the Maori Land Court by a Maori Welfare Officer.) The application is not to be heard in open court as has been the case in the Maori Land Court, but in private. Normally the court will first make an interim order which will be made final after a specified period; but it may dispense with an interim order if special circumstances warrant. The Bill makes it unlawful for any person to give or receive any reward in consideration of an adoption or the arranging of an adoption. Apart from these points, the requirements are substantially the same as at present. The effect of an adoption order is still to put the child for practically all purposes (including intestate succession) in the same position as if it were the child legally born in wedlock of the adopting parents, and had no connection with the natural parents. A European does not, however, by being adopted by Maoris, become a Maori, since an order does not affect race, nationality or citizenship. Copies of the Adoption Bill have been circulated to District Welfare Officers and are held in District Offices of the Department of Maori Affairs. They may be purchased from the Government Printing Office, Wellington. Maori Land Court minute books are being microfilmed at the National Publicity Studios by staff photographer Tom Ransfield, a member of the Raukawn tribe. Mr Ransfield is working at present with the Soil Conservation Council as a photographer. (n.p.s. photograph)

HISTORY FROM COURT RECORDS The greatest source of knowledge on Maori history, and the original of all existing Maori land titles, are the minute books of the Maori Land Courts. The evidence they record contains many orations of chiefs long dead describing old wars, and authentic stories about every tribe in New Zealand. If these books, which are kept in the offices of the Department of Maori Affairs, were to be lost through fire or other disaster, students and historians of the Maori people would suffer an irreparable loss, and the whole Maori administration would be gravely affected. Although Maori Land Court Judges have long been worried about this danger it is only two years ago that the present Chief Judge, Mr D. B. Morrison, asked for a microfilm record of all the Court minute books, particularly the early ones, to make sure of their preservation. In many other countries records have been microfilmed to guard against loss and fire, also to make them more readily available for study. A 35 m.m. camera is used, specially designed for a sharp focus, and a good operator under good conditions can film 12,000 sheets a day. In New Zealand, micofilming has been little practised except for extra copies of special documents. In using film to prevent the loss of valuable records, the Maori Land Court is therefore doing pioneering work in this country. Considering how many important documents have already been lost through calamities in New Zealand's short history, the money now spent on the minute books can hardly be called a luxury. Very little space is needed to store microfilm records. One massive tome of court minutes is reduced to one cubic inch of film. The job of putting the many hundreds of minute books through the machine will take a number of years, but so far all minutes from the establishment of the Maori Land Court up to 1890 have been filmed. There are 367 of these. Negatives have been placed in fireproof storage, and positive prints have also been made, and lodged in the Turnbull Library in Wellington where students can look at them. This will be a great help, as access to the minute books was difficult in the past. The government is now planning the next stage, the filming of about 400 minute books dating from 1890 to 1900. The work is being done by the National Publicity Studios.