THE MUSEUMS OF NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 79, Issue 6, 15 December 1949, Page 615

THE MUSEUMS OF NEW ZEALAND

r T , HE first two articles in this series by Enid. B. V. Phillips -*■ described the Dominion Museum, Wellington, and the . Otago and Canterbury Museums. This month she deals with the founding and growth of the

Auckland War Memorial Museum

THE industry of a young Scottish naval surgeon in J- employing his leisure hours to study the vegetation of the Cape of Good Hope, where he was stationed, instead of indulging in more frivolous pastimes started the chain of events which culminated in the formation of a museum in one of the fairest cities of the Dominion-Auckland. Dr. Andrew Sinclair’s professional skill, combined with his prowess at botany, gave him the ideal qualifications for his appointment to the Sulphur to accompany the Beechey expedition to South America in 1835. Indeed, his botanical contributions from Brazil, Mexico, Central America, and California so added to the success of the trip that the eminent scientist Joseph Hooker named a species in his honour. c . He came to New Zealand in 1841, finding it an absolute paradise of plant life. Here he could botanise to his heart’s content and the British Museum often benefited from his discoveries. He made one voyage to Tasmania, but he no longer desired to travel to foreign parts, preferring to settle in New Zealand, where he accepted the post of Colonial Secretary. By 1852 his collecting had reached such proportions as to warrant the beginning of a museum locally. With the help of several other kindred spirits a small 4-roomed cottage in Grafton Road was secured for this purpose, and on October 25, 1852, Auckland held its first museum display. Tragic Ending Sad to relate, Dr. Sinclair’s story had a tragic ending. During the early part of 1861 he joined forces with Julius von Haast to explore the Southern Alps. They had covered Suite a lot of territory when Sinclair decided to return to eir headquarters at Samuel Butler’s station, Mesopotamia, with his specimens before proceeding further into the mountains. While crossing a creek in company with another member of the party he suddenly stumbled and, failing to regain his footing, was whirled downstream by the swift-running waters. His burial took place at Mesopotamia and Haast commemorated his name by calling the 7000 ft. peak at the head of Forest Creek after him. Dr. Sinclair’s nieces undertook the mounting of his specimens, which were displayed by Sir George Grey at the Dunedin Exhibition of 1865. With Sinclair’s death interest in the Auckland Museum languished, and though Dr. Hochstetter had renovated the collection during his brief stay in 1859, it again fell into neglect until Captain F. W. Hutton’s ministrations revived it. In 1867 he supervised the museum’s removal to the Provincial Government offices in Princes Street, where the Northern Club now stands. The Auckland Institute (at first called the Auckland Philosophical Society) was founded in November of that year by the Superintendent of the province, Mr. Justice Gillies, and in 1869 the Auckland Provincial Council transferred the museum to the institute and the museum was then moved to the old post office on the corner of Princes Street and Eden Crescent, where it was housed for the next 7 years. The botanist Thomas Kirk acted as secretary and curator until 1874, the museum being open thrice weekly. His successor, Thomas Frederick Cheeseman, was also a botanist and it is indicative of the happy relationship between the two men that in years to come Cheeseman completed the major work “Flora of the Outlying Islands,” which Kirk, who had been chief conservator of State Forests since 1885, was engaged upon before his death. (The beautifully fitted, bronze-handled writing-case with its ingenious locking device and pin to hold the drawer in position, a wedding gift to Thomas Kirk from his workmates in England; the cleverly partitioned mahogany chest, marked Cabin 10 and monogrammed with the initials T.K., which Mrs.

Kirk had made to hold the baby’s clothes on the 5-months voyage to New Zealand aboard the Gertrude in 1863, and which was later used by her husband on his travels through the colony and the outlying islands; and his large armchair with its comfortably upholstered curves, slender, scrollshaped legs and acanthus-carved headpiece are greatly treasured by his descendants who reside at Wadestown, Wellington.) Bent for Botany Thomas Cheeseman, son of a Yorkshire minister, was born at Hull, England, but came to New Zealand with his parents at the age of 7. He had always shown a bent for botany and even the ship which brought him to New Zealand bore a botanical name, Artemesia, a genus of the daisy family. The first thing he did on being rowed ashore after the Artemesia dropped anchor in Waitemata Harbour was to climb up a huge tree fern, to the detriment of his Eton suit, and cut off one of the large curling fronds, carrying off his first specimen of New Zealand flora in triumph to his new home. Auckland acclaims him as her own son, for he was educated there, and during his holiday rambles through the countryside he became so familiar with the vegetation of the locality that soon after his college days he published an account of the plant life of the Waitakere hills, a most important paper, as it is the sole record of a vegetation “now profoundly modified.” In those early days the institute had only 90 members and its total income was just over £9O a year, which had to cover the curator’s salary as well as museum expenses and purchases, so the magnitude of the task confronting Cheeseman can be appreciated. Fortunately, his entire family shared his enthusiasm for the museum and did all they could to help him. When he was engaged in duties for the Acclimatisation Society on Sundays his father substituted for him at the museum. His brother Willie betook himself on shooting expeditions to secure additional specimens of birds, and his eldest sister Emma tried her hand at taxidermy with commendable results. Another sister, Nellie, had a talent for sketching which she turned to good account on behalf of the museum, as witness her lovely little drawings of shells, while Clara, the youngest of the family, acted as his secretary for many —“My amanuensis,” as he affectionately called her.

His own diligence and enthusiasm so kindled public interest in . the museum that within a year he had persuaded his fellow-citizens to subscribe over £2OOO toward the cost of a hew brick building on the Princes Street site, the second story being used as an art gallery and library, the opening ceremony being performed on June 5, 1876, by the Marquis of Normanby.

Funds from Conversaziones As finances improved Cheeseman was able to avail himself of the ser- , vices of the Austrian Andreas Reischek as taxidermist. In an account of an early conversazione held at the museum it is reported that Reischek prepared a group of birds and animals especially for the occasion. He also did much collecting at Kawau. These conversaziones continued to be a regular feature and provided the funds for new showcases and other needs of the museum. .. In 1884 the museum purchased the section next door, this land' being used for the extension of the building in 1892. An amusing contretemps occurred in connection with the erection of this extension, a special section being set aside to shelter the large Maori war canoe Te Toki-a-tapiri. Unluckily, however, the canoe proved too big to go through the doorway, so that part of the wall had to be pulled down and rebuilt to accommodate the enormous canoe, over 82ft. long and the only one of such size to be preserved intact. According to Archdeacon H. H. Williams, the chief Waaka Peruhaka, who lived near Kaupapa, was at one time owner of this canoe, presenting it to the noted Ngapuhi chief Tamata Waaka Nene. The latter returned the compliment by giving him a piebald stallion called Taika (Tiger), probably the first in the Poverty Bay district, and Peruhaka is also credited with introducing the first parcel of wheat in the district. The property adjoining the museum at the back belonged to a Mr. Keesing, whose trio of little dark-haired daughters frequently preferred the museum to their own spacious garden as a playground and sometimes had to be gently shooed homewards when their games became too noisy for the prevailing silence of those sacred precincts. Years later the middle one, Rose, whose face was as lovely as the flower after which she was named, became the curator’s bride, and for their wedding trip they went on the steamer Hinemoa, with Captain Fairchild, to the Three Kings on a botanical expedition. In order to land on one of the islands the dainty little bride had the unenviable experience of having to jump from the ship to the shore at a given signal; the slightest mistake in timing and she would have been crushed between the boat and the rocks. Nevertheless, she came through the ordeal safely like the courageous woman she was, and there was no untoward incident to mar the idyllic happiness of their excursion together. Plant Collecting in Southern Alps ' In January of the following year they had a second honeymoon, this time collecting plants in the Southern

Alps region. Rose Cheeseman also accompanied her husband on his trip to Polynesia, his survey of the flora of Rarotonga being published by the Royal Linnean Society, a signal honour. Thomas Cheeseman invariably made the trip to the. museum each day on horseback and he habitually carried a black leather bag slung over his back. So regular was his time of arrival each morning that the wife of a well-known newspaper proprietor who lived along the route used to exclaim to her daughter: “See if the clock’s right! Here comes Mr. Cheeseman.”

He always took this bag on his collecting expeditions, and if he intended to be away overnight, he saw that it contained a supply of absorbent paper suitable for pressing specimens between. On a calm day it was quite a customary sight to see dozens of sheets of specimens spread out to dry on the sunny balcony of the Cheeseman home. The walls of his study were lined with bookshelves and beautifully grained cupboards of heart kauri specially designed to hold his herbarium. Particular as he was over his specimens and papers, he had no care whatsoever for. his clothes, and many a time he came home with his suit ripped to ribbons after climbing cliffs to reach some rare flower or fern or fossicking in caves in search of Maori curios. Although Cheeseman was preeminent as a botanist, he was interested in all the sciences, and out of his 101 papers and books 22 were concerned with zoology and ethnology. Moreover, he was meteorological observer at Auckland for 32 years and as a young man assisted his father in the formation of an astronomical society and was also the mainstay of the Acclimatisation Society. He was an authority, too, on Maori art and history and he built up a unique collection relating to the customs, manners, and mode of life of the Maori race. •

When the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (King George V and Queen Mary) visited New Zealand in 1901 they specially requested the Auckland Museum to be included in their itinerary, and Their Royal Highnesses were so keenly interested in all Thomas Cheeseman showed them and the fascinating stories he recounted concerning the various items in ,the Maori collection that they overstayed their time and even then were reluctant to depart. Te Rangihiroa, Dr. (Sir) Peter Buck, had a good deal to do with the collection in its infancy and when this distinguished anthropologist, whose researches in the Pacific, at Yale University, and at the Bishop Museum, Honolulu (of which he is Director) have earned him world fame, returned to the land of his birth a few months ago and saw the growth of the Auckland Museum’s Maori collection in the last 22 years he declared it to be the finest in existence. Generous Subscriptions The citizens of Auckland were quick to realise that “a good curator makes a good museum” and based their generosity accordingly, on numerous occasions subscribing the funds needed for such purchases as the Mair Maori collection, the Spencer collection of Maori carvings, the carved pataka and the celebrated runanga house, “Rangitihi.” The bequest from Edward Costley (who lived frugally and left a fortune) provided the museum with a permanent income. E. A. Mackechnie’s bequest built up the museum library, which was further augmented by the gift of 500 scientific volumes each from G. F. Edmonstone and J. T. Mackelvie. The latter’s mining ventures at Thames proved so successful that he founded the Mackelvie Trust, under which valuable art collections were presented to the city. Sir John Logan Campbell, “the father of Auckland,” was another generous donor, and, indeed, a complete list of benefactions over the years would cover pages and pages even in fine print.

Cheeseman’s work on the crossfertilisation of orchids attracted the attention of that great scientist Charles Darwin, who corresponded with him on the subject, these letters now being in the museum. In 1906 the Government published Cheeseman’s monumental work, “The Manual of the New Zealand Flora,” but always the botanist’s chief concern was the development of his beloved museum. Many of the books sent to him personally by overseas scientists enriched the museum library and he carried on a correspondence with curators of foreign museums, for though he could not speak their language, yet with the aid of a dictionary he was able to compose suitable : epistles in their own tongue, and if there was nobody at hand to translate the reply for him, he undertook the task himself, once more turning to a trusty dictionary for assistance. All manner of valuable exchanges and additions to the collections were effected by this means, but lest it be thought his life was all work and no relaxation, it should be mentioned that he derived great joy from his garden and hit tamp collection. He also loved to play n and spent many a

Saturday evening in a keenly contested game with his friend Captain Herold. Sir George Grey was another of his close friends and bequeathed his extensive Maori collection to the city. Proverbial Patience No matter how busy he was (and seldom a year passed without an important publication appearing from his pen) he was never too preoccupied to play with his children, and whenever his young son or daughter appeared in the doorway of his book-lined study he would put down his work and, swinging round in his chair to face them, greet them genially: “What can I do for you, Master (or Miss) Cheeseman!”' And always he found time for long walks with his family on Sunday afternoons, which incidentally served to increase their knowledge of nature study, his patience with their endless questioning being proverbial. It. was characteristic of Cheeseman that he took just as much trouble to answer a child’s query as that of the most eminent scientist. In 1917 he published his jubilee sketch outlining the history of the first 50 years of the Auckland Institute and Museum and citing its future aims. Largely as. a result of his far-sighted advice steps were taken to secure a

site for a new and larger museum on Observatory Hill, in the Auckland Domain, the Princes Street building being .totally unsuited to further additions. By 1920 the institute had collected over £52,000 for this purpose and when it was decided that the proposed museum should be a memorial to the men ' of the province who gave their lives in the First World War a citizens’ committee was set up and further sums collected, the subscriptions amounting to nearly £1 per head of the population. Competitive designs for the building were called for, and 600 were received, 23 coming from Great Britain. It was surely a happy coincidence that the winning design for this war memorial museum was

the work of three young returned soldiers, Messrs. Grierson, Aimer, and Draffin, of Auckland. Th pdifiep which rnvpw nlmnd aTI ™e in W? Ind acre 4 was Deu m 1925 and took 4 years to complete, with the result that Auckland today has a museum buildin S which vies with Cardiff, Belfast, Saint John; N. 8., and half a dozen others for the proud title of the Empire’s most beautiful museum, to quote the words of S. F. Markham, M.A., B.Litt., at the Norwich Conference, Mr. Markham having spent 7 years visiting nearly every important museum in the British Empire. (Mr. Markham, in collaboration with Dr. H. C. Richards, compiled “A Directory of the Museums

and Art Galleries in Australia and New Zealand,” which was published by the Museums Association, London.) Furthermore, he stated that Mr. Cheeseman’s efforts constituted the most inspiring record of what one man could do that had ever happened in the museum field. Greek Architecture The architecture follows the Greek order, the facade and front colonnade being of Doric design, and the lofty pillars of the Hypostyle Hall are lonic, forming a dignified approach to the central Hall of Memories with its high dome roofed with stained glass in glowing jewel colours and its walls inscribed with the names of over 7000 soldiers, sailors, and airmen of Auckland Province who made the supreme sacrifice in the First World War. Beyond the Hall of Memories is the Apsidal Chapel, which contains a shrine of black marble. At the ceremonial opening on November 28, 1929, the GovernorGeneral, Sir Charles Fergusson, referred to the impressive ceremony for those who died in battle in ancient Greece, a simple commemoration of duty faithfully done, and urged' that the sacrifice of our fallen be a call to duty for the living. The doors were opened in response to His Excellency’s knocking with a carved mere and the official party then entered the building, followed by the next-of-kin of the fallen and later by returned servicemen and relatives. Next day the Maori chiefs and their tribesfolk assembled from all parts of the province for the tomo, the dedication ceremony of the large Ngati-maru meeting-house named after their leading ancestor, Hotunui, to whom it once belonged, Their Excellencies being the first to enter the meeting-house after the traditional ceremony had been performed by Tutanekai Taua.

It is regrettable that Thomas Cheeseman did not live to see his “labours materialised.” He died on October 15, 1923, but he had practically completed that other .part of his lifework, the revised edition of “The Manual of the New Zealand Flora,” and the year before his death he was awarded the Gold Medal, the highest honour possible for the Royal Linnean Society to bestow, and a few months later his fellow-citizens presented him with an illuminated address and a purse of sovereigns in recognition of his 50 years’ service with the Auckland Institute. An Immensely Valuable Gift However, the natural history hall in the museum is known as the Cheeseman Memorial Hall and there can be seen a bas-relief of the noted botanist executed by the sculptor R. O. Gross, of Auckland. Cheeseman left his large herbarium of native and exotic plants to the museum, including almost a complete set of plants collected by Banks and Solander during Captain Cook’s voyages of 1769-1770 immensely valuable gift both from a historical and scientific point of view. Also, post-primary pupils compete annually for the Cheeseman, Memorial Prize, six prizes being given yearly since 1932 for essays, collections, poems, displays, or projects, and his memory is further perpetuated by a flower show every spring, when schoolchildren from all over New Zealand send exhibits of native flora for display at the museum, some of the entries even coming from as far south as Stewart Island. Boys’ and girls’ clubs meet regularly for the study of botany, ethnology, and natural history, and there is also a sketch club. The museum is steadily increasing the scope of its activities, this being largely due to the ability and administrative gifts of Dr. Gilbert Archey,

0.8. E., who has been Director of the museum since 1924. . A zoologist as well as an anthropologist, Dr. Archey’s monograph “The Moa,” based on years of study and research (involving investigation of moa bone deposits in the King Country near Te Kuiti in company with three other members of the Museum Council, Sir Carrick Robertson, Sir Frank Mappin, and A. T. Pycroft, the party being lowered into the limestone caves by means of ropes) made scientific history. His

"Notes on Sub-fossil Bird Remains” is another important contribution, likewise “Wood Carving in the North Auckland Area,” “Maori Carvings in the Three Kings,” and “South Sea Folk,” a handbook of Maori and South Pacific ethnology. Shortly before the end of the war the military authorities granted him a special leave of 9 months to take charge of the Raffles Museum in Singapore, and he travelled extensively in Malaya, gathering together the treasures which the natives had succeeded in hiding from the enemy, and putting the museum in order pending the arrival of a director from England. Research and Display Work The scientific staff is constantly engaged in research and display work (for example, the Assistant Director, A. W. B. Powell, whose handbook “The Native Animals of New Zealand” is having phenomenal sales, was awarded the Hector Medal last year for his numerous papers on fossils and mollusca) and these activities have been greatly helped by the benefactions of Edward Earle Vaile, whose endowments of property bring in an income which enables the museum to buy extensive ethnological collections and books relating to New Zealand and the Pacific. The latest purchase of this kind is the notable library of rare and historical works of early New Zealand and Maori life (many .with handwritten notes from the authors) of Johannes C. Andersen, M.8.E., who until his retirement was Librarian of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington. Instituted in 1931, Sunday afternoon lectures, comprising a course of 6 to 16 lectures illustrated by lantern slides or films, are most popular with the public, and hardly a year passes without one or more special exhibitions being held, the museum issuing a handbook in conjunction with many of these exhibitions.