"Wellington's Archives building is more than 50 years old and will require significant upgrades to services and environmental control systems to preserve material longer term."
Archives New Zealand safeguarded New Zealand's most important historical documents, as well as information that was personally important to many New Zealanders.
"The preservation of the nation's records is not just about these big events that impacted upon us as a nation, it's the opportunity for all of us to see the things that shaped our individual stories - our families, our forebears."
Dunne said about 75,000 people each year accessed information on their families at Archives NZ reading rooms and more than 165,000 attended public events.
His own hunt through Archives NZ material had shown him his grandfather's World War I records and his great-grandfather's "Intention to Marry" - "a very quaint tradition" which lasted until 1955.
"This is all part of a big package to draw attention to our identity as a nation and give New Zealanders the opportunity to interact with the documents and treasures that are part of their history."
He flipped through Lange's speech notes - including a note of "look what eagles do to lambs" on the first page, but Lange's handwriting was so bad he could not read it. Nor was there any sign of the most famous quote from that debate, in which Lange urged his opponent American evangelist Jerry Falwell to hold his breath: "I can smell the uranium on it as you lean towards me".
The debate at the Oxford Union in England was on the moot "that nuclear weapons are morally indefensible".
The documents at the announcement included a 1946 map showing the impact of an atomic bomb falling on the Wellington Railway Station. Dunne noted his home and most of his Ohariu electorate were in a fairly safe area.
