N.Z. COMPANY DOCUMENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14595, 6 August 1909, Page 3

N.Z. COMPANY DOCUMENTS

HOUSING TIIK COLLECTION. DR HOCKEX'S SUGGESTION'S. It ,is not generally known that tho whole credit of having saved the otticial documents of the-' New Zealand Company from total or parti d destruction, and having them tabulated and sent to Sow Zealand, is due to JJr Docker A Times reporter waited on the doctor yesterday, and had a chat with him on the subject of the lengthy telegram that, we published from our Wellington correspondent yesterday morning, wherein it \m staled that a collection of books and papers, comprising two tons by measurement, had arrived in Wellington. "When I was at Home about the year 1903/' said Dr Hockcn, "I was asked to examine all the records of the New Zealand Company which lay at the Public lteeords Office in London. I spent between two. and three months on tho work, and made a very complete list of all tho articles there, and they consisted, as tho paper states this morning, of the v.liolo of the .documents of Ihe New Zealand Company, which, under tho terms of its charter, it hail lo yield tip to tho Imperial Government in Ifsl. There were thousands upon thousands cf books and papers of all kinds, and I examined and tabulated them all. I had two or three assistants placed at my disposal,- and wc brought the documents down from the rooms in which they v,-ere stored into another room, which i used, whore there was a largo table, and here they were all examined.

"At the conclusion of my work I received the warm thanks of the Colonial Office, and in replying I strongly suggested that the colony should have possession of tho documents, for to the people of New Zealand they were very interesting records indeed, '.the British Government took objection, to this on the ground that fhey belonged to the public archives; but I pointed out that they were rather the archives of a. private company, and not of the Kingdom. From time to time, since then, in correspondence, I pressed this matter again, and I was very pleased to know, about three or four years ago, that the British Government contemplated hantiiliff them over to the New Zealand Government. The difficulty then was that the New Zealand Government found that it had no pJaca in which to house so valuable a set of documents, and nothing further was done. It is satisfactory, therefore, to know that (hey have at last arrived in the Dominion.

" I am not aware now that the Government has any place in which lo house the collection, but it appears to me that there is room for it in the Hccken Wing at the MiiKoum. here, and I am going to write to the Government on this very point. The Hocken, collection, for the accommodation of which that wing wae built, was given by mo to the people of the Dominion, of New Zealand—not, as has been supposed, to the province of Otago. My collection is of equal interest to every part ot New Zealand, and is not confined to Otago alone, and tny desiro that it. should be located here arose from the fact that this is the place where I have spent most of my lifetime, and where I hope that for many years yet the collection will bo under my personal supervision, ami where I may see any alterations that are needed carried out. It is because of tho fact that the Hockcn Wing was built for such a purpose, and will contain a somewhat similar collection, that I think this collection of old documents that has just arrived might very well be housed hero. Wellington is certainly the central town, but I clo noMtnow whore the dooumonls could be stored there. I would not care to see them put into the Government offices, which are of wood, where they might be destroyed by fire." And then the doctor, his memory stirred by the mention of the Government offices, told how he discovered tho lost Treaty of Waitangi buried in a heap of old papers and rubbish in a dungeon underneath tho building, where, had he not found it, it must have been destroyed.

Dr Hocken eaid that he had had considerable correspondence with Mi' Lyltelton concerning tho collection, and Sir Charles

I Lucas, when here recently on behalf of I the Colonial Ollico, had taken a warm I interest, in the whole matter.

The Doctor went oil to say that the process of destroying these old documents was very iiiterpvlinp, as showing what extraordinary care was taken by the. authorities in disposing of masses of papers that had accumulated century aflei>- century, to SCO that only documents of no' value were destroyed. It was owing to tho anxiety of ■rhe Brili'h Government that nothing of value or use should be thrown away that Dr Hoeken was asked to examine the New Zcabnd _ Company's documents and ascertain their preciVe nature.