Today in History

1907 Parliament's library escapes great fire

Fire was the scourge of colonial towns and cities. Old, tinder-dry wooden buildings and books were a highly combustible combination, and many private and public library collections went up in flames.

One of New Zealand's greatest library disasters was narrowly averted in 1907, when fire swept through Parliament Buildings in Wellington. At 2 a.m. on 11 December Parliament's nightwatchman made his regular check of the buildings and returned to his office for a hot cup of cocoa. He thought he heard rain on the roof, but when he went to check, he found a substantial blaze had broken out. He sounded the alarm, threw open the gate for the fire brigade and tackled the fire with a hose, which soon burned right through.

The fire was probably started by a short in the electric wiring in the ceiling of the interpreters' room. It spread rapidly through the old wooden parts of the buildings and then into the masonry additions of the 1880s. By 5 a.m., Bellamy's restaurant had been destroyed and firemen were battling desperately to save the library. An eyewitness recalled the morning's events:

It was apparent that the main building could not be saved, and everyone then concentrated on salvaging what they could, and the lawn in front of the building began to look like a fair. There were books, papers, portraits, chairs and desks, hurriedly snatched and brought to safety ... At the northern end of the block was the new General Assembly Library, a brick structure, protected by iron doors and shutters. When it seemed that this too might become involved, frantic efforts were made to remove the books and records, and through a private property in Hill Street, an endless stream of people began carrying them to safety, but the library was saved. 

Staff and volunteers moved more than 15,000 volumes from the building's ground floor as a precaution against the flames breaking through. The morning light revealed the scale of the devastation to the crowds and parliamentarians who had come to watch: the old wooden buildings were completely destroyed, and New Zealand's de facto national library – with its 80,000 volumes and many other treasures – had been saved only by its brick walls and metal fire door. 

Image: Parliament Buildings on fire  in 1907

1931 Statute of Westminster passed

The British Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster, granting complete autonomy to its six Dominions. Australia and New Zealand held back from adopting this status, until in 1947 New Zealand became the last of the Dominions to do so.

Although this country had moved from being a colony to a Dominion in 1907, few New Zealanders then wanted greater independence from Britain. Racial affinity, language, culture, defence and trade links bound most New Zealanders to the wider ‘Britannic world’, which was then at the height of its prestige.

Those feelings persisted through the first half of the 20th century, even though dominion status evolved as a label for the constitutional position of the former self-governing colonies (and the Irish Free State). In 1926, after pressure from the Irish, South Africans and Canadians, the Balfour Declaration stated that Britain and the dominions:

are autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations.

New Zealand's prime minister, Gordon Coates, called this a ‘poisonous document’. Although the British Parliament subsequently passed the Statute of Westminster, which formally removed London’s right to legislate for the dominions unless they asked it to do so, New Zealand refused to ratify it until 25 November 1947. The Constitution Act 1986 finally removed the last faint provision for the British Parliament to make laws for New Zealand.