NEW ZEALAND’S HISTORIAN

Otago Witness, Issue 3114, 19 November 1913, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND’S HISTORIAN

MR ROBERT M'NAB INTERVIEWED

(From Our Own Correspondent?) INVERCARGILL, November 11. Mr Robert M'Nab, who has been carrying on further research work in connection with the early history of New Zealand, was in Invercargill for a few hours yesterday. Speaking to a Southland Times interviewer, he said that he had often visited Sydney in the past, but since his last visit the State and Federal Governments had been interesting themselves in the early papers of the different departments, with the result that a great number of them had been made avadab'e. In some of the departments these papers dated right back to the arrival of ! Governor Phillip, and ho had been fortunate in being able to look through them. He found a very large supply of material, but a complete search through the documents available would, lie estimated, occupy about 10 months. He put in a month, but was held up for a short time, amd hoped to resume the search in the autumn. Speaking of the class of material Mr M‘Nab eaid that, strange to say, the bulk of it was in the Supreme Court, and that the greater quantity of it related to our southern territory, Stewart Island, Foveaux Strait, the coast lino from Dusky Sound to Hanks Peninsula, and the islands as far south as the Macquarios. In answer . to a question, Mr M'Nab said that the reason why this material came to be in the court was that, with the dawn- of the scaling and whaling trades the contracts entered into between masters and men had often to be the subject of litigation, and the judges notes, together with the documents produced as exhibits, and the court papers, disclosed the whole history of the voyages, and, taken together, the history of the trade. The rights of the -parties being settled by repeated appeals to the court, the trade tan on smoothly. The quarrels 1 were over questions of the interpretation of wages clauses, damage-s for being loft without food, and non-rciief of the gangs at the i end of their terms. • “ The whole wages question of the early New Zealand trades can now he ascertained, ” said Mr M'Nab. “This is the greatest supply of material that has yet been available to mo, and it would probably have not been available had it not been for the interest taken by the State and Federal Governments, and the kindness extended to me by the stall in permitting one to cxam.no the documents. In addition to the material for my own work, I have also secured for the Government the right to reproduce the documents that were shown to mo, and they will bo a valuable contribution to the New Zealand records. Those documents refer to all kinds of matters. For instance, thej have the documents referring to the commission of the first justice of the peace in New Zealand, with the oath taken by him. There are numbers of other documents—protests over shipwrecks, peculiar wills made in New Zealand in the early part of last century, and miscellaneous matters. It is wonderful what an immense lumber of documents are sent in as exhibits in legal proceedings and are never claimed again. It was long supposed in Sydney that there was a big gap where some of the documents had been returned, but this has turned out not to be tho case’ anld tho records are found to be more or less complete in tho chief departments.” i Mr M'Nab had no comment to offer upon the industrial state of New Zealand, as lie had not made himself informed even as to the cause of tho trouble, but he remarked upon, the fact that it was a peculiar thing that the federationists in Australia were numerically a long way the weaker branch of tho Labour organisations. It was a significant fact that the bringing about ol a general strike always meant that tho struggle would bo one to finality, and tho matters in dispute in this instance should bo settled for a long time to oomo. 1 “ When I went to Australia I was a strong supporter of compulsory vaccination, but my views have since been altered,” said Mr M'Nab in conclusion. “ I think that, so far as Sydney is concerned, the smallpox outbreak would have been nettcr dealt with had there been no compulsory 1 vaccination, but when- smallpox appeared | anywhere the patients and contacts should 1 have been quarantined. Tho result then would have been that all the danger spots would have been isolated.” Mr M‘Nab regarded the present method as a farce, be-

cause, after all that was said of compulsory vaccination, it was possible to go from New Zealand and make the round trip, and. return unvaccinated. In answer to a question regarding his intentions with respect to politics, Mr M‘Nab said that he had no plans, but ho was not prepared to say idofinitely that he would remain outside the political arena.