MUSEUM POLICY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19412, 21 August 1926, Page 13

MUSEUM POLICY.

A CONFERENCE SUMMONED. REMITS FROM AUCKLAND. A conference of museum representatives is to'be held in Wellington on November 2 to consider aspects of the Maori Antiquities Act and the Animals Protection Act, as they affect museums. The conference is being convened by the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. R. F. Bollard, in order that he may be advised on matters relating to museum policy. The Auckland Institute, which was notified of the pending conference yesterday, appointed the curator of the Auckland Museum, Mr. Gilbert Archey, its delegate. Mr. Archey submitted a number of recommendations which he suggested should be accepted as remits to be placed before the conference. They were as follow :• — (1) That articles which might be confiscated "for the use of the people of Nviw Zealand" under the Maori Antiquities Act should be domiciled in a public institution in the city or port to which they belonged, instead of being placed in the Dominion Museum in Wellington; (2) the Maori Antiquities Act and the Animals Protection Act.should,be amended so that no natural history specimens could be exported from New-Zealand for examination by scientists in other countries except under the conditions that the type specimens of any new species were to be returned to New Zealand. Local students, Mr. Archey said, were at present inconvenienced through certain type specimens being out of the country. (3) The Minister of Railways be asked to reinstate free railage for museum specimens. (4) The Government be asked to give a £ for £ subsidy on all bequests and gifts to museums. The suggestions were approved for remission to the conference.