Research Notes

Turnbull Library Record, Volume XIX, Issue 2, 1 October 1986, Page 161

Research Notes

The first volume of the surviving letters between Sir Apirana Ngata and Sir Peter Buck edited by Professor Keith Sorenson of the University of Auckland was published on 1 September 1986. A substantial part of the work was based on the Buck-Ngata letters in the Turnbull (MS Papers 196), a collection of some 170 letters from the period 1925-1950 comprising close to 300,000 words. Negotiations with Professor Sorrenson began in 1970 and in 1971 the Turnbull Library Endowment Trust agreed to provide a subsidy towards the cost of publication to the Auckland University Press. The book was officially launched at a church service in Ruatoria on 31 August.

A third volume of Early Eyewitness Accounts, the transcriptions and translations of the accounts of the early French expeditions to New Zealand, is due for publication late in 1986. This volume will include both the d'Entrecasteaux expedition in March 1793 and the Duperrey expedition of March 1824. The first volume in the series, the de Surville expedition of 1769 issued in 1982 and long out of print, is to be reissued late in 1986 with the assistance of a special grant from the sponsors of the series, Indosuez New Zealand Limited.

John Boultbee's Journal of a-Rambler, the original of which was donated to the Turnbull in the mid 19705, was published by Oxford University Press in May 1986. The full text, with an introduction, chronology and notes, was prepared by Mrs June Starke, a former subject specialist in the Library's Manuscripts Section. The formal launching of the book was held in New Zealand House in London on 17 June in the presence of members of the Boultbee family. Publication was assisted by a grant from the Endowment Trust.

The Library was associated with the recent publication of Frederick Page's A Musician's Journal 1905-1983, edited and arranged by J. M. Thomson and Janet Paul. The original manuscript is part of the Frederick Page papers which were acquired by the Library early in 1986.

Two related subject areas which have been developed in considerable depth by the Library in recent years, war history and pacifism, have been attracting increasing interest from scholars in the past few years. During the past six months two studies on conscientious objection, Ernest Crane's J Can Do No Other: a Biography ofOrmond Burton (based on the Burton papers) and David Grant's Out in the Cold (which draws on the Efford and other related papers in the collections, and was first presented as a Masters thesis at the University of Auckland) have been published. Nicholas Boyack's thesis for a Masters degree at Victoria University 'A Social History of New Zealand Soldiers in World War I Based on their Diaries and Letters' which draws heavily on the War History Archive, is under Consideration by a publisher, and John McLeod's Myth and Reality: the New Zealand Soldier in World War II which also draws on materials in the Archive, was published in June.

Professor Steven Koblik of Pomona College, California, will be in New Zealand from August to December 1986 under the auspices of the Library. He proposes to do a comparative study of aspects of New Zealand and Swedish history with emphasis on the development of the welfare state, the move away from an agricultural economy, and the development of an independent foreign policy. Financial support for his research project has been made available by the Swedish Embassy and the Pharazyn Trust. During his stay Professor Koblik will be attached to the Stout Centre at Victoria University, and will present lectures and seminars at the University of Auckland, Massey University, the University of Canterbury, Otago University, and Victoria University.

To mark the opening of the National Library building next year a National Library scholarship has been established. The scholarship, tenable for one year, will have a value of $30,000. It will be awarded annually for research projects based on the special collections of the National Library. Applications will be called early in 1987.