598 Proceedings. 



are no sooner set musing upon the mysteries of artificial flower-making, 

 than we are called off to \vonder at the peculiarities of Maori archichecture ; 

 but while we are attempting to decipher the hieroglyphics emblematic of 

 Maori tradition, we become conscious that close by us is the divine form of 

 Aphrodite, and that a goddess from Olympus is smiling down upon the 

 recent ornament of a Maori village. 



Be it well understood that, in speaking thus of our collections, I do not 

 in any way find fault with our excellent Curator, who has done all that he 

 could reasonably be expected to do with the means and appliances at his 

 disposal ; nor do I attach any blame to those who have spared neither pains 

 nor money to rear our young museum in spite of every kind of difficulty. 

 The want of subdivision has been due solely to want of means, and now 

 that the one want has disappeared the other ought rapidly to follow it into 

 the past. 



To subdivide our collections would be of very great value in quite 

 another way. At present it is not clear that we are particularly interested 

 in any special branch, and hence any person who may have devoted hia 

 attention to some subject, such as the accumulation of specimens of native 

 work, is not led to feel that we also are engaged in the same direction. Gifts 

 and bequests, which, as everyone knows, are the great support of institutions 

 such as this, are not attracted, but find their way to England or to other 

 towns in the colony, where it is presumed that they will be more prized and 

 displayed with greater effect. By ignoring this aspect of the question we 

 should, I am convinced, do our museum the greatest injury. 



This re-arrangement of the museum in separate departments should, if 

 possible, precede the construction of a museum designed for public inspec- 

 tion ; it is, in my opinion, of infinitely more importance than the acquisi- 

 tion of new specimens with which to enrich the collections. It cannot, of 

 course, be properly carried out without additional capital expenditure ; but 

 the interest on such capital would amount to less than is now expended on 

 additions to the collections, which do not materially increase the value of 

 the museum. Further, the annual numerical increase of the specimens 

 would only suffer a temporary reduction, which would be recouped tenfold 

 by the additional interest taken in the museum, and by the flow of donations 

 which would undoubtedly follow. Thus, even from the point of view of the 

 rigid economist, this subdivision must be admitted to be necessary. More- 

 over it would not, probably, be difiicult to obtain the necessary capital or 

 part of it as an advance from the Government, at a low rate of interest, or 

 at none at all, on the £10,000 with which the museum is endowed. 



There is, as far as I am aware, only one real difficulty in our way, and 

 that is the extraordinary delay of the City Council in adopting decisively a 

 plan for completing their excavations in this neighbourhood. By leaving 

 open for years a question such as that of the future level of an important 

 street, enterprise is checked, improvement rendered impossible, and the 

 return from the rates diminished. I trust that some members of the 

 Council will ere long move in this matter, and that we shall not have a vast 

 scene of devastation permanently imposed upon the centre of the city. 



While speaking of the subdivision of the museum, I should like to draw 

 attention to the necessity of deciding without delay as to the precise nature 

 of the collections to which we shall devote our attention. At present we 

 have the beginnings of a natural history museum, of a museum of sculp- 

 ture, or rather of plaster casts, and of an anthropological nniseum. Shall 

 we continue always to keep up these three departments ? Shall we, in the 

 near future, be likely to add others to them? and, if so, what others? 

 These are questions which must soon be answered, unless we wish to run the 

 risk of wasting the funds at our disposal. In attempting to deal with them, 

 we must be caieful nut to lose sight of the fact that this is not the only 

 body in Auckland which possesses or will shortly possess a museum, and 

 that it is extremely undesirable that small duplicate collections should be 

 accumulated in different parts of the sflme town. Tliis remark does not 



