AUCKLAND MUSEUM.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3056, 13 May 1867, Page 6

AUCKLAND MUSEUM.

To the Editor of the Daily Southern Gross. Sir, — Now that our Auckland Museum is about to emerge from its obscurity, would it not be a good tinle for all those interested in so useful an instition to rally round it and i;se their best exertions to make it, what it might and should be, an establishment which every Aucklander should be proud of 1 Tbe United Service Museum, in Whitehall Place, Charing Cross, is perhaps one of the most extensive and choice collections to be met with, and has always been very successful ; and one reason for this is, that it enlists the entire members of the army and navy, who, feeling an ownership in it, are eyer on the look-out for new objects of attraction to present $o it ; and anq£hejr reason is, because the subscription of members is only is. per annum, tfow, surely we have a large number of captains and officers of ships in our mercantile service who could, and I have no doubt with proper encouragement would, be gontributors to such an institution. There could not be a better nucleus for a museum than the one we possess ; but, hitherto it has nob had a fair chance, for not one in a hundred has ever known that Auckland possessed a museum at all. With greater publicity, good management, and moderate liberality on the part of our population, 1 have no doubt in a few years we could have a separate public building appropriated for this institution, or perhaps a i üblic library connected with it ; and as well as an admirable institution it might be made to p»y its own expenses. I really do not know how theF necessary expenses are now paid, or under whn&e management it is conducted ; but I am convinced that a goodly sum might be raided by a public 'entertainment irortb'y of siuch an object, and have no douut our most talented musical and literary men might be enlisted in such a cause. Let the subscription be moderate, make evtry contributor a free mi-mlier, Qfive the entire community an iufceyess iv it, aud ie uiufit Bucooed, i have thrown

out these few hints, hoping other persons wilL tat* them up. Am I right, or any other man ? — I *m,*fic., J. Cbtsbb. Claremont House, Princea-itreet, May 10, 1867.