page_title: Archives New Zealand
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Archives New Zealand / History
caption_attribution_description: On 29 July 1952, fire ripped through the Hope Gibbons Building in Wellington, destroying boxes and boxes of New Zealand's public records. In the days before a proper national archive was established, government records were stored in a variety of Wellington buildings. A considerable collection of these was stored on several floors of the Hope Gibbons Building, on the corner of Inglewood Place/Taranaki Street and Dixon Street. Sadly, the fire destroyed files from the Marine Department, the Public Works Department, the Labour Department, and early records of the Lands and Survey Department (up to 1891). The event was highly significant in the history of recordkeeping in New Zealand. Because of the loss of such important records the 1957 Archives Act was passed, leading to the creation of the National Archives of New Zealand. Over the years Archives New Zealand has been based in a number of locations across Wellington, including Borthwick House on The Terrace, the Air New Zealand building on Vivian Street, and now in Mulgrave Street (the ex-Government Printing Office building). Although many records were lost, Archives New Zealand does hold a number of burnt files from the Hope Gibbons fire. When searching on the online finding aid Archway, you may notice that some items have been annotated to state that the item was damaged by the fire (for example: archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=17306031). These items have preservation restrictions in place, preventing them from being issued in the Reading Room. This photograph of the fire is from a series of records relating to Archival Facilities and Personnel. Archives reference: ARCH 458 Box 1/c AR1/5 archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=21921452 For updates on our On This Day series and news from Archives New Zealand, follow us on Twitter twitter.com/ArchivesNZ Material from Archives New Zealand
context_page_description: Archives New Zealand is New Zealand's national archive and the official guardian of its public archives. As the government's recordkeeping authority, it administers the Public Records Act 2005 and promotes good information management throughout government.
context_section_description: In 1954, the First National Government's cabinet approved the establishment of a national archive and the office of a chief archivist, and the drafting of enabling legislation. The Archives Act 1957 established the National Archives within the Department of Internal Affairs. It also gave the chief archivist the power to approve the disposal of official records and to require the transfer of records to the National Archives after 25 years. The Archives Act also affirmed public access to the National Archives. While the National Archives were established in 1957, they were preceded by the Dominion Archives and the former war archives at the Hope Gibbons building in Wellington.
  In 1977, an amendment to the Local Government Act 1974 extended limited protection to local government archives. For the first twenty years, the National Archives had to contend with inadequate storage and staffing. Following Wilfred I. Smith's report, the Government took steps to address those issues. The National Archives' legal position was further entrenched by the passage of legislation such as the Ombudsmen Act 1975, the Official Information Act 1982, and the State Sector Act 1988.
  In 2000, the National Archives was separated from the Department of Internal Affairs and renamed as Archives New Zealand.
  In 2005, the Fifth Labour Government passed the Public Records Act 2005 to deal with digital archives and the creation of state-owned enterprises. The Act also greatly expanded the role of Archives New Zealand and the powers of the Chief Archivist, and established the Archives Council to advise the Minister responsible for Archives New Zealand. The organisation now has a leadership role for recordkeeping throughout central and local government.
  In 2011, Archives New Zealand and the National Library of New Zealand were merged back into the Department of Internal Affairs. Before 1 February 2011 Archives New Zealand was a separate government department.
  The New Zealand Archivist Vol 3 No 1 pages 5–10 includes a more comprehensive history of archives in New Zealand.
caption: On 29 July 1952, fire ripped through the Hope Gibbons Building in Wellington, destroying boxes and boxes of New Zealand's public records.[1]
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "5822", "Image ImageLength": "4673", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image Compression": "Uncompressed", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "600", "Image YResolution": "600", "Image PlanarConfiguration": "1", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2013:07:25 14:14:01", "Image ExifOffset": "256", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "394", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3195", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "12296", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4473"}