Notable Acquisitions

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 21, Issue 1, 1 May 1988, Page 54

Notable Acquisitions

National Council of Churches

With the transfer, in December 1987, of some thirty-five metres of records from the National Council of Churches in New Zealand, the Library has acquired one of the most valuable collections for research into ecumenism in this country. The N.C.C. was founded in 1941 and drew its membership from the major Christian churches with the exception of the Roman Catholic church. Its aim was to advance the ideas of ecumenism in general among its members, and through its links with the world-wide movement it was able to coordinate welfare work both in New Zealand and abroad. The records include twenty-five metres of subject files which formed the main filing system of the N.C.C., together with an extensive series of minute books covering Executive and Annual General Meetings, the National Christian Youth Committee, the Women’s Committee, the Church and Society Committee and other financial and working committees. There are also scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, photographs and publications including the bulletin Church and Community. The main records include good coverage of local branch activity and also some material of earlier organisations, dating from the 19205, whose efforts led to the setting up of the N.C.C. Although the organisation officially ceased to exist in December 1987, a new body called the Conference of Churches in Aotearoa/New Zealand (CCANZ) based in Wellington and including the Catholic Church for the first time will continue its work.

Rev. Percy Hall Collection Miss Dorothy Hall has donated to the Library the papers and books of her father the Rev. Percy Hall. He took up his appointment as Headmaster of Tereora Boarding School, Rarotonga, in 1900 and returned to England for theological training with the London Missionary Society in 1905. In 1908 he embarked again for Rarotonga where he remained until 1916. The manuscript collection comprises four main groups. One group gives an overview of education in the Cook Islands, ca. 1890-ca. 1920, and includes records of Tereora School, Rarotonga, 1895-1911; diaries, essays, sermons and journals written by pupils; and the debate between the LMS and

the New Zealand government over ‘secular education’ in the Islands. The other three groups comprise correspondence between Rev. Hall and his pupils, ca. 1903-20; stories and legends of the Cook Islands; and records of the journal Te Karere, including an account book, 1901-15. The printed collection spans more than seventy years of printing history in the Cook Islands and reflects Rev. Hall’s involvement with the LMS, teaching and matters of government. Over half the collection, some forty items, were not held by the Library. Others are different editions of works already held. The earliest given date of publication is 1844, and an 1846 edition of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress in Cook Islands Maori bears the signature of W. Wyatt Gill. This is marked up with holograph alterations to the text in preparation for an 1892 edition. The printed items are in a variety of formats and languages and many carry the imprint of the Mission Press, Rarotonga. Their subjects range from biblical translations, evangelical and teaching texts, to hymns, missionary laws and school rules.

Sir Charles Fleming Sir Charles Fleming, a good friend and supporter of the Library died late in 1987. He gave his strong support to our efforts to strengthen the Library’s collections on the history of science and to encourage research into the history of science in New Zealand. Sir Charles served as the chairman of the organising committee for the Library’s History of Science Conference in 1983. He worked with the Library over the years to obtain a portrait of Sir Joseph Banks, the founding father of natural history documentation of New Zealand, and made a handsome gift to the Turnbull towards the purchase of an anonymous portrait of Banks, derived from Thomas Phillips’s 1814 work. His scientific papers, which have been donated to the Library, form an exceptional body of material spanning a career of some fifty years. They reflect all facets of his endeavour: ornithology, palaeontology, geology, biogeography and the history of science. He kept meticulous records; his trip to the Chatham Islands in 1933 for example, comprises diaries, field notebooks, photographic negatives and prints, and associated correspondence. Later trips to the Chathams are documented with the same care.

There are many subject files relating to environmental and interest groups: Antarctica, 1958-; the Manapouri campaign, 1970-; the Fauna Protection Advisory Council, 1970-; the Native Forest Action Group; National Parks, scenic and scientific reserves. He was a champion of the Royal Society of New Zealand Act 1965. There are files on scientists, which range from his work on Ferdinand von Hochstetter, whose Geologie von Neu-Seeland he translated in 1959, to those who appear in his most recent study, Science, Settlers and Scholars. The collection also contains Fleming family material. This New Zealand branch retained close financial contact with relations in Kintyre and Glasgow. Material collected by an earlier family member includes genealogical records, eighteenth and nineteenth century deeds, receipts and certificates, and letters, 1859-1897, from Samuel Fleming who set up business at Onehunga. The diaries, letters and photographs of some New Zealand family members have been added to the collection. Sir Charles synthesised the documents into his own typescript account of the family.