Relies of the Past.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 September 1922, Page 3

Relies of the Past.

BUiLDING Ul* AHE HISTORY OF I HE -MAORI. AIM ELAND, Sept. 25 An exhortation to support and ioster nubhc museums was delivered by Di i‘ buck in the course of an address at the Rotary Club. Museums, he said, uci e store bouses ol tile know ledge • the peoples of the earth. In Auckland U.ev possessed one of the finest re curds of the history of the Maori race winch existed any where. Ihe mateii.i v,as priceless, even if it represented onlv scattered pages out ol varum, homos. Bv reading and understand rig these fragments, the history ol the n;,-t could be built up and made into a,, o,deied whole. But in order that Lite existing data might be made available it must receive proper accommodation. Auckland possessed the workin, r materials and should have one ol the finest laboratories in the count, > fof the studV of the learning and ancient culture of the Maori people Or Buck expressed pleasure that in the conception of a war memorial, room bad been found for the realisation t|,i- end. Where there was no printed pa,re, as in the case of the Maoris, the history of the race etiidil still be found and deciphered from inscriptions on or the method of fastening of pieces of wood or bone or stone. " -Maori curios they were called, but they were books when opened, with much to teach and a great deal of information to impart. These dead tilings could often speak „,ore reliably of the past than the human tongue or the writings of man. Wooden eollins revealing different styles of carving, discovered in eaves at Hokianga offered signposts oil the mad to knowledge which bad never yet ben followed to its end. Another install,:.' was a lintel which the Kaitaia swamp bad yielded up. but whos' scret bad yet to be made known, and also the tali' of the past which it represented.

Dr Buck emphasised bow much better it was that these relics of a past

;ieg .should find a repository in a museum and ultimately add to the total of the story of mankind, than simply be used tn make fuel for a campfire. Concluding bis plea for the preservation of the past on a harmonious note, lie re-

marked that the past was always more interesting than the present or the future. There was not x<> much trouble about it.