Our 24th Annual General Meeting wil be held in the Christ Church Hall on
Sat 2nd Jan 2010 at 10:30 am
Everybody welcome
Minutes AGM 2009:
• Pompallier
A propos of Kate Martin’s talk on Pompallier at the January AGM it is pleasing to report that the publication of the archive of letters on the early Marist activities in the Pacific foreshadowed there has now taken place: Lettres reçues d’Océanie par l'administration générale des pères maristes pendant le généralat de Jean-Claude Colin, ed. Fr Charles Girard SM, 9 vols Paris and Rome 2009 plus Index volume in preparation. The publication was launched in Wellington on 16 April at an influential gathering at National Archives attended by Fr Girard, Kate and the French Ambassador, followed the next day by a symposium at Victoria University. By one estimate some 2,000 of the 7,000-odd pages refer to New Zealand, many to Kororareka. Hugh Laracy, Professor of History at Auckland University, has called the work “truly the greatest contribution made in the broad field of Pacific history since the publication of Beaglehole’s Journals of Captain Cook.”
At $ 1350 ($ 2700) the set this work will not enjoy a wide circulation. There is however a set in the Auckland University Library, and all but two of the volumes (v3, 1844-1845 and v6, 1848) are available in limited preview on Google Books. A summary translation of many of the New Zealand letters is under way at Waikato University.
Fr Antoine Garin’s planisphere carte du monde “letter map” is not published in the Lettres. It is reproduced by Dr Giselle Larcombe in her recent Canterbury dissertation, Antoine Marie Garin: A Biographical Study of the Intercultural Dynamic in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand, 2009, but, at least in the online version, unfortunately at a very low resolution.
In light of this epic work it is all the more unfortunate that the proceedings of the landmark 2004 symposium The French Place in the Bay of Islands, held at Pompallier and overseen by Kate, remain unpublished for want of funding.
• Finances
An appeal against the planned mega wastewater plant was heard this year. We were an s274 party to the appeal. The Bay of Islands Coastal Watchdog, with help from us, received $10,000 from the Ministry for the Environment as a contribution towards legal costs. More was required and we and a number of other community groups contributed $2,000 each. Our funds now stand at about $800, which is enough for everyday expenses but not for any further extraordinary calls. These are bound to occur sooner or later and it is prudent to build up a reserve. Donations would be very welcome.
• Call for new secretary and the future of the Society
I am anxious to hand over the role of secretary, which I have held since 2000, to a successor. Canvasses of the Committee in 2007 and this year drew no definite response, and neither did an informal partial canvas of the membership last summer. I now formally request the membership to find a successor as a matter of urgency. If it is any help I am prepared to continue to assist in the purely clerical role of handling mailouts to the membership to the extent of photocopying documents and filling envelopes, but not in preparing documents and above all not in taking or writing up minutes, and I cannot guarantee to attend committee meetings.
The Society cannot exist without a secretary. If noone comes forward there are only two options for the Society, to close or to merge with another society.
We look forward to seeing you at the AGM.
Best regards
Mark de Courcy
Secretary