Opening Of Museum Expected About June

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28472, 30 December 1957, Page 12

Opening Of Museum Expected About June

The Canterbury Museum has been closed for nearly two years for the building of the Centennial wing and the arranging of displays. The contractors officially finished the Centennial wing on November 30, and it is planned to have eight of the 14 galleries opened to the public by the middle of next year, with entirely new furnishings and displays. It is not just a matter of arranging exhibits in the new galleries: the old building is also being completely renovated, with new galleries being built and new displays arranged. When the museum is reopened, the public will be able to follow a circulatory route through the eight galleries, which were selected to allow easy access and to .enable a steady flow of visitors to be maintained. From the main entrance, the public will come into a modern foyer, which is now ready for use. They will go up a stairway, with an easy tread height so that elderly people will not have difficulty, to the first floor, where the first gallery seen is the Hall of European Fine Arts. This is substantially finished, with the . exhibits in place. It is much as it was before, except that it has been repainted and modernised. The dividing wall, which was previously by the staircase, has been removed, giving the gallery a much more open appearance. 1 European Fine Arts From the Hall of European Fine Arts a small staircase leads to the Hall of Oriental Arts, which was the antiquity room. This room has been repainted and completely refurnished, and will be lit by artificial lighting from inside the cabinets, which are built in a uniform style in natural poplar plywood to fit the room. The main part of the display here will be Chinese art, built around the collection of Rewi Alley, while a smaller section will be reserved for Japanese art, mainly from the collection of the late Mrs May Moore. The floor will be covered with seagrass matting, and the walls, will be painted jade green. An attractive feature, and one which is sure to be popular with elderly people, is a small lounge off the main hall, with a large window opening to a fine view of the Botanic Gardens. The lounge and hall will be furnished with Chinese basket chairs. Chinese furniture from the Imperial Palace, Peking, will be displayed on a small platform at i the end of the hall, where a Chinese pavilion will be built.

The next hall on the path Is the Edgar Stead Hall of New Zealand Birds. This is based on the remodelled gallery of the old mammal room, with the open gallery well floored across and a false vaulted ceiling of plaster, painted sky-blue, installed. This hall connects the first floor galleries of the old building to the new wing. The show cases, which are again designed to fit the hall, are arranged in bays around the walls. The internally lit displays will be of two types—displays of birds grouped for identification, most of which are already in place; and large diarama displays of birds in their natural habitat. Several Months’ Work

Only one of the six of these ambitious dioramas has been prepared. Each requires several months’ work, as the setting and background must be completely natural. The one in position shqws the spotted shag colony at Tumbledown Bay, Banks Peninsula, with cliff faces and a long line of sea front in the background. The illusion of height is uncanny: from the edge of the display there seems to be a drop of one or two hundred feet to the sea below. There is a tremendous amount of work to be done here, but museum workers are confident that it win be done in time for the opening. From the connecting Stead HaU visitors wUI pass to the new wing, into the Hall . of General Zoology. The display in this hall has not been planned yet. but as the hall is not very big it will not take long to complete pie next hall, that of geology, is finished, with several showcases of geological displays.. The main feature of the hall is the terrestrial globe. Six feet in diameter, it is suspended from

the ceiling by a single rotating support, inclined at the angle of the earth’s axis. A small balcony enables the northern hemisphere to be seen, and a welled pit in the floor makes it possible to see the Antarctic regions. The globe, as it slowly rotates, can be lit.to show the changing of the seasons and the 24-hour night and day cycle. It should prove one of the most popular exhibits in the museum.

The Hal] of Geology connects with a small hall, that of New Zealand pre-history. Displays in this connecting hall will contrast the last stage of Maori culture, particularly with material from the bays of Banks Peninsula, with the earliest stages of South Island Maori culture, represented by the Moa-Hunter collection from Wairau Bar, Blenheim. This hall should be finished In a month. A further two first-floor halls in the Centennial wing will not be opened next year, as they are off the circulatory route. Pacific Hall Leaving the Hall of New Zealand Pre-History visitors will go down an open stairway in the end wall of the Pacific Hall, a huge hall which will be used for displays of Maori and Pacific ethnology. The only exhibit in place here at present is the large Maori canoe, which will occupy the middle of the hall, but a start has been made on a bank of display cases along the north wall The large walls and open spaces, with the simple architectural design of the hall, lend themselves to the use of colour, and painting will start soon The arrangement of the displays In this hall will be the l biggest project for the museum staff, since they are starting from nothing, and have had to plan the entire display for the new hall This hall will be arranged and ready for the public to view ,in time for the museuin opening, but it will still be many months before it will be seen in its final form The hall, with its high skylighted roof and modern colour scheme, should be the show-piece of the museum, when seen In Its final form with freestanding . Maori carvings around the walls This hSill will be the only one in the new black with natural lighting. From the Pacific Hall, a door leads to the Hall of Transport and Shipping, which was the Ethnology Hall before. The scene at present is one of organised disorder, with boxes, cases, a whaleboat, a hansom cab ’ and many exhibits coverings the Walls and the floor. Space is cramped here, and the walls, which are very drab, are being painted in bright colours. This hall will display the whaleboat, with a complete set of gear, including harpoons and lances. It will also have large models of Union Steam Ship Company ships, including the Rangatira; and the Centennial mural, showing the voyage of the Sir George Seymour and the Randolph to Lyttelton In 1850, will again be a popular feature of the hall. Land Transport

Land transport will be shown by a bullock waggon, a Cobb coach, a colonial buggy, and the last hansom cab to be used in Christchurch. It has not been possible to accept forms of motor transport or railway engines, because of the shortage of space in the hall. A popular display in this hall will be a -reconstruction of James Edward Fitz Gerald’s cabin in. the Charlotte Jane. It had been estimated that the museum would be open from six to nine months after the building contractors were finished, said the director of the museum (Dr. R S. Duff). The staff were working hard, and he was confident that the museum would be open about the middle of 1958 if the present progress were maintained. “After all, we have had to redesign and refurnish every gallery of the eight that will be opened,’’ he said. “Many builtin showcases have had to be made, and the whole display has had to be set out anew. It takes at least two months to prepare each diorama for the Edgar Stead HaU of New Zealand Birds, but that haU must be opened with the rest, as we rely on it for circulation through the building. There is no point in opening with only half a display.’’ s The opening of the museum to the public next year would not

be the end of the work for the staff, said Dr. Duff. There were still six more galleries to be redesigned and refurnished. The biggest project in these would be for a group of three, where Miss Rose Reynolds had plans to set up an early Christchurch street scene with shop fronts, and three period rooms, with a gallery of period costume.

A number of special displays would have to be prepared, such as the stamp collection of Sir R. Heaton Rhodes, which would be shown in the former library A special show-case of coins was being prepared, and there were plans for a display of historical firearms. The purchase of a mobile planetarium had been discussed. and the Royal Society of New Zealand hoped to raise the money needed for this project." which would probably cost at least £3OOO.

“The museum has been closed for a long time, but when it is opened next year it will be something the people of Christchurch will be truly proud of,” said Dr. ? u ?* think wUI And that it has been worth waiting for.”