FROM OLD BUILDING TO NEW

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 149, 19 March 1936, Page 11

FROM OLD BUILDING TO NEW

Dominion Museum Transfer PACKING OF EXHIBITS IN PROGRESS A good start has been made at tile old Dominion Museum. Wellington, with the work of dismantling and packing the exhibits for transfer shortly to the new National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum. Numbers of the exhibition cases in the main hall have been dismantled and their contents packed and by the time this work is completed there will be some hundreds of cases to i»e transported. The packing of tiie Maori collection, in particular, has been practically completed. From the old building, which itsel. breathes the history of New Zealand as colony and Dominion, this priceless collection will be laid out in a new building which has yet no history, but which will provide a much more adequate and lasting home. The actual transfer from the old building to the new is expected to commence early in April, and for some time officers of the museum will be working in both buildings. As the work of unpacking and setting out the exhibits goes ou in the one. packing will continue in the other. A start has not yet been made with tbe task of dismantling the present museum galleries on the first floor, as that cannot be done till the work in the hall is complete. Five extra men have been added to tbe museum staff for the packing work, aud have been engaged at it for the past month. Mr. F. It. Walpole, formerly known as Uncle Toby of tbe 2ZW wireless station, is supervising the packing, which in tbe case of some exhibits presents a delicate problem. Many hundreds of other exhibits, it is expected, will be transported unpacked, as witli careful handling there will be no danger of their being damaged. More Adequate Accommodation. Because of the lack of space a very large quantity of materia) received by the museum from time to time has never been unpacked and displayed, and it will see the light of day for the first time in new surroundings. Some hundreds of Maori greenstone articles have been packed and stored in a fireproof room in the city for safe keeping, pending their transfer to Mount Cook. One section which will require special attention is that of foreign ethnology, which is not yet packed. Much of it is of extreme value. One particularly fragile exhibit of rare value is the boues of an embryo chick of the moa, found at Cromwell. Otago, years ago when a road was being excavated through sandhills. The difficulties with which tbe authorities have had to contend in exhibiting specimens in tbe old building is nowhere better illustrated than in ths case of th© bones of a large whale, the common rorqual. The ribs arc suspended from the ceiling and the vertebrae on a long exhibition case. The vertebrae are In all 70 feet long but as the width of the room falls a good deal short of that, the tail has had to be doubled up under the other vertebrae. This exhibit will be much more effectively displayed in tiie new building. This particular whale, with tremendous jaws, was cast ashore at Port Underwood. Cook Strait, in June, 1874. Another exhibit which attracts great attention is the embalmed remains of a mummy, petislrls, priest of the temple of the Egyptian god. Khem, which is 2000 years old. From a New Zealand point of view the recopstructed moa is one of the most striking exhibits. It stands some .10 feet high. A larg c model of a Maori village and pa will also provide some problems when the time conies for transporting it. First in New Building. Tbe director of the museum. Dr. W. It. B. Oliver, has carefully planned the order of the dismantling, transfer, and re-exhibiting of the material so that the big task will be done most conveniently and efficiently. Although the transfer proper will not commence till April, three future exhibits have already been taken to the new museum building. Last week the museum taxidermist. Mr. C. Lindsay. took casts be had made of a shark, a stingray, and a sunfish to the new building, where they will be stored till work on them can be completed. Actually tbe cast of the shark was the first exhibit to enter lhe new National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum.