CANTERBURY MUSEUM.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15558, 7 March 1911, Page 2

CANTERBURY MUSEUM.

RECENT ADDITIONS. Several valuable and interesting acU ditions have been made to the colleo* tions of specimens at Canterbury Museum. As a result of a recent visit to Auckland by Mr R. Speight, assistant curator, a large number of. geological specimens have been placed in the casa for fresh exhibits. Some of these specimens have been presented by Mr W. Wilson and some by Mr T. Gavm ana others. They have been obtained from the Waihi, Talisman and other mines, and show the nature of the reefs and the ore. TWe are also specimens of cinnabar fr f Karangahake, and other specimens from the Bendigo and Seddoa reefs, Te Aroha. In the collection there are a volcanic bomb from Rangitoto Island, opposite Auckland City and a piece of slate obtained from Mount Tyndall, in the Rangitata Valley, by Dr Teichelmann, of Hokitika. ‘ln another branch of science, aomfl notable presents have been made 1 bv Bishop Wilson, of Melanesia, who paid a visit to Christchurch a short time ago. He has given to the Museum a piece of “ feather money used by the natives of Santa Cruz, one of the Solomon Islands. This coin of the realm in the cannibal islands is a long, thin strip of cloth, about 10ft or 12ft in length, with red or pink feathers attached to one side. For convenience, it is rolled up like a coil of rope, and in that shape is not as cumbersome as it might seern when stretched out at full length. From the same island there is a stone axe-head, somewhat resembling the implements used by the Maoris in their Stone Age, and showing much skill of workmanship. In other parts of Melanesia Bishop Wilson has obtained noserings, a native bag made from reeds and cloth, and a piece of tortoise-shell with an ingenious pattern. Tho microscope which has been placed in the ethnological room for the use of v : sitors has been very popular, especially amongst children. Yesterday the old slides were taken out and were replaced bv fresh ones containing a section of a carrot, the head of the larva of a gnat, esres and spicules of soonge, a section of "tho Mokcia meteorite, foraminifera, young fern, a section of a piece of volcanic rock from the Port Hills, young trout, the fluke of a frog and the foot of a spider.