Trust Fund To Aid Maori Culture

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31089, 18 June 1966, Page 19

Trust Fund To Aid Maori Culture

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 17. A new trust fund to support grants-in-aid of the history, art, culture, physical and social anthropology of the Maori and other Polynesian peoples has been sponsored jointly by three New Zealand organisations.

The Polynesian Society and New Zealand Archaeological Association have joined with the Royal Society of New Zealand to establish the Skinner Fund in honour of Dr. H. D. Skinner, formerly Director of the Otago Museum, now living in retirement. Dr. Skinner is regarded as the “father” of New Zealand archaeology. Grants from the fund, for travel expenses and equipment of various sorts, will be made by a committee on which the three societies are represented. They will soon appeal for contributions to the fund, which will benefit from a £ for £ subsidy up to £lOOO offered by an anonymous donor. “The establishment of the Skinner Fund is the result of the Royal Society’s interest in encouraging the research contribution of amateurs, in the best sense of the world, to New Zealand science,” said Dr. C. A. Fleming, secretary of the society. “We already administer trust funds for research in biology and geology, but no such fund has hitherto been available to meet the urgent needs of the professional and amateur archaeologists.

“If we can build up a substantial fund it will provide a flexible source of support for the many projects of research into New Zealand prehistory that are being tackl-

ed by teams of professional and amateur volunteers.

“Such work is not only of scientific value but is a vital contribution to the development of our distinctive national culture,” Dr. Fleming said .