BUILDING AT MUSEUM

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27688, 18 June 1955, Page 3

BUILDING AT MUSEUM

NO IMMEDIATE APPEAL PLANNED

An immediate appeal to raise the balance of funds required for the centennial memorial wing and modernisation of the Canterbury Museum is not contemplated by the Museum Trust Board. When the chairman (Professor R. S. Allan) suggested that this matter might be considered, Mr P. O. Evans said the chairman of the finance committee (Mr W. S- Mac Gibbon), before going overseas, had said that an appeal could wait at least six months. There were ample funds for early work. With so many worthwhile appeals now in progress or planned, it might not be a suitable time, said Mr James Deans. Professor Allan said he was thinking of such items as fittings as well as building requirements. The board would have to review the new displays planned and the modern cases required. Some funds from legacies might be allotted for this work. An owr-all picture of financial needs and their timing was desirable. Reporting on the preparations for work at-the museum, the director (Dr. Roger Duff) said that the reoccupation of the moved workshops and storerooms had enabled well over half the museum to be left open to the public. The mammal room find its gallery, the antiquities room, and the whale shelter were the only departments now closed. The contractor would soon start reinforcing the wooden pillars to floor over the mammal room gallery, and when this work was completed the staff would be able to prepare the New Zealand bird hall dioramas.