JC Hoyte - Auckland Art Gallery

not have been present, for a committee of sevenothers was formed, with Mr Symons as secretary.But Hoyte's name was added at the next meetingwhen, as so often subsequently, he was in the chair.He seems to have been a responsible, useful man,serving on all the sub-committees that prepared theway for the society's first exhibition. There was asub-committee to arrange the time and another toarrange a suitable place; and when Messrs Warnerand Dickson were appointed to hang the pictures,Mr Hoyte was made referee ' in case of differenceof opinion.' The original minute book of the societyrecords all this.Of course, geographical considerations weigh inthe choosing of a useful committee man, and MrHoyte in Parnell (already perhaps in ScarboroTerrace) was handy.This first exhibition was planned to open onMarch 1, 1871. Four or five days before this theEvening Star reporter looked into the City Hall andfound the hanging committee ' busily engaged ontheir arduous task of receiving, placing and cataloguingthe various contributions.' Drawings andpaintings, he said, ' were to be seen in all directionsin " orderly confusion".' About three hundredpictures were to be on view.This was the exhibition of which no cataloguehas been preserved. Although the newspaperscarried appreciative reports of the exhibition itself,they condemned the catalogue. ' It has the appearanceof being printed at Tokangamutu,' said theStar, while the Southern Cross said solemnly that'a less creditable piece of typography had seldomissued from the Auckland press since the days when10