4 Director's Anmial Report. 



space then provided will admit of a proper exposition of the life of 

 the various groups ancient and modern, for the ordinary visitor, 

 and the material beyond this should be preserved for the student 

 of ethnolog}' in a way that it can be studied without deranging the 

 exhibition series. 



This preservation of material is of far greater importance here 

 than in most museums. Even in the case of most perfecft construc- 

 tion exposure to the strongh' acftinic light of these clear Hawaiian 

 skies is the necessar}^ concomitant of public exhibition, and from 

 the experience of the fifteen years in which certain specimens have 

 here been on exhibition only two daj'S in each week, being care- 

 full)^ covered the rest of the time, it seems certain that thirty years 

 will be the limit of color life in kapa, feathers and shells. When 

 we add to this danger the attacks of a host of never tiring iusecfts, 

 need is great of unusual precautions if the second generation from 

 the present is to see the choice kapa, feather cloaks and the native 

 birds, most of which will be extinct outside of mu.seums. I have 

 devised a store case of steel which seems to meet all the require- 

 ments except as to cost, and I am at present trying to arrange 

 cheaper but equally effective constru(5tion of these receptacles, of 

 which the Museum needs a large number. 



Of course as this is a working mviseum, additional laboratory 

 room is greatly needed. The wooden buildings at some distance 

 from the Museum, that have for some years served the purpose, 

 were intended for makeshifts, were fiimsily construcfled, and are 

 rapidly falling into decay. They should at once be replaced, and 

 the question is whether b}- another temporary structure or by such 

 a building as will serve the present and future needs of the Museum 

 work, be permanent and fireproof, fit in architedlurally with the 

 present Museum, and while offering all needed laboratory facili- 

 ties, be also a proper storeroom for collecflions not on exhibition. 



We have not at present any room that we can offer to a visit- 

 ing naturalist who desires to critically examine any of our collec- 

 tions, without turning out from his table some working member of 



[258] 



