Auckland Institute. 599 



apply with the same force to artistic collections, such as those of oil paint- 

 ings, which, by their very nature, are not capable of duplication, unless it 

 be admitted that a copy of a picture is a duplicate of it : hence a picture 

 gallery, if it be designed with a view to embody some particular idea, loses 

 nothing of its value by the presence in the same town of other and even of 

 far larger galleries. In other departments, however, duplication of collec- 

 tions involves much waste of labour, and a sad disregard of economy of 

 administration 



Let me give a few instances of the duplication which is alreadyarising 

 in our midst. In Natural History we are already competing with the 

 University College, which possesses an increasing Biological Museum, limited 

 it is true, but in some respects superior to our own. In Anthropology, we 

 shall compete with the City, which has been promised by Sir George Grey a 

 beautiful collection of weapons, utensils, and ornaments of Maori and South 

 Sea Island origin. In Art, where, as I have said, the scattering of collec- 

 tions is less hurtful, we shall share with the City and with the Mackelvie 

 Trustees the responsible position of artistic guides to the people of Auckland. 

 Surely we ought to come to some understanding with these bodies as to 

 which work shall be undertaken by them and which by us. 



In the case of the University College, an arrangement of some kind is 

 urgently needed, inasmuch as both that body and ourselves are bound to 

 maintain a Biological Museum and a Biological Library. It seems to me to 

 show no great solicitude for the public interest that no one has hithertp 

 made the slightest attempt to avoid the waste caused by the annual expendi- 

 ture of hundreds of pounds by the College authorities, and by ourselves, for 

 purposes which are in the main identical. I am not prepared to suggest, 

 and should not in any case presume to draw up, any agreement such as 

 would meet the difficulty ; but I have not the slightest hesitation in affirni- 

 ing that the biological laboratories of the University College should adjoin 

 and be in material connection with this building. If such an approxima- 

 tion of the similar departments of the two institutions were brought about, 

 you may rest assured that the Auckland Institute would not be the one of 

 the contracting parties which would gain the least. 



Another important question is whether we should attempt to add any 

 new departments to our collection. One department there is, which would 

 probably eclipse in usefulness to the citizens all which we now possess. I 

 refer to a Department of Technology. The importance of this class of 

 museum to a colony like this is so great, the arguments in favour of it so 

 undeniable, the examples of increased national wealth and prosperity so 

 numerous, that it would be impossible for me this evening even to place 

 before you the merest outline of the good which a Technical Museum would 

 effect. Suffice it to say, that in nearly all the large towns of England, of 

 Continental Europe, and of America, technical museums and technical 

 classes have been established, and that the people in these places are so 

 impressed with their value and their necessity that they have not hesitated 

 to expend enormous sums upon their acquisition. Thus the little State of 

 Switzerland estabhshed, as long ago as 1854, a Technical Museum and 

 School, upon which a sum of £20,000 is annually spent, besides erecting 

 buildings, the mere extension of a portion of which cost some year or so 

 ago £50,000. Again, the Kingdom of Bavaria, with its restricted territory 

 and by no means wealthy population,, has erected, at a cost of £157,000, a 

 Technical Museum and School. These are instances of comparatively 

 small attempts in this direction. In Berlin, the building at Charlottenburg, 

 outside the Brandenburg Gate, has cost no less than £450,000. It is always 

 a matter of astonishment to me that throughout New Zealand — and in this 

 respect the colony stands almost alone among civilized communities — no 

 attempt should have been made to satisfy the wants of the population in 

 this respect, and this, too, in spite of the fact that we, of all peoples, most 

 require it. For it is evident that our isolation from the great centres of 

 civilization renders it imperative that the results of that civilization should 



