510 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
building erected. The Provincial Government of the day, of which Mr. F. 
Stewart was Provincial Secretary and President of the Executive, proposed 
in the session of that year a vote of £2,500 for the erection of a Museum 
building. A plan was provisionally prepared by Mr. W. B. Mountfort, and, 
as many of the opposition members had now seen that there was ample 
material for exhibition, the seven moa skeletons already articulated being 
the principal objects, their antagonism seemed to have at last been over- 
come. But alas! our hopes were again dashed to the ground, the proposed 
vote having been negatived on July 4, 1867. However, during the same 
session, on July 16, £200 were voted for further show-cases, and our hopes 
were again renewed that in another year, when the rooms now at our dis- 
posal might be full to overflowing, the members of the opposition who did 
not wish to divert any public money from roads and bridges and other 
purely utilitarian objects would relent at last. 
So we went on working with renewed hope, the more so as further 
excavations in Glenmark under my directions, in August of the same year, 
were again very successful, so that our stock of moa bones became larger 
still. Some more skeletons were now articulated, and a series of others, 
more or less complete, were prepared for exchange with foreign countries. 
In September two large collections were shipped to the Australian Museum 
in Sydney, and to the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge, 
United States of North America, and a month afterwards the former Museum 
sent fine and valuable return collections, consisting of skins, and some 
mounted specimens of Australian mammals, birds, and reptiles, together 
with others in spirits of wine, so that we became then possessed of a fair 
representation of the Australian fauna. 
At last, on December 8rd of the same year, the Museum could be opened 
to the public. The principal room as before stated was situated above 
Bellamy’s. At its southern end the seven moa skeletons were placed, whilst 
in three high cases along the western and northern walls, the collection of 
stuffed birds and mammals, the former mostly belonging to New Zealand, 
were exhibited. On the eastern side of the room in desk-cases, unmounted 
skins and other smaller objects were shown. The tower-room in the 
north-eastern corner of the building contained the geological collections, 
both from New Zealand and foreign countries. In the bow-window stood 
the large desk-case containing the interesting and valuable specimens from 
the New Zealand goldfields. The more westerly room was filled with table 
an ie which the collection + oe coment epee a 
