WORRIED OFFICIALS

Hokitika Guardian, 20 May 1933, Page 7

WORRIED OFFICIALS

PARK'S AMD MUSEUMS

HOLIDAY-MAKERS’ RAIDS.

The people of Sydney, making a holiday, uo nob by any means inspue the public servants whose duty it is to look after public institutions, fjucb as parks, gardens, art gjleridi, museum Mid such like. Aftep a great holiday there is not a man among them that does not give a sign of Vejjief when the “knell of Parting day"’ or “the curfew” sounds, or whatever they call the bell that teds the public that it is time to deoepart.

A correspondent says:—“The officials have kept a keen eye on everything, but, it is not until the next day, when they have run through, the catalogues, so to speak, that they can tell where there is anything missing. In .the language of one of' them, j Sydney people will pinch anything, and will do it without even a shadow of a j belief that they are doing wrong.’ i They have "been known to reply when I caught in the act of purloining specimens, ‘Well, the Government gets it out of me, why shouldn’t I get a bit of my own back.’ The Botanic Gardens, for instance, are not really a place of recreation, but are. adopted as such. Instead of a place of botam ical study and quiet pleasure, they have become a source of worry to the authorities—the Government Botanist ; to wit—under whose care they are I placed. . j ‘Not only ore rare plants ruthlessly torn out of plantations and beds, but the hothouses, the glasshouses, Water j plant houses, ferneries and other places i closed in are raided. These buildings have always been the pride of the gardens, to which many people have miade ' pilgrimages. To-day they : are closed, absolutely closed, from public view, and men have to be posted round to see that no one breaks into j them. 'So many things have . been j stolen that the curator has. had to j take this course to save the remnants from destruction and theft. ;

“'Similarly, the art gallery authorities have to be.on the alert for the thief whose love of art runs tp ‘pinching pictures,’ to use the vernacular, and the men in the museum would-not be surprised to find that the Egyptian mummy had - been taken out of its case. The . old sign ‘Beware of Pickpockets’ will have .to be removed from the entrances to these places, and ‘Keen thy hands from picking and stealing’ substituted. The manner'of guarding the® institutions at the present time is such that every visitor is now looked upon as a potential thief.”