1867: The Canterbury Museum
August 1, 2019
By AHNZ
Julius von Haast built The Canterbury Museum (est. 1867) off wagon-loads of moa bones. Piles of bones were generously donated by George Henry Moore of Glenmark Station. Curator von Haast was able to export them in exchange for terrific artefacts with which the museum is furnished (he even got us an Egyptian mummy!)The best friend New Zealand history ever had was a free market for moa findings. Why does this Lefty newspaper, our Green Party, and government a academic want to create a black market trade now by placing restrictions?
“Paleontologists are begging the New Zealand government to immediately halt the trade”“When moa bones are lost so too is the rich DNA and scientific data they hold, says paleontologist Richard Holdaway”- Moa for sale: trade in extinct birds’ bones threatens New Zealand’s history; The Guardian
Nothing is being “lost,” you Statist loons. On the contrary, price signals ensure that finds are properly looked after and effort continues to be applies to discover new finds and share them with the world. Missionaries sent moa bones to back to Prof. Richard Owen in England, allowing him to be the first to realise such an animal as the moa (aka ‘Dinornis’) existed. Maoris had no idea.
Gideon Mantell, early discoverer of the dinosaur, worked with Owen to reconstruct the bird. They were accommodated by a free market for moa remains.
No economist, Holdaway probably imagines a law forcing everyone to hand over their treasure to him or else Eugenie Sage will have the Police shoot at us! What will happen instead is that moa discovery will be forced underground into a criminalised black market. New information about the moa and other New Zealand palaeontological discovery will be made illicit least it incriminate.
Morons. Trade Me is one of New Zealand’s greatest museums collections.
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Note: Canterbury Museum first opened on 3 December, 1867
Image ref. von Haast in his museum (cropped);A.C. Barker; Canterbury Museum
Update: Here’s a clip from Cumberland on this subject…
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