country,  and  the  straight  weaver  faces  the
competition  of  the  machine.  The  more  skilIed  the
craftsman  becomes  the  more  closely  the  work  may
resemble  that  of  the  machine,  so  that  the  weaver  can
be  forced  into  very  narrow  fields.
There  are  many  skilIed  Spinners  and  many
craftworkers  who  have  experimented  with  the  native
flora  to  produce  a  ränge  of  dyes,and  a  number  of
craftsmen  are  engaged  in  fabric  printing.
Needlework,  embroidery  and  lacemaking  societies
are  established  in  many  districts  working,  so  far,  in
the  European  traditions,  and  although  there  are
competent  workers  in  all  these  crafts  there  has  not
yet  occurred  that  marriage  of  skill,  design  and
aesthetic  awareness  that  produces  the  great  craft
work.
From  the  populär  hobby  of  rock  tumbling  it  is  but  a
Step  to  cutting,  grinding,  carving  and  polishing.
There  is  at  hand  a  ränge  of  agate,  jasper  quartz  and
other  stones,  although  precious  stones  of  any  great
quality  are  not  available.  Jade,  as  we  have  already
said,  is  abundant  and  the  studio  worker  can  call  on
the  Maori  traditions  of  a  thousand  years.  There  are
several  promising  workers  in  this  field,  some
producing  pendants  in  the  Maori  tradition,  others
making  jewellery  in  the  styles  of  today.
Apart  from  the  carved  meeting  house  which  is
indeed  a  flourishing  and  developing  craft,  New
Zealand  has  not  as  yet  produced  distinctive  schools
of  woodworking,  and  there  is  not,  as  in  Northern
Europe  a  style  of  fine  furniture  or  cabinetmaking,
although  some  fine  bowls  are  being  made  from  native
timbers  and  some  well  finished  looms  and  spinning
wheels  to  supply  local  demand.
Many  other  crafts  are  practised:  glass  working,
ivory  carving,  metalwork,  bookbinding,  paper  making
and  leather  work,  but  these  are  the  work  mostly  of
isolated  workers.  There  is  a  lack  of  craft  training
schools  but  the  native  New  Zealander  firmly  believes
that  what  anyone  eise  does,  he  also  can  do.  There  is,
however,  a  growing  realisation  that  the  teaching  of
higher  skills  is  needed  and  an  increasing  number  of
New  Zealanders  go  overseas  for  this  training;  we
gladly  accept  into  our  craft  community  trained  people
from  overseas  in  a  visiting  and  in  a  permanent
capacity.

This  exhibition  consists  of  some  90  pieces,
produced  by  craft  workers  of  the  many  different  races
who  today  form  our  composite  New  Zealand  society.
Some  crafts  number  their  workers  in  thousands,
others  may  have  only  one  or  two  practising.  Most
crafts  have  a  New  Zealand  background  of  less  than
thirty  years  and  only  one  in  the  Exhibition,  Maori
weaving  and  plaiting,  has  a  continuous  background,
in  this  case  some  thousand  years.  Therefore,  it
should  be  made  clear  that  this  Exhibition  does  not
Show  the  extent  and  depth  of  the  crafts  in  New
Zealand:  it  merely  puts  together  a  collection  of
outstanding  craft  work  of  New  Zealand  today.  It
displays  mainly  the  work  of  Professional  craftsmen
but  there  is  in  the  background  a  very  large  group  of
people  working  at  a  craft  as  a  hobby  who  often
achieve  work  of  outstanding  quality.  The  presence  of
these  people  in  the  community  cannot  help  but
increase  the  general  awareness  of  good  craft  work,
and  encourage  the  production  of  such  fine  objects  as
those  shown  in  this  Exhibition  which  has  been
presented  by  the  Government  to  mark  a  tremendous
first  period  of  development  and  expansion  of  the
crafts  in  New  Zealand.
T.J.  Bayliss
Curator  of  Applied  Arts
Auckland  Institute  and  Museum