Conchology Section
Auckland Museum Institute

Salutations
To our member Mrs. Rae Sneddon in appreciation of her many years of voluntary work for the Marine Department of the Auckland War Memorial Museum, for her lifelong passion for shell collecting and for her devotion to the Conchology Section.

President's Report
A big thank you to Mike Bressolles for his most informative presentation on Conidae at our last meeting. Don't know about you but I'm not risking touching live cones! We all enjoyed your knowledge and your stories Mike.
Thanks to Dr. Neville Hudson for his contribution to the success of the evening. It was great to hear about Neville's Thai holiday experiences and his encounters with the oldest rock formations in that part of Asia. Welcome back to reality Neville (and Auckland's weather!)
Thanks to Margaret Morley and the other Committee Members working towards making our 75th Celebrations a memorable occasion. Sounds like it's going to be a great weekend! Don't miss the mini Shell Auction planned as part of the celebrations. This will be an opportunity to purchase some very select shells!
I'm leaving on 2nd July for a month's holiday in Switzerland, followed by a month in the UK. I hope to return home around the end of August. Thank you to those who are 'stepping into the breach'. Doug Snook has kindly offered to see that everything happens according to plan!
Looking forward to seeing you all on my return.
Happy shelling, Heather Smith.

Email Addresses
It is the custom of the Section to list members email addresses on our web-site to facilitate communications worldwide with shell collectors or dealers. However, if you would prefer not to make your address made available, please contact Peter Poortman.

Contacting the Section
Please note that our members are intrepid travellers and many may be away from Auckland at the same time. Should any member need to contact the Section urgently, please send a copy of your message to at least three Officers of the Section to insure immediate action.

Next Meeting
Tuesday 12th July at 7:30 pm. Epsom Community Centre, 202 Gillies Ave.

Topic: Deep-water shells from trawlers or dredgers including all of those shells you have picked up from the sand deposits from Pakiri Beach Northland used in the recent reclamations of Auckland City beaches: Mission Bay, Kohimarama, and Eastern Beach.
There will also be a short video of B.O.P beaches filmed in April before the landslides.
In Heather's absence our Immediate Past President, Doug Snook, will chair the meeting.

Shells: We plan to have some special deep water shells on display. Several of our members will display shells and talk about their particular focus. Peter Poortman will discuss his finds from Kohimaramara beach - Margaret Morley will discuss deep water shells - Bruce Hazelwood will discuss rare deep-water N.Z. volutes - Doug Snook will discuss some of his rare WW deep-water shells - and all members attending are invited to display their favourite deep-water shells. So bring your shells along and make this a spectacular winter's meeting!

Our Annual Shell Auction - Sat. July 30th, Albany Hall, North-shore, Auckland.
Enclosed is your Auction Schedule for this event with all the details you require. Please bring this with you to the Auction. The bulk of the auction lots on offer are donations from the WW. collection of the late Miss Joan Coles and include some exceptionally choice N.Z. shells. Please check that you have this event recorded in your diary so as not to miss the opportunity to benefit your collection and support the funds of the Conchology Section at the same time. Bring your family and friends along too and make this a great day out!
Tables for members will be available at no cost for the sale of trade of shells etc.

Field Trip Results
Bruce Hazelwood is delighted to advise that the results of the Section's two day Land Snail survey undertaken in the vicinity of Titoki Point, Little Barrier Is. 15-16 October 2002, are looking very favourable. After a dream boat trip out to the Island, terrible weather set in for the next two days - this confined collecting to the steep Titoki Point Access Tracks for a short afternoon period only as the bush tracks had become very slippery. Nevertheless, bags of leaf-litter submitted by the teams: Bruce Hazelwood - Doug Snook - Fiona Thompson and Gladys Goulstone - Betty Headford and Margaret Morley - Glenys Stace - Richard Tyson, yielded exciting results. (So it was MY bag that went into the garbage..!!) Collections from the top of the Hamilton Track, Valley Track and on the Shag Track from near the Waipawa Stream, yielded 50 species of native land snails identified from those collected. Bruce reports that there were no totally new species, however 15 NSP were among the specimens collected on this field trip. (A full account of the field trip, written by Betty Headford, was published in Poirieria Vol 30 - April 2004.)

Membership
Thanks to all members who have returned their subscription invoices - your receipt is enclosed. A second notice is enclosed for those with subscriptions still outstanding to date. If you have paid in the interim please ignore this notice.

75th Celebrations
Enclosed is an invitation and a schedule of the planned special events.

August Meeting
Our speaker on this night will be Prof. Jack Grant-Mackie.

Bits and Pieces
Shells for sale - James Crossland, email: BayfieldEnter@xtra.co.nz has shells sourced from the Solomon Is. His price list is available by email.

Roger Grace cannot identify the Red Tide organism collected on the recently reported trip to the Moko Hinau Is. He suggests (in fun) it is called Rosamorleyetta haurakiensis!!!!

Library News
Please note that the Library is closed this month as our Librarian Gladys Goulstone is off on a wonderful Pacific cruise. Gladys reports that the library is now housed on a temporary basis in the Marine Dept. Auckland Museum. The 2005 list of Library books will be enclosed with the July newsletter. PS. Best wishes for your holiday, Gladys.

Poirieria News
Our Editors, Jenny and Tony Enderby report that Volume 31 of the Journal is ready to go to print and I hope to enclose this with the July Newsletter.
NB. if you are including photographs with your text, please leave an appropriate space in the text for the photos.
Articles: Tony & Jenny Enderby, PO Box 139, Leigh - Ph 09 422-6127 - email: enderby@enderby.co.nz

Contacts
Web site Officer: Peter Poortman, email peter.poortman@xtra.co.nz
The Secretary Mrs. R. A. Tyson's email is ratyson22@hotmail.com

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