HIGH STANDARD

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 188, 8 May 1934, Page 8

HIGH STANDARD

New Zealand Museums A CARNEGIE REPORT Comparisons Within Empire A high opinion of the standard of museums and art galleries in New Zealand, compared with those in other parts of the Empire, is contained in a report recently forwarded to the Carnegie Corporation of New York by Mr. S. F. Markman, 8.A., B.Litt.. who visited the Dominion about a year ago on a special mission on behalf of the corporation, and Mr. W. R. B. Oliver, M.Sc., director of the Dominion Museum, Wellington. The .report, which has recently come to baud, states that a comparison within the Empire with centres of under a quarter of a million population left only Cardiff and Ottawa, and ' possibly Norwich and Leicester, superior to Auckland. Wellington, or Dunedin. It would be found that a good museum town would have a quarter of a square foot of museum and art gallery floor space per head of population, at least 6d. per annum of museum and art gallery income per head of population, and one scientific, artistic or technical employee per 40,000 population, states the report. Exceptionally good museum or art gallery towns such as Cardiff or Ottawa would exceed those limits; poor museum towns such as Rhondda (Wales) And London (Ontario) would be much below those limits, if, indeed, they had’made any museum provision at all. Taking the population of Auckland at 218,000, that gave it a very clear lead over all other towns’ in the Empire with a population of under 277,000 and over 200,000, with the exception of Cardiff, which was a national museum centre. In regard to other New Zealand towns of over 100,000 population, Wellington, while not of equal merit to Norwich, Ottawa, Preston, dr Durban, compared favourably with most towns in its group, while Christchurch was about the average. Wanganui Praised. Apart from the larger towns, some smaller towns in New' Zealand also compared favourably with towns of similar size in other parts of the Empire, the report continued. Wanganui, for example, with its total museum and art gallery income of about £lO-50, spent about 9d. per head. Its delightful art gallery, museum, and library, all three buildings erected during the past lo years, showed how a small city could beat many towns with treble the population. New Plymouth and Nelson (Cawthron Institute), Masterton. and Titirangi, too, each had institutions of which the localities were deservedly proud, while the Maori pa at Rotorua was the only open-air museum in all Australia, and New. Zealand, though not regarded as a museum. “Why should New Zealand with its small population and its very short history in terms of modern civilisation. thus be ahead of comparable states or provincese in South Africa, •Ireland, Canada, and Australia in museum service?” the report asks. “The answer,” it continues, “is not to be found in terms of an enlightener! Government giving extensive support to cultural movements, for beyond a yearly grant to the Dominion Museum and spasmodic grants to two or three other institutions, successive Governments have left museums and art ralle «n s t( J care for themselves. Frankly the museum and art gallery movement in New Zealand owes little to the Government, but it owes a great deal to thousands of enlightened and public-spirited citizens who have pulled together with a delightful sense of team work to make their particular town excel from the museum or art gallery point of view. Auckland, for example, in 1852 and again in 1859. tried unsuccessfully to get a museum going, but these two. failures only made it more determined, and in 1867, when but a small town of 20,000 inhabitants, it got moving in an unmistakable manner. It did not wait for a bequest, for Government support >r for the Camogie Corporation. National Treasure Houses. “With some important exceptions, the public generally do not regard the museums and art galleries as national treasure houses in which their scientific and art collections may find a permanent home. In addition to the safe keeping of the articles, such a practice has the advantage that the specimens are available for study to all interested persons. Were certain specimens in private collections placed in one or other of the public museums, a great amount of valuable information would be released for publication.” The report contains some interesting comments on the art collections of New Zealand. It states that each of the Dominion’s six art galleries, contains works of modern British and New Zealand artists, and sketches of early New Zealand scenes, “which are generally more interesting from the historical than from the artistic point' of view.” The Auckland gallery was found to be overcrowded and poorly arranged, and it is stated that both this and Nelson could do with a still further relegation of less desirable pictures to the storeroom. Dunedin. Christchurch and Wanganui each had excellent art galleries, all erected during the last decade, well lighted and charmingly arranged. It would be difficult to say which of these three was the best art gallery in New Zealand. Possibly Wanganui had the finest pictures, Christchurch the loveliest interior, and Dunedin the best arrangement and most careful selection. "Mixed Lot” at Wellingtth. At Wellington, the pictures in the Turnbull Library are considered of great historical interest, but the pictures in the Wellington Gallery are “a very mixed lot.” The investigators think that the projected new museum and art gallery at Wellington, on which work had just begun, might result in a careful weeding out of the existing pictures, Broadly speaking, there were very few “old masters” in the whole of New Zealand, and all the art collections put together probably would not equal those of one of the great cities of Europe, and such pictures as there were lacked much in the way of sequence or classification. A series of loans, beginning with old masters and going up through the various schools to modern American art. would be a very great boon' The investigators add that they are definitely of the opinion that no grant should be made to any institution unless the local authorities are willing to take some interest in the museum and to provide adequate finance.