AUCKLAND MUSEUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 221, 18 September 1929, Page 17

AUCKLAND MUSEUM.

THE OPENING CEREMONY. i EXCHANGE OF MAORI EXHIBITS. At.the usual meeting of the Auckland Institute and War-Memorial Museum Council held yesterday: afternoon, Mr. H. E. Vaile presiding, arrangements were made for the opening ceremony, which has been fixed for November 28. The ceremony will be performed by the Gov-ernor-'General, Sir Charles Fergusson. After the ceremony returned soldiers and next-of-kin will be shown over the'building. In the evening a reception will be held by the president and Mrs. Vaile. The following day there will be a spectacular display by Maoris. The president, on behalf of the council, thanked Mr. W. Thorpe, 'ethnologist of the Australian Museum, Sydney, for assistance in arranging the Melanesian and New Guinea exhibits in the museum, the Australian Museum having kindly consented to him coming over to Auckland for the purpose. Mr, Thorpe said he had enjoyed his stay in Auckland very much. The council agreed that the presence of Mr. Thorpe in Auckland would assist a scheme for arranging for suitable exchanges between the two institutions. In view of the advantages to be gained by judicious exchanges the council decided to support the protest of the Otago Council against the Maori Antiquities Act, which forbade the sending out of the country of any Maori curios whatever. A discussion took place concerning the honouring of the memory of the late Mr. T. F. C'hceseman who for 57 years was - curator of the Auckland Museum, and it was decided to place a plaque on the walls—probably in the Library. - It was decided that Mr. K. Ford should bo the designer. Curator's Report. "Considerable- progress has been made with the installation and display of exhibits," reported the curator (Mr. Gilbert Archey), "and all members of the staff are working willingly and energetically at this task j nevertheless, every effort will be required if we are to be ready for the opening day. Of the largo exhibits, one pataka is complete, one requires only painting, and the large house needs only the lining of the verandah and the thatching. In tne paleontological department the arrangement of a much-augmented, moa exhibit is almost completed. "It will not be possible to have individual 'labels prepared for the vast number of separate articles exhibited — but suitable explanatory group labels will be arranged until the detailed labels with acknowledgments of the gifts ol many individual donors, can be provided. "There has again been a welcome addition of interesting gifts. Mr. V. R. C. Mitford, of Gisborne, has presented to the Maori section an exceptionally fine inanga greenstone pekapeka; a koro•wai cloak has been given by Mr. F. N. Andrews, a special kit for carrying fledgling decoy parrots and an old carving from a house buried by the Tarawera eruption have been presented by Mr. George Graham. "A splendid greenstone mere, and a feather cloak have been deposited by Mr. P. R. Gardner, of Kamo, as also have been a taiaha and three cloaks by Mrs. Beamish, of Taupirl. "Two outstanding additions to the ethnology section are the important series of elaborate ceremonial carvings and masks from New Guinea, Britain and New Ireland, collected by the donor, Mr. W. R. McGregor, on his recent trip •to those islands, and the exceptionally large, bird-design food bowl from the Solomon Islands, the gift of the Rt. Rev. the Bishop of Melanesia. We have also received from Major Robinson, the secretary of the mission, a large model of a New Hebridean canoe.

"Other interesting additions are to be acknowledged from Mrs. W. Kay, of Paiimure, Mies Ohristina Fenton, Miss Cranwell, Mr. C. Donald and Mr-. D. H. Graham.

"Coins "have been given by Mr. E. E. Vaile and an old Wedgwood jar has been presented by Mr. Hugh C. Wright, on ■behalf of his father, the late Dr. F. W. Wright. "A valuable addition to the war collection has been made 'by Major G. P.. Hutchinson, 0.8. E., who has presented the whole of hia fine series of war posters, collected during the war in England, France and the East. "The botany department hae received large cross-sections of totara and rimu from the Taupo Totara Timber Company and from the State Forest Service, while t'he hon. entomologist, Mr. Alfred Bhilpott, reports the gift of large collections of moths and butterflies by Mr.. ,G. V. Hudson, F.N. Inst., of Wellington, and Mr. Chas. E. Clarke, of Duaedin.

"Both Mr. Powell and Mr. Firth have obtained valuable additions to the paler ontological and geological departments in a series of fossils, given by Professor Bartrura, Mr. D. H. Graham, the Geological Survey and the Dominion Mnseum, and a series of hydraulic and crystalline limestones from Waro, presented by the New Zealand Portland ' Cement Company."