5

H.—22

Great War Graves Abroad. —Circulars respecting 1,156 cemetery and memorial registers containing regimental and family particulars were despatched to next-of-kin, of which number 634 were sold at wholesale cost. With respect to the free distribution of photographs of overseas war graves, 2,483 were dealt with. War Funds. There are now sixty-three registered war funds, this being less than last year's number by two societies which have been closed by exhaustion of funds. The assets held as shbwn by the latest returns are as follows : — £ s. d. Thirty incorporated societies .. .. .. .. 773,738 138 Eight Red Cross organizations .. .. .. .. 129,699 10 9 Three Blind Soldiers'and Veterans' Home Funds .. .. 57,827 0 1 Ten incorporated societies .. .. .. .. .. 3,594 6 3 Three Memorial Funds .. . . . . . . .. 28 3 4 One Navy League Fund .. .. .. .. .. 5,738 10 3 Five Returned Soldiers' Clubs .. .. .. .. 22,767 1 2 Three Social Funds .. .. .. .. .. 2,184 0 8 £995,577 6 2 National War Funds Council .. .. .. .. £168,290 8 0 A considerable portion of this sum is comprised of loans to soldiers and land and buildings, so that approximately 60 per cent, only may be taken as being liquid assets. The periodical returns required by the War Funds Act have been rendered regularly, and they disclose that there is little diminution in the calls made upon patriotic funds. Dominion Archives. During the year the chief work has been the sorting, binding, and indexing of certain classes of records in Wellington, while every opportunity was taken to inspect local deposits of records. Visits have now been paid by the Controller of Dominion Archives for this purpose to Akaroa, Bay of Islands, Kawakawa, Warkworth, Auckland, Tauranga, Thames, Hamilton, Te Awamutu, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Christchurch, Hokitika, G-reymouth, Dunedin, Gore, Milton, and Invercargill. At many of these places the records appear to have been destroyed. The usual repository of Government papers in the smaller towns is the post-office or the Courthouse. In the larger towns they have generally been transferred to the Lands Office or the Customhouse, and are less liable to be lost. There are very few small towns in New Zealand which have not experienced the destruction by fire of a post-office or a Courthouse, and in this way a large quantity of old papers which would have had historical value have disappeared. In Russell it was especially disappointing to find so little of value, a circumstance due, it is understood, to a zealous cleaning-out of the pigeonholes of the Courthouse some years ago. In Tauranga, the centre of an important district during the Maori wars, there should have been many valuable Government files ; but unfortunately the building in which they were stored, the post-office and Courthouse, was burned down some years ago. Wherever it is convenient, records have been removed to places of greater security, and the officials concerned have invariably shown a helpful interest in looking after them and in transferring to the Archives Division papers which have ceased to be of any use in the departmental records. Good progress has been made during the year in the sorting, arranging, and binding of the New Zealand Company's papers and other New Zealand records. A considerable amount of work has been done in the indexing of the more important volumes {e.g., the despatches of the Governors) and some of the Company's papers. . It is hoped that further volumes of the Governors' despatches, subsequent to 1855, may shortly be received from the British Government. The sorting and binding of the New Zealand Company's papers is now practically completed. They will comprise about 150 volumes, and, although not first-class archive material, they will be a most valuable field of research in the future. A list has recently been received (from the Keeper of the Rolls) of the New Zealand Company's papers in the Public Record Office. This will enable the completion of a report on the Company's records, which it is hoped shortly to issue in the form of a bulletin. During the year the Archives Division received through the High Commissioner a valuable gift from the relatives of Captain Hobson, R.N., the first Governor of New Zealand, in the shape of the diary written by Captain Hobson at Bay of Islands during his serious illness in 1840. These sheets are an important link in the history of the Treaty of Waitangi, and the Dominion is fortunate to receive such an interesting gift. The records of the old British Consulate at Samoa, upon which a report was made in 1920 to the Secretary of State, have now been transferred to the Archives Division from the Turnbull Library, and it is hoped before long to have them sorted and properly arranged. Dominion Museum. Death of the Director. —It is with regret that I have to record the death of Dr. J. Allan Thomson, Director of the Dominion Museum, which took place on the 6th May, 1928. Staff Changes.—Mr. W. R. B. Oliver, who had been Acting-Director during Dr. Thomson's illness and after his death, was in August, 1928, appointed Director of the Museum.