678 Proceedings. 



balance of £73 14s. 4d. The invested funds of the Institute are in a 

 satisfactory condition. The total amount at the present time is £12,845, 

 showing an increase of £350 during the year. 



As regards the Museum endowments, some small sales of township 

 allotments have been effected. The Council are now negotiating with 

 the Crown Lands Board respecting the utilization of the Tihitihi Block, 

 at Whangarei, the largest of the endowments ; and it is hoped that a 

 plan may be decided upon under which the block may be cut up and either 

 sold or leased. The chief difficulty in dealing with the endowments is 

 that there is little demand for country lands except under perpetual 

 lease ; and under that system the rents are so small, and are often paid 

 with such irregularity, that the Council are unwilling to adopt it, except 

 in a partial and tentative manner. 



Ten meetings were held during the year, at which fourteen papers 

 were read. 



The attendance of visitors at the Museum was satisfactory. On 

 Sunday afternoons 9,873 persons visited the building, being an average 

 of 189 for each Sunday. The largest attendance was 334, ou the 

 26th August, and the smallest 34, on the 17th June. The average daily 

 attendance was about a hundred and ten. The. approximate weik-day 

 attendance is given at 33,000, the total for the year consequently being 

 41,873. The greatest attendance on any one day was 443, on the 

 24th May. 



The most interesting addition made to the Museum is the Maori 

 House.* The desirability of securing for the City of Auckland such an 

 excellent example of Maori art at a price so reasonable as £150 could not 

 be gainsaid. The house was very carefully taken down and shipped to 

 Auckland, and has since been erected in the centre of the Ethnological 

 Hall. The total cost of its purchase, together with removal and re-erec- 

 tion, has been £306 6s. 7d. The Council record their appreciation of the 

 services rendered by Mr. Fenton in this matter. All the preliminary 

 negotiations for the purchase were made by him ; while at considerable 

 personal inconvenience he accompanied the Curator to Maketu to smooth 

 over any difficulties which might arise in completing the purchase. 

 During the re-erection of the- house his wide knowledge of the Maori 

 race and its manners and customs was freely available. 



Appended to the report will be found a complete list of all additions 

 to the Museum. Many of these are both interesting and valuable. 



During the year the following work has been done in the Museum : 

 The rearrangement of the foreign birds, commenced in the previous year, 

 has been completed ; several minor changes have been made in the 

 classification of the ethnological collections ; the mineralogical collec- 

 tions have been cleaned, rearranged, and relabelled, all recent additions 

 being worked into their proper places ; an explanatory series, intended to 

 facilitate the study of the mineral collection by beginners, has been 

 formed, and supplied with descriptive printed labels; the collection of 

 New Zealand fossils, by far the greater proportion of which has never 

 been exhibited to the public, has been cleaned, systematically arranged, 

 mounted, and labelled ; the type collection of rocks, purchased some time 

 ago in London, has been more suitably displayed, as also a special collec- 

 tion presented by Mr. Park, intended to illustrate the geology of the 

 Thames Goldfields ; the recent shells, both New Zealand and foreign, 

 have also been carefully overhauled and relabelled. In carrying out the 

 above work the Curator has had the help of Mr. Henry Suter. 



The library is in a satisfactory state. 



At the conclusion of last year's report the Council drew attention to 

 the serious delay in concluding the purchase of the Little Barrier Island, 



* See p. G74 for description. 



