NEW ZEALAND MUSEUMS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 11701, 10 March 1902, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND MUSEUMS.

The January number of the "Museums Journal," which is published in London, has a short article on New Zealand Museums. It reproduces a melancholy description of the Wellington Museum, by Professor G. Boehm, a travelling geologist. " The collections there," he says, " are in a sad state. The few fossils exhibited are unarranged, without labels, though in part provided with numbers referring to a catalogue by Sir James Hector. It is impossible to obtain from this collection any conception of the palaeontology cf New Zealand. Still more impossible is it to discover what places one might visit with an expectation of geological or palaeontological results." The " Journal" ftd.ds, as a comment to these Mill arks, that " the state of things appears all the worse by comparison with the excellent museums of Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin, 8.11 of which are favourably commented on by Professor Boehm. Even in the little town of Wanganui, a private society ha established a museum, which is quite admirably managed by Mr Drew, a ..jeweller and watchmaker. It is clear that there are to be found in .New Zealand, not. only treasures of profound interest to all bv-&Pe.es of scienoe, but also the knowledge, intelligence, and enthusiasm needed for their proper study,-arrangement, and display in museums. The ene thing that is lacking is ■some appreciation by the Government of the value of these things, sufficient to inspire it to devote adequate funds for the performance of those duties which it has perhans reluctantly taken upon its own. shoulders."