Lecture to Department of Internal Affairs seminar, Wellington, 1997
by Michael Bassett
The history of the Department of Internal Affairs sometimes reminds me of one of those cactuses, the ones that sit in the garden, decoratively enough, but then at unpredictable moments send up a spectacular flower that lasts awhile before fading as suddenly as it appeared. In 1901, 1920, 1927 and 1953 royal tours totally preoccupied senior officials, and the various centennial functions in 1940 took over virtually the whole department, all else being put on hold.
The War History project had somewhat the same effect on the department. The flower began to appear between 1941 and 1944, the project gaining formal approval from Cabinet on 13 March 1945. The War History Branch took over some staff from the Historical Branch the Parliamentary archives, and the archives section at Army Headquarters, and by the middle of 1947 was in full flower with 40 enthusiasts at work. This made the War Histories Branch the biggest section of the Department of Internal Affairs, if one excludes the largely part-time cleaners who were spread around the country. People and papers were transferred from the western desert, the ground floor of the old Government Building, from the attic of the Parliamentary Library and from Army Headquarters to the Ballance Street section of the Public Trust building. A full-scale literary industry thrived there until being trimmed back a little in 1950. It was scaled down some more in the early 1950s, then boosted a little at the end of the decade. Yet by 1960 only 10 employees were still working on the war histories. In 1963 the project formally came to an end; the branch was melded back into the body from which it had partly emerged - the now renamed Historical Publications Branch. By this time most petals had fallen from the flower; 24 campaign and service volumes, 20 unit histories, 24 popular episodes or studies as they were vaguely labelled, and three volumes dealing with the home front had mostly been published. The last reminder of this once great horticultural show came with Nan Taylor's two volume production called The Home Front in 1986.
What made this activity within the department the more spectacular was that New Zealand had previously taken so few steps to write about its wars. In 1903 Seddon's Government decided that New Zealand's part in the South African war should be written about. Five writers were said to have been involved in the project(1) but little was produced, and the story of New Zealand's participation in that war was subsumed by the larger post World War II effort. Compared with Australia's efforts, New Zealand's writing about the First World War was amateurish.
The efforts of the War History Branch after the Second World War have to be seen in the context of the sense of nationhood that we were fumbling towards by the middle of the Twentieth Century. The war histories are a later part of the same process that produced the centennial functions and publications in 1940-41, that commissioned Curnow's "Landfall in Unknown Seas" in 1942 and Lilburn's suite that went with it, and which saw Peter Fraser fighting in San Francisco for small nations' rights within the United Nations Charter. The General Editor of the War Histories, Sir Howard Kippenberger, took great pride in the fact that progress on New Zealand's war histories moved more rapidly than in Australia. The fact that our efforts were being copied by the South Africans caused him to boast to Peter Fraser in 1947. Throughout his eleven years as editor there is an often unspoken assertion of nationalism in everything that Kippenberger touched.(2)
When he wrote the foreword for Nan Taylor's volume, Ian Wards gave credit to several "notable New Zealanders" who made the war histories possible. He cited Peter Fraser, Eric McCormick, Kippenberger, J.C. Beaglehole, Joe Heenan, Fred Wood and the sub-editor, W.A. Glue.(3) Others could be named, for in reality, more than with most history writing, this was a team effort. It involved more than a hundred men and women over a twenty year period, amongst them some of the finest minds this country has produced.
The war histories had their origin in the centennial writing that reached its peak with the publication in 1940-41 of eleven volumes about aspects of New Zealand life. In April 1940 when the commissioned projects were nearing their end, Clyde Taylor who was Turnbull Librarian, wrote to Joe Heenan, Under-Secretary of Internal Affairs. He suggested that when staff became available they be put to work recording aspects of the war for ultimate publication. Taylor cited the commendable example of several Australian journalists, particularly C.E.W. Bean, during the First World War.(4) It seems likely that such an idea had already occurred to Joe Heenan. As Janet Paul who worked in the Historical Branch between 1942 and 1945 told me recently, "intelligence, enthusiasm and integrity" were the principal qualities admired by Heenan, and the Under-Secretary was becoming acutely aware that several people with these talents would soon be out of a job. For someone who throughout his life had collected people, this was intolerable; Heenan turned over in his mind how to retain them within his orbit. Towards the end of 1940 he managed- with encouragement from Dr J.C. Beaglehole who was fast becoming Heenan's adviser on all matters historical- to persuade both his own minister, Bill Parry, and the Minister of Finance, Walter Nash, that an Historical Branch should become a permanent feature within Internal Affairs.(5)
To Heenan, preparation of war histories seemed a natural extension of the Historical Branch which can be dated from late 1940. By this time the Prime Minister's former publicity secretary, J.H. Hall, had already been appointed official press officer with the Second NZEF. Another journalist, O.A. Gillespie, was serving with the Defence Department. Heenan suggested to Parry that the department begin gathering archival material. Parry consulted the Minister of Defence, Fred Jones, Prime Minister Fraser, and the Director of Publicity, J.T. Paul.(6) None demurred, but nothing happened for the moment.
Further progress came as a result of two things: the late Erik McCormick's desire to avoid physical combat, and Joe Heenan's restless energy and passion for literature. As a civil servant, Heenan was sui generis. Born into a Greymouth gold-miner's family in 1888, he joined the Public Service in 1906. In the classic manner that many a Protestant suspected, the devoutly Irish Catholic Sir Joseph Ward, put in a good word for his co-religionist. Young Heenan was grumpily accepted into the Internal Affairs fold by the then Under-Secretary, Hugh Pollen.(7) Heenan rose rapidly, completing a law degree in the evenings up the hill at "The Old Clay Patch" as he fondly called the Victoria University College Law School. The stocky young rugby player received substantial promotion to the Law Drafting Office in 1920. At the time of his appointment as Under-Secretary of Internal Affairs in April 1935 his florid face, rumpled suits and shock of greying hair were well known in literary, racing and sporting circles. Heenan's Irish charm and tips for Trentham on Saturday turned him into a walking Best Bets. He winkled his way through ministerial doors that were closed to others; phone calls to Fraser were usually put through without delay. During the war he drank tea with the Prime Minister every other day following meetings of the Executive Council in the old Government Building.
The beginning of the War History Branch may, perhaps, be dated from a letter which McCormick sent Heenan in March 1941. McCormick who had been born in Taihape in 1906 and educated At Victoria University College and Cambridge, was a writer and archivist by training. His work on the centennial series, and particularly his own contribution to it, had brought him within Heenan's orbit, and won the Under-Secretary's admiration. Heenan found McCormick's punctilious accuracy helpful in the preparation of many a memo bound for higher scrutiny. When called up, McCormick edged his way towards the Medical Corps. He wrote from Trentham Camp to Heenan on 18 March 1941 that he'd really prefer to work on military archives when he reached Egypt.(8) Heenan saw "the Hon Walter" as he always called Nash. He was Acting Prime Minister at the time. Nash thought McCormick's suggestion sensible, and when Fraser visited Egypt in June he met with the newly-arrived young captain. A few days later McCormick jubilantly reported to Heenan: "I'm doing precisely the sort of work I had wanted to do after the Centennial, and except for my mode of dress and other such details, I might very well be working in some obscure corner of a government building in Wellington; in fact our office has a very close resemblance to the G.A.L. attic where John [Pascoe] and I worked for the first few months- dust and all".(9)
Work on the war histories really began in earnest in the desert. Alongside E.H. Halstead, a journalist who was later a Cabinet minister, a photographer H.G. Paton, the painter Peter McIntyre, and under the occasional gaze of Brigadier W.G. Stevens, McCormick gathered a huge quantity of material that eventually found its way back to Ballance Street. The problem was selection, as McCormick complained to Heenan in October 1943: "I wish we could be given some lead so that we should know in a general way what form the war history is likely to take".(10)
By this time there was press support for a writing project about the war, but all that Heenan had been able to extract from the busy Minister of Finance was an assurance that he would "find a way" to fund it.(11) Heenan encouraged McCormick to produce an outline of a possible project, and this went to a meeting of the War Cabinet on 13 March 1944. The War Cabinet approved in principle the appointment of an Editor-in-Chief and a Chief War Archivist.(12) McCormick was appointed Chief War Archivist a few weeks later. He returned to Wellington via Canberra where he spent several weeks with Australia's war historians. For a time New Zealand's War Archives were under the wing of the Parliamentary Librarian and Archivist, Dr Guy Scholefield, nicknamed by John Pascoe of the Historical Branch the "White Rabbit" because of his small white appearance.(13) A steering committee was set up under Heenan's general control, and there was another Inter-Service Committee coordinating archives work within the armed forces. Ministers envisaged as early as April 1944 that a special branch would be established within Internal Affairs to be run by the Editor-in-Chief, once appointed.(14)
Progress dragged. McCormick's original plan involved five or six volumes covering army activities with another twelve to fifteen dealing with other aspects of the war. It seemed overly ambitious to Brigadier Stevens. Nothing was resolved, principally because Cabinet had not yet come to grips with the issues let alone appointing an Editor-in-Chief. It was becoming well-known that the Prime Minister wanted Major-General Howard Kippenberger to take the position, but Kippenberger was in London recovering from serious wounds he'd suffered near Monte Casino in March 1944, and as his health improved he then became involved in repatriating New Zealand prisoners of war from Europe. By February 1945 Heenan was irritated at the delays. Probably after consulting Beaglehole, who'd become his close friend and advisor, Heenan wrote to Alister McIntosh, the head of the Prime Minister's Department. Heenan stressed the urgent need of an editor. He suggested that if Kippenberger couldn't do it, then McCormick should be appointed. He also asked for the establishment of a special Cabinet Committee to drive the project. And he sought fair pay "and reasonable prospects of advancement and permanence" for staff of the branch.(15)
The War Cabinet concentrated on the issues rather more than the full Cabinet. The War Cabinet recommended in February 1945 that a ministerial committee be established to consider "a provisional war history scheme", and to deal with its staffing and accommodation. Finance for the project was to come meantime from the War Expenses(Civil Division) Account. But again the months dragged by and still no editor. Fraser held out for Kippenberger. A modest man all his life, McCormick had little interest in the editor's position for himself. But if progress was to be made pending an editor's appointment, then McCormick needed more status; with the ranks of captain and Chief Archivist he cut little ice with Wellington bureaucrats and top brass. So McCormick asked McIntosh to provide him with a "carefully and tactfully worded" letter "signed by the highest authority" that would establish his authority with other departments. Nash who again was Acting Prime Minister obliged with a circular letter to all departments on 26 April 1945 telling them that Government wished to see war histories written and asking each to provide access to "departmental and other records", including unrecorded information.(16)
Progress remained slow. The ministerial committee still hadn't met by mid year. In August 1945 McCormick lamented to McIntosh that "no decisions appear to have been made regarding plans for the war history or the major editorial appointments". He told McIntosh that he needed to know what ministers wanted since it would determine how he arranged the archives. Delays, he said, had produced "some confusion, the loss of initial enthusiasm, and discredit...." He pleaded for appointment of an Editor-in-Chief, suggesting J.H. Hall or Geoffrey Cox if Kippenberger wouldn't take on the role. He asked for appointment of a Medical Editor as well. Heenan backed the appeal which by now had an element of desperation to it.(17)
And still little happened for another six months. The war was over. Cabinet was completely overwhelmed by returning servicemen and their rehabilitation. These protracted delays enabled Fraser to win what he had always sought - Kippenberger's agreement to become Editor-in-Chief. On 4 February 1946 Cabinet gave him a seven year appointment on the generous salary of £2,000 pa, considerably more than Heenan's salary at the time. Because of Kippenberger's war wounds he was given use of a Crown car, something in itself that immediately passed a message to the public service about the importance of the project.(18) Nash announced the appointment on 12 February 1946. Kippenberger would be under the direct control of the Prime Minister. The histories were to be "an exhaustive and completely authoritative account of New Zealand's part in the war". Of Kippenberger Nash said: "He [is] an authority on all the campaigns that have changed the world since Napoleon, and [is] more familiar with Alexander, Caesar, Hannibal and Scipio Africanus than most readers of war books are with Foch, Haig and Joffre".(19)
The Major-General took office on 1 July 1946. Awaiting him was a careful summary of progress to date from McCormick who was soon to leave his post as archivist for a lectureship at Auckland University College.(20) Over the next few years the wisdom of hanging out for Kippenberger was amply proven. The 49 year old Kippenberger was an extraordinary figure, a legally-trained, well-read version of Gordon Coates, a patriotic New Zealander to his finger tips. A Rangiora solicitor with local body experience, he had been fascinated with the history of warfare since a child. He was wounded in France in 1917 but remained active in the territorials between the wars. He took command of the 20th Infantry Battalion when the Second World War broke out, and his daring activity in Crete won him a DSO, to which he later received a bar. He went on to Libya where he was wounded, yet managed to participate in a spectacular escape from German custody. He was placed in charge of the New Zealand Division in Italy but lost a foot when he stepped on a mine in 1944. His other foot was amputated soon afterwards. His unquenchable optimism, despite suffering great pain, made him a war hero. He was elected Dominion President of the RSA in 1948 and served in that position until 1955. He demonstrated the same fearless qualities he'd shown in war as head of the RSA. Kippenberger infuriated many conservatives with an outburst in September 1948 against the South African Rugby Union. Under pressure from the newly elected apartheid government of Dr Malan, they made it clear to their New Zealand counterparts that a team would be welcome in 1949 only if it contained no Maori. "I had Maoris under my command for two years and in that time they had 1500 casualties, and I am not going to acquiesce in any damned Afrikanders[sic] saying they cannot go. To hell with them" he told a reporter.(21) To an elderly woman who wrote him protesting that Christianity could only be preserved by a system of race discrimination, he replied: "I cannot forget that no-one objected to the Maoris representing New Zealand on very different fields from Rugby fields".(22) He was to be equally controversial in 1951 when he refused to endorse the Labour Party's efforts at an early resolution of the waterfront dispute.(23)
With his brigade major, Monty Fairbrother, as his assistant editor and Dr T.D.M. Stout as Medical Editor, the War History Branch was soon up and running. In August 1946 Kippenberger announced that the histories would not be dull, that they would be truthful, and not like the German version of the Franco-Prussian War which he labelled "a masterpiece of dullness and distortion". He publicly appealed for information; we have plenty, he said, but "we are greedy for more".(24)
In the meantime, Heenan and McCormick had been working on the financial needs of the branch. At first they hoped to squeeze enough from the funds of each unit. But well before Kippenberger took office these funds had been dispersed. Since some of the money for the volumes produced after the First World War had come from surplus Canteen Funds, which were profits from the bars used by services personnel, McCormick and Heenan proposed these be tapped again.(25) Kippenberger backed the idea. He suggested taking £60,000 from Canteen Funds.(26) With an election in the offing, ministers cautiously declined to endorse the proposal unless Kippenberger could first persuade the RSA to support it. Finance became urgent by the end of 1946 since Kippenberger was signing contracts with authors. Cabinet therefore decided on 8 January 1947 to provide the £60,000 for production and publication. The Cabinet minute spoke of "some twenty five unit histories of the 2 NZEF". There would be free distribution to ex-members of units and next-of-kin of deceased members. (27)
Cabinet hoped to recoup the £60,000 from Canteen Funds in due course. In the event, Kippenberger's efforts to persuade the RSA proved fruitless. The welfare state was at high tide; returned servicemen, like others, believed that the Government had a responsibility to pay for most things. Nothing was too good for servicemen. Only two branches of the New Zealand RSA supported "Kip". In May 1947 the Government gave way and agreed that efforts at cost recovery should be abandoned.(28)
By this time the War History Branch was in top gear. Kippenberger insisted that authors should be generously paid; "the labourer is worthy of his hire", he told Fraser. He added that he was demanding "a very high standard of accuracy which will oblige the respective authors to prepare their work very thoroughly indeed, even with the substantial assistance that this branch will give".(29) By April 1947 "tentative arrangements" had been made with authors for nine campaign volumes in the range of £1,000 to £1,500 per volume, and for eight unit histories in the £400-800 range. Negotiations for further books continued.
The secret to Kippenberger's success, and indeed to the completion of the earlier volumes, was the Government's warm support for historical writing, and the unique relationship that the Editor-in-Chief enjoyed with his paymasters. Kippenberger's relationship with Fraser meant that occasionally Heenan, in whose department the branch was located, did not know what was being agreed between the two.(30) An agreement was signed in January 1947 between Fraser and Kippenberger giving the latter "power to enter on behalf of the Crown into contracts with such authors as he thinks fit". The general scope of the subject matter and the levels of remuneration had only to be approved from time to time by the Crown. The Audit Office went a step further. They told Kippenberger that letters between the parties, and not formal contracts, were all that were required, and that the Minister of Internal Affairs could approve sums up to £500.(31) When the first volumes were ready for publication in August 1948 Cabinet approved Kippenberger's recommendations for printing and distribution, adding that MPs should get free copies in addition to all the others! Kippenberger was even given to understand that, should he prefer it, workers in the War History Branch could remain outside of the scope of the Public Service Commission- an offer which, fortunately for his staff, he politely declined.(32) Seldom before or since can any project manager handling State resources have had such an easy ride. That it took place at all is testament to Kippenberger's high standing both with the Government and the Public Service. This unique relationship must have been readily appreciated by staff within the branch, who would have understood that they were working on a very important project. It will be interesting to hear from those who are with us today on that point.
By March 1949 six of a projected 48 volumes had been produced, and several of the 24 popular histories for use in secondary schools were also in print.(33) In addition, departments were producing their own internal accounts of wartime activities. Not all went smoothly. Officers of the branch had to finish several manuscripts that had been only partially completed. John Pascoe sometimes experienced difficulty finding suitable illustrations, while Bill Glue spent thousands of hours hunched over completed manuscripts doing editorial work.
Fraser's Government was certainly pleased with progress. Before leaving office in December 1949 Fraser thanked Kippenberger fulsomely for his work. The Editor-in-Chief replied saying that he remembered "with gratitude the consistent support which you have always given to me, not only in the establishment of the War History Branch but on every subsequent issue when difficulty has arisen in getting access to full and accurate information".(34)
Relationships with the incoming National Government were never as cordial. Because of his prestige, National ministers could not touch the recently-knighted Kippenberger, had they wished to. But they eyed many of the people in the War History and Historical Branches with partisan distaste. The new Minister of Education, Ronald Algie, had been a conservative law professor at Auckland University College in 1932 when Beaglehole's temporary lectureship in history was terminated over an issue of free speech. Algie seems regularly to have reminded his political colleagues of Beaglehole's left-wing leanings.(35)
But the National Government's suspicions of the branches went beyond Beaglehole; as Janet Paul told me recently, she couldn't remember any historians around the department in the forties who were National supporters. To a party that had felt itself cheated of office in 1943 and 1946, and which disliked the way in which so many Wellington public servants warmly reflected the views of their Labour ministers, the War History and Historical branches invited close scrutiny. In April 1950 the new ministry asked Arthur Harper, Heenan's successor as Under-Secretary of Internal Affairs, to suggest "economy measures" within the department. The burgeoning history industry seems to have been suggested as a target. Harper was less interested in history than his predecessor. He produced a memo to Cabinet on 19 May proposing several cost-saving devices; in particular he suggested cutting out the volumes on the New Zealand economy, industry and social developments.(36) Ministers happily agreed. Fortunately the volume to be entitled The New Zealand People at War: Political and External Affairs, under preparation by Fred Wood of Victoria University College with the help of several branch historians, was sufficiently far advanced to be spared the axe.(37) However, the new Minister of Internal Affairs, W.A. Bodkin, soon took the pruning shears to the Historical Branch as well, terminating Beaglehole's advisory role in the Historical Atlas which had been the subject of sporadic work for more than a decade. Bodkin told his colleagues that Beaglehole "was doing nothing at all to earn the salary he was drawing"- an extraordinary statement about a man who had worked in an advisory capacity now for more than a decade, much of it with little or no re-imbursement over and above his university salary.(38)
Kippenberger and his team pressed ahead with their remaining tasks. By April 1952 emphasis was swinging towards publication. Twenty of the 48 popular histories had now been published, plus six campaign volumes; several of the unit histories were either out, or being printed. The departmental histories had mostly been finished and were bound in cyclosyled form and lodged in departments, and the Parliamentary and university libraries. As departmental staff finished work on one project they moved on to other unfinished tasks. In the climate of overfull employment, however, the best qualified staff were being lured away to better paying jobs. This meant that those remaining in the branch carried heavier loads.(39)
For a time there was doubt about Kippenberger's future; early in 1953 Dr R.M. Campbell, Chairman of the Public Service Commission, suggested to Bodkin that Kippenberger would be a most suitable person to chair the Local Government Commission.(40) When he came up for reappointment in 1953, Kippenberger had his term extended for only two years. Ministers formed the impression that he had been over-using his Crown car and imposed restrictions.(41) After several Cabinet deferrals, Kippenberger in 1955 was appointed for another five years to complete the War History project. The branch was subjected to further scrutiny by Treasury towards the end of that year. The report was favourable, but it's clear from a Kippenberger memorandum sent to the then minister S.W. Smith, that he was not taking Cabinet approval for granted. Somehow, life was never the same after the Fraser years!(42)
Kippenberger took ill suddenly and died on 5 May 1957. His deputy, Monty Fairbrother took over and by the time his contract expired in December 1961 the War History Branch had dwindled to ten. Numbers decreased further as tasks were completed.
The War History Branch retained its political flavour until the end. The Second Labour Government reviewed its work and decided to re-instate the economic and social history volumes that had been deleted by Holland's Government a decade earlier. J.V.T Baker and Nan Taylor began their projects. Taylor took up from Oliver Duff who had originally been commissioned to cover the home front. For a time after 1961 Fairbrother was retained on contract. In 1963 a renamed Historical Publications Branch took over the remnants of the War History Branch and brought the remaining volumes to publication. Yet the Historical Publications Branch itself came within an ace of being disbanded in 1968 as part of the economy measures necessitated by the recession. Seven staff positions were rescued a few weeks later only by strong protests from several university history departments and stout advocacy by the then head of the branch and the Secretary of Internal Affairs, Pat O'Dea.(43) By this time work on the war histories was largely complete; only Nan Taylor's volume-soon to become volumes-were outstanding. An era where almost anyone with skills at historical writing had been employmed on a public project had come to an end. It was a victim of an environment without further world wars.
But the War History Branch had seen a wonderful flowering of talent while it lasted. Subject matter, bureaucratic ideas, then leadership, lobbying skills, popular support, political patronage and astute editorship, all combined to give the historical profession its deserved place in the sun- for awhile, anyway.
Footnotes:
1. See Annual Report of the Department of Internal Affairs, AJHR, 1949, H-22, p.33.
2. H.K. Kippenberger to P. Fraser, 9 January 1947, IA/1/181/5, National Archives(NA).
3. I. McL. Wards in Nancy M. Taylor, The Home Front, Vol. 1, Wellington, 1986.
4. C.R.H. Taylor to J.W. Heenan, 15 April 1940, IA/1/181/1, NA.
5. Interview with Janet Paul, 19 October 1995. See also E.H. McCormick to J.W. Heenan, 19 November 1940 and comment by J.C. Beaglehole, 21 November 1940, IA/1/62/163, NA.
6. Memo J.W. Heenan to W.E. Parry, 18 April 1940, IA/1/181/1, NA.
7. See Heenan's file, IA/38, NA. Also J.W. Heenan to G.P. Newton, 25 May 1949, MS Papers 1132/172, Alexander Turnbull Library.
8. E.H. McCormick to J.W. Heenan, 18 March 1941, MS 1132/134, Alexander Turnbull Library(ATL). McCormick's earlier writing and his time in Internal Affairs is discussed by M.P.K. Sorrenson in J. Ross et al, Writing a New Country, Auckland, 1993, pp.58-80.
9. Ibid, 15 June 1941. Pascoe, later National Archivist, had worked with Heenan on the centennial series, and was an accomplished photographer.
10. E.H. McCormick to J.W. Heenan, 28 October 1943, MS 1132/134, ATL.
11. Auckland Star, 20 February 1943, editorial. Also J.W. Heenan to E.V. Dumbleton, 6 July 1943, IA/1/181/1, NA.
12. Memo A.D. McIntosh to J.W. Heenan, 22 March 1944, IA/1/181/5, NA. McCormick's plan "in germinal form" is to be found in IA/1/181/5/1, NA.
13. Comment to author by Janet Paul.
14. Circular from the Prime Minister's Department, 16 April 194[4]. The actual document has 1945 on it, but it is clearly a mistake. IA/1/181/5, NA.
15. J.W. Heenan to A.D. McIntosh, 13 February 1945, IA/1/181/5, NA.
16. E.H. McCormick to A.D. McIntosh, 6 March 1945; W. Nash circular, 26 April 1945, IA/1/181/5, NA.
17. E.H. McCormick to A.D. McIntosh, 10 August 1945, IA/1/181/5, NA.
18. See Kippenberger's file, IA/38, NA.
19. Dominion, 13 February 1946.
20. McCormick's memorandum, "Official War History: Material prepared for Editor-in-Chief", prepared in May 1946 is in IA/1/181/5/1, NA.
21. Evening Post, 2 September 1948.
22. H.K. Kippenberger to Amy Wilkinson, 14 September 1948, IA/77/18, NA.
23. See file Kippenberger and Waterfront, 1951, IA/77/34, NA.
24. Speech notes, five pages, 19 August 1946, IA/1/181/5/1, NA.
25. Memo E.H. McCormick to J.W. Heenan, 24 September 1945, IA/1/181/7, NA.
26. Memo H.K. Kippenberger to Cabinet 7 August 1946, IA/1/181/5, NA.
27. See file IA/1/181/7, NA. Also Evening Post, 10 January 1947.
28. The file with details of the arguments over funding is IA/1/181/7, NA.
29. Memo H.K. Kippenberger to Prime Minister, 9 January 1947, IA/1/181/5, NA.
30. See H.K. Kippenberger to J.W. Heenan after its been agreed to appoint Fairbrother at £1,000pa, 4 October 1946, IA/1/181/5, NA.
31. See contract dated 15 January 1947, and subsequent Audit Office note, IA/1/181/5, NA. There is material about contracts with authors in IA/1/181/32, NA.
32. Memo H.K. Kippenberger to Prime Minister, 5 September 1946, IA/1/181/5, NA. Kippenberger and Fairbrother, however, retained their contract appoinments.
33. For progress in the publications see the Annual Reports of the Department of Internal Affairs, AJHR, H-22.
34. H.K. Kippenberger to P. Fraser, 8 December 1949, IA/1/181/5, NA.
35. The story of Beaglehole's difficulties at AUC are dealt with by Keith Sinclair, A History of the University of Auckland, Auckland, 1983, pp.150-159.
36. A.G. Harper Memo to Cabinet, 19 May 1950, IA/1/181/5, NA.
37. The Cabinet minute is CM(50)25.
38. See W.A. Bodkin to Cabinet, 27 May 1952, CP(52)598, SSC/24/2/14/27, NA.
39. See Annual Report, AJHR, 1952, H-22, p.26.
40. R.M. Campbell to W.A. Bodkin, 6 February 1953, SSC/24/2/14/27, NA.
41. See Kippenberger's file, IA/38, NA.
42. H.K. Kippenberger to S.W. Smith, 25 November 1955, IA/1/181/5/1, NA.
43. See CM 68/12/5/S18 and CM 68/12/5/S19 and CM 68/31/25, NA.