Director's Annual Report. j 



those of most large museums in cold climates where they have 

 need of artificial heat during a portion of the year, and the winter's 

 cold checks the activities of insect pests, while here pests of that 

 nature are perennial and far exceeding in variety and abundance. 

 In spite of the best of cases, collections of birds, insects, plants, 

 must be frequently inspected, and all museum workers know that 

 this inspection if properh- done, needs room, it cannot be done in a 

 public gallery in the presence of careless or inquisitive visitors. 



I have harped so often on this string that I refrain from wear}'- 

 ing you farther with what seems to all of us engaged in museum 

 work the most important, and sooner or later the surely fatal defect 

 of the Bishop Museum. I will only say that while this monument 

 to Mrs. Bishop should be a permanent one there is little permanency 

 about it except in the stone walls and stone implements, and to a less 

 extent some of the wooden implements and the shells, corals and 

 volcanic specimens. I should be recreant to my duty as Director of 

 this Museum if I did not utter this warning. We have made too 

 much of present exhibition for vain public gratification and have 

 provided too little for the permanenc}' of the treasures amassed with- 

 in the Museum walls, which when perished can never be replaced. 



I will not leave this subject with the impression that I do not 

 believe a museum such as this has a part to fulfil toward the public 

 in exhibiting to a wise extent, that is so far as by so doing it can 

 convey instruction and even pleasure to visitors, but there is far 

 greater good to be done to far greater numbers by such collections 

 as ours in a very different way. The>- must be studied, here on 

 the spot, by competent men, and there must be conveniences for 

 such work. The results thus obtained will reach farther and last 

 longer than the praises (often unmixed with knowledge) which 

 fall from the transient visitor, however complimentary, and how- 

 ever pleasing to one's self-love. 



Hawaiian Hall is large enough, if duplicates could be stored 

 elsewhere, to exhibit all that any visitor of a few hours need know 

 of Hawaiian life, human, animal, vegetable or mineral, and Polv- 



[97] 



