REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. 1 95 



collections, which it was one of his great pleasures to impart. 

 The sad death of Principal Gurney, which has meant a loss 

 in so many directions in the neighbourhood, has also deprived 

 the Natural History Society of a prominent member. As a 

 vice-president. Principal Gurney took a considerable share in 

 the work of the council, and both here and in other capacities 

 his geniality and sound judgment were often of value to the 

 Society. 



CURATORS REPORT ON MUSEUM WORK, 

 1903-04. 



The main results of the year's work on the museum 

 collections are here briefly reviewed. 



Much of the time of the staff is naturally taken up with 

 routine and miscellaneous duties which do not vary much 

 from year to year, and it is only some of the chief lines of 

 recent progressive work that call for mention. Of these, that 

 which has occupied the greatest amount of time has been the 

 labelling of the ethnology collection. This collection, dis- 

 played in the upper east corridor, was completely overhauled 

 and re-arranged two years ago, but time and means could not 

 then be found for proceeding with the labelling. Now, how- 

 ever, a small hand printing press belonging to the museum 

 has been brought into use and some new type obtained, and 

 with this outfit Wm. Voutt has printed the whole series of 

 labels required. The manuscript for the labels was made out 

 by me from former labels attached to the objects and from 

 various old catalogues and reports, and in each of the cases 

 all the original labels and a duplicate set of the printed ones 

 are preserved. The title labels to be placed as headings to 

 the cases were beyond the capacity of our printing outfit, and 

 these I have consequently done by hand. The gain in 

 appearance and utility in the ethnology department brought 

 about by recent alterations — the original overhauling, the 

 hanging of Mr. Clephan's Egyptian frescoes, and now the 

 clear and uniform labelling — is very gratifying. Perhaps the 



