Antiquities Act ‘working well’

Press, 20 March 1978, Page 14

Antiquities Act ‘working well’

Criticism of the Antiquities Act was not supported by the experience of the Canterbury Museum, said the museum’s director (Dr R. S. Duff).

The act, which came into force last year, was designed to protect Maori artefacts. It had been well accepted by finders and collectors of arte, facts, Dr Duff told a meeting of the Museun Trust Board.

Under the act. Maori artefacts are regarded as Crown property, but private collections may be registered. Dr Duff said that the museum was one of four helping to administer the act. In its experience, most finders of artefacts were happy to put their finds in the museum, especially if the label named them. The board decided to ask the Antarctic Division of the Department of Scientific and

Industrial Research if some items at Antarctica could be returned to New Zealand for restoration and exhibition; Some of these were deteriorating, said the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr H. G. Hay), who was chairman of the board’s meeting in the absence of Mr W. Deans. Dr Duff said that before relics could be removed from the Antarctic, the 17 treaty nations involved in the area must agree. The board decided to seek permission to raise $lOO,OOO to help pay for museum extensions. It will also seek five-year loans from local councils, the shares ranging from $40,000 from the city council to $444 from Lyttelton.

The Ministry of Science wrote refusing a contribution towards the Antarctic centre at the museum.