WAR MEMORIAL MUSEUM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20421, 25 November 1929, Page 12

WAR MEMORIAL MUSEUM

OPENING CEREMONIES.

GOVERNOR-GENERAL TO ACT.

RETURNED SOLDIERS' PART

DETAILS OF THE ARRANGEMENTS

Preparations for the official opening with fitting ceremonial of tho War Memorial Museum next Thursday are now practically complete. After tho Cenotaph has ljoon dedicated by tho Primate, Archbishop Averill, tho chairman of tho War Memorial Committee, Mr. A. S. Bankart, will ask tho Governor-General, Sir Charles Fergusson, to hand tho building over to tho Mayor Mr. G. Baildon, and to Mr. 11. E. Vaile, as president of the Auckland Institute and Museum. Tho president will then invite His Excellency formally to open the museum. Tho Returned Soldiers' Association has received 5000 tickets with ' which to secure seats at tho ceremony for next-of-kin of deceased soldiers and for its members, and also to secure their entrance to tho building when it has been opened. Space in tho court of honour, which will not bo open to the public, will bo resorved for those guests.

Tho association is summoning all next-of-kin and relatives of deceased soldiers and its members to assemble at the Burns statu© in the Domain at 6.15 that evening for '.ho purpose of filing past tho Cenotaph and laying wreaths and flowers on it. Ex-servicemen aro asked to wear their uniforms if possible and their medals in any case. The Maori Dedication. Tho chief event on Friday morning will be the dedication by representatives of the Maori raco of the ancestral meetinghouse of the Hauraki tribes named Hotonui, after one of their famed ancestors.

Details of the ceremony will be arranged at a conference of visiting natives to be held at the Ellerslie racecourse on Thursday evening. Hotonui, which stood iot many years as the assembly house ai Parawai, in the Thames district, has been doposited with the museum authorities by Eruini Taipari, the grandson of the builder of the house, on behalf of tho Hauraki tribes. Tho Governor-General will bo present, but the white publio will not bo admitted, tho limited space available in tho Maori court being reserved for members of the native race.

Negotiations for the handing over of this splendid specimen of Maori architecture have been going on for nearly a quarter of a century, and it is now the largest meeting-house in tho possession of any museum. Invitations to the dedication are being issued by the institute through tho Akarana Maori Association. Eighteen hundred tickets are being issued by tho institute to subscribers to the memorial fund for a private view of the building on Friday afternoon, and from half-past five to nine o'clock iu the evening it will be thrown open to the public' for (ho first time. On Saturday it will bo open to tho public all day and in tho evening again until nine o'clock. On Sunday afternoon it will bo open from two o'clock onwards. .

Programme of Events, Tho following is the programme of events: — Thursday, November 28, 2 p.m.—Cenotaph to be dedicated by Archbishop Averill. The museum to bo handed over by tho War Memorial Committee to tho Mayor of Auckland and the Auckland Institute and to be officially opened by tho Governrr-General. Next-of-kin of deceased soldiers and returned soldiers, to a maximum number of 5000, will afterwards bo admitted to the building.

6.15 p.m.—Relatives of deceased sol : diets and returned soldiers will file past the Cenotaph laying wreaths. Friday, November 29: 9 a.m.—Maori Tomo ceremony of dedicating the wharerunanga Ilotunui in the presence of the Governor-General. Only Maoris admitted.

Afternoon. —Privato view for subscribers to tho war memorial building fund and members of tho Auckland Institute and Museum.

Evening.—Museum to bo open to the public until nino o'clock. Saturday, November 30.—'Museum to be open to the public morning, afternoon and evening.