Curator wanted for Antarctic display

Press, 21 April 1984, Page 9

Curator wanted for Antarctic display

The Canterbury Museum Trust Board has run into more problems over the position of curator of Antarctic relics at the museum’s National Antarctic Centre. Last week the board eliminated the position of full-time curator at the centre, which was held by Mr David Harrowfield, and made him head of the museum’s archives collection. They had intended to appoint Mr Baden Norris, who since 1967 has been the museum’s honorary curator of Antarctic relics, as a part-time curator on duty for one day a week. Since then Mr Norris has advised the board that he is no longer available for the position. The chairman of the Museum Board, Mr R. G. Pearce, told a board meeting on Thursday that the staff committee should reassess staff deployments and report to the next meeting of the board. “To keep both an archivist and an Antarctic curator, we would need, to in-

crease our budget by $25,000, when the board is already under fire from some contributing local authorities in respect of small increases we have proposed,” he said. The Museum Trust Board was proud of its Antarctic section and did not want to downgrade its activities in any way, said Mr Pearce.

“The establishment ol the Antarctic section has been made possible by the generosity of many individuals and organisations, both financially and with donations of historic relics. The board is conscious of the scientific importance of the section.

Mr Pearce said the decision to eliminate the fulltime curatorial position was made after careful consideration over the last two years. He quoted from a report given to him by the museum’s director, Mr Michael Trotter, which said that “there is no suggestion that any of the

Museum’s Antarctic displays will be disrupted.”

Mr Trotter’s report said the displays, research collections and library facilities would continue to be available.

Antarctic archives would be the responsibility of Mr Harrowfield. Mr Harrowfield’s former position of registrar of antiquities would be taken over by the museum anthropologist, Mrs Lyn Williams, and matters related to Antarctic geology would be handled by the museum’s geologist, Mrs Margaret Bradshaw.

Responsibilities previously held by Mr Harrowfield of Antarctic vertebrate and invertebrate zoology and pictorial history, would also be taken over by other museum staff, said Mr Pearce.

Mr David Close thanked Mr Pearce for his “clear statement” at the board meeting, and said the museum’s specialist staff

were being used in tne Antarctic wing to make the sort of contribution a generalist could not. The museum had a firm policy of not giving back artefacts bequeathed to it, Mr Trotter told the board. This was because relatives of people who had bequeathed artefacts to the museum often tried to get them back purely for financial gain. The board decided to stick firmly to this policy and decline a written request from a woman who wanted two Maori artefacts she had bequeathed to the museum in 1967 returned to her. Mr Pearce said the request touched on a principle that was more important to maintain than this particular case. Election validity The procedure used in the election of the Museum Trust Board on December

19 last year was correct, said Mr Pearce. He was commenting on a suggestion by the chairman of the Heathcote County Council, Mr O. T. Alpers, that the legal status of the board might be in doubt after the passing of the Canterbury Museum Trust Board Act last year. Mr Alpers had said the new board was elected under the terms of the old act passed in 1947. Mr Pearce said the board had taken legal advice and had been assured that the election was valid. The Heathcote County Council will be informed of this. Totara logs The board will sell some seasoned totara logs to the National Marae for $3OO a cubic metre. This followed negotiations between the board and the marae committee which at one stage were threatened because the marae believed

the board doubted its integrity. The logs were bought by the board in the late 1950 s to build a replica of a Maori meeting house. The marae committee had asked to use the wood for part of a meeting house being built on the Pages Road marae, and had offered to replace the wood with green totara “in due time.” The board agreed in February to let the committee have the wood, but said every piece would have to be replaced as it was taken. Mr W. J. Karetai, a board member and Maori leader, said at the meeting that this had “insulted” the committee. Mr Close said this material had been in storage for a long time, and as the board had no use for it, “I would be happy to see us sell it for a nominal fee.” Mr Pearce said the price that had been decided on was a reasonable one.

A display of paintings by the late Cranleigh Barton are on display in the visitor’s lounge of the museum. A report from Mr Trotter said Mr Barton had bequeathed his* collection of 3600 paintings to the museum when he died in 1976. About 1700 of these were of Christchurch and Canterbury, painted between World War I and 1969. “As well as being the work of a sensitive artist, Cranleigh Barton’s collection of water-colours of local scenes finds its unit as an historical record of the passing scene in Canterbury,” said Mr Trotter. Anzac Day The board decided to open the museum on Anzac Day. The museum will be open for its normal weekday hours of 10 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. This followed a request from Mr Trotter, who said people queued up outside the museum last Anzac Day, when it was closed.