Museum totara swapped

Press, 19 August 1983, Page 5

Museum totara swapped

Totara bought 27 years ago to build a Maori meeting house at the Canterbury Museum will now be used for the meeting house at the National Marae in Pages Road.

At a meeting of the Museum Trust Board yesterday it was decided to swap the mature timber for a similar amount of green totara. The totara swap was to have been decided in committee but was brought into open session and a delegation from the marae attended.

Speaking to the board, Mr Joe Karetai said that the museum had custodial stewardship of the timber and should retain it for its own projects.

Three other members of the delegation were in favour of the swap being made because of the scarcity of mature totara..

The marae committee would be forced to use green totara, which would need to be replaced in eight

years because of shrinkage, said the secretary of the Marae Trust Board, Mr Hori Brennan.

He pleaded with the board to sell or swap the mature timber. The marae committee was more than willing to replace the timber with other totara, he said. “It will be the museum’s contribution to the meeting house.” he said.

The timber was bought in 1956 for a meeting house in the museum. Originally 14 pieces were bought but one had to be removed because of dry rot and three have disappeared. The remaining 10 pieces will all be needed for the exterior carved panels at the marae meeting house.

Totara takes 15 years to dry naturally and although the marae committee had timber available, it was not mature enough for carving.

The museum timber was stored under controlled

temperature and humidity conditions to preserve

The museum director, Mr Michael Trotter, said that the museum had no immediate need for the timber.

Cr C. E. Manning suggested that rather than sell or give the timber to the marae, they accept the offer of a swap.

The chairman of the board, Sir Hamish Hay, said that the timber was of “spiritual significance” to the Maori people and should be made available for the marae.

Mrs Duff said she was not in favour of the swap because the museum could use the timber.

Cr A. J. Graham proposed that a sub-committee be formed, to negotiate arrangements for the swap and this motion was passed. Additions

Additions to collections at the museum include historic relics from huts in the An-

tarctic, presented via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Wellington,

A gift of a bezique card game and three hand-made mahogany cases containing a collection of pebbles, agates and silicified wood have also been made. Other gifts include fossil leaves from the West Coast Brunner coal measures and other fossils. The library received a copy of “A Voyage Round the World” by Archibald Campbell, published in 1816, and water colour paintings of Te Rauparaha and Rangihaeata by R. Park on loan from Mr H. Deans of Coalgate. Bug of the week Mr Anthony Savill, a curator at the museum, will present a series of natural history segments on the television programme, “After School”. The weekly series will feature a selection of New Zealand invertebrates. It will be titled “Bug of the Week.”