Museum service hit

Press, 22 February 1980, Page 4

Museum service hit

The Canterbury .Museum will have trouble maintaining its teaching services to schools because one of its teaching staff has lost his jobk ■ This w£s because the Education Department’s budget for/ the year ‘ had been pruned, the museum’s director (Mr J. H. Wilson) told the Museum Trust Board yesterday. He had expressed his disappointment and concern to the Canterbury - Education Board. •'< “A valuable service will be lost,” he said, “It is sad that the cuts occur at a time when we

were making additions to out display halls, particularly the rural township and natural history ones,” Mr Wilson said. The Education Board had replied : that it hoped it would be able to appoint a third officer, but it was not yet possible. The board decided to write to the Education Department, the Minister of Education (Mr Wellington), and to local members of Parliament. Mr Wilson also told the board that an exhibition of Japanese pottery, which has been given to the museum, would not be held until' the

end of the year. It woud take the whole year to arrange to set up the exhibition in keeping with its importance. The collection was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The number of pieces in the collection was growing. There were already about 50, as Japanese potters kept contributing to it. “We also have to have a catalgoue of some scholarly standard published to go with the exhibition,” Mr Wilson said-, He had already asked the Arts Council for substantial, if not total, support for the catalogue.