Notes and Comments

Turnbull Library Record, Volume XIII, Issue 2, 1 October 1980, Page 104

Notes and Comments

New Zealand’s bibliographic history charted

Volume 1 of the New Zealand National Bibliography to the year 1960, containing the sequence to the year 1889, was recently published and a small function hosted by the Government Printer and the National Librarian to mark the event was held at the Alexander Turnbull Library at lunchtime on 1 July. The guest speaker was the Prime Minister, the Right. Hon. R. D. Muldoon, who praised the work of the principal compiler and editor, Dr A. G. Bagnall, obe, former chief librarian of the Alexander Turnbull Library. Other speakers were Mr L. A. Cameron, Chairman of the Trustees of the National Library, Mr P. D. Hasselberg, Government Printer, Miss Mary Ronnie, National Librarian, and Dr Bagnall. This work, published by the Government Printer, is in two parts with a total of 1292 pages, the culmination of many years of work by the editor with the assistance, more recently, of Penny Griffith and Sheila Williams. The 6229 entries cover all works published in New Zealand as well as those published overseas dealing in whole or in part with New Zealand, or written by New Zealanders, and includes proclamations, notices, broadsides and the first editions of the Pacific voyages of discovery. Title pages are transcribed in full and lined off in descriptive bibliographic form; collations are given in detail and most significant entries have been annotated to mark points of historical, textual or bibliographic interest. The comprehensive index gives a subject approach for most items as well as significant titles, names of editors and other types of associated responsibility. In addition there is a chronological index.

Fulbright award approved for 1981 The board of the New Zealand-United States Educational Foundation has approved the award of a further Fulbright-Hays research fellowship for comparative history studies by an American scholar at the Turnbull in--1981. The fellowship approved for 1980 has not been filled because of the lack of a suitable applicant.

Turnbull Research Fund A further grant of SIO,OOO for 1980/81 has been made by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon D. A. Highet, from lottery profits to the Alexander Turnbull Library Research Endowment Fund. Grants from the Minister and from a range of charitable trusts in New Zealand have been used to support the initial activities of the Research Fund, but from 1980 additional

income will be derived from the extra series of prints published by the Research Endowment Fund in association with other bodies. The first series, the Cooper Prints, was published in April 1980 in association with the New Zealand Wool Board.

Charitable status of Endowment Trust Any uncertainty about the charitable status of gifts or bequests to the Alexander Turnbull Library Endowment Trust has been removed by a letter from the Department of Inland Revenue dated 17 December 1979. The Department has advised that the Endowment Trust has been officially approved as a charity for the purposes of the Estate and Gift Duties Act 1968 (exemptions under Sections 39A and 73 from estate and gift duties), the Stamp and Cheque Duties Act 1971 (exempt under Section 18 from conveyance duty), and the Income Tax Act 1976 (exemption under Section 61(25) and (27) from income tax). The Endowment Trust is incorporated under the Charitable Trusts Act but the Department has advised that this does not mean that it automatically qualifies for the revenue concessions available to a charity. The Endowment Trust is now deemed to be charitable at law by the Department. In addition the Endowment Trust qualifies for the purposes of Sections 56A (rebate of 50c in the dollar for donations by individuals, with a maximum rebate of $175 in respect of all qualifying deductions and private school fees) and 147 (deductions by public companies) of the Income Tax Act 1976.

New Zealand Historical Association At a meeting of historians at the University of Canterbury in August 1979 a decision was made to form a New Zealand Historical Association on a national basis to serve the interests of history in New Zealand. The objects of the new association are to foster and promote historical studies, teaching and research, by means of: 1, a regular newsletter, fostering contact between persons and organisations interested in history; 2, regular national and regional conferences; 3, financial or other assistance to the publication of historical research in New Zealand; 4, expression of opinion on matters of public policy which concern historical studies, teaching or research. An interim committee has been appointed to draft a constitution, establish contacts with interested groups, and to work towards a national conference in Wellington early in 1981 at which the constitution will be ratified and officers and a council elected. The interim president is W. J. Gardner and the secretary Dr G. W. Rice of the History Department, University of Canterbury, from whom details of subscription rates, etc, may be obtained.

Law Society Collection The Wellington District Law Society has agreed to deposit its small collection of books printed before 1801 (some 100 volumes) in the Alexander Turnbull Library on long term loan. The formal deed specifies that the books are to remain the property of the Law Society but that they are to be housed and conserved as if they were the property of the Library. The use of the collection is to be in accordance with the Turnbull's Rules Use of the Library and Reading Room. The collection will be designated as "The Wellington District Law Society's Collection" and each volume marked by an appropriate bookplate. Most of the volumes are law reports published in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Interesting sixteenth century titles include Ranulphus de Glanville's Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Angliae (1555?), Sir Robert Brooke's La graunde abridgement . . . (1573) and Sir William Stanford's Les plees del coron . . . (1567) and An exposicion of the kinges prerogative . . . (1568). The Turnbull has, for several years, been engaged in strengthening its national research collection of books printed before 1801 through purchases, bequests, and the encouragement of the long term deposit of significant collections in private and institutional hands. The Law Society's collection will add much needed strength to the Library's holdings of early legal works.

Exhibition of entertainment ephemera Reviving pleasant memories, entertaining, informing and attracting considerable interest from both older and younger generations, the Library's first ever ephemera exhibition 'Entertainment Ephemera: Posters and Programmes from New Zealand's Past', was held from 3 March to 19 July 1980. Items in the colourful display, which spanned over a century (ca. 1825 to 1929), ranged from early English sideshow posters proclaiming the presence of 'Wild Indian Cannibals from New Zealand', through programmes of sparkling operatic seasons, brilliant regal balls, the excitement of the circus, pleasant picnic days, military displays, to the last years of the silent movies. Enhanced by items of evening wear kindly lent by the National Museum, the posters and programmes were accompanied by photographs and descriptive captions that brought to life local and visiting personalities including the great entrepreneurs who greatly influenced the New Zealand entertainment scene. Gems of humour found in old newspaper and magazine reviews added light-hearted atmosphere. A primary aim of the exhibition was to arouse public awareness of the Library's collection and the value of ephemera as a source of information and illustration. Organised by Allison Buchan, assisted by Jill Palmer and vacation workers Helen Wyn and Hamish Graham, the display was made possible by many much-appreciated past donations, and it is hoped that the exhibition will have favourably influenced both potential users and potential donors.

Trust fund for fine printing and binding The New Zealand Ex Libris and Booklovers' Society has decided to dissolve itself and to donate the funds of the Society to the Alexander Turnbull Library Endowment Trust to create a special trust fund to be used for the development of the Library's collection of fine printing, and for the advancement of fine printing and binding in New Zealand by way of exhibitions, prizes, awards, lectures, etc. The fund is to be designated the 'New Zealand Ex Libris and Booklovers' Society Fine Printing and Binding Fund' and the agreement provides for both the capital and income to be expended at the discretion of the Board of the Endowment Trust.

Beere negatives acquired In August 1979 the Library purchased a collection of 793 glass negatives by the photographer Daniel Manders Beere, one of three brothers born at Ballynacargy, West Meath, Ireland, all of whom came to New Zealand during the 1860 s. Daniel arrived in New Zealand in 1863 after spending some time in Canada as an engineering cadet to his uncle, a bridge engineer. From 1864 until 1867 he served as a surveyor to the Provincial Government, working in the Auckland, Waikato and Thames districts. During the 1870 s he surveyed the routes of the Manawatu-Wanganui and PakipakiWaipukurau stretches of railway before returning to the Waikato in 1876 to carry on railway construction work. In 1886 he left New Zealand and travelled extensively before settling in Melbourne, where he died in 1909. His negatives remained with his descendants in New Zealand, by whom they have always been maintained in excellent condition, and as a result they exhibit almost none of the deterioration so commonly seen in glass negatives.

The collection can be divided into three categories. The earliest plates, dating from the 1860 s and 1870 s, are 88 VA" X 4'/ 2 " collodion negatives depicting scenes in Auckland, the Kaipara district, Thames and the military camps on the Waikato during the New Zealand wars. The 7%" X 4V2" format is not common in New Zealand but is known in North America and it may be assumed that these negatives were made on a camera brought from Canada. The equipment used by Beere for these early images was obviously of the highest quality, for it enabled him to use exposures short enough to capture moving objects lost by most of his contemporaries, while at the same time using apertures small enough to ensure a good depth of field. The resulting richness of detail extending from foreground to background gives these photographs a vitality lacking in most of their contemporaries. A study of these negatives with a magnifier brings out a wealth of detail invisible to the unaided eye. From a slightly later period are 141 dry-plate negatives, 6V2" X 4!/ 2 " in size. These date from the period when Beere was engaged in surveying railways in Hawkes Bay and the Manawatu and cover much of the

Auckland Province. Of particular note are four negatives showing the turning of the first sod on the Main Trunk Railway near Te Awamutu on 15 April 1885. The most recent negatives in the collection are 564 3/4" X 4V2" plates dating from the 1890 s. These are mostly of Auckland and the East Coast of the North Island and include several photographs of the Maori Parliament at Pakirikiri in 1894.

Although Beere's negatives have only recently come to light, his prints are well known from their frequent occurrence in nineteenth century photograph albums. They are commonly found in albums compiled by British Army officers in the 1860 s, often in association with prints by the Rev. John Kinder. Although Beere was not a commercial photographer, the number of his prints to be found in libraries and museums indicates that he must have printed many copies of his photographs for members of the public, but the financial basis of his photographic activity and the channels through which it became available to the public are not yet known. Certainly he had many contacts with the military through his service as a surveyor in the Waikato and through his brother, Captain Gerald Butler Beere of the Waikato Militia, and his work was evidently popular with British officers. Although Beere's prints are already to be found in the Library, much of the fascinating detail can only be appreciated by a careful examination of the negatives and the production of enlargements. The acquisition of these plates is of considerable significance to the Library's photograph collection and should be a source of much interest to historians in the future.

Latest Turnbull prints Ten serving officers of the forces in New Zealand from the 1840 sto the 1860 s, were to become Generals: and they were all artists, to a greater or lesser degree. Carey, Collinson, Gold, Hamley, McCleverty, Page, Robley, Warre, Williams and Wynyard were the soldier-artists and one stands far above the others in his accomplished technique and the general high quality of his work. Lieutenant General Edward Arthur Williams, C.B. (1824-98), Colonel Commandant of the Royal Artillery, of a military family and widely travelled, spent 46 years in the Army and was in New Zealand between 1864 and 1866, commanding the Royal Artillery in the Waikato, Tauranga and Wanganui campaigns, in action at Rangiawhia, Hairini, Gate Pa and Nukumaru. Although relatively little of his work as a military artist survives in this country, what there is, is of such quality that one may say that General Williams was perhaps the best artist here until the arrival of Nairn and van der Velden nearly 30 years later. For many years the only known work by Williams comprised a very fine large sketchbook in the Hocken Library, two watercolours in the Auckland City Art Gallery and six in the Alexander Turnbull Library. In 1973 the Library was fortunate to acquire four more important watercolours at auction locally, and over the last decade another eight have

been purchased, largely overseas, bringing the Library's total to 18. In 1979 a grandson of the artist sold the Library seven small sketchbooks, two of which contain New Zealand views. Most of the subjects in Williams's paintings and drawings held in New Zealand relate to the campaigns in which he took part, particularly the Taranaki Wars. The second issue of Turnbull Library Prints for 1980, Views of the Wanganui Campaign, 1865, consists of three colour prints with a fourth on the folder, and four drawings in black and white on the text-sheet. The three prints are not only attractive in themselves as paintings, but also provide an invaluable historical record, depicted in detail with sensitivity and skill. The first shows intense activity at the crossing of the Tangahoe River by a large force of soldiers and their ascent of the steep bluff. The second has, in the distance, an outlying picket near Patea; this painting, too, well illustrates the rugged nature of the country traversed by the troops. The third print depicts bullock-drays with supplies crossing a river below Mount Egmont, while the illustration on the folder shows a picket taking their ease at Nukumaru shortly after a strong attack by the enemy. As usual, the edition is of 2500 numbered sets. The Williams Prints sell at $4 each or sl2 for the set of 3 in an illustrated folder with 10 per cent discount for members of the Friends of the Turnbull Library. Orders should be addressed to the Library, Box 12-349, Wellington North.