Treaty Unaffected By Light

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30497, 20 July 1964, Page 10

Treaty Unaffected By Light

About 10,000 people who visit the Turnbull Library in Wellington each year see the Treaty of Waitangi in a glass-fronted wall cabinet and illuminated by fluorescent lamps.

Fears that the light may bleach the ink of this historic document are not confirmed by the assistant librarian, Mr A. A. St. C. M. Murray-Oliver. The lighting tubes were designed in Holland for museums, galleries and libraries so as to- cause a minimum pf damage th paintings and documents. “It is o more or less calculated risk,” said Mr Mur-ray-Oliver referring to the treaty display. “Over the years it may suffer some damage. That is judged to be less important as long as people can inspect it while there is still some immediacy about it, while generations are still not far removed from the time of its signing.” When the document was displayed publicly three

years ago, several experts from the D.5.1.R., from Imperial Chemical Industries. Ltd., and an English glazing firm, gave advice. In 1908, the treaty was rediscovered, chewed by rats, in a cellar of the Colonial Museum. Then it was stored in the Internal Affairs Department strongroom and is now in its ventilated case in the library. According to Mr MurrayOliver, the ink used more than a century ago tended to fade and usually turned brown within 20 years. The ink on the treaty has not faded under the fluorescent lights. The library’s arrangements are modest compared with those protecting the Declaration of Independence document in Washington. This is sealed in a case of inert gas and, at the touch of a button, can be lowered into a vault • in the national archives.