THE MUSEUM.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1983, 13 February 1914, Page 9

THE MUSEUM.

1 . TALK WITH NEW DIRECTOR. HAVOC OF THE BORER. MODERN STYLE OF DISPLAY. Beetles, moths, borer, damp, and fire are perils that daily endanger the" very valuable collection of exhibits whioh the/' Dominion Museum contains. If the Govorninont desired to sell the collection, ready' purchasers' beyond New Zeaand could be found, >nd thaijat a very high price—probably many thousands of pounds. This the Government are notat all likely to do, but it may be mentioned to show that, purely from utilitarian considerations, 'the museum : ia worth looking after. It is not surprising that the people of Wellington take little thought of it, because; owing to' .lack of-'space, it is not possible to make tho display attractive. There ■Jβ not even reasonable storage room for ex- , hibits which,-from their nature, arenot . BUjtable.for display. ,;, .\ ; ' Somp time ago a tin shed was built on' a part of the'museum site for additional storage, and_ some-' Maori carvings are. piled in it in"' disarray, much! : as if they were old timber,' and a great part of. the floor, space is occupied by, a. stack of boxes belonging to theElectqralDe-' partment, and heaps of mattresses: and. blankets. belonging to'tho'Justice Department) wljich 'were obtained for the uso of s the 'specials. .' ,' -.J . ' "So Full of Beetles and Borer." . The- recently-appointed Director of the . Dominion Museum, Dr. Allan Thomson, ialked with a reporter yesterday about the .many, things that must'be done to preserve fhe collection. /; "Supposing .we- had a. new,- museum to-morrow,, , ' he said, "we should bo , busy for a .very long time classifying our'sftiff, and shifting it. The present building is so rotten,' and so full of.beetles and borer, that a. great,deal of the stuff,would- have to be fumigated. Now every. Monday we. poison with carbon disulphide everycase,'tb.at contains birds'-skins, feather mats,. fend any other "case in which there are . Indications of the. preserfce of borer, ■ffllsny of the Maori carvings, are'per- - manently damaged, and others are-in ■/danger of, damage. It; will really be . necessary to fumigate, them -all,' and pack them away into' separate stores until' the- museum .is .built. The tin shed ' fon the northern' corner of the museum site) ; was built to provide room , for the ;Buller collection. / Some of tho carvings hi this shed have' been riddled with borer, so that it would be' useless How for the storage "of the specimens that we had fumigated. \Of course,- it -is■..very- important; that we should'». begin ■'-.-at. once 'with:- "the work, of preserving ■■ these trophies','by' fumigating them and putting them out of harm's way.' Tho public may look forward, therefore, to seeing ;tho museum gradually, depleted of its more-in-.terostmg exhibits until the.new building'is ready. . ~ •■ The Scientific Library. ; ~,"i'^? v e begun removing "frdm'the library a number.of bound books which' have not been much used in the past , , and which are not likely to be in" great' demand in the immediate future, in order to assemble the' great number of Unbound books which are stored all over the building. ■' It Vis really important that the" question - whether ' ■ tho' Now Zealand Institute Library is to pass over to the Dominion Museum-or not' should be : soon:' (; W:auso' if the libra'r£SbWdfiig v wer%,:HvalKnlg*no.w : it would be sbnio considerable time before the beiAs could -be bound- and ''Stored in' it. These; unbpnhd papers,are very: va'luaUe:'fro"ni : '!i r sci'entlfic..point of view'.' Indeed, the New' Zealand Institute library is a very valuable collection of scientific works. ' It contains most of tho 'transactions of scientific societies throughout the world, but it is deficjorit in scientific magazines published in France, Germany, and Austria." - Methods of Display-/'-, Dr. Thomson did not care to discuss tho policy to be-followed in administering the" museum, "or''the 'designini!' of tho new building.- -Decision on these' points will rest with the-iboard to be appointed. He rtade some interesting remarks, however, about tlie policy qf museums generally. . '.'The modern' policy of good museums," he aaid, "is not to attempt u> ' allow ooinploto collections, ; or to < show all that the museum, possesses, but to have a few well displayed and clearly explained exhibits which are perfectly intelligible to anyone without scientific knowledge. No more thaii one-half <rf the museum building is occupied with show rooms.. The complete collections are kept on shelves,.or in cupboards . and stores, and are so arranged • that people with special knowledge can be admitted, to study, them in .detail. This .is. the now policy iof the American museums; So that although this museum ought to acquire complete collections of Maori •ethnological items, and ' con.plete col- , lections of tho flora and fauna of New Zealand , , it is not necessary that the whole of these collections should bo exhibited to the public. In tho museum at present the collections aro so crowded together that the visitor's attention distracted,'and ;he ends by being bevilderal. , It would.take a man one wholo day perhaps to study one case, and most people who come here" stay only-half an hour in the whole building. In order to make their institutions."live. ones," it is tho policy of'many museums to. change thfeir . exhibits from time to time,, arid to advertise t t ho fact to tho public, iwli3 aro thereby induced to continue their interest. ■ : : As to the : possibility of increasing/the educational usefulness of a museum by offering- series of' lectures io school teachers, in order that they might pass on knowledge to the children, Dr. Thomson was-very doubtful. Suck lectures at other places had proved to be failures. On the other "hand, lectures- , 'to childrenby oiialified persons, sometimes, associated.with the museum.- were very much in favour, ami ho believed did a great amount 'of pood. To some museum's there 'was- attached n. .children's ', muFeumj in which tho .exhibits could.be handled aud drawn ,by children."