Conchology Section
Auckland Museum Institute

President's report:
Merry Christmas to all.
Congratulations to our member Dr. Bruce Hayward who has been made a Fellow of the Royal Society N.Z.
We welcome new members, Mr Nick Britton, 214 St Andrews Rd, Epsom Ak. ph. 09-625-7702, and Mike and Francie Herlund, 3 Ayr St, Fairlie, 8771 South Canterbury, ph. 03-685-8352.
Library Notice: The Section's Library is still held in Matapuna, the Natural History Gallery at the Auckland Museum. Books may be accessed all the hours the Museum is open, even on weekends. Books can be posted out - see notice below.

Next Meeting: A.G.M. Tuesday 9th December 7:30pm.
This will be held at the Ranfurly Room. Epsom Community Centre. 202 Gillies Ave. (corner of Kimberly Rd). There is parking at the rear of the Centre - main entrance via Kimberly Rd.
All members are invited to our Annual General Meeting to hear the annual reports and to elect officers for 2004. Your support and attendance is important for the continuing success of the Section. The December meeting is also our Christmas Party, so please bring a plate of supper fare - and a gift wrapped shell for our Christmas Box lucky dip! Subscriptions for 2004 can be paid to the Treasurer Dr. Neville Hudson at the meeting.
Speaker: Doug Snook will be presenting a kaleidoscope of slides take over 30 yrs of our beautiful marine world both in New Zealand and worldwide.
Please bring along your recent acquisitions or a tray of your most unusual favourite shells or shells for identification.
The winner of The Poirieria Prize will be announced at the meeting.

The 5th New Zealand Shell Show
This will be held in Auckland on 15-17th October 2004. There is a notice enclosed for you to register your interest.

Field Trip Report
Only three members were able to attend the November field trip to Beachlands and Motukaraka Island. While enjoying the lovely sunny afternoon we walked out to the island on the exposed sandbar. There were not a lot of species to be seen in the locality but those sighted were in abundance. The writer found a very pretty specimen of the purple top shell, Cantbaridus purpureus. The foreshore at Beachlands was very clean and affords magnificent views of Rangitoto and Waiheke Islands and the distant islands of the Hauraki Gulf.

Numbers for the field trip in November to Te Arai Point Pakari Beach, North Auckland dwindled from seven to four. The weather on the day was sunshine and showers but the sky was clear while we were at Te Arai Point.
The trip there and back turned into a extended Cook's tour of the hinterland of Pakari Beach. Driving North from Matakana the writer soon came to the conclusion that the local map must have been drawn up when Henry Ford was a boy, after encountering a maze of anonymous, gravel, ring roads which no doubt service the local farming community admirably.
As the writer drove blithely along dusty roads, Bruce Hazelwood stoically pointed out pockets of bush as 'unexplored land snail habitats' where, he said, he would dearly love to collect leaf litter on the way home - only to realise when we eventually arrived at Te Arai Point, that he had no idea where we had actually seen them. We could only locate one of these stands of bush on our return journey!
There were fragments of very large shells on the beach at Te Arai Point, evidence that when a wash up occurs there, the variety of shells must be amazing. An item of interest was the sighting of many pristine Struthiolaria flemingi. Pakari Beach is well worth a visit but recommend that you turn off S.H.1 at Te Hana.

Field Trip to Burgess Island, Mokohinau Islands - Sat. Feb 28th. 2004.
This small group of Islands, about 100 km. NE of Auckland City are situated on the edge of the Continental Shelf. Burgess Island is the largest and is about one kilometer in length. Today the Island is an important lighthouse site but remains open to the public for day visits. The other islands of the group are closed as Nature Reserves.
Bruce Hazelwood is planning a land snail survey on Burgess Island as none has been carried out there to date. He would like all members disembarking at the Island to help him briefly with gathering leaf litter from sites on the cliff tops.
Weather permitting we will travel to the Island on a fast launch from Leigh, north Auckland, on a regular dive trip. The Launch will stop at the Island, but for those members who are certified divers it offers two dives in the locality. More details later. The full price is $95 per person. N.B. We are not chartering the boat but have a pencil booking until 10th of December for all 19 places on the launch and have 8 deposits so far. If you want to come please send the Secretary, address above, a cheque deposit of $20 made out to: Divercity Charters Ltd.

Membership
This month we have one prospective member from B.O.P.

75th Anniversary Celebrations
The Section is 75 yrs old in 2005. We welcome members' suggestions for events to celebrate the birthday.

Auckland Issues
Members who have attended this year's local field trips have commented on the cleanliness of Auckland's beaches. That tidiness comes with a high price tag: the Waitemata Harbour Cleanup Trust has reported this month that its vessel the 'Philip Warren' has removed 100,000 litres of rubbish from the Waitemata Harbour in the past year. The Trust was formed in 2002 and the cleanup operation is expected to cost $540,000 to run over a three year period.

Moving
Patricia Langford has sold her home and will be resettling in Brown's Bay, Auckland early in the New Year.

Poirieria magazine
Sadly, Nancy Smith advises that she will no longer be writing the article 'Twenty Years Ago'. This column is an important contribution to the Journal and so we request a member to publish this article for us in the future.
Editors Tony and Jenny Enderby, P.O Box 139 Leigh, require articles for the next Poirieria issue. All queries: ph. (09) 422-6127 or email enderby@enderby.co.nz

Web Site
Conchology section web site is: http://nz_seashells.tripod.com
Our Web site officer is Peter Poortman (poortman@xtra.co.nz)

Library news
To borrow any of the Section's books please contact our Librarian Gladys Goulstone - address 38A Church Rd. Mangere Bridge, Auckland - ph. (09) 634-2823. Gladys will also be in attendance at the Library in the Matapuna Gallery on the Mon. afternoon 2-3 pm before each meeting date. Please contact her regarding books on the list mailed Sept 2001 - Gladys has extra copies of this.
Gladys will deliver book orders to the meeting. If you send her an A4 P.0. handy bag with $2.95 in stamps, for each book, she will mail the books. Please return books to Matapuna as soon as possible or to Gladys at the next meeting, or return them by mail.

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