A Special Gift to the Institute

While trawling through the records of the Launceston Mechanics' Institute recently our assiduous FOLMI researcher Dorothy Rosemann discovered this intriguing letter from parliamentary librarian Arthur Wadsworth to our own librarian Joseph Forward.

The offer contained in the letter, a complete set of the Historical Records of Australia for the Institute, is remarkable enough given that Launceston was the only city outside the state capitals to receive a set. But the reasons given for the decision are even more surprising. Firstly, that Launceston "possessed independence of Hobart up to almost the middle of the [19th] century". Clearly this was not based on historical fact. Launceston's period of self-rule under a Lieutenant-Governor reporting directly to Sydney lasted a mere nine years, from 1804 to 1813, and from 1825, when VDL became an independent colony, Hobart was incontrovertibly the seat of government.

Wadsworth's second justification – that "the relation of Launceston to Hobart is different to that of any city in any other state to its capital" – was however quite true, remains true to this day, and would have been viewed as a badge of honour in 1920 in the "northern capital".

The man who carried these arguments to the Federal Parliament on behalf of the Institute was long-serving Tasmanian Senator, John Henry Keating, a member of the Parliamentary Library Committee and a fierce advocate for his state. It was Keating who convinced the Committee of Launceston's unique constitutional position and historical claim to special treatment.

Just three days after Wadsworth conveyed the Committee's decision to the Institute, the Senator wrote a letter headed "UNOFFICIAL" to Forward, setting out in detail the Committee's reasoning for the special treatment afforded to Launceston, pointing out that all similar requests had been turned down, and emphasising their reluctance to set a precedent which might be exploited by other regional cities and towns.

He then suggested a quid pro quo which he believed would absolutely seal the deal by removing any doubts that Launceston was a special case. When Dr Watson (compiler and editor of the Historical Records) had visited the Institute library in his search for early records he had "seen an extra copy or copies of the local issue of Pickwick Papers with locally drawn sketches." Keating concluded "I think perhaps the best course would be, if your Committee feels so disposed, that they should offer one of these Pickwick papers to the Library Committee of the Commonwealth through its Secretary. Such an action would be satisfactory in every way and would, I can assure you, be very much appreciated by the Library Committee as well as personally by yours faithfully J H Keating."

Senator Keating urged discretion in the matter and further suggested that it was desirable that the exchange should not come formally before the Institute's committee, nor be referred to in their minutes.

And so it was, presumably, that the Institute gave up one of their copies of Dowling's pirated edition of 'Pickwick Papers' and the Parliamentary Library gained a very desirable item through their own act of piracy – a gift with strings attached.

Today the original set of Historical Records of Australia is held in the local studies collection in Launceston's public library, along with two bound copies of Dowling's edition of 'Pickwick Papers' and an even rarer set of the original parts as issued in 1838-39.