A NEGLECTED ASSET.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1960, 17 January 1914, Page 4

A NEGLECTED ASSET.

fxWiuLE "il; : has-been , recognised," ever sincp ran scums, were first established, that these institutions havc.a- highly .important bearing >ipon:;.thc;:.-- Jad,vanccment oflsdcncsand art and tho disscminati - ori:- : !o{- useful knowledge fronornlljv their poaeibiiitifls in this dirMtion hftvo intbo pout boon do-

Jtcrit;;.;|Thc;expense', incurred in : ';as- : | ?scmbling.'i collections- of>< rarest and .ibciuttifui: objects hits' been, out'of.-'all , fiSVopbrtiaitf to ■" the - final '■■ results fatstained/; largely for the reason/that ; Uhe¥ed motional-' possibilities"' 'o'f-"t|ie' ■Inius'eunt}havo:.only involuted- and cases been seriously exploited. , ' (iStiidents,; using the term -in-a-'.wide ■ senge/ihavc, of "coarstv always,pro--tltcd' by the;.existenceVof,'rnu'seuins,'. vbut the general public have not benefited;,to anything like the. samo;ex■tcnO In; : Great Britain 'there"has been an awakening on the subject during the last three ytars, and ef-. forts are being made to supplement .the work that has been,done in assembling and housing..(ho' museum collections by providing competent guides and lecturers to give short .lectures and explanations. Up'to.' three years ago visitors to the.public museums in Great Britain found it difficult, if not impossible, to ' obtain any information about the objects in view, and, as a recent writer has observed, were left to wander aimlessly about the galleries with but little appreciation and scarcely any understanding of the treasures that surrounded them. The actual owners of the museums had no idea how to use them. Under the new system this unsatisfactory state . of affairs has been remedied. Short popular lectures were inaugurated at the British Museum in 1011, and at the London Natural History Museum in the following year. In each case tho experiment has been entirely successful, and up to the end of last year fifty thousand people had attended the lecturce at these two institutions alone. Similar arrangements have been made at. other museums throughout the country, and there seems to bo every prospect that the innovation will be a permanent success. A great authority who has recently expressed himself on tho subject is Sir Kay LankesteS, who was for many years Director of the London Natural History Museum, He was believed to be very sceptical as to the value of tho introduction of guide-demonstrators, but has lately stated that he is convinced "that' it has been shown by the actual result of She experiment, made first at tho Bloomsbury Museum and during tho first' year (1913) at Cromwell Road, that , the services of a good official guide are highly valucdoy the public, and that in consequence of the appointment of such 'guides' a large number of Visitors to the museums are enabled to understand and appreciate the contents of the museum cases, who, without the guide's assistance, would not have arrived at this understanding and appreciation." To a great extent the conditions which existed in Great Britain prior to the' inauguration of the system of popular lectures at tho museums exist in New Zealand to-day. For instanccj it is probably not overstating the ease to say that in the eyes of the average Wellingtonian the. Dominion Museum appears as a sort of superior curiosity shop. The number of students and other per* sons whose attainments enable- them to take a really intelligent interest in the collections is strictly limited, and Uie average man and woman are limited by lack of information to a merely superficial observation of the innumerable exhibits which the museum contains. A specimen ■,of .-Maori carKHigvOi , a mos,. may have a certaininterest from the'spectacular point of., view, hut it can hardly be claimed that tho pleasure which occasional visitors take in contemplating them, vithotit understanding and with only superficial appreciation, is a satisfactory fulfilment of the objects for which a museum exists. In any case the value of these institutions would certainly be enormously increased by the inauguration of a system of popular, lectures' which would confer soms knowledge of the world around them and of bygone history upon people who have' neither time nor inclination to become serious students. It may be objected that the appointment of competent lecturers would involve considerable expense, but nothing very ambitious need be attempted at the outset Something might be accomplished with the aid of the existing staffs and by coordination with the educational institutions of the country. These arc matters of detail for experts to determine. The point to be made here is that museums should be made to serve an educative purpose where the general public is concerned. The value of museums to students, and as treasure-houses of knowledge which will be passed on to future generations, may be admitted, but in addition to this a museum should promote tho spread of useful and interesting information among the mass of the people, and this purpose cannot Iμ adequately fulfilled until mere exhibition is supplemented by explanation and instruction. Some efforts have from time to time been in this direction by volunteer workers, .but what is wanted is a sysfomatic plan on lines similar to those which are being followed in Great Britain but with such limitations and modifications as are necessitated by our local circumstances. The utilisation of museums in connection with tho instruction of school children would naturally find a place in any scheme of tho kind.