OTAGO EARLY SETTLERS

Evening Star, Issue 19799, 24 February 1928, Page 5

OTAGO EARLY SETTLERS

MUSEUM ENLARGED AHD RECLASSIFIED NOTHING QUITE LIKE IT ELSEWHERE For flic past month flic museum chambers of the Otago Early Settlers’ Association in Cumberland street have been closed to permit of a thorough reconditioning and a new classification. This laborious and lingo job, calling for knowledge, taste, and painstaking application, is now completed by Mr W, Paterson (secretary) and Mr W. H. Ferens (chairman of the Museum Committee), aided by others as opportunity served. Everything was taken down, sorted, cleansed, and assigned to a new position, ami when members and others attend at the reopening on Monday evening (the Hon. W. Downio Stewart ns the speaker) they will ho profoundly impressed by the spaciousness, the order, and the general appearance of the four chandlers that now constitute the museum. Even as it was before the renovation, this museum ranked as unique in regard to history. That was the common declaration of overseas visitors from England, America, Australia, and other parts. Now it is not merely a historical repository. ft is an art gallery, sightly as well as interesting. The main chamber of the old Art Gallery is now room No. ] of the museum, devoted solely so far as the walls are concerned to portraits of early settlers. Over a thousand of such portraits are included in the collection. There are so many that they overflow into other rooms, hi this room No. 1 the portraits arc of settlers who arrived in the years from ISJd onwards. P.rominent hero are the presentments of John Jones and ins wile (maiden name Sarah Simmers). John Jones was scaling in Foveaux Strait in the 1820 s; he afterwards engaged in whaling from establishments at Preservation Inlet, Jacob’s River, Now River, Bluff, Waikouaiti, and Mocraki, and in 1840 he founded the settlement at Waikonaiti. His wife arrived at Wellington from Sydney bv the ship Andover in 1843, and settled at Waikonaiti the same year . . Dr Joseph Crocomc s portrait is also of peculiar interest, ior he was the first doctor in Otago, having settled at the Heads in 1536.

William rainier, an old winder at Tantuku in ISJO, is one of the venorablcs.

William Isaac Habcrfiekl is another. He ciiuc to Otago by the Merrimac in ISdd

The oldest surviving resident of Otago, Mrs Wolsoy, is also represented. This lady came to M aikonaiti by the brig Magnet m 18-11), and is now in Ross Home.

The eldest resident of Dunedin, Mrs M J Johnston (nee Cargill) likewise comes into tins rare section ol the cata-

logue. • Room No. d is used lor other portraits of .settlers, and (hero is a further overliow into the Donald Reid wing of two apartments, the latest dates of arrival being down to 1808. Most remarkable is the condition of the portraits as a whole. Those that arc painted, constituting the majority, are all as fresh as when issued by the artists, and but very few of the photograph: are in the least faded. As a' labor of love, Mr James Brown (late of the National Bank) has catalogued the entire collection of portraits, making a copy in a clerkly hand in a special book that is of high value for reference.

The new disposition of the museum exhibits brings about the important advantage of giving plenty of space for visitors to walk about at caso or to sit tired- Another improvement is that the four chambers are naturally connected thus enabling strangers to undertake a thorough inspection without missing anything. The secretary’s office is so placed as to bo easily accessible In every way the reorganisation is thorough and adequate, and a credit to the society.

Some unique exhibits arc allotted, special prominence, amongst them tho chain with which Air C. C. Kettle did his measuring when surveying Port Chalmers and Dunedin in 1846; Dr Stuart’s plaid; the hell that was brought from a Botany Bay convict ship by John Jones, used on tho brig Magnet, eventually set up to give time to the residents of Dunedin, and thus gave Bell Hill its name; also the gown that was worn by tho Hon. W. If. Reynolds (father of Messrs E. 0. and W. E. Reynolds), when ho was Speaker of tho Provincial Council. Tho latest addition to tho exhibits, received a day or two ago, is a spirited and faithful portrait in oils of “ Black Sam,” who used to be a bootblack hero in tho early ’sixties. Tho painting carries tho signature of Arthur Cleut. It depicts Sam standing at the door of tho Princess Theatre, in trout of (he bill announcing that J. B. Steeto and his wife, Adelaide Bowring, were to appear Tile Hunchback.’