VALUABLE SHELLS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 640, 17 April 1929, Page 6

VALUABLE SHELLS

MANY NEW GIFTS TO MUSEUM COOPER COLLECTION Described by the president, Mr. H. E. Vaile, as being a g.ift of outstanding importance and worth, the Cooper collection of shells has been handed to the Auckland Museum. The announcement of the gift was made at yesterday’s meeting of the Council of the Auckland Institute and Museum and members expressed their appreciation of the generosity shown by Mr. A. Cooper, Remuera Road, and the other members of the family of the late Mr. Charles Cooper, originator of the collection. % In a covering letter to the council, Mr. A. Cooper explained that although the shells were chiefly those of New Zealand collected over a period of 45 years and. as such, were one of the most complete private collections in the country, there were many shells from outside the Auckland Province and from overseas.

The Cooper library of scientific works including many dealing with eonchology is included in the gift. Other gifts to the museum during March were the prow and stern-post of a Maori canoe of the coastal or river type. These had been presented by a party of Auckland ladies who, while on a tramping expedition to the Cape Colville district, dug them out ol a swamp. , _ Other gifts included the following. Mr E. Earle Vaile: Very fine Damascus sword and weapons and ornaments from India and Tibet. The president, Mr. L. Vaile. Onewa mere with an unusual thongh. H. Bootes: Fine model of Captain Cook’s vessel, the Endeavour. made bv himself. ~, ATr. Frank Moore, of Long Lton, N D t r S - : R Gr | el ’po“ver! IC Green S ton e adze tr lTr of TO puke: Carved St Mr fl W in M.' V Fra l ier. of Whangarei: AU M t r ra D an x i CampM.: New Guinea adzes and lime-spoons. -po+i Air C. J Black, of Gisborne: PataBonian bows and arrows and -Andaman bow. -