Sir Robert Stout

The pamphlet collection catalogued in this volume was built up by Sir Robert Stout over a half-century of reading on most topics of concern to the intellectual community of his time. Born in 1844, at Lerwick in the Shetland Islands, Robert Stout was the son of a local merchant and landed proprietor. After completing his schooling at Lerwick Academy he became a pupil teacher, passing the examinations at the age of 16 and qualifying at 18. During the same period he qualified as a surveyor. In 1864 he emigrated to Dunedin where he took employment as a school teacher, and helped to found the Otago Schoolmasters' Association, which later became the Otago Educational Institute. In 1867 he decided to study law, entering the office of W. Downie Stewart, and in July 1871 he was admitted barrister and solicitor. He early gained distinction as a notable pleader and trial lawyer. He lectured in law at the newly established Otago University, and also studied 'mental and moral science' and 'political economy' with distinction.

In 1872 he was elected to the Otago Provincial Council to represent Caversham, and in 1875 he was elected to the House of Representatives. His Parliamentary career was often interrupted: Caversham, August to December 1875; Dunedin City, December 1875 to June 1879; Dunedin East, August 1884 to July 1887; Inangahua, June to November 1893; Wellington City, December 1893 to February 1898. Despite these breaks he achieved considerable political distinction, with periods in Cabinet (March 1878 to June 1879; August 1884 to October 1887) holding portfolios which included Attorney-General, Minister of Lands and Minister of Education, and he was Premier in the Stout-Vogel Ministries from August 1884 to October 1887. He was created K.COM.G. in 1886. Although a Liberal he became disenchanted with Seddonian liberalism and retired from Parliament in 1898. A year later he accepted the position of Chief Justice, from which he retired in 1926. He was appointed to the Legislative Council in August 1926 and participated in its debates until 1929. He died in July 1930.

In addition to his political and legal career he was a notable member of the Councils of Otago University (1891-1898) and Victoria University College (1898-1915, 1918-1923) and of the Senate of the University of New Zealand (1884-1923), being Chancellor of the University from 1903 to 1923. He was an ardent campaigner for, and a foundation member of, the New Zealand Alliance, the temperance movement. He was also an active Freemason (until 1891) and a member of the free-thought and rationalist movements. His wife, Anna Paterson Logan (1858-1931), was active in the temperance and feminist movements.

Sir Robert and Victoria's Library

As Minister of Education (in 1887) and as a member for Wellington City (in 1894) Sir Robert proposed legislation to establish a University institution in Wellington. Only when Seddon adopted page vi the idea, and introduced the legislation creating Victoria University College in 1897, was the idea brought to fruition, but the dominant intellectual influence upon Victoria was Stout, not Seddon. In the early years of the College Sir Robert dominated the Council meetings, and directed many of its decisions - not always to the taste of the professors or of the students. One Council decision supported by Sir Robert which was acceptable to the professors and students was the expenditure of funds on the College Library, which made it the largest and best funded library in the four colleges by 1911 and this support was an exemplification of his own extensive reading and book-buying interests. The College Library was established formally in 1907; Sir Robert then gave a few books from his own collections - history, philosophy, literature - and he continued this, with 69 volumes of political economy in early 1919 and then over 300 volumes of history, political theory, popular science, educational theory and similar topics at the time of his retirement in 1926. Some more volumes came in 1929 and then, after his death, a substantial collection of over 1,000 volumes was accessioned over the following decade, covering all topics represented in the pamphlet collection though there is a much greater representation of history, philosophy, literature and archaeology among the books than in the pamphlets, and there were fewer New Zealand works, These donations included runs of periodicals - Mind, the Hibbert Journal, G.J. Holyoake's The Reasoner, the Theological review and the Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of the Social Sciences - as well as the Debates and Journals of the New Zealand Parliament.

The Pamphlet Collection

Sir Robert presented his pamphlet collection in 1928. It was the one donation he made which was large enough and valuable enough to attract the Government's pound for pound subsidy and to be mentioned specifically in a newspaper report. When it was received H.G. Miller, the Librarian, described it as 'a fine collection' which 'comprises a large number of very valuable pamphlets'. He estimated that there were over 2,000 pamphlets, about 1,000 being bound, and noted (in his annual report) that 1,066 related to New Zealand, of which 352 were bound. Mr Johannes Andersen of the Turnbull Library valued the collection at fifty pounds, a large sum in the days when a budget of 724 pounds bought 804 volumes of books and periodicals (the 1929 accessions exclusive of donations). The Council minutes record that the 'collection will be entitled "The Robert Stout Collection of Pamphlets"' and those are the pamphlets catalogued here.

The 1,066 New Zealand pamphlets reported by Mr Miller include a significant number of duplicate copies, and Mr Miller ignored the non-New Zealand pamphlets which are about 60% of the total. As individual items these are less interesting and much less valuable than the New Zealand pamphlets, but as a collection they provide a most useful insight into Sir Robert's intellectual concerns. Just as his books include Samuel Butler on evolution, so his pamphlets include T.H. Huxley and a range of lesser figures discussing the scientific, and even more the religious, implications of evolution. Henry George and the land reform movement are represented among the books, and he and his followers are well-represented among the pamphlets.

The collection identified as the 'Sir Robert Stout Collection of Pamphlets' comprises 93 volumes, numbered 1 to 88 with numbers 3, 24 and 80 duplicated, plus two additional volumes, called 'Rare' and 'Personal'. These volumes do not contain the complete collection of pamphlets received in 1928; about a third of the 714 unbound New Zealand pamphlets were left unbound and have been absorbed into the Library's collection of rare New Zealand books and the same has probably happened to the non-New Zealand pamphlets. As these latter included issues of periodicals and a number of substantial, though paper-bound, items of some value many were incorporated into the library's general collections and cannot now be traced. Some 120 plus were added to the general pamphlet collections kept in the rare books section of the Library and they could be identified when they carry Sir Robert Stout's signature. With their New Zealand counterparts, they form the sequence of 'Unbound pamphlets' in this catalogue. There are also three further volumes of bound pamphlets which have been included in the catalogue although they were accessioned separately: these are identified as 'AP', 'BL' and 'DA', from the classifications they have been assigned.

The volumes called 'Rare' and 'Personal' were not received in 1928 but came to the Library in 1969 with the collection of Dr Robert Stout, Sir Robert's second son. The Personal volume was presented by Sir Robert to his son in May 1930; it was originally bound about 1918 and a few extra pamphlets were tipped-in later, at the beginning and end of the volume. The Rare (New Zealand) volume also came from Dr Stout but it also clearly belongs to the collection; although re-bound it carries a binder's label which links it with volumes 10, 50 and 54.

There are two volumes which we cannot be certain were part of the collection. Volume 86 originally belonged to W.M. Bolt and was acquired by Sir Robert as a bound volume, late in his career. Volume 87 was originally owned by Thomas Turnbull, a Wellington architect whose books were given to the Library in the mid-1930s. It is possible that this volume was never in Sir Robert's possession but was added to the collection by mistake. It has been included in the catalogue as its incorporation in the collection by our predecessors suggests that it should receive the benefit of the doubt. There are a further two volumes, nos. 7 and 88, which were quite definitely owned by Sir Robert, but were given to him by Sir Walter Buller as bound volumes. Buller also seems to have supplied many of the pamphlets which make up volumes 6 and 22, but Sir Robert arranged for the binding of those volumes.

468 of the unbound New Zealand pamphlets were bound at the Library's expense (12 volumes at 9s. 6d. each, 6 volumes at 10s. 6d. each, a total of f10.7s.) and these form volumes 63 to 79 and 80a. The remaining volumes were bound at various times by Sir Robert's instruction and they can be grouped by the materials and decorative tools into several groups which can be dated approximately. There is some interest in these groups, which seem to relate to Sir Robert's career, and they can usefully be summarised here.

The earliest group, dating from the early 1870s, contains volumes 3, 5 and 18. The materials are cheap and the workmanship average. The second, and largest group, has six subgroups. The page viii binding was done by Alexander Sligo of Dunedin, at times between late 1873 (at the earliest) and about 1888. The six subgroups, in probable date order are: volumes 13, 19 and 20 and 'AP'; after August 1877, volumes 12, 17, 24, 25 and 31; after March 1878, volumes 4, 9, 11, 16, 21, 26, 28, 32, 33 and 34; after May 1881, volumes 8, 15, 29, 35, 36, 38, 42, 43, 44, 45 and 48; after May 1882, and possibly after Sir Robert's return to Dunedin in late 1887, volumes 2, 37, 40, 41, 46 and 47; lastly, probably in 1888, volumes 24a, 27, 39, 49 and 53.

The third group, with three subgroups, was bound in Wellington by Lyon and Blair, probably during Sir Robert's term as Premier. The materials are good quality cloth, with good workmanship, notable because the pamphlets have not been trimmed at all. The subgroups are: in late 1885 or early 1886, volumes 51, 52, 55, 57, 60, 82 and 83; in late 1886 (after July), volumes 10, 50, 54, 58 and 61, and probably the 'Rare' volume; in mid or late 1887, volumes 14, 56, 84 and 85.

The fourth group was probably bound in Wellington after Sir Robert's return at the end of 1893. The binding is of the same quality and style as Lyon and Blair's work; the Wellington branch of Whitcombe and Tombs took over Lyon and Blair's business in late 1894. This group contains volumes 1, 6, 22, 23, 30 and 62.

Volumes 3a, 80 and 81 were bound about 1914 by Lankshear in Wellington. The final volume, 59, cannot be grouped with any other; it seems to be rather inferior work done in Wellington during Sir Robert's term as Premier.

The interest of the grouping of the volumes by their bindings is an extension of the very real interest created by associations within the volumes. For instance, volume 36 is largely composed of pamphlets published in aid of the Temperance movement, and volume 39 combines pamphlets on the Bradlaugh case, on Bradlaugh's associates, and on rationalism. Volume 22 contains chiefly offprints of articles from scientific journals, and volume 43 has reprints from an American legal journal. These associations, and other more diffuse relationships, are apparent to the user of the volumes and it was felt very desirable that they should be preserved in the catalogue arrangement.

The Catalogue

The catalogue lists the pamphlets in binding order, with the volumes numbered in sequence from 1 to 88, followed by the 'Rare' and 'Personal' volumes, then by the 'AP', 'BL' and 'DA' volumes, and finally by the 'Unbound' pamphlets in alphabetical order. The 'Unbound' sequence lists only those titles not otherwise recorded; there are at least 140 pamphlets in the bound volumes which have duplicates in the collections drawn on for the Unbound pamphlets. The catalogue entries, which include notes of other copies in other volumes, are supplemented by an author-title index and a subject index.

The catalogue entries were originally prepared according to the American Library Association (ALA) rules of 1949, and headings for corporate bodies and some anonymous works were revised to conform with the first (1967) edition of the Anglo-American Cataloguing page ix Rules. Headings for personal authors are, as in the ALA rules, in the fullest identifiable form, regardless of the form appearing in the work.

Descriptive cataloguing follows in general the first level of International Standard Bibliographical Description (ISBD), although the series and illustration statements are always included, and a statement of responsibility is included only if there are additional authors or the main entry cannot be deduced from the form appearing on the title page, as with married women or pseudonyms. The '/' is not used, and other punctuation elements are spaced in traditional typist's style rather than ISBD form.

Some items have proved somewhat intractable to describe and the resulting compromises may offend purists. We hope, however, that all entries are readily understood and not so inconsistent as to be confusing.

In headings and elsewhere a certain number of standard abbreviations have been used, in particular 'Gt Brit.', 'N.Z.' and 'U.S.' for the countries Great Britain, New Zealand and the United States of America. In Imprints, 'Government' is reduced to 'Govt', and the Government Printers are described as such, not by the name of the actual incumbent ('Wellington: Govt Printer', not 'Wellington: George Didsbury'). In many cases the imprint names the printer (manufacturer) as if he (or they) were the publisher. No effort has been made to distinguish between the two functions; if there is no publisher the printer will be named in the imprint.

Notes have been used sparingly, and the only 'copy specific' details relate to missing title-pages or otherwise incomplete copies, or to the occasional inscription which provides evidence of authorship or date. Material in the Maori language only is identified by a note 'Williams no.' referring to the Bibliography of Printed Maori to 1900 by Herbert W. Williams (Wellington: Govt Printer, 1924) where brief descriptions of the contents are given.

The Indexes

The Author-Title index records individuals with initials only, and gives the main entry word (in parentheses) for all added entries, to make it easier to identify the entry in the main sequence. Reference is by volume and pamphlet number (thus Rare/5 is pamphlet number 5 in the Rare volume) and duplicate copies are listed together (e.g. 30/3, 30/8, 67/9). Two apparently identical entries with different reference numbers refer to distinct items with identical titles, e.g. 'New Zealand (Stout, R.)', where there are two separate items by Sir Robert, both with the title 'New Zealand'. We have been fairly generous in making added entries for editors, institutional publishers and similar associated persons.

The Subject index has been prepared according to standard cataloguing principles, using as authority the Library of Congress Subject headings (LC), with certain modifications. For distinctively New Zealand topics the pre-1982 practice of the New Zealand national bibliography (NZNB) has been followed, particularly for period subdivisions and subdivisions under 'Maoris'. A number of other headings diverge from LC practice, or have been added to page x their lists. British spelling ('Labour' not 'Labor') is used throughout. The divergences from LC fall into the following groups (NZNB headings are asterisked):

1.	The British, or New Zealand, term is used instead of the American: Accountancy (as a main heading) *Railways Building and loan societies *Scots Chambers of commerce Shopping hours *Companies/Company... *Tramways (for Corporation...)
2.	Terms, sometimes distinctive to New Zealand, are introduced for topics not occurring in LC: Australian federation Political societies Land claims Positivists Land settlement companies Prospectuses, Publishers' Maori-European relations Sheep stealing Partial impact theory Sunday schools, Secular
3.	Compound headings, created from terms used by LC, are introduced for topics not occurring in LC: Clergymen as criminals Secularism and politics Free thought and the press Women in moral education
4.	Subdivisions are introduced under LC headings for topics or types of material not occurring in LC, or are applied to different headings: (Books -) Specimen pages (Examinations -) Results (Maoris -) Land - Confiscations (Maoris -) Land - European purchases (Maoris -) Land titles (N.Z. - Constitutional history -) Abolition of provinces (University of New Zealand -) Government (Women -) Refuges and asylums
5.	Period subdivisions are introduced where LC has not used them, though the option may exist, or are used in closer divisions than in LC: Gt Brit. - Politics and government - 1868-1901 Gt Brit. - Social conditions - 1815-1914 N.Z. - Economic conditions - 1876-1889 N.Z. - Economic conditions - 1890-1920
6.	Certain geographic headings are used in a different form from that in LC: Hawaiian Islands (referring to the period of independence before the formal annexation of what is now the State of Hawaii)page xi *South Africa (used for the territories now forming part of the Republic of South Africa, and distinct from 'Africa, South' which would include territories never a political part of South Africa)
7.	Headings for certain corporate bodies are used in an abbreviated form, although the formal name is longer: Oddfellows Rechabites The Treaty of Waitangi, 1840 is entered in that form, not inverted.
8.	Some headings used by LC as topics are here used as form headings. 'Periodicals' and 'Fiction' are examples. The subdivision 'Societies, etc.' is used as in LC's pre-1971 usage for the publications of societies devoted to a specific subject. 'College periodicals' is used instead of LC's 'College and school periodicals' because there are no examples of school periodicals. 'Land' is used as a main heading, for works covering a variety of aspects, as was LC's practice before 1976. 'Verse' has been used as a form heading rather than 'Poetry'.

As in the Author-Title index, reference is by volume and pamphlet number, and duplicate copies are listed together. We have been very generous with 'see' and 'see also' references, spelling out all relevant occurrences rather than using generic references. Under countries and regions we have included references to all geographic localities within those regions (e.g. 'Australia - see also New South Wales', 'New South Wales - see also Sydney'). This undoubtedly bulks out the subject index but its usefulness has been proved in the working catalogue of the J.C. Beaglehole Room and it should be helpful to the non-New Zealand user of the catalogue who may not be familiar with such localities as the Ruahine Range or Tuapeka.

History of the Catalogue

The first cataloguing of the Stout pamphlets was done by Mr Miller and his assistants in the 1930s. This effort was devoted to preparing a subject index to the New Zealand material. In the 1950s this was supplemented by the Reference Librarian who prepared extensive annotations for the author cards for the collection. When Iris Park described the collection briefly in her Study of Two Special New Zealand Collections (Wellington: Library School, National Library Service, 1961) she considered that this was a fully adequate level of cataloguing to make the pamphlets accessible to their potential users.

This previous work has been drawn on heavily for the catalogue published here. It suffered the major inadequacy of ignoring completely the non-New Zealand material, and therefore disguising the very real strength of the collection in showing Sir Robert's membership of the liberal intellectual community of Victorian Britain, and its Australian associations. As examples: Iris Park found 28 references to Temperance in the subject index, there are 57 references under Temperance and related headings in this page xii catalogue; for 43 references under the Land question, with a further 40 under Native Land Courts (etc.), this catalogue has 130 references under Land and related headings. These additional references are to non-New Zealand material, such as the publications of the English Land Restoration League, and the South Australian Land Nationalisation Society.

When Miss Julia Moriarty was appointed to the newly established position of Special Materials Librarian in 1968 she realised the potential interest of the collection and began the task of cataloguing all the pamphlets. The original cataloguing of the New Zealand items was not really compatible with the rules in use by 1970 (the cards had been kept in a separate file) and she was forced to catalogue the entire collection from the beginning. When she retired early in 1974 the basic draft cataloguing, and some of the bibliographical searching, had been completed and these entries form the basis of this catalogue. Other demands on the time of the Special Materials Librarian stretched the completion of the task out over most of the next eight years, but it was finally finished late in 1982. The serials were catalogued by Mr T.D. Phillips and the completion of work on the bulk of the New Zealand items was greatly helped by the publication of A.G. Bagnall's New Zealand National Bibliography to 1960 especially Volume 1 (to 1889) which we were able to consult in proof. Cataloguing of the non-New Zealand material was assisted by the completed publication of the National Union Catalog of pre-1956 Imprints; its incomplete state had hampered Miss Moriarty's work considerably.

The publication of the catalogue has been assisted by a substantial donation from Dr Vida M. Stout towards the typing costs. In 1970 Dr Stout, with her brothers Robert and Dr John, gave the Library the collection of their uncle Dr Robert Stout, and this further assistance to the Library is a most gratifying continuation of the generosity to the University first exemplified by Sir Robert and commemorated in a small way by this catalogue.

The decision to publish the catalogue was taken in 1976. This decision influenced the mechanics of preparing the subject and author-title indexes, and was the only reason that many of the pamphlets have received detailed indexing. In 1976 we, very optimistically, expected to be ready to publish by 1980 at the latest. The delays in getting the catalogue to publication have had many causes, but we hope that no-one other than ourselves has been inconvenienced.