MUSEUMS OF THE EMPIRE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22101, 3 November 1933, Page 4

MUSEUMS OF THE EMPIRE

AN OFFICIAL SURVEY GREAT PRAISE FOR NEW ZEALAND. (From Qua Own Correspondent.) LONDON, September 29. In August, 1931, a survey of the museums and art galleries of the Empire was begun by Sir Henry Miers, then president of the Museums’ Association, and by the secretary at the time, Mr S. F. Markham. The result of the survey, financed by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, is to be chronicles in reports published by the Museums Association. Sections dealing with the British Isles, Canada, and South Africa are now ready, and the New Zealand section will be published in a month’s time. Meanwhile Mr S. F. Markham has contributed an article to The Times in which he refers especially to New Zealaid. Great Britain, it appears, spends 71d per head of population annually on museums and art galleries, while the dominions range from South Africa and Canada IJd,' to New Zealand 34d. “ It may be asked,” gays Mr Markham, "why New Zealand, the youngest and one of the smallest of the dominions, should thus be prepared to spend larger ■sums than its peers on the cultural amenities under review. But the relative inadequacy of the larger dominions is more striking than the figures suggest, for the extent of their territories is such that on the existing basis of expenditure many large regions have no adequate museum or art gallery service. The reason in the case of Now Zealand is to be found, not in a benevolent Government making large annual grants for museums or art galleries, because in no one of the dominions does the Government play a smaller part in the provision, but rather in the existence of a spirit of enlightened citizenship that will not be content with the second rate where museum or art gallery is concerned.” AUCKLAND MUSEUM AN EPIC. "On the research side probably more sound work has been done by the Australian Museum at Sydney than by any other in the dominions or colonies. The choice of second place gives rise to great difficulty, the museums at Melbourne, Singapore, Ottawa, Capetown, Pretoria, and Calcutta all have strong claims, while smaller towns, such as Grahamstown and Victoria, 8.C., have done well. In the matter of display and equipment a personal opinion is that the palm should be awarded to Auckland. New Zealand, where the new museum is not only one of the loveliest in the Empire, but also one of the best arranged and most useful from the educational point of view. Of the smaller towns, St. John. N. 8.; Durban, South Africa; Dunedin, New Zealand; and Nairobi, Kenya, have all a most creditable record of museum service. With trepidation one ventures to suggest that the five most progressive museums in the Empire, taking into account buildings, finances, equipment, staff, technique, as well as wealth of collections, are the Science Museum, London; the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff: the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh; and the Auckland War Museum, New Zealand. The history of the Auckland Museum is an epic in itself, and deserves at some time to be-told in detail.” \ GREATER CULTURAL CO-OPERA-TION. " These surveys,” says Mr Markham, “have brought forward with weighty emphasis the need for greater cultural co-operation between the various parts of the Empire. It may truly be said that Great Britain is eager at all times to receive and exhibit modern works by Canadian, Australian, and South African artiste. On the other hand, oversea territories, specially New Zealand and Australia, are keen to see not only fine collections of modern British art, but also of European art of the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. It is a startling fact that in the whole of New Zealand .there is scarcely a firstclass w-ork of any of the great historic European schools, and indeed I doubt whether more than two or ' three have found their way there even in loan, collections.

“ This is a severe handicap, and it is with feelings of regret that one realises that there are at the moment lying in the vaults of oiir national galleries in London scores of pictures that cannot be exhibited in them for sheer redundancy; meanwhile, if a selection could be sent out on loan to New Zealand and Australia they would provoke an interest in art at least equal to that which the exhibition of Italian art created,in London. In the present state of the law, many of our leading museums may not lend even the hundredth duplicate, whether it be of a Roman tile or an etching. These facts are not unnaturally deplored overseas.” Finally, Mr Markham points to the need for the museums and art galleries of the Empire a whole linking together in some form of cultural union. “ The Museums Association, which has its headquarters in London,” he writes, “ does what it can to bridge the gap, and it s publication, the Museums Journal, finds its way to the remotest parts of the Empire. One hopes that associations will be created in the larger dominions, but for the smaller dominions and the colonies it would appear that much more has to be done. The Museums Association must shoulder the task of enabling' isolated curators to keep in touch with the latest developments in museum technique. “In the meantime, the Carnegie Corporation of New York have embarked upon a bold policy; in Canada they have, made a grant of 40,000 dollars to an ~ad hoc committee, to be spent in developing educational and co-operative museum service, and it is possible that they may undertake similar schemes in the whole of the dominions. Should this be so, one can only say that, when a great American foundation, probably the wealthiest foundation in the world, is concerning itself in no mean manner with the improvement of Empire cultural standards, it is high time a more sympathetic attitude towards cultural movements should be taken up by dominion Governments and by our own Government in Whitehall.”