MUSEUM EXTENSION

Evening Star, Issue 19124, 16 December 1925, Page 12

MUSEUM EXTENSION

NEW SOUTH WING. Several prominent business men of this city have been much impressed by the need of providing space at the University Museum for the exhibition in a suitable manner of the large and valuable collection of ethnographic material which has boon accumulated during recent years by gift ami purchase, but which has to bo stored in the basement. These citizens have formed themselves into a committee for the purpose of raising a fund for the erection of a south wing of about the same dimensions as the main hall, or even larger. It will consist of three stories, with two galleries running round the central hall.

The Mayor (Mr JI. L. Taplcy, M.P.), as chairman of the preliminary meetinn;, communicated with the Prime Minister as to the subsidy which ho had promised verbally last session to a deputation ...headed by the Chancellor of the University (Mr T. K. Sidcy, M.P.). Ho has now received the very satisfactory reply from Mr Coates Unit Cabinet has authorised a subsidy of ;£ for up to £2T,OOOi on all subscriptions received from tho public. The'committee.-is naturally grabbled at this prompt and generous response, and purpose in the new year to canvass the people of Otago and Dunedin in full expectation that this amount will be subscribed. Some handsome donations arc already in hand, and others have been promised. The museum is a public institution in the sense that, though tho responsibility for its maintenance rests upon ,tho University, it is and has been for more than fifty years open' freely to the public; and the comm it tec for the extension believes that the public will recognise the value of the museum as a source of interest and education, and will therefore contribute with a generous hand.