THE OLDHAM COLLECTION

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26121, 25 May 1950, Page 4

THE OLDHAM COLLECTION

ALLOCATIONS TO MUSEUM

DETAILS GIVEN BY DIRECTOR The Director of the Canterbury Museum (Mr Roger Duff) returned yesterday from Wellington after attending a further meeting oi the Museums’ Association Committee, which is distributing the W. O. Oldham collection. In addition to the first choice of material from three South Pacific island areas. Hawaii. Easter Island and the Solomons, the Canterbury Museum had been allocated valuable duplicates from the other important Polynesian groups, the Marquesas (famed as the scene of Melvil'e’s “Typee”). the Cook Islands. Tahiti, t'.e Austral Islands. Tonga ana Niue, said Mr Duff. Although drawing fourth choice in the New Zealand Maori collection, which represented almost half of the Oldham collection. Canterbury had received some valuable exh : bits. he said. They included a carved feeding funnel, used by the chiefs when undergoing tattooing, a rare example of the nose flute (mguru), a ceremonial hi-fted adze, used as an emblem of chieftainship. carved feather boxes, paddles and weapons, etc. "It is difficult to assess the value of the collection, but it could be conservatively estimated at £5000." said Mr Duff.’ “In addition to similar divisions among the Auckland. Dominion and Otago Museums, arrangements were also made to allocate a fa r selection of the duplicate material to the five regional museums. Wanganui. Taranaki, Napier. Nelson and Invercargill. “Because of the Museum’s need to ' take over the large ethnological hall for the eary colonial display, during the centennial, there will be no possibility of displaying this collection for at least a year." said Mr Duff. “The arrangement made with lhe Government. which bought the collection, is that the exhibits allocated to Canterbury are held on indefinite loan in trust for the Government. This arrangement for the Government to distribute a collection of such value to museums in accordance with their needs is a most remarkable event in •the history of the New Zealand museum movement and. to my knowledge, without parallel anywhere in the world. At its recent annual meeting the Museums’ Association placed on record its gratitude to the former Prime Minister <Mr Fraser) and the former Under-Secretary of Internal Affairs (Sir Joseph Hernan), who made the purchase possible." Mr Duff said that the collector. Mr W. O. Oldham, of Clackham. South London, died suddenly in July last year, less than a year after the sienaup/r of the agreement of to Nev Zealand. Although Mr Oldharr could have found a ready sale for the collection in America or the British Museum, ho felt that, in deciding in favour of New Zealand, ho was allowing Iho collection to return to its original homo from which it had been carried by visiting ships in the late 1700’s and the early 1800’s. “The balance of Mr Oldham’s collection. that is the African. Eskimo and North American collections. bought lain year by the British Museum He had boon collecting from the 1890’s, and hie collection mnresorted not onlv his life-time savings, but also the main interest of his life.” Mr Duff said.