THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM 



MAGAZINE 



Published by the Australian Museum 

 Editor: C. Anderson, M.A., D.Sc. 



College Street, Sydney. 

 Annual Subscription, Post Free, 4/4. 



Vol. I., No. 7. 



DECEMBER, 1922. 



Editorial 



MUSEUMS AND ENDOWMENTS. 



THEY do these things well in 

 America. A recent number of 

 Natural History, a magazine issued 

 by the American Museum of Natural 

 History, New York, informs us that the 

 Endowment Fund has been recently 

 augmented by two gifts totalling 

 $1,250,000, and the trustees hope that 

 during the present year at least 

 $2,000,000 may be raised for this fund. 

 That is the proper spirit, and we hope 

 that this objective will be attained. 

 The great New York museum is the 

 admiration and the envy of similar 

 institutions the world over. It is 

 admired because of its magnificent 

 services to science and education, and 

 its bold adventures in new methods of 

 display, which have become classic 

 models for imitation elsewhere. And it 

 is envied because of its well merited 

 success in arousing the interest of 

 American citizens and gaining their 

 material support for its projects. The 

 greater part of its income is derived not 

 from public funds but from private 

 donations, which enable the trustees to 

 finance vast schemes of exploration and 

 research in all quarters of the globe. 



We in Australia are more modest. 

 We have our own continent, with a 

 fauna and an aboriginal population 

 more interesting perhaps than any in 



the world and presenting many prob- 

 lems yet unsolved. Then we have the 

 Pacific at our doors, teeming with pos- 

 sibilities for zoological and ethno- 

 graphical research, and Australian 

 museums would be up and doing. Can 

 we not hope for a measure of public 

 support, not, indeed, as great as 

 American museums obtain, but com- 

 mensurate with the wealth of our own 

 country ? It might be said that the 

 public services of this museum are so 

 slight in comparison that we cannot 

 expect private donors to respond to 

 our needs as in America. But we would 

 reply that this museum is prepared, and 

 tries to serve the public as fully as its 

 resources and opportunities will allow. 

 No reasonable request for information 

 or help is refused. We give free public 

 lectures both in the museum and out- 

 side. With our all too slender means 

 we attempt, by collecting expeditions 

 in Australia and the Pacific Islands, to 

 gather the materials for scientific in- 

 vestigation, the results of which are 

 published in our Records or in the 

 proceedings of learned societies. We 

 have had classes for the blind. We are 

 ever seeking to make our exhibits more 

 interesting and instructive to the public. 

 We have established this Magazine for 

 the benefit of those who wish to learn 



