TOO MUCH SYMPATHY

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 25, 30 January 1924, Page 6

TOO MUCH SYMPATHY

We are quite prepared to give the Government credit for making arrangements to store valuable Museum exhibits in a fireproof building. But this is only a temporary expedient, and possibly expensive. A Museum divided between two buildings has its value halved. - Further, the temporary accommodation. will probably .be inadequate for the proper display of all that the Museum has to show. Display,is an essential factor in a Museum. A collection of relics which is hidden away in cases is no more a Museum than Tutankhamen's tomb before it was opened. But what is the remedy? The New Zealand Institute continues to present resolutions urging the erection of a new building, and the Government continues to express its sympathy. The only practical result so far is the provision of temporary accommodation which may provide an excuse for further postponing the erection, of a permanent building. The pre-* sent Museum building is entirely unfitted for the purpose it is sup posed to serve. It is as old as some of the relics it contains, and not as well preserved. Sympathy will not provide _'new building. /In fact, sympathy is only exasperating when it is unaccompanied by measures of practical relief. Is it too much to hope that the Government will at last make a movement in response^to the latest appeal, and not continue to profess sympathy unless it is prepared to prove the sincerity of its professions ?