MUSEUM OF NATURE Planetarium will have roof setting

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32957, 1 July 1972, Page 12

MUSEUM OF NATURE Planetarium will have roof setting

(Contributed by the Canterbury Museum)

Publication of this article coincides with the news that donations and pledges from the public to the Canterbury Museum’s hundredth anniversary appeal now amount to more than $llO,OOO. The target of the appeal is $200,000.

The staff now contemplates the delightful prospect that construction could start before Christmas, or early in 1973, and aims to give advance information to the public of the benefits their generosity will make possible.

One of the advantages will be the use which can be made of more than 1200 feet of floor-space, the equivalent of a new exhibition hall, which will be freed when the planetarium is moved from its present setting in the hall of colonial settlement. This move will permit the museum to extend the colonial theme from the city dweller, as portrayed in the popular street scene, to aspects of colonial life in the countryside. Opposite the goldfields banking chamber and the Cobb Coach we plan to reconstruct a blacksmith’s forge, stables, farm office, butcher’s shop and horsedrawn vehicles.

Forge planned

The late Mr J. R. Richardson, then of Rangiora, began the task of gathering together the complete range of equipment associated with a smithy. After Mr Richardson’s death in April, the project has been continued by his deputy, Mr Don Becker, a retired master smith. Most city children, and many country children too for that matter, have never set eyes on a forge, and the museum’s reconstruction will be a faithful replica in all respects, of a facet of early country life almost as widespread as the servicestation of today, and serving

even more as a community centre.

The forge will be complemented by a display of five beautifully kept horse-drawn vehicles, all of which have associations with the early history of Canterbury. Through the courtesy of Mrs Ivan D. Wood of Christchurch the display will include New Zealand’s only brougham carriage, originally imported for “Mona Vale,” and two sparkling gigs. The management of the D.I.C. has added the landau of Sir Robert Heaton Rhodes of “Otahuna,” kindly stored at this moment by Amuri Motors. “Ready Money” Robinson’s four-wheeled Abbott buggy waits, in storage behind the whale skeleton, to join an assemblage which will demonstrate the skilled craftsmanship of the smiths and coach-builders of the day. New setting The illustration shows the new setting of the planetarium, where the dome and platform-balcony give a lift to the south-west comer of the (first stage) flat roof of the extensions. The end of the existing building is shown on the right of the illustration. The dome will be readily visible from Rolleston Avenue and the Botanic Gardens, and will become quite a landmark. The cost of moving the installation will be $12,000, including copper sheathing for the dome’s new outdoor position, and a unique opportunity exists for some commercial house or individual to sponsor the shift of this unique community amenity. The planetarium will be approached from inside the museum by a hallway set above the first floor visitors’ lounge and the surround will feature a changing display of materials related to astronomy and space exploration. The planetarium itself is a SPITZ (Model Al) machine manufactured in Pennsylvania, United States of America. It was presented to

the museum in 1960 by the Canterbury Branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand, the greater proportion of the cost having been met by the late Mr W. S. MacGibbon, a former chairman of the Museum Trust Board, and Miss M. G. Davies.— A.M.E.