ARTIFACTS PRESENTED

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31658, 19 April 1968, Page 1

ARTIFACTS PRESENTED

Mr Thompson, now 90, was so concerned about Maori artifacts continuing to leave New Zealand in spite of the prohibitions of the Historic Articles Act, that he had given his collection to the museum, the director (Dr R. S. Duff) told the Museum Trust Board yesterday. Mr Thompson sought and received an undertaking that the items would not leave the custody of the Canterbury Museum. Dr Duff said the bailer dated from about 1810 and was the first he had seen from an inland lake. It was as large as any used in seagoing canoes. Mr Thompson’s gifts also included a man’s dress cloak with taniko border, of early vintage, three women’s korowai cloaks made in 1907-10 by surviving weaving experts and a whale-bone patu, and a portrait of the unnamed Taupo chief, with part tattoo, painted by him in 1906-7. The donor’s contacts with the Lake Taupo Maoris dated from annual summer vacation

painting visits over the years 1905-10. Because the young Christchurch artist declined to accept payment for portraits of the local elders, he was recognised as a rangatira and so treated. The baler, the bordered cloak and the whalebone patu were already old when given to him. The three korowai cloaks took three years to make, Dr Duff said. Mr Thompson’s gifts will be featured in the display case in the museum foyer. The photograph shows Mr Thompson, wearing a feathered cloak, presenting the bailer to Dr Duff yesterday.