Chapter XVI.
1870–1876.
The Museum—The Southern Railway—The New Zealand Shipping Co.—Canterbury College.
The Canterbury Museum was opened on October 1, 1876, its successful establishment so early in the history of the province being due to the untiring energy of Dr. von Haast, who became its first Director. Probably it is in connection with the Museum that Sir Julius von Haast is best remembered, but Canterbury has cause to be grateful to his memory for many other services; those in connection with the Moorhouse Tunnel have already been referred to, but his work runs like a warp and woof through the early history of Christchurch, as an explorer, geologist, man of science, and in the valuable assistance he was able to give to the Acclimatisation and Philosophical Societies. At a meeting of the Colonial Society, in August, 1859, presided over by Dr. Donald, a resolution was passed in favour of establishing a Natural History Museum, and the following year Mr. von Haast, as he then was, came to Canterbury, bringing a collection of mineral and other specimens, which he had formed while travelling with Dr. von Hochstetter.
Dr. von Haast became Provincial Geologist, and his collection of 6000 or 7000 specimens was lodged in two rooms in the north-east corner of the Provincial Council Buildings. The time came when the rooms were required for other purposes, but after calling for designs for a Museum in October, 1864, the Provincial Council allowed the subject to drop
