DUNEDIN LIBRARIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26842, 5 August 1948, Page 4

DUNEDIN LIBRARIES

41 ■: t 'VALUE TO HISTORIANS

WEALTH OF MATERIAL | AVAILABLE ■ , At present the greatest defect in Dunedin libraries, as far as facilities ■ for historical research were concerned, ...lay in the lack of organisation. In doing his own foraging, as a historian 4 had to do to-day, he might easily lose !; the elusive portions required in the wealth of material available. These ■i comments were made by Mr John v Harris. Otago University librarian, in a ‘ talk on “ Source Materials for the Hisr torian in Otago,” given to the Hostorical Section of the Otago branch of the New Zealand Royal Society, last

night. 1 Dunedin was singularly fortunate in its historical collections of literature, he continued. There were more libraries here than in any other .town in New Zealand except Wellington, where, however, there was considerable overlapping in the collections and many i- rare volumes found here were not inV eluded in the libraries in the capital. The principal Dunedin libraries were the Hocken, University, Athenaeum, Public, Law, Early Settlers’, u and the I' McNab collection. Dunedin in about k iB6O was the largest city in New Zea- ■ land and a thriving commercial ■ centre where many important legal ■ disputes were settled, and the records ■were stored in the Law Library. Of BLodcial value to the social historian Kras the magnificent array of early ■photographs in the Early Settlers colf lection, which also included whaler boats, ploughs and furniture For material after 1900 the McNab collection was of value for its selection of ■ theses and newspapers,, while the University library possessed medieval manuscripts and was of particular use ‘ f °Dr collection was the only one in New Zealand of material original intended for the historian continued Mr Harris. He had collected almost anything in print, including menus, broadsheets, newspapers and Charts while most of the volumes describing the voyages of Tasman Cook, Bligh, Vancouver and the French, Rusu flan German and United States expeditions to the /Pacific were . also included. Early maps and Admiralty charts, missionary diaries and journals,- and; anything to do with the Pacific area had been collected by Dr { Hocken, who was a true Pacific historian,'he concluded.

Historical Section Revived ' After being active for only 10 years +he historical section of the Otago branch of the New Zealand Royal Society was forced to have a long sleep” starting in 1940, said Professor w P. Morrell. The aims of the historical section should be to foster the study of New Zealand and general history by research papers, and to stimulate the teaching of history. With these . aims the section would be revived. 7 Office-bearers elected were: President, Professor W. P. Morrell; vicepresidents,, Dr B. H. Howard and Mr F Knight; secretary and treasurer, Mr D.' W. Crowley: executive, Miss L. Voller, Messrs W. J. Harris, E. A. Olssen. W G. McClymont and A. Milne.