POLYNESIAN SOCIETY.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 March 1918, Page 6

POLYNESIAN SOCIETY.

ANNUAL MEETING. i The annual meeting of the Polynesian Society was hald at the new rooms in the Museum building yesterday afternoon. Mr. Percy-Smith (president) occupied the chair, and there were present Messrs M. Fraser, C. H. Bullard, W. L. Newman, W. F. Brooking, Captain Wilson, P. J. White, and W. W. Smith. An apology for absence was received from Mr. J. B. Roy. The president, in presenting the 25th i annual report, said the objects of the so- I cicty had been kept well in view, and the journal had appeared regularly. That had been accomplished by the continuous assistance of authors who had supplied abundance of original matter. Many early contributors to the journal had ceased to be very active in writing, but a younger generation was coming to the fore, and taking their place. Regret was expressed that more of the native inhabitants of the islands did not take advantage of the journal to record their history and traditions. Reference was also made to the formation of another society to be run on the same lines as the Polynesian Society, and to be known as La Societe Oceaneuse de Tahiti, which made the fourth society devoted to recording the history, traditions and customs of the peoples of the Pacific. The postponement of the annual meeting till March made it possible to announce that the library had been moved into commodious and fire-proof quarters in the new museum erected by the Borough Council Ample room for the proper arrangement of the books was provided, and there was also plenty of room for expansion. Such an arrangement had been made possible by the generosity of a lady of New Plymouth, who. desiring to honor her father, had taken advantage of tiro building of the new museum by finding a considerable sum of money to be devoted to the building of a room to be known as the Hempton Room, and then allowed the Polynesian Society the perpetual use of the room as a library, wliile a smaller room provides accommodation for office and council The society owed much to the generosity of the lady who had thus provided the society with a home in which to carry on its work. The hopes of the members of the society were thus realised much earlier than most of them anticipated. The roll of the society now had three patrons, 12 honorary members, 13 corresponding members, and 153 subscribing members — a total of 181. During the year the following members had died: Lillino Kalani (ex-Queen of Hawaii], Messrs. R. g\ Batley, D. Fraser and E. .J. Testa, besides which Mr. F. J. Green had died since December 31. There wore now only 1!) names on the roll of those who assisted in the formation of the society. Thanks were accorded to Mr. W. H. Skinner for preparing the index to vol. XXVI of the journal, and to Mr. W. D. Webster for auditing the accounts. The treasurer's sttacment showed a balance on capital account of JCIB9 14s lid, and on current account of £3l 10s. On the motion of Messrs. Fraser and Brooking the report and balance-sheet were, adopted, and ordered to be printed in the journal.

The election of officers resulted as follows: President, Mr. Percy-Smith; members of council (after balloting out), Messrs. \f W. Smith and M. Fraser (reelected) ; auditor, Mr W. D. Webster. Messrs. Bernard Chambers (To Mata, Havelock N.), A. F. McDonnell (Auckland), and N. Y. Hodson (Opotiki) were elected members of the society.