VALUABLE DOCUMENTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume IV, Issue 39, 25 January 1936, Page 6

VALUABLE DOCUMENTS.

Dr. ScholefieltTs Discoveries While on Tour. PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARIAN RETURNS.

Press Association —Copyright. Auckland, Jan. 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 Reference to the possibility of valuable historical documents relating to the early days of the colony being secured for the official archives of the Dominion was made by Dr.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. Scholelicld, Parliamentary librarian in New Zealand, .who returned to Auckland by the Monterey after a world tour of ten months. Lr. Scholefield’s tour was made at the invitation of the Carnegie Corporation, and he was also assisted by the New Zca- i land Government.

The main objects of his tour, Dr. Scholcfield said, were to inspect the manner in which official archives were kept in other countries, a duty which devolved on him in New Zealand, and to investigate national and rural library systems. His research into the keeping of archives had been done mainly in Australia, Soutli Africa, Holland, Spain, Great Britain, the United Stales and Canada. “In many places I was fortunate in discovering a good deal of material linking with the official archives of New Zealand,” Dr. Scholcfield said. “1 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 at London, in the British Museum and in the archiyes of the Church Missionary Society md the London Missionary Society.”

Dr. Scholefield added that he had met or had been in communication with representatives of several of the old families who had been connected with the early days in New Zealand. He fell satisfied that as the Dominion improved its facilities, 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 Hobson, New Zealand's first Governor, having himself published a life of Hobson in 1934.

for Books. Dr. Scholefield said hd harl already forwarded to the Goveriimehv. a , re P ort 011 rural libraries as he had seen tu„ em overseas, embracing suggestions for tu? cle ~ velopment of a similar scheme in Zealand. During his tour Dr. Scholefield j attended a conference of the Internation- j al Federation of Libraries in Spain and | the annual conference of the English Libraries’ Association at Manchester. From these gatherings and from his own personal investigations be had obtained material for a report on national libraries which would shortly he presented to the Government. „ ~ “In the United States,” Dr, Scholefield continued, “1 was struck by the extraordinarily higli costs of books, fit 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 more convenient size for library purposes. Library buildings themselves in America are amazing and they are really a temple for books. Another feature is the preponderance of women in the library service in the United States, even in the highest and most responsible position.”