COMING CENTENNIAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 August 1938, Page 8

COMING CENTENNIAL

HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS SURVEY OF EARLY EVENTS. .RECORDS OF NEW ZEALAND’S PROGRESS. One of the features of the New Zealand Centennial Celebrations will be the historical publications and the committee responsible for this work has its preparations well in hand. The Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon W. E. Parry, reviewing yesterday the work being done, especially with- historical publications, and related projects as, for instance, an issue of stamps and commemorative medals, said that there had recently been a full meeting of the National Historical Committee, and that unanimity had been reached on all major projects on which the Government had sought the committee’s advice. He was now able to say that our centennial year would be marked by the publication of a series of historical surveys covering the Dominion’s progress during its first hundred years, a supplementary series of pictorial reviews featuring special aspects of our national life, a dictionary of New Zealand biography covering the life and work of all distinguished New Zealanders now dead, and a comprehensive historical atlas such as no Dominion had yet produced. CHANGES IN COMMITTEE.

The Government deeply regretted 1 that of the members of .the National - Historical Committee appointed last - year two had already died: the Right - Rev Bishop Williams and Mr T. Lindsay Buick. In both it had lost valuable advisers and the members of the committee collaborators whom it would be quite impossible to replace. The committee had also for some months 1 lost its chairman, Mi’ James Thorn, •’ M.P., who had gone to Geneva to re--1 present the Government at the International Labour Conference, but his t work was being ably carried on by the ; deputy chairman, Mr J. T. Paul, of ; Dunedin. [ A recent appointment to the committee had been that of the Hon F. Waite, M.L.C., as a representative of ' the farming interests. In addition certain gentlemen who had rendered valuable assistance in the preliminary work of the committee had been appointed associate members. The list of these now included Dr C. E. Beeby, Wellington, Dr F. A. Bett, Nelson, Mr F. G. Hall-Jones, Invercargill, Mr J. A. Mackay, Gisborne, Dr W. McKay, Greymouth, Mr W. H. Skinner, New Plymouth, and the Surveyor-General, Mr H. E. Walshe, Wellington. WORK TAKING SHAPE. It would be remembered that the National Historical Committee had met first about this time last year. Since that meeting an organisation had gradually be’en built up under the supervision of the standing committee. Representative historical committees had been formed in each provincial centre and in certain districts affiliat-

ed local committees had been set up in smaller centres. The sub-committees of the national committee itself had carried on their discussions either at meetings or, where membership was scattered, by means of correspondence. The standing committee had met frequently to transact routine business, to discuss questions of policy as they had arisen, and to consider the reports of sub-committees. Finally, a small staff had been formed by the Department of Internal Affairs to handle preparatory and research work connected with publications, to carry out secretarial duties and to provide historical data required by other parts of the centennial organisation. The members of this staff were now fully employed, and were doing excellent work. HISTORICAL SURVEYS. It had, of course, not been easy to reduce to concrete and acceptable terms the proposal for a series of surveys covering “all phases of our national life.” But after exhaustive discussion the national committee had drawn up a list of twelve surveys, of which the Government had now approved, and the preparation of these books would be commissioned at once. It might be mentioned that although great pains would be taken to make them authoritative, these surveys would be of moderate length, and would be written in a style that should attract the average reader. The credit for suggesting a series of pictorial surveys was due to Dr C. E. Beeby, who, at an early meeting of one of the committees, displayed copies of booklets produced by Columbia Uni-

versify, N.Y. The possibilities were at once recognised, and the committee ' later recommended the Government to publish a series of pictorial surveys t “designed for popular reading and ed- ' ucational use.” That task has already been remitted to the editorial staff. It ! was expected that this series would not only supplement the surveys pro--1 per, but provide a graphic and unique ' panorama of New Zealand history 1 which should be interesting to the general reader and permanently valuable in the teaching of New Zealand history. HISTORICAL ATLAS. One project in which the Government was especially interested, as he was sure the public would be, was the publication during the centennial of an historical atlas. Consideration of this project had been referred to a special committee, at first under the chairmanship of Professor Rutherford, of Auckland, and later under the Sur-veyor-General, Mr H. E. Walshe, and the plan of which the Government had finally approved was something like this. The first section of the atlas would contain a brief chronology of New Zealand history, descriptive essays on physical and geological features, on the flora and fauna, and on map-mak-ing in general. The second section would illustrate sea and land exploration, Maori tribal life, the course of European settlement, communications, etc. The third would be a new series of New Zealand maps, 10 miles to the inch, with supplementary maps illustrating climate, land development, our social and cultural life, and so on. This was an ambitious project, as the' Government was fully aware, but, it was a very important one, and, he was sure, very attractive. OTHER PROJECTS. Several other projects had been outlined and submitted to the Govern'; . ment, and some of them would no doubt be approved—a Parliamentary history, for example, and a survey of New Zealand architecture. It was intended also to collect and publish manuscripts and documents of historic value lying now in private collections or in the archives of special libraries. The Government had received several recommendations dealing with these matters, and received them all sympathetically. It had. also approved of a series of literary competitions, particulars of which were recently announced.

In the meantime it appealed once more to (those who had historical material in their possession, whether it was letters or diaries or maps or coins or early or forgotten publications, to communicate with the secretary of the National Historical Committee with a view to its being given its fullest historical use. The Government did not, of course, wish to become possessed of material that the owners preferred to retain. It wished merely to help those who had such material to place it in safe keeping and make the best public use of it.