MUSEUM COLLECTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17094, 25 February 1919, Page 4

MUSEUM COLLECTIONS.

NEED FOR NEW BUILDINGS.

WAR TROPHIES DESIRED.

APATHY OF GOVERNMENT.

The interference with the work of the museum caused by the limitations and deficiencies of the present buildings was emphasised in the report presented at the annual meeting of members of the Auckland Institute and Museum last evening.

" In the first place, there is no department of the museum that has sufficient room for exhibition purposes," stated the report With regard to the ethnographical collections, the curator has frequently pointed out how greatly the teaching value of the Maori portion would be improved, and its appearance enhanced, if it were possible to remove the carved houses, canoes, and otner large objectsfrom their present quarters, and place them in a separate hall, where they could be treated as occupying the central courtyard of. Maori village, similar to one of those that in past days stood on the shore of the Waitemata Harbour. Similarly, the Polynesian collection is obviously overcrowded. A similar state of affairs, the report added, existed in the natural history department-. The present want of accommodation and equipment for collecting, research, and the convenience of visitors is a most serious drawback. The museum lias no proper store rooms; no accommodation for students who may wish to make use of the collections; no rooms in which specimens can be sorted, examined, and determined, or packed away as duplicates. There is no enquiry room where strangers in search of information can be received and their questions answered, nor are there any retiring rooms where visitors can leave their belongings, or have an opportunity of consuming a hasty lunch. All progressive museums provide the above adjuncts, and their want has long been felt in Auckland- To sum up, no satisfactory progress in the museum can be hoped for until these drawbacks and deficiencies are removed. This can only be done in a much larger, better planned, and morn completely equipped building such as it is hoped to erect on the new site in the Domain."

The report also urged that the labour and sacrifice of the many thousands of soldiers who' had left New Zealand to assist in crushing the German peril should be commemorated in war museums in the various centres. Regret was expressed at the extraordinary reluctance of the Government to assist any local effort in this direction.

The meeting, on the motion of the chairman, Mr. C. J. Parr, M.P., and Mr. T. W. Leys, expressed the opinion that representative selections of war trophies and equipment should be procured by tho Government for the museums of the' four large cities. Members felt that unless something was done immediately the opportunity might He lost, >