COMMENTARY AND NOTES FROM THE LIBRARY

Turnbull Library Record, Volume I, Issue 3, 1 March 1968, Page 34

COMMENTARY AND NOTES FROM THE LIBRARY

It is thought that the Record should give some information about the work and administration of the Library in addition to featuring articles on the material in its collections. As far as possible administrative matters covered by the Annual Report of the National Library of New Zealand, of which copies of the section dealing with the Alexander Turnbull Library have already been sent to members, need not be covered. It should be mentioned, however, at the risk of repetition, that a major responsibility of the staff is the servicing of the sections of the collections elsewhere than in the Turnbull building in Bowen Street and not infrequently directing or participating in the removal of stock from one building to another. At present the Library is housed in four buildings, two of which represent an improvement on the different buildings occupied twelve months ago. The present accommodation, while not functional in its disposition, at least gives a higher degree of security than has been hitherto available.

(o In the last six months the Photograph Section and map collection have been effectively housed in new premises on the first floor of the Local Government Building; storage space has been occupied in the basement of the Bowen State Building and duplicates, marginal stock and photographic plates cleared from 138 Sydney Street West, an old ‘motorway’ house - surely the least satisfactory of any building in which library stock of however marginal a quality has to date been stored in New Zealand. Before the Library is eventually housed in the National Library Building authority for the sketch plans of which is being sought, an interim home of several years duration will probably be necessary in another building where it is hoped the entire collection can for the first time since 1955 be brought together.

In December 1967 members of staff farewelled informally Mrs Iris M. Winchester, ma, dipnzls, Assistant Chief Librarian. Mrs Winchester, who has given sixteen years of valued service to the Library (until February 1963 as Miss I. M. Park) has been absent on leave since July. Mrs Winchester was Acquisitions Officer from 1950 until 1958 when she transferred to the Reference Section, where in positions of increasing responsibility she worked until her appointment as Assistant Chief Librarian in January 1966. She was Acting Chief Librarian from January until April 1966. All that Mrs Winchester has done in the Library has been at the highest standard. Her Library School Bibliography New Zealand Periodicals of literary interest, subsequently published by the School (1962) was a careful assessment of continuing value and interest. Members will recall her lively and perceptive essay on William and H. G. Swainson in the March 1967 issue of the Record. It

is to be hoped that when her family responsibilities permit she will be able to continue her literary work on the Library’s collections.

Mr R. F. Grover, ba, dipnzls, was appointed Assistant Chief Librarian in January 1968. Mr Grover joined the Reference staff in i 960 and has subsequently been Manuscripts Librarian and Head of the Catalogue Section. During the past two years he has been Head of the Reference Section. Mr Grover’s novel, Another man’s role published by Blackwood and Janet Paul in September 1967, has been widely and favourably reviewed.

On io October, 1967, Sir John Ilott, as Chairman of Trustees of the National Library of New Zealand presented to the French Ambassador, at a function under the auspices of the New Zealand Women Writers’ Association, a letter written by Katherine Mansfield to Middleton Murry in which she described the Villa Isola Bella, Mentone. The presentation, which was made on the recommendation of the Chief Librarian of the Alexander Turnbull Library and the National Librarian, followed a suggestion that the gift of some manuscript by Katherine Mansfield to the town of Mentone would be a welcome donation of international significance. The letter itself was one of the collection of 483 letters purchased by the Crown from the Middleton Murry estate in 1958. A protest, publicly and to the Trustees, was made at the gift. The Trustees’ Special Committee for the Alexander Turnbull Library considered the matter at its meeting on 15 November and transmitted its resolution to the Trustees. The Trustees at their meeting on

6 February by unanimous resolution supported the action of the Chairman and adopted the Committee’s recommendation as below bh (i) That the Committee affirms its strict adherence to the Regulations governing the Alexander Turnbull Library, which provide among other matters for the inalienability of any material which was part of the Turnbull bequest, or was bequeathed or given to the Library in such terms as explicitly or implicitly intended it to be inalienable; and that it records its warm appreciation of the manner in which the Chief Librarian has been instrumental in adding substantially to the original manuscript material of the Library; '■/■<) 'TO’ (ii) That the Committee notes that the Regulations provide that other material held in duplicate or inappropriate to the Library may be given, sold or exchanged, and notes also that such surplus material would normally go to another library or repository where it would be available for the cause of scholarship; ; , (iii) That the Committee records that the gift of an original letter from the Katherine Mansfield collection to the Municipality of Mentone was of a highly exceptional character made in recognition of

the special link with Katherine Mansfield herself and is regarded as likely to be a unique exception to normal procedures. A facsimile of the letter is reproduced in this number of the Record, see opposite pages 28 and 29.

The termination of book auctions by Messrs J. H. Bethune and Co. ends a service which the firm has given to librarians, book-collectors and vendors for some ninety years. The first book auction was held in the late 1870’s and since that time with varying annual frequency, the auction-room has provided hospitality to those interested. Many readers will recall Mr Pat Lawlor’s most readable impressions of the ‘middle period’ of book auctions in his Books and bookmen, New Zealand and overseas (1954, Part 2, Chapter v), and many others still around could - some even may - record their own impressions. There is space here only to express regret that economic considerations have made this step necessary. Mr A. Fair, who has handled the cataloguing of the auctions since the war, ably supported by Mr L. Pollock, tackled the always difficult task of presenting collections of varying strength and character as fully as he could - frequently more fully and in smaller lots than the final return warranted. It is almost unnecessary to point out that Bethune’s sales have always been conducted at the highest standard of integrity and with scrupulous regard to the interests of all concerned. Libraries throughout New Zealand as well as overseas, and particularly the Alexander Turnbull Library, are indebted to Bethunes for this regular local opportunity of acquiring on favourable terms much New Zealand material. Mr Fair’s four volume record of the sales from 1940 to 1967 will always be an interesting quarry for the collector, although it will quickly be outdated as a working approach to market valuations. What will replace it will depend on whether some enterprising and knowledgeable successor, as is earnestly to be hoped, will continue the service so admirably given by the firm for so long.

NOTE ON CONTRIBUTORS

JOAN STEVENS, Associate Professor of English, Victoria University of Wellington. D. F. McKENZIE, Associate Professor of English, Victoria University of Wellington. F. M. McKAY, Lecturer, Department of English, Victoria University of Wellington.