Natural History in Colonisation. 131 
and require such works, and a supply would speedily meet the 
demand: offer the necessary funds for publication, and England 
will forthwith send you a Manual, which cannot fail to be useful 
to all who are connected with land—and who is not?—among your 
settlers. A Museum may appear to many of you a formidable 
undertaking, and one that may well be delayed, while so many 
institutions of more immediate importance must be established. 
The idea of a Museum may be associated in your minds with 
conceptions of a large, handsome, imposing structure, a well-paid 
and full staff of consequential officials, and endless glass cases; 
it will thus appear necessarily most expensive. But, in a young 
colony like this, it need be nothing of the sort—at least in nucleo ; 
and all I would at present recommend is the formation of a 
nucleus—a step which may be taken with little trouble, and at 
little cost. The first desideratum is perhaps a few earnest men 
to take action in the matter—to organise a committee, to hold 
public meetings, to agitate by means of the press. Surely some 
of the energy which has lately been, and is now being, displayed by 
the office-bearers of the “ Young Men’s Christian Association,” 
might be spared in this direction. I think I can venture to assure 
them that many would flock to their standard were it only raised. 
I have met many settlers, of every class and in every part of the 
province I have visited, most favourable to the establishment of a 
Provincial Museum, and who, I feel assured, would aid it by every 
means in their power—by subscriptions, if necessary—had they 
only a guarantee that such an institution would be properly 
managed, by which I mean, principally, had it only a competent 
Head as Director or Curator. The feeling is very general (and I 
confess I think the feeling a just one), that a Provincial Museum 
should be established and maintained essentially by Government. 
But this is no excuse for inaction. It is not at all likely that 
Government will take the initiative in a matter of this kind, when 
it has so many more pressing and serious wants to relieve. Nor, 
it is possible, might Government, at any more favourable time, be 
disposed to patronise such an undertaking, unless under the vis a 
tergo of strong public feeling; and, lastly, Government may re- 
pudiate all connection with such an establishment, and refer it to 
the individual or collective exertions of the colonists themselves. 
On what plea they might do so I know not. Education is the 
care of the State, and a Museum of this kind is just as much an 
educational establishment as any of your provincial schools, If 
it be not so, it ought to be so, and the fault must lie with its 
originators and managers. I can show, I think, presently, that 
a Museum may be made an educational establishment of a very 
high and important kind—one allied in character to our home 
universities. It seems to me desirable that the colonists should 
