Friday 30 July 2021

Editorial Endorsement for Mr Pinfold

Digging around in WAI 215 documents and Pae Koroki [1] can yield some unexpected results, as one might expect from such rich and eclectic resources.

Social Studies Resource Book
Cover image provided courtesy of Hamilton Public Library

It turns out that the same Frederick Murray Pinfold who compiled the Social Studies activity book  The Maori People = Te Iwi Maori, published by AH and AW Reed in 1958 with a large print run of 5000 copies [2] was quoted with approval in an early 21st century Socio-Economic Impact Report for Nga Potiki [3]. In 1953 he was headmaster of Otepou School in Papamoa, a school with a long history of inadequate buildings and post-war baby boom overcrowding. His “pro-active stance,” as described in the Report, “was challenged by School Inspector Parsonage, who took it as a personal affront to his integrity in regards to establishing priorities.” [4]

It turns out that the same F M Pinfold became, first a writer for, and then Editor of, the Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society. In 1960 (issue No. 12 of the Journal) he essayed a collection of Maori Folk-tales of Tauranga District (an item I first stumbled on in early researches concerning the Te Puna-Wairere Track) [5].  His contribution and character was highly esteemed.  “… Immediately,” E L Adams wrote in his obituary [6], “his impact in the Society was apparent…. For he was, by inclination, more than just 'teacher' – in all his Maori school work, mainly in Hawkes Bay and here, he associated himself with their problems and everyday life… so much so that the Ngaiterangi Tribal Executive installed him as a kaumatua of the tribe …”

It turns out that Mr Pinfold is something of a hidden treasure. He seems to have escaped personal media attention – even the ubiquitous Tauranga Photo News, also now searchable within Pae Koroki, has (as yet) no captioned image of him. Unfortunately the Papers Past website for the Bay of Plenty Times, lately extended to 1951, falls short of his floreat period with our Society: 1960-67.

Mr F.M. Pinfold

This article is an effort to ‘out’ Mr Pinfold, and incidentally to celebrate the efforts of the Tauranga City Library to digitise the Society’s Journals – efforts he would, I am sure, have endorsed. 

Three years after his contribution of Tauranga Folk-tales, he made his first editorial interventions in Number 16 of the Journal, inserting not only his home address for communications with the Journal [7], but also some tactful notes here and there, and proposing a charming conceit: the selection of New Zealand books for the hobby historian’s bookshelf.  This was explained in the next issue as “… the shelf on which can be displayed as much of New Zealand writing as one book-lover can keep track of. [8]” 

Even before the age of the internet, this was probably a virtual shelf:  it would have been a groaning board in reality. Across ten issues, between June 1963 and December 1965, a total of 181 publications were assessed by one ‘F.M.P.’  It did “not profess to be a selection of reviews [9]” – these, quite different in tone and usefulness, also occasionally made an appearance, usually from then-President Ernest E Bush. The Journal’s Bookshelf was, instead, a survey of New Zealand publishing and writing that was both highly contemporary and securely based in a sense of New Zealand society that extended well beyond the colonial past. It showed a broadminded understanding of the challenges and the resources presenting themselves to New Zealand history scholars as well as general readers in the field – and incidentally offers some contradiction to present arguments that history was a closed, or at best a colonialist, book to late twentieth-century New Zealanders.

The amount of ground F.M.P. covered is staggering. In general, he was politely appreciative of most authorial efforts, but was unafraid to make a wholehearted recommendation:

The writer of these notes admires A.H. Reed’s wide choice of stories and the literary style and techniques adopted to typify their own peculiar spirit.  This is THE ONE which has the greatest popular appeal from this quarterly offering. [10]

and the occasional condemnation:

…the reflection of Markham’s attitude to his surroundings and. It would appear, to life in general, were to me repulsive. It is interesting in that it describes a way of life which is seldom uncovered to the public; it were better that if had remained so … I place this book on my shelf with very mixed feelings. Now that it has been produced I would not like my shelves to be lacking, nevertheless I feel that the taxpayers’ money could have been used in the production of something more in keeping with our standards of morality and literary worth [11].

(which makes the present writer determined to track down this unfortunate memoir. Was Markham’s merely a disparaging sneer or actually morally deficient?).

Mr Pinfold’s post as Editor of the Journal was made explicit in March 1964 [12]  and ended in August 1966 [13]. But he had already stated his manifesto in June 1963 (I am certain that the following anonymous comments are his):

… perhaps in various articles in this “Journal” are statements to which you can make additions; or which you feel have been inadequately stated; or of which you have a different version.  Write in and discuss it – albeit genteelly – and let this be a live “Journal" … [14]

It turns out, in short, that sixty years ago Tauranga was not lacking perceptive, open-minded and culturally sensitive thinkers about our past. F. M. Pinfold’s work for the Journal shows he had the grace and courage and scholarship to follow his own line, and the editorial judgment to accommodate and encourage a range of viewpoints. We can be proud of him; we should acknowledge his influence; and we must remember, as our local stories and pasts are re-examined by new scholars, that Mr Pinfold would have applauded this.

References

[3] Report prepared for Crown Forestry Rental Trust claim, WAI 717, by the International Research Institute for Maori and Indigenous Education, University of Auckland, for Auckland Uniservices Ltd.  Undated; “research for this report was conducted between January and September 2000”.

[4] Ibid, p.82

[9] ibid

[10] September 1963 issue, https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/23967 . Comment relates to A.H. Reed,  Myths and Legends of Maoriland, A.H and A.W Reed, 1963

[11] Ibid.  Comment relates to Edward Markham, New Zealand or Recollections of It, ed E. H. McCormick, Government Printer 1963

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