THE DOMINION MUSEUM

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 915, 25 January 1918, Page 6

THE DOMINION MUSEUM

A Disgrace to the Country.

FTpHE Hon. G. W. Russell never -*- allows himself to forget that he represents a Christchurch constituency.- This is quite a proper position to take up, but it should not obsess him to such an extent as to make him do an injustice to other cities. The Canterbury Museum |s- asking that it shall share in the distribution of war trophies.. The request is a perfectly proper one. and when the Imperial Government, which, pace Mr. Russell, has "taken the whole question of distribution of these trophies into its own hands," sets about its task, it is to be hoped the Christchurch institution will not be left out in ibhe cold. But in speaking to the deputation which put forward the claims of the Canterbury Museum. Mr. Hussell went out of his way, so we regret to notice_, to sneer at the Dominion Museum in Wellington. "He recognised," he said, "the standing of Canterbury Museum as compared with

the Dominion Museum,, which was a-. disgrace to the country." True enough, but whose fault is it that the Wellington Museum is housed in a tumble-down old building, which only wants a dropped match to go up some, day in flames ? Whose, fault but that of "the Government, the Government of which Mr. Russell is a member ?

As Minister of Internal Affairs, and. a very capable and industrious Minister he lias proved himself to be, Mr. Russell is personally responsible for the continued and most culpable neglect of the Government to provide a proper museum building in Wellington. A previous Minister of Internal Affairs, Sir Francis Bell, favoured, we are aware, the ridiculous project of sticking the Museum on the-top of "Mount Cook, alongside that horrible eyesore," the Mount Cook Barracks, late jail. To Mr. Russell's credit the present Minister has scouted the very idea of allowing such a blunder to be made. But, meanwhile, the dingy old barn in Museum-street continues" to be the mockery of visitors to Wellington, and yet Mr. Russell does nothing to make even a start with the erection of a more suitable home for what is really an extremely valuable, collection. Year after year the Director.of the Museum continues to write in his reports that a new building is absolutely necessary, yet nothing is done. We look to Mr. Russell to insist upon the importance of a new and commodious building: being provided to house exhibits which are the property of the State and to replace an edifice which the Minister himself declares to" be "a disgrace to the eotuvtrv."