330 OPENING ADDRESS.—MACGREGOR. 
very long time. But whatever we possess, be the collections 
small or large, may be utilised for educational purposes by 
judicious arrangement. It is only necessary that the Curator of 
the Museum should have a wide knowledge of natural science, 
and experience in the fine art of arranging and labelling speci- 
mens, recognizing and giving prominence to typical ones, and 
relegating others to less conspicuous positions. 
To those of you, who are familiar with our Museum, it will 
be evident that the collections, which it seems to me we ought 
to aim at making as soon as possible, are far in advance of what 
the Museum now possesses. No one who knew the late Curator 
could help admiring the enthusiasm and energy which he 
exhibited as a collector; but lack of assistance prevented him 
from bringing his local collections to completion, lack of funds 
compelled him to be satisfied with the most meagre typical col- 
lections, and lack of space made proper arrangement an impossi- 
bility. No one deplored more than he, the fact that owing to 
the difficulties in his way, it was impossible for him to carry the 
Museum toa higher stage of efficiency. Now, however, that a 
new departure must be made, it is well to ask what must be 
done to give the Museum the efficiency which the considerations 
I have brought before you seem to show it ought to possess. 
First, then, it must be noted that the collections which have been 
accumulating during the last twenty years, though neither so 
complete nor so varied as is desirable, are of very great value, 
and that they are stored in a room which is so small that a study 
of them is attended with the greatest difficulty, and in the case 
of many parts of them is well-nigh impossible. Now the expendi- 
ture of large sums of money on the accumulation of a museum 
which has practical value only in so far as it can be studied, and 
the subsequent storing of it in such a way that a study of its con- 
tents is attended with the greatest difficulty, would seem to be a 
policy of folly. Hence it goes without saying that the museum 
must have a new local habitation, if the expenditure already made 
on it is to be justified, and still more, if the policy which has been 
followed for the last twenty years of continually adding to the 
collections, is to be continued. Let it be noted, however, by those 
