PRESERVATION OF ARCHIVES

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26812, 18 August 1952, Page 5

PRESERVATION OF ARCHIVES

NEED SEEN FOR NEW BUILDING VIEW OF LIBRARY ASSOCIATION (New Zealand Press Association) , WELLINGTON, August 16. . "rhe council of the New Zealand Library Association views with grave concern the parlous state of the national records, as shown by the recent disastrous fire in the Hope Gibbons building, Wellington, involving the destruction of an irreplaceable collection of archive material.” This statement, was endorsed by the council in Wellington yesterday. “The story of Government attitude to this important matter makes sad reading,” continues the statement. Some 15 years ago plans for a sevenstorey fireproof building to house the national archives, the General Assembly Library, the Turnbull Library and the National Library Service failed to materialise. Representations by the association to the Minister of Internal Affairs in July, 1950, produced an assurance that the Government was fully aware of the necessity for placing the national archives on a sound basis and that this could not be accomplished without appropriate legislation.

“The absence of any Government action in the matter prompted the N.Z.L.A. to take up the problem once more, and for more than a year an archives committee of the association has been considering the matter. At the moment memoers of the N.Z.L.A. are engaged upon a Dominion-wide survey of local authorities' records as part of the general approach to archive conservation, and as soon as the appropriate information has been collected, the association intends to advance for Government consideration recommendations concerning the proper care and preservation of both national and local manuscript material.”