A TOURING SAVANT.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1585, 31 October 1912, Page 11

A TOURING SAVANT.

DR. W. T. BRIGHAM, OF HONOLULU. CAPTAIN COOK RELIC'S. Dr. W. T. Brigliam, Curator of the notable Berenice Paualii Bishop Museum, of Honolulu, arrived from Sydney by the Jlaunganui yesterday morning, and spent an interesting day at tho Dominion Museum in company with Mr. A. Hamilton. It Ivas there that he was disturbed by a Dominion representative. Dr. Brigham is a genial old gentleman of 72 years, but wonderfully active in every way still, and a mine of information on anything concerning the Pacific Islands, their peoples and history, and his compilations, which have served to enrich tho libraries and museums of the world, are, in some instances, tho only reliable sources of information. One volume of his deals only with the native tapa . (kapa) cloth, the making' of which is a lost art, or practically so, for none hfts been made for over 50 years! There are imitation tapa cloths mai'o still in somo of tho Islands—in Samoa, for instance—but it is not the geuine tapa of the old days, which was made from the inner bark of the mulberry tree. Dr. Brigham stated that the collection of tapa cloths among the Captain Cook relics in the St. Petersburg Museum was one of the finest and most valitablo in the world. They had a pile of thom over two feet high. ,

Tho Dragon "in the Box." How .did they get to St. Petersburg? asked the interviewer. "After Captain Cook's death the crew took his vessel north, and they had a very bad time. At length they reached Kamschatka (Eastern Siberia) short of provisions, and in a very impoverished condition. They were very kindly treated, and, in return, as they had no money, presented the relics to the Governor of . Kamschatka. It is supposed that having no use for them there that ho boxed them up and sent them to St. Petersburg, where for many years they were stored in one of the old forts. They were clearing this place out one day, and came across the box filled with carved Island gods (akuas), feather capes and helmets, and tapa cloth. The discoverers got a real fright—thought they had disturbed A dragon or found tho long lost sea-ser-pent, or-something of tho kind. Anyhow, they sent for ono of the University men,, who recognised the rarity of the thing?, and in due course they were sent to the Academy of Sciences to be classified. I was fortunate in being a Follow, and Dr. Kndloff is giving mo photographs of every relic for publication in a book on Cook's relics which lam arranging. It will set out clearly where all tho genuino relios of the great explorer are located, with explanatory and warning notes where possible. You are very fortunate to have so many Cook relics in your musoum here, but what folly to store them in a wooden building. Why, this old placo might burn down in twenty minutes, and ils priceless treasures would be swept away. It makes mo shudder to think of it. Now, in Honolulu wo have two largo threestory museum buildings, one in lava stone, overgrown with vines, and the other, just completed, of ferro-coiicretc, absolutely fireproof. "And yet ours is not a Statu museum. It is endowed by ono man still living, Mr. Bishop, vice-president of the Bank of California, who lives at Berkeley, and who, though 92 years of age, goes between there and San Francisco every day. Tho museum was erected and endowed by Mr. Bishop in memory of his wife, the Princess Paunhi (which interpreted means 'burnt with firo'). She was a grandaughter of the great Knmehamehn, who lived in Cook's time. She was the first lady in the land—of the purest royal blood, a charming, accomplished lady, who spoke three languages, was a beautiful musician, and hold tho love and respect of all who knew her. Tho endowment now runs into about 2,000,000 dollars. Mr. Bishop was a big man in Hawaii before the annexation, and made a large fortune there." A Roving Commission. "I first went to Honolulu as far bock as 18G1 to report on the botany and geology of the islands. I was asked to come j over again in IEBB, and two years later | the musoum was started in two rooms. To-day it is classified by the British and National Museums as tho first of local ' museums in tho world. Tho museum specialises in the Pacific—that is, tho Pacific that embraces the Polynesian, Melnnesian, Papuan, and Australian peoples, and in that regard it is unique. Wo do not go in for a lot of this or several of that —wo get ono and see that it is a good one. Wo have a printing house now connected with the Museum and do all our own book printing. I bought the type, distributed it, and set tho first 30 pngas of my book on my last tour round the world myself. TJien'whon they thought they wero losing too much of my time they gam me a printer, and now wo have a fine printing office, running the full length of the new building (100 ft.);" Dr. Brigham said he had been asked to make a tour of the world's museums by the trustees to sec exactly how they stood, but he bad protested that, at 72, ho could not do what he had done before. But they asked him to lake his time, and do tho thing leisurely, but it is not in the savant's nature to loiter, and since April last ho has travelled somo 40,003 miles—across America, to Boston, Washington, and New York, tluen across the Atlantic, on which voyage they had to take a eoutherly course on account of (ho Titanic disaster, and an ordinarily six days' trip occupied eight. Then to England, Holland, Copenhagen. Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Moscow. Budapest, Vienna, Dresden. Munich, Leipzig, Berlin, Frankfort, Paris, Marseilles, Monte Carlo, Genoa, Rome, Naples, Cairo, Colombo, Java, Melbourne, and Sydney. Mr. Brigham spent three weeks in Java, where lie visited tli.o famous Boro Badour temple—tho greatest architectural marvel in the world. Ho says it cannot last much longer as a complete thing. In fact, it lias never been completely restored in the memory, of man. There are two or three acres of land occupied by pieces of carving and statuary and stonework, which could not be fitted into any placo, and the neighbouring village was decorated with trophins from the temple. Tt was not that the stone was wearing at '•nil, but the pieces had never been cemented together properly, and tiie water had got through the interstices in the top, and had gradually swollen the earthem lull, which Boro Badour endows, and the result was that the sides were bulging out in all sorts of ways and nothing was in plumb.