2 Colonial Museums. 



several private collettions of little scientific value. In Oxford, later, 

 the collecftion from this group made b}- Baron von Hiigel, probably 

 the choice,st in any museum, was examined with the kind as- 

 sistance of the accomplished colleclor who is now Curator of the 

 University Museum. Before leaving Suva some kapas (white ma- 

 si and figured su/as), and a few implements were purchased which 

 are now in the Museum. 



The route of the ' Warrimoo' was dire(5t from Suva to Sydney, 

 leaving New Zealand far to the southward, but on several previous 

 voyages the museums of that progressive Colony were visited, and 

 it may be stated that the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch is, as a 

 general museum, one of the most attra(5live in the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere, and in the remains of the Moa {Dinornis^ unquestionably 

 the richest in the world: in Maori remains it is not remarkable: it 

 publishes a Guide-book. At Wellington, the Capital of New Zea- 

 land, and the centre of scientific energy in that Colony, the museum 

 is smaller, but contains a fine car\^ed Maori house. As a scientific 

 museum that at Auckland, of which Mr Thomas F. Cheeseman is 

 Dire(5tor, ranks high; and here is the fine Maori war-canoe more 

 than eighty feet long and of remarkable model, besides many carv- 

 ed prows and stern-posts of canoes that have perished. The Mao- 

 ri implements are well represented but a depraved taste has led to 

 the mutilation of the native carved figures, hence ethnologically all 

 such specimens are bad for they lead to a false estimate of indige- 

 nous art. The blame for this silly proceeding may or may not rest 

 with the Government, certainly not with the accomplished Curator. 

 On the other hand it should be said that all the Colonial Govern- 

 ments have fostered museums of which Australia and New Zea- 

 land may well be proud, for as educators of the people, these mu- 

 seums, although so recent, are close followers of Vienna, Berlin, 

 Hamburg, London, Washington, New York and Boston. 



At Sydney the Australian Museum in charge of Mr Robert 

 Etheridge, Jr., had been rearranged and greatly improved since a 

 visit two years before. In the Department of Natural History is a 



