CARTOGRAPHY COMPLETE LIST OF N.Z. MAPS TO BE PREPARED

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26800, 4 August 1952, Page 6

CARTOGRAPHY COMPLETE LIST OF N.Z. MAPS TO BE PREPARED

[By C

G. R. WEAR]

A complete bibliography of all maps in New Zealand is to be compiled shortly by the New Zealand Geographical Society. When the scheme was first put forward the cost of such a tremendous undertaking seemed prohibitive. However, after a request from the library of Congress, Washington, D.C., for a list of all available maps of New Zealand, the society decided to go forward with the scheme if sufficient voluntary help could be obtained. This will be the first national map bibliography in any country in the world. The bibliography will greatly assist research scholars, goverament departments, local bodies —in fact, all persons who have to refer to maps frequently or infrequently. Without a reasonably complete record, there must be much duplication of effort and wasted time. A student working on a thesis, for example, may discover an old, and perhaps very valuable, map hidden away in the junk-room of some local body office. He uses it and puts it back. In five or ten years another student doing a similar thesis rediscovers the same map, after hours wasted in futile searching. And so on. Unrecognised Treasures The bibliography, in book form, will list details of the type of map, its scale, age, and where it may be found. Voluntary helpers, working on a pilot scheme to cover Canterbury, Marlborough, Nelson and Westland, will submit all available details of each map they discover to a central office, where a card index system will be kept to avoid duplication. They 'will need co-operation from libraries, museums, government departments, land agents, companies, and private individuals if the gigantic task is to be completed. They will have to search archives and attics, cellars and junk-rooms, in their hunt for forgotten maps. Strangely enough, very few New Zealand libraries or museums have complete lists of the maps they own. so the council is not expecting a great deal of assistance in the way of readymade” bibliographies. Many public bodies, too, do not realise the value of some of the maps they hold. One research scholar some time ago was writing a thesis on the growth of a certain New Zealand town. Thinking that the city council might have some maps that would be of assistance to him. he interviewed the town clerk, who assured him that the council had no maps of any possible historical significance. They had no cartographic records illustrating the growth of the town. Disappointed, the student thanked the town clerk, and walked out of his office to be

confronted with a huge map a opposite wall showing a drain?' system laid down early in the nrSfi century. The scale was about 2 chains to the inch, and every hn., and land boundary in the town ■ that time was marked. The man been there so long that it had beciS? part of the scenery, no more notS than a piece of old wallpaper! Early Canterbury Maps One of the few government denaw ments with a complete catalositoJ the maps they hold is the Lands mi Survey Department. There are irin. there of great historical vali? Nearly all or the maps done for Canterbury Association are in th Public Library, most of them in aSJ condition. The original field-lS of the earliest surveyors, the mot notable of whom was F. StevensS Smith, whose accuracy is still ta challenged, may be seen the» Several of the maps and illustration in the archives of the Lands and Sir vey Department were used in tu centennial celebrations of 1950. Many persons collect old maps » a hobby. They are expected to be among the enthusiastic supporters m the scheme for a national bibli ography. It will enable them to disl cover the location of maps in which they are interested, and it will liri them with others who have the same hobby. The bibliography will *]*. help to ensure that valuable maps are not lost or destroyed after the death of their owners. Twelve Years—and More Not only wall maps will be in. eluded in the bibliography. It is hoped eventually to index and classify maps in books, diaries, parlii. mentary papers, early immigrati® pamphlets, and maps drawn by the first explorers of New Zealand. AD maps will be listed—not only those in New Zealand, but also those held by overseas museums and libraries. The scheme is being initiated by the Canterbury branch of “ the Geographical Society, which hopes to finish its part of the job. coverim the northern part of the South bland, in two or three years—if enough voluntary helpers are forthcoming Difficulties are inevitable; but much help can be expected, too. from the owners of maps and those interested in maps. Other branches of the society will do their share of the tai in succession. They expect to tab 10 or 12 years to cover the rest g! New Zealand. The bibliography will never he finished, however. It will have to be constantly revised and checked n new maps are published and as oM ones are re-discovered.