The Aims and Scope of a Provincial Museum. 35 



Dr. Andrew Trimble, J. P., as a member of the Library and 

 Technical Instruction Committee, explained the steps which had 

 been taken in regard to the proposed new art gallery and museum 

 in the Botanic Gardens Park. He thought the site chosen was 

 an admirable one as regarded light and general position. They 

 had their Curator already appointed, and they hoped to consult 

 him frequently in re^^ard to future arrangements. He should like 

 to ask Dr. Scharff if he thought a museum and art gallery could 

 be housed consistently in the same building. 



Mr. James Corr spoke appreciatively of the lecturer, whom 

 he described as an idealist. Unfortunately in Belfast they were 

 limited in money and space in regard to their museum, but he 

 had no doubt that when erected it would be an ornament to the 

 city and an education to the people. Before they embarked 

 seriously on the work they would get the very best expert advice. 



Mr. Robert Welch referred to the Horner collection of 

 spinning-wheels, which he thought formed a splendid nucleus of 

 a particular section of their staple industry. 



Mr. Alec Wilson, J. P., alluding to open air museums, 

 suggested the utilisation of the whole of the Botanic Gardens 

 Park for that purpose. He mentioned that April next year would 

 be the tercentenary of Belfast. It was in April, 1613, that the 

 town got its charter. Previous to that it had no corporate 

 existence, and it had occurred to some of them that they ought 

 to get up a tercentenary exhibition. They might thus from the 

 material forthcoming get a history of the development of Belfast. 



Professor Symington strongly supported the idea of the 

 Botanic Gardens Park being devoted to a museum. By that he 

 did not mean a huge showy building, but what might be described 

 as a museum park, very much on the lines of the Scandinavian 

 museums. 



Mr. R. M. Young, J. P., agreed that the taking of the Botanic 

 Gardens Park for a museum ot the kind described would be most 

 desirable. In connection with the tercentenary exhibition 



