SYDNEY’S MUSEUM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 30, 5 February 1935, Page 12

SYDNEY’S MUSEUM

LACK OF PUBLIC INTEREST. PROBLEM FOR TRUSTEES. The sound of mourning is heard at the Sydney Museum, says a correspondent. The cause is the decreased patronage of that admirable institution. ! a good museum, containing much interest arranged with skill and imAressiveness. The advertising of it, r.irect and indirect, is fair and is in excess of that of earlier days, when ; live attendance was larger. The authorities are looking about for the cause of ihe lack of support. They experience difficulty in arriving at a conclusion. it is thought by some that people have become more frivolous and that, the only way to attract large numbers to the museum is to add some lures not usual in museums. A tea dance might be useful. Bridge parties have been mentioned flippantly. But these or any other such attractions would be foreign to the atmosphere, and in any event they would not attract more people to the exhibits. The chief thought at the museum is that the people are finding attractions of greater interest elsewhere, and this belief seems to be correct. I he correspondent adds: —“A fathei taking a vote of his family to determine whether they should go to the museum, the Manly pool or the Taronga Park Zoological Gardens will find the result, unfavourable to the museum. The trustees of the museum and the officials have serious thinking before them.” .'