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Press The Committee desires to record its thanks and appreciation for the valuable support and publicity given by the press in connection with exhibitions and other activities. G. G. Gibbes Watson, Chairman. E. D. Gore, Secretary-Manager.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DOMINION MUSEUM MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 1946 Committee Meetings The Committee met five times during the year. Staff The arrangement by which half of Mr. Phillipps' time was given to Health Department duties was discontinued as 'from Ist February, 1946. Miss B. Gibbons was appointed as an assistant in the botany department, and Miss M. Stephenson and Miss S. Baker as assistants in the education department. Mr. R. R. Forster, Miss H. Turnbull, and Mr. H. J. Allen returned to duty from service in the Navy and Army. Military Occupation of Museum The greater part of the Museum building continued to be occupied by the Air Department during the year. Education Services The end of 1945 found the education service completely disorganized. The technical assistant to the Education Officer left; and the Museum lost the services of Miss J. Luke, teaching assistant. At the beginning of 1946 appointments were made which will place the loan service of the Museum on a sounder basis than has been the case hitherto. Two technical assistants, Miss Turnbull and Miss Baker, now are preparing loan cases, and an additional assistant, Miss Stephenson, is concentrating on loan material designed to assist the new social-studies syllabus for the primary schools. Miss M. Lawson also was appointed by the Wellington Education Board as a teaching assistant. In January, 1946, the Education Officer, Mr. D. W. McKenzie, resigned. The decentralization of the school loan collection continued. Groups of cases now are located at Napier, Palmerston North, and Nelson, while with the return of assistants the Wellington loan service again was put into operation. Maori Collection During the year part of the Bollons Collection has been reclassified and placed in cabinets for future reference. The stored collection of carvings has been re-examined and important specimens separated for study. A general recataloguing of the collection continues at intervals. Field-work was carried out by Mr. Phillipps on Maori carving and carved houses in the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, and Rotorua districts, and information of practical value in the classification of Museum material has resulted. In this work the Museum has had the full co-operation of the Department of Internal Affairs, and a considerable amount of historical information concerning Maori, carvers and their houses, which otherwise might have been lost, has been obtained. The Maori material added to the Museum collection includes the following : a greenstone adze presented by Mrs. Alves, a wakahuia presented by Mr. F. Seed, two Maori stone adzes presented by Mrs. M. Stuart, and a collection of various Maori artifacts purchased.

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