The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 1 (May 1, 1933)
Files of Olden Times
Files of Olden Times.
A look at the main filing room portrayed in the illustration shows files dating from 1877, containing, in many cases, correspondence dating prior to that year. These were the days when typewriters were unknown in New Zealand, and all communications were handwritten, in some cases by “writers” and laboriously copied by the “office tiger.”
It may be mentioned herein that all files since 1877 are not available. Thousands and thousands of files, containing purely routine correspondence, have been burnt under supervision at the destructor. This work still goes on, and is one which no Record Clerk has delegated to subordinates.
The number of files now available is approximately 190,000 embracing every imaginable phase of the Management's operations.