NOTES AND COMMENTARY

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 4, Issue 1, 1 May 1971, Page 52

NOTES AND COMMENTARY

The Library Building It is not now expected that the Library will move into the Free Lance Building on the Terrace until the autumn of 1972. Contracts for the alterations necessary to house the Library, as well as part of the Central Division, will be let shortly, but the work involved is not expected to be completed until next year. Even after the move it is the view of the Trustees that the Library should continue to make use of the Turnbull Building until its demolition is necessary. A firm date for this step is difficult to obtain, but the final act may still be three or four years ahead. Consideration is being given to ways, other than mere storage, in which the building can usefully be used during the period without adding further to staffing difficulties. So far as the Library is concerned, the Free Lance plans in their draft form are largely the work of Mr R. F. Grover. Mr Grover will also act as the Library’s liaison officer with Mr T. B. O’Neill, Director of Extension Services, the senior librarian in the National Library, who will be working with Mr Peter Boyes of the Ministry of Works Architectural Division, on the plans for the National Library. Work has started on the preparation of sketch plans. “ff

Mrs Margaret Scott (Manuscripts Librarian) in December was awarded a Winn-Manson-Menton Fellowship, which will enable her to continue her work on editing the letters of Katherine Mansfield while living in Menton and working in the Villa Isola Bella. Mrs Scott, who left for Europe in January, will be visiting Miss Ida Baker and following up other research leads in her work both before and after her residence in Menton. It is expected that she will resume duties as Manuscripts Librarian in January 1972. During her absence Mrs June Starke is Acting Manuscripts Librarian, assisted by Mrs Dorothy Reid, who replaces Mr P. B. L. Crisp. Tongan Archives

The Library in 1968 was invited by the Tongan Government to take temporary custody of some of its archives. These, on receipt in January 1969, were found to comprise about two hundred feet of records, chiefly Minute Papers, files from the Premier’s Office, with a small group of other miscellaneous material. The series covers approximately the years 1926 to 1954, and was recently sorted into its appropriate archival sequences by Mr Andrew Thornley, now working as a V S A student in the Fijian Archives in Suva. The Tongan Government has kindly given permission for microfilm copies to be taken of the papers, access to which will be with the permission of the Tongan Government on the recommendation of the Library.

Webster Collection By arrangement with Messrs Maggs Bros, London, the Library received in November the bulk of the material from the collection which it is purchasing from the estate of the late K. A. Webster. The materials to hand include some items located initially from Mr Webster’s own catalogue, but largely comprise the selection made by Miss M. Walton in London in August 1969. The most significant items are manuscripts, broadsides, and other ephemera, printed pamphlets and extracts from periodicals. The manuscripts are specifically of New Zealand interest, but the broadsides and other printed material, covers what may be regarded particularly as the social background of colonialization from Britain in the early nineteenth century. The broadsides represent material not hitherto available for research in this country. Other Acquisitions

The Library was fortunate in obtaining at Sotheby’s in November the New Zealand volume of Captain T. B. Collinson’s autobiography (outlined in ‘Notes on Manuscript Accessions’). Accompanying the narrative, which gives Collinson’s impressions of military operations and social life in Wellington and Wanganui at the time, are many pencil sketches of considerable historical and topographical interest. About the same time the Chief Librarian was pleased to be able to arrange, by courtesy of Mr J. Eyles, Director of the Nelson Museum, for the copying of the two volumes of the diary of Lieutenant C. J. Ewen, held in the Museum since 1952. The existence of this diary was not generally known until the Chief Librarian saw it in a display case in the Museum, although sketches by Ewen are in the Nan Kivell Collection in the National Library of Australia. The diary deals chiefly with his military duties in the Wellington area, much of Ewen’s time being spent in the Barracks at Paremata, with notes of travel through the country. With the Journals of Lieutenant Bennett and Ensign Best, the Library’s holdings of records of army officers of the 1840 s is now of some significance. Carmelite Book of the Hours

Mr Christopher De Hamel, ba(hons), a graduate of the History Department of the University of Otago with special interest in and knowledge of medieval manuscripts, was fortunately able to work in the Library during the long vacation. One of his particular studies was an illuminated manuscript which forms part of the donation of Sir John Ilott. Mr De Hamel was able to establish that this was a very rare Carmelite Book of the Hours and we are pleased to publish the results of his research in this issue of the Record.