Exhibits Worth £34,000

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30957, 13 January 1966, Page 1

Exhibits Worth £34,000

A small exhibition of Maori artifacts, described as being worth their weight in gold, will be on display in the Canterbury Museum during the second week in February.

The 19 articles were collected by Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. David Solander during Cook’s first voyage in the Endeavour from 1768 to 1771. They have been lent for display in New Zealand museums by the Ethnographical Museum of Sweden at Stockholm, and are part of its Alstomer collection.

The articles include a long battle-axe of wood, a kotaha or whip sling for throwing darts, a bludgeon of polished talc, several cloaks, and plaited bags and belts. These artifacts represent Maori culture at the time of the first full contact with Europeans, and have been described as of superb quality. A Swedish handbook on the Alstomer collection says: “These specimens are worth their weight in gold, because they are simply no longer obtainable on the international market.” The valuation of the 19 articles is £34,000. Salander, the Swedish nat-

uralist on Cook’s first voyage, and a pupil of Linnaeus, was an intimate friend of the Alstomer family, a member of which acquired Solander’s collection of ethnographical objects. The collection came into the possession of the Ethnographical Museum of Sweden in 1848.

While on display in the Canterbury Museum next month, it would be shown in the Pacific hall, said Dr. R. S Duff, the museum’s director, yesterday. “The significance of the collection is that it consists of articles collected by Solander and Banks themselves on Cook’s first voyage,” Dr. Duff said.