Untitled

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 6258, 21 September 1891, Page 2

Public opinion is growing in favor of the proposed memorial of the late Sir Donald McLean taking the form of a building to be used as a museum. The collections now in possession of the Philosophical Society are large and valuable, and space is badly needed for their classification and proper exhibition. The idea is that with the Sir Donald McLean memorial fund of £1000, a good brick building could be erected on the land adjacent to the Athenjeum, which would be both commodious and fire-proof: If the fund should be devoted to that most useful purpose, several gentlemen in town who are now holding aloof have signified their intention to subscribe to it. In reference to the collections in the possession of the Philosophical Society, we may mention that there are several cases of moa bones stowed away in one of Mr j J. S. Large's sheds, there being no room for them in the Athenreum. The history of these bones is somewhat curious, as bearing upon their ownership. They were discovered on the Rev. S. Williams's estate at Te Ante, and that gentleman found all the labor for their excavation and cartage to the railway. Mr Hamilton, then curator lof the Philosophical Society's museum, superintended the work of removal to Napier, and at some small expense and at infinite trouble, which to him was a labor of love, he set up the skeleton of a moa, and partly sorted out the rest of the bones. We ought to have mentioned that while superintending the excavation and removal of the bones from Te Aute, Mr Hamilton was given _ a free pass on the railway. But the question that has now arisen is, to whom do the bones belong? The Philosophical Society is quite willing to allow Mr Hamilton a liberal assortment, but it is not disposed to recognise his right to anything more. Jn the meantime Mr Hamilton has assumed a position of masterly silence, and to every communication has returned no reply. The annoyance is that these bones are valuable to the museum for exchange purposes, but nobody likes to do anything with them pending some information respecting the nature of Mr Hamilton's claims.