GIFTS TO MUSEUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 118, 21 May 1928, Page 5

GIFTS TO MUSEUM.

TWO VALUABLE COLLECTIONS RESUI/TS OF 2O TEARS' EFFORT ITEMS FROM NIGERIA AND NEW GUINEA.

Two very extensive and valuable collections of specimens of native arts and crafts, one from Nigeria and the other from New Guinea, have been presented to the Auckland Museum by Mr. J. R. Adams Wilkes, a resident of Rabaul, the chief town of the mandated territory of New Guinea. Mr. Wilkes is at present visiting the Dominion. Representing many years of assiduous collecting, the exhibits are the more acceptable by reason of their variety and choice, illustrating many phases of native life. The collections will be an arresting feature of the ethnographical section of the War Memorial Museum.

There are 450 articles in all, 200 being from New Guinea and the remainder from Nigeria. The northern people of Nigeria are a race related to the Egyptians, and are of the North African type. As a consequence their weapons and articles of domestic and ceremonial use reflect a high degree of civilisation. Especially is this obvious in a speciment of chieftain's clothing, the items of which are elaborately embroidered. There is some very fine leather work of the Hauza people, comprising cushion covers, slippers and large leather bags. Some steel swords are encased in decorated leather scabbards of great beauty. There are iron bridle reins with decorated leather work, and an elaborately ornamented leather headdress for a horse.

The negroes of the southern portion are a more primitive people, and their implements and weapons do not reveal the same degree of craftsmanship as do those of the northern tribes. They extract iron from ores by using ordinary skin bellows, a specimen of which is included in the collection. • The articles of wrought iron are not very finely executed, but they embrace a wide range. There are spears, daggers and chiefs' staffs. These staffs are fitted at the top with an intricate decoration of iron chains and pendants, which make what to the chiefs is a very important noise when they strut forth beating the end on the ground.

Fantastic Ju Ju Masks. Included in the collection is a number of musical instruments, ranging from drums to guitars. There are bows and arrows in a special quiver, and some fantastic ju ju masks which the priests wear when acting as ghosts in order to strike terror into the hearts of the people. Food bowls, and a large variety of armlets and other decorations are also among the big collection.

A copy of the Koran, in a morocco leather bag, is in the collection of northern articles. There are some prayer boards, on which prayers can still be read, though the colours in which they were painted have become dim. The natives pour water over these prayer-boards, and part of the pigments is washed off. The native collects the water from the boards in a little vessel, and drinks it, trusting thereby to have his supplications answered.

Carved totem figures are some of the more striking things in the southern collection. Domestic bowls are included in large numbers.

The remainder of the collection is representative of New Guinea itself and of the islands surrounding the Bismarck Archipelago and the Trobriand Islands. Dresses of grass and decorated tapa, and a large assortment of armlets and necklaces of shell and beads are a striking featured. Ceremonial headdresses and ornaments used in the native ceremonial are included. Four very fine women's ceremonial aprons are richly embroidered with native shell money of an intricate pattern.

Two large carved shields which ar» used for ceremonial purposes, and brightly polished carved ceremonial canoe paddles, with the frigate bird motive cleverly used, will be of interest to all who view the collection. A stone pineapple club, bows and arrows—the latter beautifully carved and intricately barbed—food bowls and food baskets are some of the items. Baskets lined with clay to make them water-tight reveal the beginnings of the potter's art. Some of the baskets are of baked clay. It is believed that pottery had its origin, not only in New Guinea, but in other parts of the world, when primitive man first lined his baskets with baked clay.

Carved drums from the Trobriand Islands are also features of this splendid ethnographical collection.