SIR GEORGE GREY'S CURIOS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 50, 1 March 1893, Page 2

SIR GEORGE GREY'S CURIOS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —As the members of the Auckland institute are more learned and more numerous than the members of the City Council, it is not to be wondered at that they have got some of the weaklings to agree to the removal 01 the curio 3. Now, these same curios are a great attraction to visitor* from the neighbouring colonies, to whom the plaster caeta would be no attraction . whatever, and had the statuary in i the Museum been of the same quality as that now in the Art Gallery, we would never have heard the slightest whisper as to its removal. Sir George Grey's collection was generously presented to the city, the Mayor and Councillors being the responsible custodians. To break up that collection, instead of allowing all of his unique gifts to be treasured up under the one roof would seem to me gross ingratitude. In your comments on my former letter, you state as your belief, "that the transfer would carry out Sir George Grey's own views on the subject." Sir George Grey is not easily drawn, but I 'have not the slightest doubt that if we could mesmerise him he would at once express himself vigorously and unmistakaably that if the city fathers, under any pretence whatever, parted with any of his gifts to the city, they would } prove themselves totally unfit to ba public custodians, and that they would receive no more contributions from himself nor anybody else. Suppose that the members of the Institute were to say to the city fathers, " Give us Cosfcley's bequest to the Free Library, as we can make a better use of the money than you can." What would be the result? Why, the " ignorantest" member jof the Council would take off his coat, aye, and breeches too, if necessary, and with his fellows fight for the retention of the coin. Let them do so with all other bequests.— l am, etc., W. Greenshields. [It is not proposed that the city shall "part" with Sir George Grey's valuable gifts of Maori curios, but it is proposed that they shall be stored in a better place, where they can be bettor cared for, and prove of greater public value and utility. Their present treatment as wall decorations in the vestibule of the Free Library belittles them and exposes them to injury. Not one in a hundred of those who casually glance at them when passing into the Library can form any idea of their great interest and value. As far as number of visitors is concerned, statistics prove that the visitors to the Museum who are interested in such things far excoed tha visitors to the Free Library. If our correspondent will consider the matter dispassionately for a moment, he must Bee that it is anomalous, and greatly to be regretted, that, while the Maori annexe of the Museum now contains contributions by nearly every other Maori pundit of note, Sir George Grey, who has done moro to preserve Maori antiquities than auy other man, should be almost, if not altogether, unrepresented there. Mr Greenshields no doubt means well and is laudably anxious to show how much the city values Sir George Grey's gifts, but he is distinctly "off the track" in this instance. Those who desire to give the author of "Polynesian Mythology " the place of honour in our chief storehouse of Maori antiquities show a better appreciation of Sir George Grey's labours and a clearer insight into the question at issue than our correspondent, who wishes to koep these curios as an | unappreciated appendage to the Free I Library.-Ed. E.S.] i