N.Z. Translation Service Has Never Been ‘Stumped’

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27860, 7 January 1956, Page 12

N.Z. Translation Service Has Never Been ‘Stumped’

‘The Press” Special Service

WELLINGTON, January 6. Linguists who can translate foreign languages, even the most obscure, are on hand to help Government departments and others who require their services. They belong to a panel of interpreters which the Department of Internal Affairs has available for its translation section, a, State activity of which little is heard. With more people of foreign extraction coming into New Zealand, its work has increased greatly in the last few years, and the number of words translated last year is estimated at well over 1,000.000. The department’s translation service was established after the war by Dr. R. A. Lochore, now of the External Affairs Department, and the calls on it have increased year by year* ever since. The department has on its std'ff one permanent interpreter, a naturalised Austrian, who came to New Zealand before the war. He is proficient in German, French and Serbo-Croat, and. has a smattering of Dutch. Spanish, Norwegian. Portuguese and Italian. For the translation of other languages the department is able to call on a panel of interpreters. In building up the panel, the department has aimed to have several interpreters available in the more common foreign languages, each with specialised knowledge on a different subject. One interpreter would be familiar with the wording of legal documents, another with the terms used in scientific articles, and so on. The department’s translation service has been capable of meeting all calls on its services, and has never been “stumped” in providing an interpreter for languages ranging from Arabic to Zulu. , The service was established originally to translate documents and technical papers for other State departments, but it is now frequently used by banks, legal firms and the commercial community to translate legal and commercial documents. Fees are charged for this service. The translation of the foreign birth certificates for social security purposes and for insurance companies is one of the everyday jobs of the service. There are also naturalisation papers to translate. Recent translations include those of articles on electrification for the Railways Department, publications on soil erosion for the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council, and papers on electric power development for the State Hydro-electric Department. A translation was also made of the German law on the private ownership of State flats. Technical Articles Foreign articles on highly technical scientific subjects were also translated for other departments. Recently a translation was made for the Transport Department of a very comprehensive Swedish report on drink and driving. It is not solely a one-way traffic of translation into English, and not long ago taxation notes for the Inland Revenue Department were translated into Dutch, Polish. Chinese, Greek, and Gujerati, an Indian dialect; and a road safety pamphlet for motor-cyclists was translated into Dutch, Germah, Polish and Greek for the Road Safety Council. #

Interpreters are also made available by the department when required by •the Courts. It provided the interpreter when a party of Turkish military officers visited the Dominion last year for Anzac Day celebrations. An indication of the extent of the service is given by the figures for the last financial year, which included the translation of 1723 certificates—birth certificates, marriage certificates, and passports—4Bl letters and circulars, 118 tables of contents of foreign langage publications, and 128 technical and scientific articles.