Tidying up the record

Press, 27 December 1980, Page 13

Tidying up the record

Sixty Red Nightcaps and. other Curio- ' sities of New Zealand History. By * Errol Brathwaitee. David Bateman, j 1980. 64 pp. $9.95. • (Reviewed by Robert Lamb) This booklet is the/work of a good raconteur, eager to share with others the enjoyment he has derived from fossicking in the byways of our history. His jottings, whether they relate to Norsewood and Martinborough in the North Island, or to Mary’s Creek in the South Island, have a charm in the telling and are extremely entertaining. It remains then to ask: how do they tally with- the documentary sources from which they are derived? The true source • of the first story in this collection must surely have been appendix No. 15 to the “Report from the Select Committee on New Zealand ’1840” published in the British Parliamentary Papers of that year. -That appendix- contains an inventory ■of the articles given to certain Maori chiefs in exchange for Port Nicholson and .Wellington Harbour. . . > Mr Brathwaite's list agrees almost .word .for word with this original inventory, except that he omits to mention the "one hundred red blankets” included therein, and allows its recording of “twenty dozen pocket handkerchiefs”- • tpf appear; .as two • ■ dozen” in his account. ■ ; One • must also query Brathwaite’s account of a well-known ■Christchurch landmark; namely, ■ the

clock tower near the intersection of Victoria and Montreal Streets. What grounds has he for asserting (oh page 20), that after the abolition of provincial government in 1876 the clock tower “was put up in Cathedral Square”? In support of this he cites what he mistakenly believes to have been the Christchurch "Press” of the day, whereas in fact his quotation tallies word for word with a report in "The Press” of November 25, 1864. This sort of confused writing is not likely to be helpful to pupils from our primary and secondary schools, in their constant search for reliable information about the landmarks of the city. . ’ ' - . In his account of the founding of Martinborough, Mr Brathwaite has obviously been misled by the entry for that town in Volume 2 of "An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand" where the founder is wrongly called “Sir John Martin.” (He enjoyed no such title.) . , , , . . . This repetition of a mistake derived from the generally reliable encyclopaedia suggests that now, 15 years after . the encyclopaedia appeared, would be a good time for a list of its errors to be circulated by the National Librarian to libraries and other users, such as newspaper offices, throughout New Zealand. But in spite of occasional lapses, Mr Brathwaite’s brief studies have much to commend them. They would have merited more careful checking before they were published.