As early as 1616 (almost 400 years ago), the General Assembly of The Church of Scotland became concerned at the lack of proper record-keeping within Parishes of Baptismal Registers, and made the following rather threatening pronouncement :

"Every minister have ane perfect and formall register, quherein he sall have registrat the particular of every baptisme of every infant within his paroche, and quha wer witness thereto,.... and that they have the same to be in readiness to be presentit be every ane at their next Synod Assemblie, under the paine of suspension of the minister, not fulfilling the same, from his ministry." (1616)

In 1703, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland passed the following Act relating to the preservation of their records :

"Eadem Sessione - Act for supplying and preserving the Registers and Papers belonging to the General Assemblies, Committees, and Commissions thereof :
The General Assembly, taking into consideration the great loss the Church has sustained by the burning of several of their registers and some papers, in that dreadful fire which happened in the Lawnmarket of Edinburgh, upon the 28th day of October 1701, do, for the making up of that loss, as far as may be, and for the better preservation of their registers in time coming, enact and appoint that there be two authenticated copies thereof, both subscribed by the Moderator and Clerk, one copy whereof to lie in the Clerk's custody, and the other copy to be sealed, and laid in some secure place in the New Church of Edinburgh, or where the General Assembly or Commission shall appoint.... And recommends to such persons as have any of the old registers or papers belonging to the General Assembly, Commissions or Committees therof, in their custody, to deliver up the same to the Clerk of the Assembly, to be by him kept for the public use of the Church; and that Ministers and Presbyteries be at pains in dealing with persons to that effect; and it is recommended to the Commission to gratify those who shall bring in to their Clerk any of the papers or registers foresaid, as they shall find such persons deserve." (1703)

The Loss of the Great Booke of the Universall Kirk :

Later, in 1733, the Church of Scotland commenced negotiations to reclaim that most important record of its history and inception from the time of John Knox, being the "Booke of the Universall Kirk" which contained the written minutes of the first General Assembly meetings from 1560 to 1616. Through a variety of unfortunate circumstances, including religious and political turmoil, this record had been "surreptitiously purloined" by persons who had no right to its ownership. In about 1733, the then current 'holder', failing in a bid to extract a large sum of money from the Church of Scotland together with humiliating conditions for its return, entered into a Deed of Trust agreement with Sion College in London to hand over the record to them upon strict conditions of future usage and access. That he was not the rightful owner of this record appears not to have been seriously considered. This had the effect of detaining these records from their rightful owners for nearly a century.

In 1822, the Church of Scotland "Committee upon the Manuscripts belonging to the Church", being convened as early as 1820 to gather together historic and valuable Church documents, was charged with the responsibility of endeavouring to obtain the restitution of the "Booke of the Universalle Kirk" to its rightful owner.

"The hardship is deeply felt by all members of the Church of Scotland, who are aware of the importance of these books, not merely as the only sure and satisfactory memorials of the course of Ecclesiastical affairs in the times succeeding the Reformation, but also because they are capable of shedding additional light on a most interesting and instructive period of our Civil history" (1828)

Negotiations with Sion College continued until 1834 by which time a petition had been delivered to Parliament and the assistance of the Lord Bishop of London had been requested.  The trustees of Sion College were in fact constrained by the terms of the original deed of trust document to which they were legally bound to uphold. By 1834, when the near prospect of reclaiming these records appeared imminent, they were ordered to be produced by a Committee of the House of Commons in connection with an investigation into Church Patronage. Whilst in the care of the Clerks of the Committee, they perished in that great conflagration which consumed the Houses of Parliament by fire on the 16th October 1834.
With at least a small measure of luck, a transcript had been made in 1839 of the content of the books from 1560 to 1602, while some excerpts survive for the later period to 1616.

Elements of these interesting but also very poignant stories have been repeated with countless NZ Church Committee and Parish records which have also been "surreptitiously purloined" into private hands, never recorded in the first place, disposed of as 'worthless' old records or sold by private individuals as 'valuable' old records, destroyed by fire or the ravages of time, and damaged by inappropriate handling and inadequate storage.

Is this the heritage you wish to leave for future generations ?

The History of General Assembly Record Keeping in New Zealand :

• At the Feb 1883 General Assembly, the Clerk stated that the Minutes of Assembly from 1868 to 1876 were missing and requested that a Committee be appointed by Assembly to ascertain their whereabouts and obtain possession of same. The 'Committee Appointed to Ascertain Where a Missing Record is' reported to the Feb 1884 Assembly that the minutes were in the possession of the late Clerk, Mr [Rev] D Bruce who would hand them over to the Clerk of Assembly on application. That a dispute existed between Assembly and Mr Bruce over payment of £63 no doubt exacerbated matters.
• The 'Committee Appointed to Ascertain Where a Missing Record is' recommended to the 1885 Assembly "In regard to the best means of keeping records and documents of the Church in safe custody, your Committee beg to recommend that a tin box belonging to the Assembly, and at present lying in St Andrew's Church, Auckland, be made use of for the purpose, and placed within some safe building in the locality in which the Clerk of Assembly may reside".
• The loss of the title deeds of the Church land in New Plymouth in 1884 prompted the Wanganui Presbytery to send an Overture to the 1885 General Assembly to initiate a proper system of safe custody of such documents. The overture suggested, with some foresight, that each Presbytery appoint committees to be called "The Title Deeds Committee", their duties to include collecting all title deeds from within their bounds, keeping the said deeds in a fire proof safe, making an official examination annually of the records, and presenting an annual report and list of documents to their Presbytery and the General Assembly.
• This overture was referred by the Feb 1885 General Assembly to the Assembly Committee on Church Property. Upon presenting their first report to the General Assembly in Feb 1887, a formal request was made for all Presbyteries to furnish a return of all Church properties within their bounds, Title Deeds and Mortgages or other liablilities therewith.
• Prior to the formation of the Presbyterian Church Property Trustees in 1886, all Title Deeds to property including Mortgage Documents (excluding Otago & Southland) had been held by Parishes, Presbyteries and Solicitors and it had apparently often been difficult to ascertain what the Church actually owned and the whereabouts of official documents. 
• The Presbyterian Church Property Trustees purchased a 'Milners' Safe in 1897 for £13.2.6 "For the better security of the Title Deeds of Church properties" under authority of a General Assembly resolution "two or three years ago".

  The details below are merely a brief overview and the extent of missing General Assembly Committee records is actually quite large overall.