COBB AND CO. ON ROAD

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28950, 18 July 1959, Page 12

COBB AND CO. ON ROAD

Alpine Museum Exhibit

A Cobb and Company coach will travel on its old route to Arthur s Pass today; but not in its traditional fashion. Instead of being drawn by changing teams of horses, it will be transported pick-a-back on a modern truck from the Canterbury Museum to become the centrepiece and first major exhibit in the new Arthur's Pass mountain museum. When a mountain museum was first planned in conjunction with the community hall, the Canterbury Museum Trust Board at once agreed that its second Cobb coach should go to Arthur’s Pass. The community hall was opened some months ago and now the central “coach hall” is almost ready. It is hoped that the museum wing proper will be erected soon. A Canterbury Mountaineering Club team, under the president s (Mr Jack Hayes), will trundle the ' coach out of the Canterbury Museum this morning and load it on to a truck provided by Mr S. C. V. Muirson, contractor for the Arthur’s Pass chapel, hall, and museum. It is possible that the wheels will have to be removed to improve stability In- 1 transport and also to lessen the height of the load. The truck will then take the coach over familiar trails by the West Coast road and Porter's Pass to Arthur’s Pass. There, local people will assist with the unloading. A ticklish job remains to be done this week-end. A big window frame has been temporarily screwed in and it will have to be removed to pass the coach through. In its own hall, the coach will, in effect, be in a well. A gallery floor about eight feet high runs round this hall. One end will be partitioned for an alpine library. When the remaining museum wing is added to the building, exhibits from the mountains and

climbing expeditions will be assembled.