HISTORIC PAPERS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27226, 18 December 1953, Page 12

HISTORIC PAPERS

PRESERVATION IN MUSEUM “RAPID EXPANSION” OF COLLECTIONS “Any doubts whether the Canterbury Museum could achieve any more than a very limited importance as a repository of Canterbury manuscripts and documents must now have been effectively removed,” said the librarian-archivist (Mr J. C. Wilson) in a report presented at a meeting of the Canterbury Museum Trust Board yesterday. ■ : “The museum is now seriously regarded as an archives repository, with collections important not only to students of Canterbury history but to those working in the broader New Zealand field,” said the report •‘The rapid expansion of the collections has, however, aggravated the problem .of providing adequate space for housing them. This month’s report in which the main emphasis is given to recent accessions to the archives providers significant proof of this growth." >. Miss J. B. Wilkin, of Christchurch, has presented the diaries of Robert Wilkin to the museum. Wilkin, who was a Scot, came to Canterbury in the late 1850’s after spending some years in Australia. During his 30 years in Canterbury, he had a very wide and important public life. He was well known as a stock and station agent and as a large runholder. He was a partner of Robert Heaton Rhodes. He founded the Canterbuiy Agricultural and Pastoral Association. He was a member of the Canterbury Provincial Council, and was returned also to the General Assembly as member for Kaiapoi. Wilkin's interests also included horse racing and he imported the first trotting stock from the United States. The diaries cover the period from the 1860’s to the 1880’s. Robert Wilkin died in 1886.

Gift of Sea Chest A fine cedar sea chest which formerly belonged to Captain Joseph Price has been presented by Mrs F. Robertson and her daughter. Mrs Robertson’s husband was a grandson of Captain Price. Captain Price was connected with shore whaling at Ikeraid, on the south side of Banks Peninsula. Later he took up farming at what is known as Price’s Valley. 'Hie museum has in its archive collections a typescript copy of his reminiscences of early years in Canterbury. The early records of the Christchurch Drainage Board and also the Board of Health have been deposited in the museum. These archives are of considerable significance, providing the indispensable evidence for the historian cohcerned with the physical development of the city, according to a report given to the museum board. Permission has been granted by Mr E. A. Smith, of Christchurch, to make a microfilm copy of a station diary compiled by his father. The diary is a description of sheepfarming in the Kaikoura area in the mid-1860’s. “This is a particularly good station diary, giving an excellent insight into day';}' day farm routine of the period,” Mr Wilson said.