HISTORIC RELICS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21765, 3 April 1934, Page 6

HISTORIC RELICS

AUSTRALIAN COLLECTION STORED AT CANBERRA , FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT | SYDNEY, March 15 The announcement that the National Library building is to be erected at Canberra shortly at a cost of something like £200,000. directs attention to the store of manuscripts and relics now buried in the vaults of Federal Parliament House These will eventually find a place in the library building, and are the nucleus of Australia's Historical Museum In the meantime they are kept so securely in the strongroom at Parliament House that few people are aware of their existence Some of the articles are ol great value, and most of them could never be replaced. A gleamjng array of gold and silver caskets, which were presented to Mr. YV. M. Hughes during his triumphal tour of the United Kingdom in 1916 are guarded as though they were the Crown jewels of the Commonwealth. The casket*. all of them magnificent examples of fine workmanship, are symbolical containers of the keys of various cities ot which'Mr Hughes received the freedom The |xm with which Australia's representatives signed the Treaty ot Versailles is also preserved. Other treasures of national sentiment include the Australian flag that was carried by Sir Herbert Wilkins on his historic (light to Point Barrow, Spitsbergen; the telescope used by the ill fated Liechhardt during three years' exploration of Australia in 1845-47; and several log books of long-distance flights by Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith, Sir Alan Cobham, the late Bert Hinklcr «nd other famous aviators. There is also a typewritten draft of the speech by Lord Hopetoun ,at the opening of the first Federal Parliament, which mentions that the Act constituting the Commonwealth was one of tho last to receive Queen Victoria's assent before slip died. There is also a ticket in the first Government authorised lottery, which was run in Sydney in 1844. The strangest thing about this lottery is that it was run by the Bank of New South Wales The first prize was 8320 acres of land. 3700 head of cattle and 40 horses. There are examples of old Tasmanian money, with notes having a domination as low as (Jcl. The first- note ever printed by tho Federal Government is contained in tho collection, together with an accompanying letter from the Assistant Treasurer of the day, Mr. C. K. Fraser, to the late Mr. Andrew Fisher, then Prime Minister, stating: "Please receive herewith the first of your pets."