Auckland Institute. 555 



method and training in the furtherance of national progress. During the year a com- 

 mittee of the Council has discussed the matter so far as it applies to New Zealand, and 

 its report, together with others prepared in various parts of the Dominion, have been 

 placed before a recently constituted Efficiency Board, now sitting at Wellington. In 

 most parts of the Empire the war has revealed many educational and scientific deficien- 

 cies ; and it is abundantly evident that drastic changes are necesasry in educational 

 and national policy. What is done in New Zealand may not affect those major deci- 

 sions to be arrived at elsewhere, but it is hoped that they may assist in some small 

 degree in the solution of a grave and important question. 



Museum. — In last year's report particulars were given of the arrangement made 

 with the City Council under which the Russell collection of plaster casts from the 

 antique was deposited in the Art < Jallery, and the Grey collection of Maori antiquities 

 lodged in the .Museum. This change made the former statue-hall available for other 

 purposes : and it was decided to utilize it in the first place for the reception of the 

 Grey collection, and, secondly, for the fine series of foreign ethnographical articles in 

 the possession of the Museum, a large portion of which had never been exhibited. 

 Since then the work of constructing the show-cases and placing them in position has 

 been completed Much time and labour was then devoted to what may be called the 

 installation of the specimens ; and it can be claimed that the}' have been displayed 

 in an orderly sequence, and mounted in an attractive and appropriate manner. Further, 

 in the hope of affording as much information as possible to visitors, each exhibit has 

 been provided with a printed descriptive label. The hall was opened to the public on 

 the 17th April. 



The arrangement of all foreign ethnographical specimens in this hall has liberated 

 the smaller hall in which a portion of them had been previously exhibited. This has 

 been converted into a mineral-room, and several months have been occupied in examin- 

 ing and sorting the whole of the geological specimens, fossils, &c, in the Museum. 

 From these a series has been selected for exhibition, and suitably arranged and labelled. 

 This work being completed, the room was opened to the public on the 4th December. 

 This change will make it possible to reserve the gallery of the main hall entirely for 

 representatives of the New Zealand fauna — ■ birds, fishes, reptiles, shells, and other 

 invertebrata — and, in addition, will gain a little space for exhibits to be prepared by 

 the taxidermist. 



Many important additions have been made to the ethnographical collections during 

 the year. From Mr. C. Douglas Tod the Museum has acquired by purchase a series 

 of eighty-eight Maori articles, the chief of which are an ancient stone-carved pare of 

 the rare Taranaki type : a carved stone fire-carrier (?) with lid complete ; an ancient 

 and finely carved leoauau, or bone flute : a stone flute, or ngunguru ; two old wooden 

 fish-hooks ; a series of wooden tops ; and many greenstone and ordinary stone adzes, &c. 

 Mr. H. E. Partridge has presented a beautifully prepared plaster cast of the head of 

 Wiremu Te Manawa, taken from a mould obtained during life by Mr. Lindauer and 

 Sir Walter Buller. Te Manawa, who was the leading chief of the Ngatiraukawa Tribe, 

 was for many years considered to be the most perfectly tattooed Maori living, and an 

 accurate representation of his tattoo has consequently great value. Mr. L. S. Bidwell 

 has donated a number of remarkable carved bone spools or beads, found at Mercury 

 Bay, and probably part of a necklace. Such articles are of great rarity, and do not 

 appear to have been used by the Maoris in European times. Mr. R. E. Isaacs has 

 given an unusually large humete, or wooden bowl, dug up in a swamp near Helensville. 

 Such bowls are now very seldom seen. Other noteworthy additions are a remarkable 

 stone carving intended to represent a shark, presented by Mr. J. A. Court ; an elabo- 

 rately carved stone anchor, contributed by Mr. Davis, and another of a different type 

 presented by Mr. C. Ford ; a series of Maori grindstones from Captain Bollons ; an 

 interesting series of stone articles excavated on Mangare Hill, near Onehunga, donated 

 by Mr. F. E. Powell ; and various specimens presented by Mr. G. Graham, for many 

 years a regular contributor to the Museum. Lastly, during the preparation of this 

 report, a large and valuable collection, comprising fifty Maori specimens and about 

 seventy Polynesian and Melanesian, has been received as a bequest from the late 

 Miss Ruth G. Northcroft. Among the Maori articles are several obtained by Captain 

 Northcroft during the Maori War or shortly after it. Among these may be specially 

 mentioned an unusually fine decorated taiaha, three carved boxes of considerable merit, 

 I wo meres, a fine ancient put if i, and an elaborately carved bone manaia. 



During the year an American scientist, Mr. Elmore, has made a painstaking 

 examination of some limestone caves and rock shelters in the South Island, on the 

 walls of which elaborate Maori pictographs have long been known to exist. These 

 pictographs appear to be of greater interest than has hitherto been supposed ; and at 

 the suggestion of Dr. Benham the Auckland Museum has agreed to join with the Otago 



