OLD PROVINCIAL RECORDS

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21417, 8 March 1935, Page 12

OLD PROVINCIAL RECORDS

♦ CANTERBURY'S EARLY HISTORY DILAIMDATION OF I'AI'EKS REGRETTED [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, March 7. Dilapidation of old Provincial records in the library at Christ', 'lurch, mentioned recently by Dr. J. Rector of Canterbury University College, and Mr E. J. Bell, librarian at the Canterbury Public Library, was referred to with regret to-day by Dr. G. H. Scholefield, chief librarian at the general Assembly Library and Dominion Archivist. Dr. Scholefield said it was most desirable that the manuscript records of the Canterbury province should be safeguarded aainst destruction. "I was very interested in the reports in the press," said Mr Scholefield, "because among these records there must be many papers of the Canterbury Provincial Council, 1853-76, which have never been printed and of which there are no copies. The Canterbury Provincial Council did not publish its proceedings until 1864, when it published in one volume the minutes of the whole of the 20 sessions held between 1853 and 1864. The papers which are usually attached as appendices to the proceedings were not printed, and never have been printed. For that particular period, therefore, it is very desirable that the manuscript records should be preserved. "Strange to say. Canterbury, which has always been a fairly wealthy province, was less generous in printing the records of her council than any of the other provinces. After 1864, Canterbury adopted the general practice of the other provinces in printing with each year's proceedings the appropriate papers."