BETTER MUSEUMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 246, 17 October 1929, Page 7

BETTER MUSEUMS.

IDEAS TOR BRIGHTENING UP. i LONDON, October 12. Museums and art galleries will become a good deal more than a wet-day refuge if the recommendations of the Royal Commission investigating them are adopted, with the slogan brighter and better museums and art galleries. Domestic life has at last gained recognition and an open air folk museum may record for posterity to marvel at, the breakfast table quarrel, the putting out of the cat and all the other incidents which have hitherto been regarded as unworthy of perpetuity. Better publicity and advertising is urged and, as a place of entertainment, museums, with their fearsome posters, may rival the theatres. It is proposed that the British, Natural History, and Science Museums, and the National, Tate, and Scottish Art Galleries should be open until 8 p.m. on two evenings a. week. The development of a system of guide attendants, and the abolition of all fees, and the provision of four new museums are also proposed.

CAT SKINS. AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY. LONDON, October 12. Cats, in life, have an annoying habit of always coining back, but now the thing does not end at death. The cat will always come back. The Persian that graced the family hearth for so many years may even return in the form of a shining coat to grace all unwittingly the shoulders of his mistress. One hundred and twenty thousand cat skins from Australia arc being auctioned in London and you may yet get your revenge on that black tabby that k«*j»tyou awake every night for months. Your boot can't miss its mark this time because he will be in the form of a footrug in your motor car. The skins are chiefly used for foot-rugs and coat linings. More than 1,000,000 Australian skins, inchiding 421,000 opossum, 350,000 wallaby, 90,000 ringtail, 80,000 red fox, and 17.000 kangaroo, will be auctioned.