Museum benefits by $2500

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34072, 9 February 1976, Page 20

Museum benefits by $2500

More than $2OOO was raised by tile Okains Bay | Maori and Colonial Mu - seum during New Zealand Day week-end; two open days were held. The owner of the museum, iMr M. Thacker. described the) i takings of $2500 as ex-i Itremely good. He had exIpected to raise only about I |slooo. I The money will be used 'for the completion of a new: building to house a large col-1 lection of Maori artefacts. Mr Thacker said that enough was j raised to put the roof on the! building and to buy glass I cases for the artefacts. A crowd of about 2000 people watched Maori canoes paddled on Okains River find demonstrations of pit sawing, horse-shoeing, wheel making, and smithing. They could also have eaten food from a hangi, which was 1 the only part of the pro- i gramme affected by the bad weather, said Mr Thacker. The food was cooked outside, but had to be eaten in a nearbv hall because of rain. The museum will be officially opened on Waitangi Day i next year, when Mr Thacker ' will hand it over to a trust; board as a public museum.