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Letters sent: 9 Jul. - 27 Jul. 1908., 1908 - 1908

 File — Volume: 1/28
Identifier: MSS. Archives. A-17. Series 1. File 1/28

Scope and Contents

From the Series:

Series consists of seventy-five letter books containing handwritten and typescript press copies of approximately 15,000 of Fowld's outward letters and a few inward letters. A small number of outward letters may also be found in Series 2, 5, and 6. The majority of the books contain 250 foolscap, and a few 500 quarto leaves. These are indexed books of the type that was standard at that time for taking press copies of letters by the method described in the Introduction. Most of the original letters must have been written on letterhead paper since the superscription on many of the press copies is of the briefest, such as Auckland, Wellington, Waitakere Ranges, Mt Albert, Government Buildings, Wellington, and Office of Acting Minister of Defence. These examples suggest that the current letter book travelled about with him, and was used for copying wherever office facilities were available, although the letter might have been written elsewhere.

The letters were written by Fowlds himself, or by his Private Secretary, and then copied, of typed and copied, before the original was despatched. In some cases the copies have been added to the book out of sequence, possibly to use up empty pages, but in the main the books form a more of less complete chronological series. They were numbered in Roman figures except for ten volumes. These volumes, and four gaps in their date sequence, have been allotted numbers by the archivist. Since it was necessary to add three items before volume I, these have been numbered 1/1a, 1/1b, and 1/1c. The numbers added at the end of the sequence run from 1/64 to 1/77. The items missing are 1/1b, 1/35, 1/36, 1/45, and 1/74.

The letters cover twenty-three years, that is from the year when Fowlds was first elected to Parliament at the age of thirty-nine until his sixty-second year, when he was beginning his term as Chairman of Auckland University College and had ceased to be actively interested in politics. The content of the letters refers to an extremely wide range of matters to do with his private, business, and public life. The series includes letters to friends and relatives, and to political associates and organisations, and contains replies to a large number of correspondents who wrote to him as a Minister and public man, and whose inward letters may in some cases be traced by date in the next series. The series is notable in that it is a very full record of his day-to-day affairs over the period of his greatest activity in public life.

Dates

  • 1908 - 1908

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Not restricted

Extent

From the Collection: 8.9 metres

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections, University of Auckland Repository

Contact:
5 Alfred Street
Private Bag 92019
Auckland 1142 New Zealand