This display shows how the ancient Maori caught and stored his food. (Gisborne Photo News) committee was left with no option but to accept this report and abandon the idea of purchasing this house. We decided to aim at building a concrete wing to house the Maori collection and set out to raise the estimated cost of something like £2500. It took a long time, but aided by a grant of £1000 from the Maori Purposes Fund Board the objective was finally achieved and the building erected and opened. It is interesting to relate that almost every member of the original committee was present at the opening. In addition to Mr Halbert the speakers at the opening function included Dr P. B. Singer, President of the Art Society, His Worship the Mayor of Gisborne, Mr H. H. Barker, Mr Reg Keeling, M.P., and Mr Hira Paenga. The catering for the afternoon tea provided was done by the Maori Women's Welfare League so that the whole function was pleasingly Maori in character.

FOCAL POINT FOR MAORI CULTURE Largely through the generosity of the late W. D. Lysnar, the Museum started off with an enviable collection of Maori exhibits. These have been added to during the past three years by loans or donations of artifacts, pictures, photographs and documents all having some place in the long history of the Maori. These things are important, but a museum such as the Maori Wing financed, administered and supported by the Maori people of a district is much more than a mere collection of casually acquired relics. It is, and will become even more, a central point of Maori culture and Maori history for the whole East Coast. It is in fact the modern whare wananga the repository of all those outward, tangible and visible things which are the material basis of what has come to be summed up in the word Maoritanga. The old time pattern of community living, centred around the marae, tends to become dissipated with every passing and changing year. The prized relics of tribe and hapu become more and more restricted to the keeping and to the possession of family groups and individuals. The opportunity of sharing these things, of restoring them to their proper place in communal culture, becomes distressingly restricted. There are even occasions when they become a cause of embarrassment and ill-will instead of being a source of pride and inspiration. Too often they are buried away in safe-deposit boxes in a bank or lawyers office, even worse they are lost, sold or otherwise pass out of the possession of their former owners. Other and more highly prized more tapu objects, entrusted to the keeping of one or two elders are secretly hidden away and all too often the hiders take their knowledge with them