CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7827, 22 December 1886, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

OUR ART GALLERY. TO THE EDITOB, Sib, —Sir George Grey has presented to the citizens, and will shortly deposit in the Free Publio Library, a very valuable collection ef books, and also, if I understand aright, some paintings of considerable merit. The books, once carefully housed, will require little attention beyond an occasional dusting, and this doubtless the City Council will have done, unless possessed by an unreasonable spirit of retrenchment, when possibly the caretakers will be dismissed, and every* thing connected with the Library allowed to go to the bad, as it is with the Domain and Albert Park at present. This cutting away the mast to reduce sail policy will not of course always prevail, and damages in the cases mentioned can be repaired without much loss. Bat with pictures the case is different. They require the constant supervision of persons duly qualified for the task to keep them from deteriorating. Water-colour paintings, especially, fade rapidly from damp and by exposure to light, and are liable to be destroyed by inseots. They should frequently be inspected with care, and action taken to remedy any observed defects. City councillors discharge, I readily admit, many important duties creditably ; but they will hardly, I imagine, consider themselves best qualified to act as custodians of any valuable collection of paintings. For this purpose trustees should be appointed; and, until such time as an Act can be obtained to define the powers and duties of trustees, the rooms in the Free Library building designed for an art gallery and in oonneotion therewith, and the pictures to be placed on their walls, should, I venture to say, be handed over to the Auckland Society of Arts. Once establish the art gallery, under proper management and 1 am persuaded the liberality of lovers of art will soon render it a place of attraction. Private benefactors, as in the case of the National Gallery in England, will come forward from among old and young colonist!, and add to the number and value of our paintings. lam aware, from having been oommunicated with on the subject (and this is the immediate cause of my writing) that a gentleman in London, formerly a resident in New Zealand, is desirous of presenting a painting, by a modern English artist, valued by competent judges at 200 guineas, to our gallery ; but, I am also aware, that it is uncertain whether such a presentation will be made unless the art treasures held and to be held for the citizens are placed in competent hands. Am I making any unreasonable request In asking the Press to aid by its advocacy a matter of so much importance to Auokland ? I trust not.—l am, &c., ■ite E. A. MACKKCHNIK.

THE WRECK OF THE BARQUE RA.FIDO. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —From information reoeived through the medium of some of the crew of the barque Rapido, wrecked in Cambridge Gulf, I must demand from the proper authorities a fall and exhaustive enquiry into the ciroumstances surrounding the disaster. To this I am constrained, by the fact that, at the time referred to, I was sole owner. As regards insurances, I may mention that the only one effected by me, and current when the vessel was wrecked, was £600 on the hull, in the Union. My loss is more than one thousand poundß. I shall esteem it a favour by your inserting the above.—l am, &0., Robert T. Chatfield. Mount Eden Road, December 21, 1886.