AUCKLAND INSTITUTE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 49, 27 February 1923, Page 7

AUCKLAND INSTITUTE.

THE YEAR REVIEWED PUBLIC INTEREST IN MUSEUM. The fiftieth yearly report of the Auckland Institute was presented to the i annual meeting of that body last night, • the president, Mr. J. H. Uunson, presid- . ; ing. .1 Thirty-one new members had been i! elected, it stated, and 2i» names had been ,i removed from the roll, It) being by • death. The present membership was -1 4-"i < ->. With great regret the council ,! directed attention to names of de- •' ceased members, Professor V. D. Brown ,|and Mr. Percy Smith, also Dr. Haniford, .j Messrs. ■!. Edson, H. D. Heather, S. •jMilroy, and J. J. Walklate. I Dealing with finance the report stated 1 that the revenue of the current account ; was £ 1857 18/0. The total expenditure ijhnd 'been £1835 10/7, and the cash

balance »as £240 11/!>. The invested!' funds now totalled £23,2!W 17/. The sura of t'2lo 10/4 had been expended on the library. An important collection of books on Polynesia, including 81 volume* and 100 pamphlets hud Imh'u bequeathed by the late Mr. Percy Smith. Daily throughout the year the museum had been open to the public, the total attendance being 100,454, a trifle below the average of the past three years. On Labour Day the attendance was 120G, and on Raster Monday 1147. ! Additions received at the museum had , been both numerous and valuable, al- < tliouph perhaps not so important as ' those of 1920-21. They included Maori i i house carvings and native curios, speci- 1 mens of value for the ethnological sec- ' tion, natural history specimens and a number of miscellaneous specimens. No ' ; department of the museum had sufficient \ I room for exhibition purposes. Mr. J. B. , i Turner's superb collection of Fijian and ' Polynesian ethnoßraphical specimens, j . recently presented to the museum, ( ' remained at Suva, and Mr. Dunning's ' collection of skins of large animals, : , which, if mounted, would put quite a i different face on the Zoological nertion ' of the museum, was still packed 'Away. ' \ PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. ! Looking back over 50 annual reports • ■prepared by Mr. T. K. ( heeseman, the ' secretary, the president said he had \ realised that this meeting was something ' in the nature of a jubilee. It celebrated . * a year of work and achievement, on 1 which institute members could look j back with pride and satisfaction. The , membership now constituted a record for the Dominion, end there was no question that the Auckland Institute • was the most financial and flourishing of any in New Zealand. Mr. Gunson moved • the adoption of the report, and this, being seconded by T?r. T. W. Leys, was ■ carried by acclamation.