THE MUSEUM.

Evening Star, Issue 3234, 2 July 1873, Page 3

THE MUSEUM.

To the Editor. Sir, —I see with much pleasure that public attention has been directed, through the medium of your columns, to the unsatisfactory state of our Museum. In justice to Mr Purdie, to whose care it is entrusted, it must be remembered that he has the charge of the whole University building, an occupation which affords him no leisure for six months of the year. There are at present two or three rooms full of dusty, moth-eaten specimens, rotting away out of sight for want of wall-cases in which to display them, and a suitable person to look after them.; and 1 believe many cases are still lying unpacked, which were brought out from the Old Country for the use of the University. This session Dr Black is delivering lectures on Geology and Mineralogy, and, i am informed, cannot get specimens to illustrate the course. Such short-sighted policy is difficulty to reconcile with the liberality which prompts the appropriation of 100,000 acres of land for a medical school. It is to be hoped that before plunging into new schemes in regard to the University, the Provincial Council will see fit to place existing things in a proper state, and will vote LI,OOO, to be expended on our Museum, that it may carry out the objects for which it was intended, —I am, &c, Naturalist. Dunedin, July 2.