Evening Post. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1908. THE MOUNT COOK SITE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 31, 6 February 1908, Page 6

Evening Post. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1908. THE MOUNT COOK SITE.

It is nob often givon to politicians to take a step which commands universal approval, but we aro surely right in saying that this rare luxury has fallen to iho lot of tho Ward Government in connection with its proposnl for the rehousing of the Dominion Museum. The privilege should' be the more appreciated •becaußO it is associated with another subject which has sometimes seemed to be doomed to ete<rnal controversy. Hitherto everything that has been proposodi by tho citizens of Wellington with regard to the Mount Cook site lias been condemned by the Government, and as a matter of course the citizemi havo returned the compliment. But hero at last is a suggestion which not only unites the disjjutanta foj once* but even points

tho way to a possible settlement of their general differences. It is quite unnecessary to waste words on the scandal presented by the Museum in its present state. Its wooden walls are rapidly going to pieces, and the same- pest whi.-h has riddled them tluough and through is a constant menace to hundreds of valuable exhibits. There is also tho peril of firo, and apart from these two dangers there is fact that thp- space is si> crampod as to give the place in many respects the air of a curiosity shop or a lumber-room, rather than of a museum. Order find classification aro absolutely essential to the educative purpose of such an institution, but the huddling process necessitated by the narrow limits of the present structure aie fatal to these vital objects. The result is that in the twentieth century what should be the lending museum of a country which boasts of its enlightenment reproduces many of tho features of a mediaeval apothecary's shop: — "And in his tieedv simp a tortoise hung, An alligator stuff 'tl, .md otlicr skim Of ill shaped fielico; mul nbnut his shelves A bofMjarly account nf cniply boxes, Green eaitlien pots, bhddeis, nnd musty seed---." Except that the boxes in onr Museum are- not empty, but full of precious things which are obscured from view, and left for tho moth and the rust and the borer to corrupt, because there is no room to show the.ni, tho parallel is sufficiently close to make the state of the 'Museum a disgrace to the Dominion. The director has great ideas for the future of the institution, but everything of course depends^ upon his being given the space requireel to work them out. In addition to a great display of 'Maori work, which no man is better fitted than he to organise, he hopes to gather "a collection of New Zealand art, including pictures and specimens under the heading of 'technical' " ; and the last word naturally loads us on to the fact that for years tho citizens of Wellington have been agitating for the establishment of a Technical School on the site in question. There is of course ample room on the Mount Cook reserve for a Technical Scool, not to mention a district high school, as well as the Museum, and how admirably and eoonomically tho objeKs of the two might be made to dovetail by the development of the branch of the latter which Mr. Hamilton is especially desirous of developing! We trust, therefore, that the Government, now that it is introducing the thin\end of the wedge at Mount Cook, will see the reasonableness of driving it home. The original prison scheme was abandoned years ago. The barracks scheme is already condemned ; and the- scientific and educative objects which Ministers have now in view only need to be enlarged in order to effect an ideal appropriation of a magnificent site.