The Superintendant of Missions, The Rev George Budd, was given official permission in December 1935 "To destroy correspondence of no value that is more than five years old". The Rev Budd, saw no value whatsoever in keeping anything other than minute books. While earlier Home Missions correspondence was indeed destroyed, the early Missions correspondence inexplicably escaped destruction. This may have been due to a combination of time constraints to sort the material and the influence of other unknown people.

In Feb 1939 the Missions Committee passed the following motion :   "Destruction of Foreign Missions correspondence : Permission was given for the destruction of correspondence prior to 1929". Again, for some inexplicable reason, this action was thankfully not carried out.
We note that Mr Cuthbertson safely packed up all the old Mission records in early 1940  and they were then stored in tin - lined boxes in the Missions Office basement in the Dingwall Building, Queen Street, Auckland. 

We have also been reliably advised that the Rev Arthur Horwell, the then Director of Home Missions in the Church office in Wellington, used his influence to protect this material from harm after it was again scheduled for destruction in 1947. The material remained in storage in Auckland.  The general correspondence from 1935 to 1948 has been "thinned out", however the most important material such as minutes, reports, and Missionary correspondence remains intact. It was fortuitous that the material from prior to 1935 escaped this "thinning out"process.

Upon the Missions Office moving from Auckland to Wellington in 1971, the older (most likely pre 1949) Mission records remained behind in storage with sufficient space being found in the now cramped storeroom of the new Church Offices at Dalmuir House in Wellington for the current records.

In 1974, the Presbyterian Historical Society (the forerunner to the Presbyterian Church Archives) actually declined to take the material which was freely offered due to lack of space :
"This would have been a valuable collection to have added but it illustrates the problems of a Society like ours dealing with large collections of material of fundamental importance to the Church. We simply do not have the resources." It was assumed that the material would then be placed in the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington. Again, unknown interested parties may have ensured that the material remained under Church control, partly for security and confidentiality reasons.

Negotiations between the Historical Records Committee of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand (which now held responsibility for the Archives) and the Joint Board For Mission Overseas commenced in 1980 to arrange for the transfer of the old Presbyterian Mission records (which were now back in Auckland) to the Archives in Dunedin. In July 1984, 22 large tea chests of material finally arrived. 

We need also to acknowledge Emeritus Professor Gordon Parsonson of Dunedin who had studied much of this material over the preceeding 25 years and often highlighted its unique historical value to the Church and others. 

To those interested individuals who protected and saved this material over the years we shall always owe a debt of gratitude. We need also to acknowledge those Mission Office Secretaries and staff over the years who, although very busy people, understood the wider historical value of this material and and ensured it came to no harm while under their care. 

Much of the material has in fact travelled widely. Material from prior to 1901 had been held at Inchclutha, Lawrence and Tokomairiro (Otago), Dunedin, Wanganui, Christchurch, Leeston (Canterbury) and in Napier.  Material dating from 1901 originally came from Dunedin where the Missions office had been located in 1901, transfered to Auckland in 1923, held at various premises there, some more recent material sent to Wellington when the Missions office in Auckland closed in 1971, back up to Auckland again in 1976 and finally sent down to the Archives at Dunedin in 1984.

Mission archives give us a unique picture of early indigenous cultures, trends in Mission theology and practice, emerging Nationalism, the positive and adverse effects of foreign colonialism and of Christian evangelization, the work of women in Missions, pioneer Mission medical work, industrial training, children's education, union Mission activities and relationships in conjunction with other denominations.  They also tell the stories of our individual Missionaries, the sacrifices, the successes, the problems, the tragedies, and occasional heroism.

Please return to the Home Page to access the manuscript material.