AN EXTRAORDINARY PURCHASE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 87, 13 April 1933, Page 6

AN EXTRAORDINARY PURCHASE.

Many of our readers must have been astounded to read yesterday that in a time of acute national stringency the Government has been able to find £3000 to present the Peat collection of kauri gum and Maori eurios to the Dominion Museum in Wellington. t We publish a letter to-day from Mr. H. E. Vaile Avhich throws some light on the transaction, but calls for more information. Kauri gum is a substance confined to the Auckland province, and the collection is an Auckland one, so that the proper place for it is the Auckland War Memorial Museum. Indeed, this museum tried to secure it, but could get no help from the Government, yet two Auckland members of the Government go past this institution and buy the collection for the Dominion Museum at a price that is apparently much higher than that for which it could have been bought for Auckland. It is stated that there" was a danger of the collection leaving the country, and that Mr. Peat was prepared-to take less than he was offered from America, in order to keep it in New Zealand. Mr. Vaile, however, mentions £'2000 as the figure for which the collectioncould have been bought for Auckland, and the Government gave £3000. Why was the price raised to this extent? It is an extraordinary transaction, especially when the needs of the times are considered. For example, the Cawthron Institute, the most valuable scientific research institution in New Zealand, which is doing most important work for our industries, is- feeling ' the financial pinch so seriously that there is talk of it having to . close. Its closing would be an absolute scandal, made all the worse by reason of the provision by the Government of £3000 out of art union profits for a collection largely consisting of kauri gum.