aland statesmen. Among these are the papers of Sir John Hall, William
Rolleston, and Sir Julius Vogel, not to mention the wonderful papers
written and collected by the Richmond and Atkinson families over nearly
50 years. These documents are already proving valuable to political and
historical scholars.

Dr Scholefield was also Controller of Dominion Archives and for some
years these were housed in the Library. During his period as Chief
Librarian, in addition to several editions of _Who's Who in New
Zealand_, Dr Scholefield published his monumental _Dictionary of New
Zealand Biography_ and two other works of biography.

On his retirement in October 1947 Dr Scholefield was succeeded by Mr W.
S. Wauchop, M.A., who had joined the staff in 1924 as Assistant Chief
Librarian. Freed from the restraints of war, and with a larger grant,
the Library expanded rapidly. The Library Committee, which had for some
years taken a less important role in the control of the Library, once
again came to the fore. It was instrumental in obtaining much needed
space and assisting generally in the progress which took place.

Mr Wauchop was also responsible for obtaining the microfilm camera
which is today reducing the bulk of New Zealand newspapers received in
the Library to manageable proportions for storage. Great steps forward
were also taken in the indexing of New Zealand newspapers and for the
first time in its history the Library had a complete index to all news
in two (later three) of the more important newspapers in the Dominion.
Mr Wauchop retired at the beginning of 1955.

FIRE AND FIRE INSURANCE

No history would be complete without some mention of the fire of the
early morning of 11 December 1907 which destroyed most of Parliament
Buildings. It began in the old portion formerly occupied by the Library
at about 2 a.m. and rapidly spread to the Legislative Council on one
side and the House of Representatives on the other. Both these portions
were of wood and burned fiercely.

Though the Library was in the brick portion, fire danger had still been
considered to be great so that earlier in the year the stackroom
windows overlooking the courtyard had been bricked up. In addition, the
entrance door was protected by a steel blind.

It appeared at first that the Library was in no danger and no attempt
was made to remove books. Eventually, about 4 a.m. the roof of the new
committee rooms and entrance was in dang