Maori Museum.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8103, 1 June 1906, Page 3

Maori Museum.

When the Government appointed Mr A. Hamilton as Director of tlie Colonial Museum, ife specially directed his attention to the collection of a representative series of specimens of Maori art and workmanship. Mr Hamilton at once commenced to take an active interest in the matter, with which he is particularly au fait, and the following collections have s'nee his appointment been denosited :— Hill collection, in two instalments, mainly representing the ethnology of the people between Napier and East Cape. Butterworth collection, a selection from the late Mr Butterworth's stock at New Plymouth, representing from Mt. Egmont northward, Hammond collection, between Waitotara and Mount Egmont. Handley collection, from the Wanganui district. Fischer collection, from East Cape northward. Many important donations have been received, notably some historical carvings of great interest by Tukino te Heuheu, of Tokomaru; a fine canoe formerly on the Wairarapa lake, by Ani to Hiko, and an old dug-out canoe from the Taieri, by Mr Justice Chapman. A number of deposits have also been made, including the collection made by Mr Hamilton before his appointment as Director.

The Maori collection now contains over 2500 specimens, and a number of valuable articles are at present under offer. The Museum also contains a very representative collection of greenstone ornaments, but it cannot be set out, as the present building is not sufficiently protected from attacks from burglars; and it is much to be regretted that so many valuable articles, many of which could not be replaced, are in an old wooden building at the mercy of fire. The Government, however, have under consideration the question of making suitable provision for the safe custody of the collections, and the sooner they taiie action the better. Among the Maori carvings in the Museum, a number from the Chatham Islands are particularly interesting. The director believes tliem to be the only existing specimens of the carvings of the Morioris, with the exception of one or two pieces in the Christchurch Museum and in private hands in the same city. They are of great age, and apparently are carved from the wood of the kar&ka. The designs are quite different froni any found in New-Zealand, and consist of a bird of primitive form and single spirals. There is one very ancient and strange carving, which was found buried in the ground near Auckland. It has at one time formed part of the front of a small storehouse. It is the subject of a paper by Dr. Newman in the thirtyeighth volume of the " Transactions of the New Zealand Institute," now in the press. Both the grotesquely shaped figure and the peculiar style of carving make the specimen one of great interest. A group of chert knives from the rnoa hunters' kitchen middens at Shag Point, Otago, collected by Mr Justice Chapman and Mr Hamilton, are also very interesting. Great numbers ot these flakes are found on the sites of old camps in the Otago district. One of the quarries from which the Maoris obtained the material for the manufacture is still to be seen near Roxburgh, on the road to Alexandra. The old pits from which the chert was extracted, the waste chips, and spoilt I flakes can easily be traced. [ The herbarium specimens in the Museum appear to have been Long badly neglected, and there is no room at present for storage. Indeed, a large and valuable collection of no fewer than 28,000 plants presented by the trustees of the British Museum in 1876, is still in the original cases. The only case that Mr Hamilton has opened is fortunately in perfect condition, so it is hoped that the collection as a whole may be in a good state of preservation. Still, as he himself says, it is not creditable that so fine a collection should be sealed up and quite inaccessible. In the natural history collection, some valuable work has been done by Mr H. Suter who was specially engaged for three months, in a careful examination of the collection of New Zealand mollusca. Mr E. Jennings, the taxidermist of the Otago Museum, who was also specially engaged for three months, did some valuab'e work in connection with the shell collection and the collection of birds.