CARE OF ARCHIVES

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 21, 25 January 1936, Page 27

CARE OF ARCHIVES

LIBRARIAN'S STUDY

AN EXTENSIVE TOUR

(By 'J'elegv;tph—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, January 24,

Reference to the possibility of valuable historical documents relating to the early days of the colony being secured for the official archives of the Dominion was made by Dr. G. H. Scholefield, Parliamentary Librarian in New Zealand, who returned to Auckland by the Monterey after a world tour lasting ten months. His trip was made at the invitation of the Carnegie Corporation and he was also assisted by the New Zealand Government. The main objects were to inspect the manner in which official archives were kept in other countries, a duty which is his in New Zealand, and also to investigate national and rural library systems.

He said his research into the keeping of archives had been carried out mainly in Australia, South Africa, Holland, Spain, Great Britain, the United States, and Canada.

"In many places I was fortunate in discovering a good deal. of material linking up with the official archives of New Zealand," Dr. Scholefield.said. "I was able to make a survey of some of the more remote material relating to the early days of the colony in the Public Records Office, London, the British Museum, and in the archives of the Church Missionary Society and the London Missionary Society. Dr. Scholefield added that he had met or had been in communication with representatives of several families connected with the early days in New Zealand. He felt satisfied that as the Dominion improved its facili- j ties for receiving and preserving such relics many documents and other valuable material would be presented to New Zealand. He had been in touch with the descendants of Captain William Hobson, New Zealand's first Governor. LIBRARIES ABROAD. Dr. Scholefield said he had already forwarded to the Government a report on rural libraries as he had seen them overseas, embracing, suggestions for the development of a similar scheme in New Zealand. Dr. Scholefield attended the conference of the International Federation of Libraries in Spain and also the annual conference of the English Libraries' Association in Manchester. From these, gatherings and from his own investigations he had obtained material for a report on national libraries, which would shortly be presented to the Government.

"In the United States," he said, "I was struck by the extraordinarily high cost of books. In the case of books which are printed on both sides of the Atlantic many American libraries prefer to wait for the English edition, which is generally cheaper and of a more convenient size for library purposes. The library buildings are amazing. They are really temples for books. Another feature is the preponderance of women in the library service in the United States, even in highest and most responsible positions." :