has employed many research assistants over the years - is moving to using the computer to determine the links automatically.

T h e Relat ional Database a n d Alternat ives Historians interested in traditional narrative sources for historical research have argued that conventional data models, such as the relational data model, are ill-suited to their needs.

The perceived restrictions and limitations of the model-oriented approach to database design have led many computing historians to favour source over structure. The most essential feature of the source-oriented approach to database design is that priority should be given to capturing as completely as possible in electronic form the original source from which data are to be derived. It is up to users of the electronic edition of the source to create a database by defining a structure for the document and inserting mark-up codes in the text.1 7

The source-oriented approach creates the data structure over the data, instead of the data being placed into the structure. This approach is commonly used to analyse textual sources - letters, journals, and the like. So-called mark-up' codes are inserted into original documents to indicate categories and concepts that apply to a block of text. The model-oriented approach, similarly applied, would somehow have to divide the text into fields and records. But whereas structured sources are readily broken down into distinct pieces of information, unstructured sources usually fragment into overlapping layers of meaning, rendering rigid separation of fields and records inappropriate. Textual data is also very often dependent on context for its meaning, but context is not acknowledged by conventional data models which treat the ordering of fields and records as able to be changed according to requirements. This is inappropriate for a document such as a letter which has a definite beginning, middle and end.

Recently acquired sources have introduced some of these problems into the Caversham Project.The registers and case books of the Otago Benevolent Society, describing the recipients of outdoor relief, contain lengthy notes in some entries, mixed with simple information, such as age or number of people in a household. Information on illness, occupation and a range of other matters is still structured to the extent that it appears under set headings, but the varying content of each entry makes it difficult to place into fields and standardise. By defining a field for each topic on which notes were made and by relying on the database's ability to look for key words within these note fields, the Benevolent Society records have been accommodated within the relational data model.

The collection over the last three years of a series of oral history interviews has presented a problem of greater magnitude. To handle this data, the relational database has been abandoned altogether and a source-oriented approach, using a textbase called NUD'IST (Non-numerical Unstructured Data Indexing Searching and Theory-building), adopted instead. 1 8 A textbase, or Textual Information Management System (TIMS), is specially designed to handle unstructured documents like letters, newspaper articles, diaries, or in the Project's case, transcripts of interviews with former residents of Caversham. The Project's textbase holds transcripts of all interviews conducted. The structure of mark-up codes applied to them can draw blocks of text from any transcript, depending on the question asked. For example, it is possible to ask for all comments made about the Depression by people born between 1910 and 1915, who lived in a particular street or area. The question could be narrowed further to those whose fathers worked in a particular range of occupations, or to those who themselves were working in particular occupations. Each block of text reported is identified as coming from a particular person and from a particular part of the interview. A comment can be placed back in the context of the original interview, or reconfigured to appear in relation to another matter.

The questions possible depend on the coding, which requires a degree of standardisation. As in a relational database, standardisation in a textbase requires recognising variations on a theme. These themes then provide the basic coding categories into which material is sorted. Within NUD*IST coding categories are arranged in a series of hierarchical structures, becoming more numerous and specific as they are descended. The multiple and sometimes overlapping meanings of each block of text can be recognised, a single block appearing in several categories spread across different hierarchies. The codings can be

deleted, added to or changed as the Project develops, and new demands are made on it.

The Project is now also using a Geographic Information System (GIS). A GIS is designed to store data primarily organised by its location in two or three dimensional space. 'If one suspects that important social processes are not invariant across space, it becomes important to slice space up in some fashion - in other words to delimit regions'.1* The GIS is intended to manage this process. The regions which Caversham Project members are interested in arc very small - streets or suburbs at the largest. Organising data into these micro-regions will enable a range of interesting questions to be investigated. Adding topographical data to the GIS will permit the effects of features, such as amount of sun and views, on the occupancy of houses to be explored. Through the GIS ideas about the clustering and separation of different groups within the community can be tested. An intriguing possibility is the comparison of aggregate voting data from each polling booth with general indicators of the socio-economic status of surrounding areas.2 0

Many sources in the Caversham Database hold location information in the form of suburb, street name and house number. This is suitably fine grained to match the small size of the areas of interest, but, because of sub-division and in-fill, house numbers do not consistently refer to the same patch of land. The vital source for locating street addresses are the maps produced by the City of Dunedin s City Surveyor's Office during the 1900s to 1920s, which show the location and number of each parcel of land in Caversham. Parcel numbers and house numbers are both in the valuation rolls, enabling other records containing a house number, such as those found in electoral rolls, to be linked to a geographical location.

This laborious process has two stages. First, an accurate digital map of the study area has been constructed by purchasing modern day digital data from Land Information New Zealand G-INZ) and removing modifications to land parcel boundaries and streets made since the 1920s. Second, given an accurate map of land parcels, the correct link has to be made between each valuation roll record and the land parcels on the map. Despite errors and ambiguities in both the map and the valuation rolls this process is almost completed for 1920-22 (modifying the LINZ data to match a 1920 City Surveyor's map, matching this map to the 1921 valuation roll and, in turn, to the 1922 electoral roll).

Unfortunately, at present the main relational database and the GIS arc operated as completely separate systems, and there is no automatic way of maintaining data links between them. Careful accounting is relied on to keep track of the changes made independently in each system.

To overcome this problem the Project is looking at ways of integrating the relational database and the GIS. A likely prospect is a 'client/server' approach, whereby the links between the relational database and the GIS are maintained by a special piece of software that exchanges queries for data and results between the two systems. This takes advantage of the respective strengths of each system, allowing the relational database to manage data best organised by a relational data model, and letting the GIS work with spatially organised data as designed.21

Conc lus ion Ironically, the use of the alternative textbase and GIS data management systems has to some extent de-integrated the Project 's data, reintroducing the problem that the Caversham Database was originally built to solve.This is not really surprising, and indeed may happen again. Unlike many databases designed to manage an unchanging function, for instance tracking inventory or customer records, the Caversham Database is intended to support on-going research. As new sources of data are found the structure of the database must change to accommodate them.

The intention has been to describe some principles and practices of using a database in historical research. It need not be quantitative history only, as the textbase of interview transcripts shows. If research involves large volumes of raw materials which need to be analysed from a number of perspectives then using some form of database warrants consideration. It is hoped that the absence of tracts of technical language will reassure readers that the successful use of a database does not require specialised knowledge. Thinking about the nature of the task at hand is more important than being able to make a computer jump through hoops.

1. T h e projec t is funded by the Foundat ion for Research . S c i e n c e and Technology and

the t e a m cons is t s o f four a c a d e m i c s , t w o Jun ior Research Fellows, and a n u m b e r o f

re search assistants Professor Erik Olssen is Project Direc tor and responsible for

o c c u p a t i o n a l classification and social mobility'; Dr Tom Brooking is responsible for

w o r k on geographical pers i s tence; Dr I .D.B Heenan is responsible for the work on

geographica l movement ; and Emeritus Professor Clyde Griffcn, Vassar College, w h o

has a s t rong background in similar work in the United States and a long-established

interest in N e w Zealand's social history, is respons ible for studying residential

differentiation. B r u c e McLennan, the Junior Research Fellow in Information Sc ience ,

is responsible for applying Geographical Information Systems while Hamish J a m e s ,

J u n i o r Research Fel low for the entire project , is responsible for the integrity o f the

database , statistical analyses, and r e c o r d linkage.

2. For a fuller descript ion o f the Caversham Project see E.N. Olssen et al 'Urban Society

and the Opportun i ty S tructure in New Zealand, 1 9 0 0 - 2 2 : T h e Caversham Projec t ' ,

Social History, for thcoming .

3 . S t e p h a n T h e r n s t r o m ' s Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nineteenth

Century City, (Cambridge, Mass., 1 9 6 4 , is widely recognised as the p ioneer ing w o r k

o f the N e w Urban History and his later work, The Other Bostonians: Poverty and

progress in the American metropolis, Cambridge , Massachusetts , 1 9 7 3 is v iewed as

o n e o f its most sophist icated works . Apart from the Caversham Project itself, the

only substantial N e w Zealand w o r k in a similar vein is David Pearson, Johnsonville:

Continuity and Change in a New Zealand Township, Sydney, 1 9 8 0 .

4 . K . N . C o n z e n , Q u a n t i f i c a t i o n a n d t h e N e w U r b a n H i s t o r y ' , Journal of

Interdisciplinary History, vol. 13 , no . 4 , 1 9 8 3 , p . 6 5 3 .

5. Many o f the problems e n c o u n t e r e d in using e lectoral rolls and street d irec tor ies

are the s a m e as those found using c e n s u s manuscr ipts . An exce l lent rev iew o f the

opportuni t ies and problems offered by these types o f sources is offered by E. Higgs,

A Clearer Sense of the Census, London, 1 9 9 6 .

6 M. Fairburn, The Ideal Society and Its Enemies: The Foundations of Modern New

Zealand Society, 1850-1900, Auckland 1 9 8 9 . See also the New Zealand Journal of

History special issue devoted t o The ideal Society and Its Enemies, vol. 2 5 , no . 2 ,

1 9 9 1 .

7 T h e 1 9 0 1 N e w Zealand C e n s u s , t h e last c e n s u s tha t p r o v i d e s in format ion for

Caversham, gives an adult ( 2 1 years and o lder) populat ion for the borough o f 2 9 8 6 .

T h e C a v e r s h a m Database c o n t a i n s 2 9 4 5 entr ies from t h e 1 9 0 2 e lec tora l roll. A

remarkably high number , e v e n allowing for s o m e populat ion g r o w t h b e t w e e n 1 9 0 1

and 1 9 0 2 .

8 Slightly o v e r o n e half o f the m e n , and a little u n d e r o n e fifth o f the w o m e n , found

on the e lectoral rolls a p p e a r in Stone's Directories .

9 . See footnote 8 .

10. In addition t o these sources , the Caversham Project has co l l ec t ed an array o f o t h e r

information w h i c h is not integrated with the database. As part o f c o u r s e work,Third

Year History s tudents have co l l ec ted small data sets o n a range o f topics including

soldiers from C a v e r s h a m w h o served in World W a r I, infant deaths and c h u r c h

at tendance .

11. Not including the nearly 2 0 , 0 0 0 r e c o r d s from the Housing Survey and Benevolent

Society. T h e s e are current ly held separately from the rest o f the data until further

e lectoral rolls, c loser t o the relevant years, have b e e n incorporated into the database

in order to improve the c h a n c e s o f successfully match ing r e c o r d s for the s a m e

individual in the different sources .

12. More correct ly , a database is a co l l ec t ion o f data s tored on a c o m p u t e r and a DBMS

is the software w h i c h manipulates the data. For simplicity I have used the t e r m

database in both c o n t e x t s .

13- As implemented by Microsoft Visual F o x p r o 3 0 for the Macintosh. O t h e r Relational

Database Management Systems for personal c o m p u t e r s include Microsoft A c c e s s ,

Borland dBase and Claris Fi lemaker Pro . T h e e x a c t c h o i c e o f sof tware is relatively

un important , particularly as m e t h o d s for moving data b e t w e e n c o m m o n types o f

software are a standard c o m p o n e n t of databases, w o r d p r o c e s s o r s , spreadsheets and

statistical software.

14. T h e r e is a large technica l l iterature on the relative meri ts of different data mode l s

in various situations. In part icular a m o n g computer- l i t erate historians there is an

on-going debate c o n c e r n i n g the appropriateness o f the relational model to historical

re search . T h e e s s e n c e o f this debate boils d o w n to an argument over w h i c h data

model will a c c o m m o d a t e the natural s t ruc ture o f historical d o c u m e n t s wi th the

least distort ion. For an overv iew o f this debate , see C. Harvey & J . Press, Databases

in Historical Research, c h . 7.

1 5 . T h e digital p i c ture is m u c h like a n e w s p a p e r photograph, m a d e up o f black and

w h i t e do t s r e p r e s e n t e d in the c o m p u t e r ' s m e m o r y as Os and Is . A t e x t file in

c o m p a r i s o n is a series o f A m e r i c a n Standard C o d e for Information I n t e r c h a n g e

(ASCII) c o d e s , n u m b e r s from 0 t o 127 , each o f w h i c h represents a number , let ter

o r special charac ter .

16. R e c o r d linkage is a central c o n c e r n for historians cons truc t ing large databases and

has b e e n w r i t t e n a b o u t extens ive ly . F o r i n t r o d u c t i o n s t o t h e p r i n c i p l e s and

techniques involved, sec: C. Harvey & J . Press, Databases in Historical Research,

Basingstoke, 1 9 9 6 , c h . 8 o r E. Mawdsley & T. Munck, Computing for Historians: An

Introductory Guide, Manchester , 1 9 9 3 , c h . 11 .

17. Harvey & Press , Databases in Historical Research, p. 12 .

18. NUD'IST 4 . 0 for Macintosh, from Qualitative Solutions and Research Pty Ltd.

19. D.W. Miller,'Social History Update: Spatial Analysis and Social History', Journal of

Social History, vol. 2 4 , no. 1, 1 9 9 0 , p . 2 1 6 .

20 . See D. W a t e r h o u s e , 'The Investigation o f Voting Behaviour from Aggregated Data: A

Test', Journal of Social History, vol. 16, no. 3 , 1 9 8 3 , for a study based on a similar

premise .

21. B e c a u s e o f their nature , there is less call t o directly link the interview transcr ipts

held in NUD'IST t o the o t h e r t w o systems, but s a m e prob lem exis ts and s a m e

solution, in principle , could be applied.

Book Reviews

J a n e T h o m s o n ( e d i t o r )

Southern People: A Dictionary of Otago Southland Biography Dunedin, Longacre Press, in association with the Dunedin City Council, 1998. 587pp. $99.95. ISBN 1-877135-11-9

It must be something in the Otago-Southland water or air! While those residing in centres further north are prone to debate endlessly about just how something might be done, dwelling on possible impediments, havering over the likely costs - if they ever get beyond whether or not a project should be attempted at all - the people of the south tend to just get on and do it. This impressive regional dictionary of biography, published to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the founding of New Zealand's southernmost provinces, provides yet another example. And a fine example it is. Incorporating economical but informative pen-portraits, sensitively edited, pleasantly packaged, the work is a tangible demonstration of the southerners ' passionate interest in, and commitment to, their past.

Described in the introduction as a collection of lives shaped by, and helping to shape, New Zealand's deep south', the book had its genesis in work earlier undertaken for the national Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, its fourth volume now published. Recognition that only a limited number of the southern nominations would eventually be accepted for publication in the national dictionary bred a notion that a separate regional volume might be merited. That notion was nurtured and successfully sold' to the Dunedin City Council (the principal sponsor), it being accepted as an appropriate commemorative project. It was not until August 1994, however, that an editor was appointed. The work has thus been brought to fruition in little more than three years. The editor's assignment was a book of approximately 1000 entries (ultimately 1200), about people who had served, developed, honoured and entertained the provinces of Southland and Otago'.This assignment she has faithfully executed. As with the national counterpart, coverage extends beyond the rich and powerful, though such community leaders are far from neglected (it is difficult to find an obvious omission), to encompass the entire southern community from the early 1800s - Maori and Pakeha, men and women, distant figures and more recent. Dead just now' was considered sufficient criterion for consideration. Indeed, some entries are so recent as to almost constitute obituaries.

Understandably, the book will be of most interest to southerners themselves, whether local born or adopted sons or daughters. For many families and individuals it bids to become an heirloom. It will be a boon for local researchers. But there is plenty to interest other New Zealanders, and indeed many beyond these shores. Potential readers should be warned that browsing can become addictive. For the present reviewer, what started as tentative dipping, a checking of likely entries on individuals known, soon turned into a close page-by-page examination. (And bang went the best part of two working days!) Within the book's pages a mosaic of the region's post-European settlement history is revealed. Entries on the first European incursors are juxtaposed with entries on Maori who confronted them, stubbornly resisting the dispossession of iwi and hapu. The Otago Association colonisers receive their due, as do the Little Enemy' - migrants who early opposed the overweening Presbyterian influence in the settlement. Gold seekers, whether the alluvial fossickers or the heavily capitalised dredge operators of a later era, have their places. So do those who explored the hinterlands in advance of permanent settlement. Rural development receives considerable attention, a variety of farming experiences being recorded in the potted life-histories of pastoralists and cultivators. Yet the dictionary also recognises that for a majority of southerners, for many decades, their life experiences have been typically urban life experiences. Local body politicians, unionists, professionals, business folk; all have their niches on this publication. There is even room for expatriates, those who, especially in the twentieth century, have left the deep south to make lives elsewhere.

Each reader will find entries to his or her particular taste. Of considerable personal interest were the biographies of the enterprising businessmen who clustered in early Dunedin, but were also to be found in the region's smaller towns and townships. Many of the names remain household ones today: Hallenstein, Speight, Kempthorne, Gregg, McSkimming. And there are some not so well known in the late twentieth century, for example J. M. Ritchie of the NMA or James Mills of the Union Steam Ship Company. Then there is the Fleming family, millers who brought to New Zealand breakfast tables Thistle rolled oats, Creamoata and Sergeant Dan. Or Edward Lane of Oamaru, whose legacy was Lane's Emulsion, the magic cure for coughs and colds for generations. As the dictionary well demonstrates, however, southerners - while reputedly hard-headed in business - have not just been concerned with making money; the volume has generous quotas of artists, writers and musicians. Moreover, the value which transplanted Scots and their descendants have traditionally placed on education is

also readily evident. It was no coincidence that Dunedin should be the site of New Zealand's first university, or that secondary schools within the region have won an enviable reputation. Academics and teachers therefore figure prominently. Refreshingly, there are entries for several notable librarians, while arguably Thomas Morland Hocken was one of the country's first archivists! The dictionary also has its fair share of the entertaining and quirky, zealots and eccentrics. Versifier Rhyming Ben'Ward is noted, as is Ben Rudd, the taciturn hermit of Flagstaff. Denis Glover's 'Arawata Bill' is revealed as former Tuapeka resident William John O'Leary. For poignancy, however, it is hard to go past the entries for John James Meikle, wrongly accused (and imprisoned in 1887) for sheepstealing and forced to petition Parliament to clear his name, Mary Ann Allan, prostitute and accused highway robber, who died in Seacliff Asylum in 1886 with more than 100 arrests on her record, or Sarah Smith, habitual drunkard of more recent vintage.

Consolidated family entries, by deliberate editorial decision, are a feature of the dictionary. Well over one hundred record the activities of two or more, sometimes many more, family members. Partly, it may be presumed, this was to ensure that the volume be as comprehensive as possible, the total number of entries being limited, but it was also partly to show the deep-rootedness of southern society - families often

remaining in the same place, engaged in the same occupations, for generations'. Again, both aims are achieved. For an outsider, the strength and longevity of some Otago-Southland dynasties is quite striking. In the case of runholding and farming families, this persistence through generations is perhaps not too surprising. The land endures and, as in other countries, there has been a predilection to hand properties down from father to son(s), sometimes daughters, even if the enlargement of holdings, often just their maintenance, has also required genetic inheritances. But there have also been business and professional dynasties. As one writer observes, since the establishment of the legal profession in Dunedin there has been scarcely a period when a member of the Haggitt family has not been practising. Another notes the contributions of the Laurensons, family bakers to the same city for over a century. There have also been scholarly and cultural dynasties. Direct descendants of William Salmond, an early Otago University professor, included a distinguished jurist (J W. Salmond) and a noted architect 0- L. Salmond). Two of the latter's children followed him into art and architecture. The Morrells and the Milners were simply following an established pattern. By rough count, at least five prominent Maori families are covered.There are also accounts of ethnic minorities, more particularly Chinese families. It might be surmised that entries such as

that on the rugby coaching Cavanaghs (Old Vic' and 'Young Vic') wUl be of wider general interest.

Given the broad authorship of entries, it is inevitable that they vary in depth and ability to engage the reader's attention. That observed, however, some are superb. It is hard to discern one that is less than competent. As might be expected, some of the best have been penned by already well-known historians of the south, professional and amateur (although the distinction is increasingly invidious). As well, a number of - to this reviewer - new names suggest that more works on the south may be in store.The editor was fortunate to have so many talented writers at her disposal. The fact that the entries for some leading figures are more abbreviated than might have been expected is explained by a note that publication in this volume may have been preceded by more extended essays in the national dictionary. While reproduction of these might have been considered, the decision to provide new, possibly fresher, summaries is perfectly justifiable. A more intriguing matter is the surprisingly large number of entries apparently authored by, or with the assistance of, direct descendants of the subjects. Such relationships are not necessarily a handicap to objective judgement, but, rightly or wrongly, they do open the writers to accusations of hagiography.To be fair, such charges would be hard to sustain, but the majority of entries do have a gentler tone than many contemporary dictionaries of biography. It was this tone, together with the layout and a number of the illustrations, which occasioned the present writer, to his cost, to idly observe to an Otago colleague that the volume was 'vaguely reminiscent of the Cyclopedia of New Zealand1 .The observation was not intended to be pejorative. Despite criticisms, the Cyclopedia has stood the test of time (witness its current price in dealers' catalogues). So too will this collection.

There are few things about this dictionary which will draw serious, even pedantic, criticism. For a volume of its size, typographical and stylistic errors are few and far between. The chosen illustrations are apposite and the design is appealing. Some regret might be expressed that the entries carry no references or suggestions for further reading, but even this apparent omission is offset by another editorial explanation. Until completion of the first draft it was intended that at least some documentation should be provided. However, realisation that citation of sources by writers had been inconsistent, and that considerable additional work would be immediately required to make good the deficiency, motivated a different approach. Instead it was decided to create a biographical archive, to be housed and maintained by Dunedin's Hocken Library. All information collected relating to each

entry, together with that for the many nominations which did not make it to the final publication, has been collected in separate labelled files. Commonly this information includes birth and death certificates, and frequently longer versions of the entries. The files will be added to as new material comes to hand, with corrections being made where necessary. The archive may be accessed at the Hocken, or through a specially created web site (http://southern-people.otago.ac.nz). In the longer term, the archive created may be even more important than the dictionary.

A possible key to the success of this venture lies in the acknow-ledgements, the editor widely expressing thanks for voluntary efforts. Whereas, notwithstanding substantial voluntary input, production of the national dictionary has been per medium of a departmental infrastructure, this regional volume has been brought to completion with a minuscule paid staff. From beginning to end, Southern People has been very much more a community project. What started as a Dunedin initiative soon rippled throughout the region, small groups gathering to ensure their districts were not forgotten. When entries were commissioned the writers often pooled their resources. Others freely shared information. Appreciation for the unstinting support of regional research institutions and their staff is gratefully expressed. Dedicated genealogists helped check birth and death dates. Seemingly, the editor was able to assemble a veritable army of unpaid helpers. Even such chores as photograph research and proof-reading were shared.The result shows what can be done with limited resources. It has been commonplace, and this reviewer also pleads guilty, to tease, sometimes chide, southerners for what is perceived as their excessive parochialism. But this dictionary is a splendid instance of parochialism, of local commitment, being turned to positive effect. Would that the example stimulates emulation elsewhere.

Brad Patterson Wellington

Sean G. B r o s n a h a n

To Fame Undying: The Otago Settlers Association and its Museum 1898-1998 Dunedin, Otago Settlers Association, 1998. 103pp. $24.95. ISBN 0-473-05211-3

I remember my youthful visits to the Otago Early Settlers' Association (OESA) museum with affection. It was not exactly the highlight (that

honour went to Otago Museum's fish gallery, in 1998 still streets ahead of Te Papa/MONZ's Gerry Anderson-ish gallery), but every year our family holiday to Dunedin included a visit to walk OESA's creaky wooden floors to gaze at the stern Victorian worthies crowding the walls, admire the coaches, trams and other laddish objects and gaze at steam engine 'Josephine' as best its reflecting glass case permitted. I felt that I was on home turf, because the 'Early Settlers' was simply a bigger version of Oamaru's equally dusty North Otago Pioneer Gallery.

To Fame Undying tells the story of that museum and of the Association that gave it birth. A museum was probably the last thing on the minds of the people who met in 1898 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of organised Pakeha settlement of Otago. The OESA, inspired by the New Zealand Natives'Association, was formed to honour 'the native-born sons of old identities'. Reunions and the desire to 'inspire a feeling of veneration for our forefathers, who laid the foundations of our first institutions', lay at the heart of the Association's celebratory mission. Collecting and recording anecdotes were also on the agenda, although an early project by Wrigglesworth and Binns to photograph settlers from early ship groups met only limited success.

For many decades the Association's committees and secretaries such as Lachlan Langlands walked a fine line between the needs of the majority of the members, who saw social events as being of prime importance, and their desire to create a museum. Collecting objects as well as reminiscences grew in importance after 1902, when Langlands and President Donald Reid began public fundraising for a museum and meeting place, or as Brosnahan observes, a Pakeha equivalent to the Maori ancestor house. Interest in the social events died away as the settlers' died, and by the 1940s the OESA's main focus (apart from a

watch-dog defence of Otago's frustratingly mobile Anniversary Day) was unquestionably on the museum.

Some people, notably Dr Hocken and the historian Alfred Eccles, tried to get the Association to widen its collecting brief or to broaden its membership, but as Brosnahan observes, they underestimated the OESA's role as a parochial 'status broker.' The Association began with membership restricted to those who had arrived before the discovery of gold in 1861 and only gradually (1918) extended that to 31 December 1868. The Association maintained the status gulf between settlers' and descendants' almost until the last of the former had breathed her last.

Of course, it also excluded the first settlers, the Maori, and the offspring of early Pakeha/Maori liaisons. Indeed, it was not until the cash and identity crises of 1974 that membership was opened up to anyone. Until very recently, Brosnahan argues, the OESA functioned as 'a conservative

group conserving a larger group identity.' The committee members' names in the appendices are a roll call of Otago elitism and would make an interesting comparison with those of that other great Otago status broker, the Dunedin Club.

New Zealand's museological history is slim enough, and this thin book will be welcomed by the profession. Brosnahan observes that there were no formal collecting policies for much of the OESA's history. The museum relied on donations for almost everything, and the recommendations for greater focus and concentration ih its displays contained in the 1934 Markham Report (about which Brosnahan should have said more) did not bear fruit until 1948, when the Otago centennial celebrations gave the museum a front row seat. Like much of the OESA's history, however, this was one step forward, one back. The 1948 presentation remained frozen in a time warp until the 1970s, when talented and ambitious directors Seddon Bennington and Elizabeth Hinds brought a professional focus to the institution. Now a part of the Dunedin City Council's 'museums business unit', the Otago Settlers Association (the 'Early' was discarded in 1994) functions as the city's social history museum galleries, a Council department along with the city art gallery.

Museums are visual places and museum displays say a lot about how we view our heritage, so it is unfortunate that Brosnahan did not make better use of floor plans of the museum's changing layouts or, for that matter, provide some decent photographs of the displays themselves. To Fame Undying does not even illustrate the museum's triumphant expansion into the former NZR bus depot particularly well.

Fetchingly designed within the limits of the A4 straitjacket, To Fame Undying displays some peculiarities such as large superscript for endnote references, the use of honorifics for most historical figures, nonsense words such as proactive' and, on page 50, a photograph whacked annoyingly in the middle of a paragraph of text. Some of this may be the fault of Brosnahan being called in at a late stage to undertake a task that the late Charles Croot may have been contemplating. A modest budget, a recurring theme in the OESA's history, may also have played its part. Nevertheless, penny-pinching should not excuse the omission of an index, which will severely reduce the usefulness of this otherwise helpful publication.

Gavin McLean Wellington

Malco lm M c K i n n o n ( e d i t o r )

New Zealand Historical Atlas: Ko Papatuanuku e Takoto Net. Auckland and Wellington: David Bateman/Department of Internal Affairs Historical Branch, 1997. 290pp. $ 9 9 9 5 . ISBN 1-86953-335-6

The New Zealand Historical Atlas is a beautifully-presented, large format volume which, although claiming to be a work of interpretation rather than reference, nevertheless contains a great deal of useful statistical and graphical information. It surely sets standards of excellence in cartography.

The first section, 'Origins', provides a good overview of New Zealand's geology. The plates on glaciation, and on flora and fauna immediately prior to human contact, are simple, direct and very informative. The discussion of volcanoes is brief; the map of the Auckland volcanic field is good, but more information on Banks Peninsula and the other South Island volcanoes was needed. Some illustration of the geological impact of the Taupo eruption 1,800 years ago would have been helpful.

Section 2,'Te Ao Maori', is very fine indeed. Plate 10, covering ancient voyaging and colonisation in the Pacific is extremely good, although some detailing of ancient navigation techniques would have enhanced it. A succession of excellent plates then detail pre-European Maori life, those on environmental impact, horticulture and stone (pi 12, 13, 14) being outstanding. The adaptations which the first settlers were required to make come through clearly. Nowhere was this more so than in Murihiku. Plate 16 demonstrates the distinctive southern seasonal economy and the ways in which resource use developed over the centuries. The Tapuwae-nuku plates immediately follow. As the introduction notes, whakapapa and iwi history are saturated in geography' (p.9). These plates brilliantly locate and give shape to the traditions of waka landings and tribal linkages, and there is in them a richness which will repay many inspections. Turning the country on its side is a useful innovation, as it enables an incoming view from tropical Polynesia. The Tainui plate (pi 19), like those adjoining, should have been headed in Maori, not English. The Te Wai Pounamu plate is less detailed, and the orange underlining for Rakaihautu names blends too much with the mountain shadings.

The third section, Colony and Colonised', deals with events from 1840 to about 1900. Plate 30 provides a nice summary of the advance of the Pakeha, reinforced by plate 31, Crown, Colonists and Maori 1840-1860.The complexities are illuminated by an excellent case study of Maori and colonial Wellington. 'Te Whenua Rangatira', on Maori

nationhood (pi 36 ) , is a good survey from the declaration of independence to the Kingitanga. It includes mission stations and zones of religious influence as well as an excellent map of the foundation of the Kingitanga. Rangatiratanga is explored in regional detail in four plates, which between them cover much of the North Island. In Taranaki (pi 37) the reality of slow encroachment is shown alongside the myth of instant confiscation. The southern orientation of the Waikato map (pi 38) clearly suggests a war of movement. The Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Tai Rawhiti confiscations, military settlement, Pai Marire evangelism and Te Kooti's campaigns are all dealt with in detail. Plate 41, Native Policy', brilliantly shows the proceedings of the Native Land Court as well as the amount of Maori land purchased by private and Crown purchasers after 1865.

The Pakeha exploration charts (pi 33-35) are a cartographic delight. The South Island is particularly well done, although Charlie Douglas surely deserved a quotation from his writings. Plate 42, focusing on biological transformation by the settlers, has a particularly good diagram of exotic plant species in Canterbury, as well as detailing changes in Hagley Park and atTutira.The pastoralism plate (43) is very good, but a map which showed the chronological process of pastoralism across the east coast and into the high country would have been more useful than the static 1879 map provided.The gold rushes plates (44, 45) are information-packed, but it wasn't only in Hauraki that Maori prospectors worked alongside Pakeha. This happened on all the goldfields.

Settler agriculture is well treated. The Wheat Boom' (pi 46) deals with individual estates and the associated network of country towns. The same is attempted for the lower North Island in plate 47, 'From Forest to Pasture', but while this representation shows the extent of sawmilling, there is less real sense of the chronological progress of European settlement. More was needed on roads and railways, as well as land use after the bush was gone. The next plate, on the gumfields, is much clearer. The land Gets New Owners, 1840 to 1880s' (pi 50) is excellent on the spread of Pakeha settlement, particularly in Wairarapa. The tenure map for 1884 is particularly good, as is the material on spotting and aggregation. Other plates (52, 54, 56) show colonial communications (with Nelson's decline from hub to outpost an effective case study), as well as employment, services, and the spread of information across the country. There is profuse detail on South Canterbury through to Southland The colonial government plate (51) sets out the nineteenth-century provinces and would-be provinces, together with the networks of law enforcement. There is one big mistake in this plate: universal male suffrage may have been granted in

1881, but it is quite misleading to cite that as full male democracy. Plural voting remained until 1889.

Section Four, 'Dominion', essays a very neat definition of the Dominion era: British economic connection, state-driven development, domesticated women and marginalised Maori (pi 58). Plate 59, Closer Settlement', is a valuable study of state and private-sector subdivision, even if the plate would have been enhanced by a map of an estate after subdivision.The frozen meat plate (60) is also very good, including a case study of the impact of a freezing works on a region.The opening of works is shown chronologically, but an indication of British and local ownership would have helped. The plate on butter and cheese is likewise useful - for North Islanders!

Urbanising New Zealand is simply and eloquently dealt with in plate 65, while the next plate sets out the rebuilding of Wellington and Napier in the interwar years.The urban theme continues with plates on men's and women's paid work, which are excellent (although women's involvement in manufacturing is perhaps understated). Perhaps there could have more on the féminisation of office work, and also nursing and teaching. Suburban development is picked up in plates 72 to 75. The case study of a St Albans block is striking. The Wellington plate explores the dilemmas and limitations of Labour's state housing policy, showing the poor housing which the scheme replaced. Plate 75, on the postwar spread of Auckland, provides a background to that region's current infrastructural nightmare. Growth was allowed far beyond the 1949 plan, and in 1955 the National government ditched planned commuter rail networks in favour of roads.

Two plates on religion (69 and 70) are intriguing. The map summarising religious concentration in plate 70 is particularly useful, highlighting Methodist influence in Taranaki, Manawatu and North Canterbury. Maori religious adherence is similarly mapped. Southern Presbyterianism is an interesting case study, and there has been a bold attempt to map active commitment rather than merely census affiliation.' Perhaps a map of church-run charitable institutions would have been an illuminating addition.

The Immigrant Minority' (pi 76) is very good on the European minorities - and, at last, provides some accessible information on the postwar British migration flows. If there is to be a criticism, it might be that the representations are a little anodyne on racism and blue-eyed New Zealand: there is no distillation or citation of Jacqueline Leckie's

1 c f J e r e m y Black, Historical Atlases', Historical Journal, 3 7 , 3, 1 9 9 4 , p . 6 5 5 .

2. Jacque l ine I.eckie, In Defence o f R a c e and Empire: T h e W h i t e New Zealand League

at Pukekohe' , New Zealand Journal of History, 19 , 2 , 1 9 8 5 ; Sean Brawley.'No "White

Policy" in New Zealand. Fact and Fiction in New Zealand's Asian Immigration Record ,

1 9 4 6 - 1 9 7 8 ' , NZJH, 2 7 , 1, 1 9 9 3 .

3 . R.T Robertson, Isolation, Ideology and Impotence : Organizations for the Unemployed

During the Great Depression, 1 9 3 0 - 1 9 3 5 ' , NZJH 1 3 , 2 , 1 9 7 9 ; Government Responses

to Unemployment in N e w Zealand, 1 9 2 9 - 3 5 , NZJH, 16 . 1, 1 9 8 2 .

4 . T o m B r o o k i n g , Lands for the People?: The Highland Clearances and the

Colonisation of New Zealand, Dunedin, 1 9 9 6

5 . Ian Pool, Te Iwi Maori, Auckland, 1 9 9 1 .

work on the White New Zealand League, or that of Sean Brawley on post-1945 policy. An almost cosy consensus is presented.2

The world wars and the Depression get five plates (77-81). The First World War plates are generally excel lent , showing Gallipoli, Passchendaele and the Western Front, as well as the domestic impact of the war, with maps of volunteering, defaulting, and death. The Second World War plate has too much jammed in. The Pacific needed its own plate, and Crete and Cassino deserved larger maps.The home front plate has an intriguing map of Yankee Wellington—but were there only eight brothels in the city? Women's labour is shown, but not women in the defence forces. At least some of the coastal installations were staffed by WAACs; if there had been a raid, they would have been in the firing line.

Overall the Depression plate (79) is informative, but the graphs need to start before 1926; the whole of the 1920s were shaky. There is a good map of the Queen Street riots, but a national map of protest was needed - including the Christchurch tramway strike, the Waimakariri River Trust workers who struck in 1932 and won a pay rise, and the unemployed protests in Nelson. Again there are some odd omissions from the citations (for example Robertson's articles).3

The last eleven Dominion plates are a miscellany. Plate 83, 'Maori and the Crown', is good on the South Island Landless Natives Act (although its relationship to the Crown's unconscionable behaviour towards Ngai Tahu is not entirely clear). Kotahitanga, Kingitanga and Ratana are all well covered, but the depiction of continued land loss is not explicit enough.4 Plate 84, on the Rohe Potae, is an excellent and graphic portrayal of the breakup of the Kingitanga lands. Plate 85, on the Rotorua and Urewera land alienations, is likewise very valuable. Ngata'sTai Rawhiti renaissance (pi 86) is stunning. Maori migration from the 1930s is well shown (pi 91), but through samples rather than a true national picture (which could have been obtained from Ian Pool's Te Iwi Maori'').

Rural development is dealt with in three plates. The Grasslands Revolution' (pi 89) is simple and clear, and thus effective. 'Between Town and Country', on small towns between 1900 and I960, is good, but entirely about the southern North Island. Was there a Dominion era in the South Island? Plate 92 is a well-executed detailed study of one region, Bay of Plenty

The final section, From Progress to Uncertainty', which covers the period between 1961 and 1991, is necessarily brief. Plate 94, on urban development in Christchurch, gives a particularly telling contrast between two subdivisions, in Ham and Aranui. Auckland and Porirua are well treated, the latter a case study of planning gone wrong. In the case of Porirua, however, there is perhaps not enough emphasis on inadequate amenities, excessive haste and, most particularly, the subsequent destruction of the manufacturing base (since the plate was finished Todd Motors has also closed). Rural Restructuring, 1961-91'(pi 97) is similarly graphic, although one must ponder the merit of ending the disinvestment in agriculture maps in 1989, the worst year. Plate 98, on environmental pressure, is good, but tries to do too much - forest preservation, harbour pollution and national and forest parks. The West Coast Forest Accord of 1988 should have been included as well as the Tasman Accord of 1989; the former covered a far larger area.

There is much to praise in this atlas, but there are also some significant flaws. 'Sport and Leisure' (pi 71) does not satisfy. Limiting discussion to rugby, women's golf, Caroline Bay, and Dunedin sports grounds and cinemas, does not provide adequate coverage. A whole plate could have been devoted to the beach; cricket is entirely absent; rugby is only graphically represented by affiliation to the NZRFU; there is nothing on hunting, fishing, tramping, skiing, climbing, yachting, hockey or netball. There is nothing on Maori recreation; nothing on brass bands or gambling or horseracing or motor sports, nothing on woodchopping, or knitting, or A&P Shows or dog trials.

Plate 62,'Land Apart, attempts to address conservation to the 1950s, but it lacks detail. Potts made the first parliamentary plea for forest preservation in 1868, not 1878. The Scenery Preservation Act 1903 reflected a wide parliamentary consensus on the need to preserve beauty spots'. A separate plate on the national parks would have helped,

especially if the diverse reasons for their establishment were considered. 'Fire, Flood and Quake' (pi 87), dealing with similar themes in the Dominion, is good but limited in scope. This material could also be presented for the period prior to 1910. After New Zealand's Burning we should be able to have a plate on a fire history of New Zealand'.

The plate is particularly good on earthquakes, but since the Waimakariri flood plain is shown, why was the actual 1868 flood not shown?

It seems very strange to treat the Maori/European contact period (1769-1840) as part of Te Ao Maori instead of using Anne Salmond's more illuminating title Between Worlds. The justification for virtually excluding Tasman and - especially - Cook is unconvincing. If, as we are told in the introduction, mapping is an act of appropriation (p. 13), then why do we not get Cook's appropriations? The demographic reality to which the atlas refers - of overwhelming Maori domination until 1840 - is the justification for excluding Cook as On the margins'. It is thus implicitly admitted that mapping is by no means an effective act of appropriation: Cook mapped, but he remained on the margins.

The difficulties with the cute postmodernist idea that naming and mapping is a simple and effective act of appropriation surface again in the plates on Pakeha exploration (pi 33-35). Naming does not in itself appropriate: if it did, General Cameron need not have crossed the Mangatawhiri in 1863· If naming was a simple expression of power, how is it that, in Canterbury, we were fortunate to avoid Cholmondeley for the Rakaia and Courtenay for the Waimakariri?

After Cook there was no doubt in European minds of what New Zealand was, where it was and how it fitted in the Pacific. While things did not change immediately, and while the Maori remained dominant, Between Worlds is only the most recent work to make it abundantly clear that things began to change within a generation of Cook - and as a result of the British base at New South Wales. It is quite erroneous to assert that 'Cook's landfall in New Zealand did not, after all, usher in a new phase of the country's history in the way that his arrival in Australia did' (pi 9). Potatoes, iron, pigs and whaleboats all had a massive impact on much of the Maori world, even before 1800. A single graph on ship visits, and then showing only Hokianga on the timber trade, severely truncates the reality of Maori involvement in the new world. There is nothing at all about that other major area of culture contact, Foveaux Strait, despite a considerable literature from Robert McNab to Atholl Anderson. These plates are quite inadequate for New Zealand between 1769 and 1840.

'Colony and Colonised' also presents problems. Plate 31, Crown Colonists and Maori, 1840-1860', excellent cartographically, is simplistic in text. The British government had confirmed in 1846 that all land in the colony had originally belonged to Maori' is surely a misprint. Lord Normanby might have thought so in 1839, but Earl Grey, Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1846, was a firm adherent of the waste lands doctrine.To describe George Grey's proceedings from 1848 to 1853 as

'substantial South Island purchases' is to ignore the huge issues of fraud and non-fulfilment of contractual and Treaty obligations that accompanied the Ngai Tahu deeds. Only to a minimal extent is this redeemed by the map. Also not explained is the strong-arming of Ngati Kahungunu in Wairarapa, they being prevented from leasing their land to sheepfarmers and thus forced to sell in order to raise cash for development. If the last ten years has made the wider community realise that land conflict did not begin at Waitara in I860, this plate does not adequately reflect that realisation.

Plate 56, on the colonial economy, is very weak.The observation that 'the structure of the colonial economy did not change markedly between the 1870s and 1900' is surely wrong for the South Island -freezing works, dairy factories and rail nets all developed before 1900. This plate discusses the colonial economy in isolation from the rest of the world. If it were possible to show Nelson's shipping communications, why not the mercantile connections of Dunedin or Auckland? A map of capital flows - even a case study - could have been prepared. A map of the influence of the National Mortgage and Agency Co. at about 1905 could have shown networks of capital and influence extending from Dunedin to Southland to South Canterbury to Wellington to Manawatu to Gisborne to Auckland. These involved mortgage finance, meat freezing, wool and produce marketing, advances on produce and shipping cartelisation. Likely contributors could have been identified easily enough.

Plate 64, Labour and Society', completely ignores radical skilled workers. Socialist labour parties were established in Christchurch and Dunedin by 1911 The old chestnut of equating radicalism with industrial unionism reappears; all we have is shearers and the Red Feds. Some maps of unions registered under the 1894 Arbitration Act could have been included, as well as a map of Labour support, electorate by electorate, in 1911, 1914, and 1919. The statement that it was more practicable . . . to do something on the frontier' than on the towns' for class conflict and labour history (p. 11) is simply not convincing.

This series of omissions unfortunately tends to convey an impression of a Wellington historiographical establishment which is largely unaware of important scholarship elsewhere. I make these criticisms - severe though they might be - because honest appraisal is particularly the duty of the reviewer when a work has been so widely and deservedly praised as this atlas. Canada and Australia, both dominion societies, have produced historical atlases in the last decade. The Canadian atlas, in three volumes, is more detailed, and in that regard goes further than the New Zealand production, sometimes to the point of dryness. In

design, visual appeal, and (generally) skilfulness of interpretation, the New Zealand atlas surpasses both the Canadian effort and the much weaker Australians: A Historical Atlas. Despite its flaws, the New Zealand Historical Atlas is a publishing and scholarly landmark.

Jim McAloon Human Sciences Division Lincoln University

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