MAORI ANTIQUITIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18963, 10 March 1925, Page 11

MAORI ANTIQUITIES.

COLLECTIONS IN MUSEUMS. AUCKLAND EXHIBITS PRAISED POSSIBILITY OF NEW FINDS. BRITISH AUTHORITY'S VIEWS. The preservation in New Zealand of Maori relics ai'il antiquities was referred to Jail evening by Sir Hercules Read, a prominent member of the British Museum, who is completing a month's holiday visit to the Dominion.

Sir Hercules, who was for long in charge of the ethnographical and Oriental section of the British Museum, has been greatly impressed with Maori art and culture, which, he says, is astounding in its richness. The collection of Maori curios at the Auckland Museum he considers quite remarkable, and, with that at Christchurchy is the best collection in New Zenland. Nobody who was at all familiar with Maori art could fail to be impressed with the wonderful rarity and variety of the exhibits in the Auckland Museum, and he singled out especially a handsome black-coloured wooden gable, taken from a Maori dwelling, which was as rare and beautiful a specimen of Maori carving as any he had seen.

"I only wish," said Sir Hercules, "I could get a few of these tilings for the British Museum, but at present I am afraid that is rather impossible." He explained that the Maori section in the British Museum contained many snfoll and easily portable objects, such as tikis, meres and other greenstone curios, which were quite remarkable in their way, but there was an urgent need for larger exhibits, such as the beautiful Maori dwellings and store-houses to be seen in the Auckland Museum. The difficulty was partly in transportation. "Though 1 should lie the last person to suggest taking the fairest things away from you," said Sir Hercules, "it cannot be denied that the British Museum is much less rich in such treasures as it should possess, considering it is the centre of the Empire." "I think it is the duty of the New Zealand people to cherish every ancient piece of Maori art you can find," the visitor added, "because it is all part of the history of your country, and as the world gels older it will appreciate even more the value of the Maori civilisation. It was unquestionably a very artistic civilisation in the essential arts of life ; in fact, the ancient Maoris had a tremendous capacity for artistic expression which you will hardly find in the islands of the Pacific. "

Sir Hercules Read expressed the vinw that as the country became opened up and developed, discoveries might bo made which would be of immense interest to the ethnographical world. It was quite possible, he thought, that objects would be found which had been buried, and which would reveal an antecedent phase of Maori culture from which Maori art as we knew it might have originated. He spoke of a number of curios which had been dug up in the North Island and which differed in appearance from the usual articles associated with Maori life. Some of these specimens were in the Auckland Museum and had proved very puzzling to Inm.

In passing, the visitor referred to a statement contained in a report published yesterday to the effect that a carved Maori house, which had been sent some years ago to England, had lain "forgotten in the cellars of the British Museum until it was resurrected for the British Empire Exhibition." The Maori house referred to, said Sir Hercules, was certainly offered to the British Museum authorities, but acceptance was declined, and it had then been accepted by the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and not the British Museum, then, in which* the relic had remained. During his tour of the Dominion Sir Hercules Head visited his cousin. Sir Robert Stout. In company with Mr. 0. C. _ Raphael, assistant curator in the Oriental and Ceramic departments of the British Museum, he will leave by the Maheno on Friday for Sydney, en routo for England. /