MUSEUM FURNITURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19718, 18 August 1927, Page 8

MUSEUM FURNITURE.

The difficulty of determining limits for preferential consideration of British as against competitive foreign goods has perplexed public authorities on several occasions recently, but in most of the cases a wide disparity of prices has afforded some measure of justification for departure from the generally accepted principle. It has now been, put to the test in a new form by the selection of a British manufacturer's tender for the supply of display cases for the new museum. The list of prices published to-day shows that the committee was spared any temptation to place the order outside the British Empire, but satisfaction that British material and workmanship have been secured will be very greatly modified by regret that the committee did not take the opportunity to obtain New Zealand workmanship in the furniture of the museum. Since the institution is designed as a memorial of Auckland's soldiers, the committee would have easily defended the subordination of ordinary commercial considerations to a generous interpretation of the propriety of extending a sentimental preference to any local tender for the work. . When the actual difference between the accepted tender and that of an Auckland firm is shown to lie less than £2OO, subscribers of the fund which the committee is administering will be surprised that it has' not offered any convincing explanation of its decision. It is a reasonable presumption that a man would not propose to undertake a £27,000 contract without confidence in his knowledge and experience being sufficient to enable him to perform it to the satisfaction of the committee's expert advisers, nor could it be seriouslv suggested thai there are not skilled workmen in Auckland able,to produce show-case structures equal to the most exacting standards. The author of the reiected tender has not only made an impressive statement of his own qualifications, but adds to his high opinion of the skill of local artisans some pertinent observations on the advantage of the work being performed under the immediate supervision of the museum authorities. His statement will strengthen the unfavourable impression created bv the committee's action in passing over the local tender.