SUNDAY LECTURES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1079, 17 September 1930, Page 7

SUNDAY LECTURES

NEW FIELD OF MUSEUM STUDY FIRST SERIES ARRANGED A new movement to increase the usefulness to the community of the Auckland War Memorial Museum will be begun on Sunday afternoon with the introduction of lectures on the nature and the history of the exhibits. On a Sunday, states the director of the museum, Mr. Gilbert Archey. the usual attendance at the museum is between 2,000 and 3.000. The lectures are expected to be of great benefit to the considerable numbers of people who go to the museum with the object of securing information. The lecture series will begin with an address on ferns of New Zealand, by Miss E. F. Kibblewhite, who assisted in arranging the collection of ferns at the institution. Miss Briar Gardner will speak on “The Art of the Potter” and will make important references to prehistoric pottery and developments in the civilisations of history. Mr. K. A. Falla., who has a complete knowledge of the habits of the tuatara lizard. New Zealand’s interesting survivor from a vanished age. will give an address on the tuatara. as he has studied it in its natural haunts in islands off the coast of New Zealand. The Rev. Angus MacDonald, who has given many related exhibits to the Auckland Institute and Museum, will speak on “Life and Art in Ancient Egypt.” The four lectures will make a notable beginning to an important development in the activities of- the museum. Mr. Archey points out that it is the practice in other parts of the world to have lectures in museums on Sundays. In the past it had not been practicable to give that public service in Auckland. but. following the beginning next Sunday afternoon, it was hoped to arrange a greater number of addresses eventually. The lectures would concern various sections of the exhibits and would serve to equip the audiences with knowledge loading to a greater understanding of the exhibits.