PAPERS OF MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 9, Issue 1, 1 May 1976, Page 4

PAPERS OF MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

J. E. Traue

The Alexander Turnbull Library has been given the political papers of the Rt. Hon. Sir John Marshall, former Prime Minister and recently retired Member of Parliament for Karori, and those of the Rt. Hon. Sir Keith Holyoake his predecessor, at present member for Pahiatua and Minister of State. These papers are a major acquisition for the Library’s collection of the papers of parliamentarians and with Sir Sidney Holland’s papers in the Parliamentary Library give the National Library a strong collection covering the post war National Party administrations. Sir John’s collection of papers is nearly perfect, covering the period from his entry into Parliament in 1946 up to his retirement, and will in due course be a major resource for historians, economists and political scientists researching into the period 1949-1972, a significant transitional period in New Zealand’s history.

The papers will not be available for general use for some time. They are closed during Sir John’s lifetime, except with his permission, and access will be limited for five years after his death. A group of trustees has been appointed to control access during this period and thereafter access will be granted to serious researchers by the Chief Librarian. The Cabinet papers in the collection will be specially protected. The agreement made by the Library with Sir John is that Cabinet papers will be treated in the same way as the archival set of Cabinet papers destined for the National Archives and will be restricted for 25 years. Sir Keith’s papers have been transferred from the General Assembly Library where they were deposited some years ago and are under restrictions similar to those applying to the Marshall papers.

The Alexander Turnbull Library has been collecting the personal and political papers of Members of Parliament for many years and now has the most representative collection of such papers in New Zealand. They range from the more than 200 ft of the Marshall and Holyoake papers through the 60-70 feet of Sir Donald McLean’s (MP 1866-1877), Sir Harry Atkinson (MP 1861-1891, 4 ft) and Richard John Seddon (MP 1879-1906, 8 ft plus 37 volumes of scrapbooks) to the six inches or so of James Edward Fitz Gerald’s papers. In all the Turnbull has papers relating to 15 Prime Ministers, 41 Members of the Lower House, and 11 Members of the Legislative Council, but unfortunately very few match the completeness of the Marshall, Holyoake and McLean papers. In general only a small percentage of the papers of New Zealand’s Members of Parliament has been preserved and serious students of New Zealand politics are becoming increasingly aware of the deficiencies of the historical record. In an attempt to remedy this situation the Turnbull Library has been making approaches to the descendants of MPs and to some MPs living in

retirement. The results have been disappointing; very few collections of papers have been kept. The Library proposes to continue approaching Members and their descendants but it has become clear that additional measures are necessary to ensure that some reasonably complete collections are preserved for the future.

Members of Parliament, especially backbenchers without office assistance, are forced to cull their papers ruthlessly to maintain control over what they regard as the most important. Their judgements are those of the politician and not of the historian and as a consequence material of historical value is being discarded.

The Turnbull Library is making an approach to a small number of MPs, selected to give a reasonably representative geographical coverage, and taking into account party, type of electorate (metropolitan city, provincial city, town, country) and special interests and affiliations, and inviting them to use the Turnbull Library as an archival repository for their papers while they are still in Parliament. In effect this will mean that the Library and the MPs will consult regularly on the weeding of files and the Library will take custody of those files for which current demand is low. These will be organised by the Library and kept in secure conditions with access limited to the Member or his authorised agent. A written agreement will set out the conditions of use by research workers after the Member’s retirement or death. In this way a small number of complete or near complete collections will be guaranteed. These will be of especial value for studies of public opinion on major issues, for studies of the changing role of the Member of Parliament in New Zealand, for assessments of the demands electors make on their Member, and for studies of the operation of opinion groups. The archival repository programme places emphasis on the value of preserving the complete files of a few typical Members: if the Member chosen rises to Cabinet rank this will be an additional bonus for the historian. It is stressed that the Library will continue to seek the papers of other Members on retirement or death in addition to those selected for the archival repository scheme.

The members at present of the repository scheme are Mr J. L. Hunt, Mrs M. Batchelor, Mr J. R. Harrison, the Hon. H. C. Templeton, the Hon. E. S. F. Holland and the Hon. V. S. Young. In addition the Library has been given a selection of the papers of the Hon. R. O. Douglas and nearly complete collections from eight former members of the 1972-75 Parliament, Mr T. K. Burke, Dr M. E. R. Bassett, Mr M. R. Smith, Mr A. W. Begg, Mr C. R. Mayson, Dr A. T. Rogers and Mr J. W. Ridley.