§ 53. Mr. BENNETT-GOLDNEYasked if the hon. Gentleman will ascertain the reason why one of the principal 192 galleries of the new building of the British Museum is partly fitted with cases of oak and partly with cases of mahogany; if he will ascertain why all the cases in the same gallery have not been constructed of the same species of wood; whether, at that point in the gallery where the oak ends and the mahogany begins, the oak has been partially veneered with mahogany or the mahogany partially veneered with oak; whether this mixture of the two woods at this point was shown in the original drawings; whether any extra work upon this woodwork has been added since the first drawings were approved; and, if so, if he will state the extra cost, if any?
Mr. BENNIn the students' room all the fittings are mahogany, in the remainder of the gallery they arc entirely of oak. The fittings are not all new, and it has been necessary to make the new cases to match the old. No veneer has been used, except to complete work which was originally veneered. No material alteration has been made since the original drawings of the fittings were made.
§ 55. Mr. BENNETT-GOLDNEYasked whether the hon. Gentleman's attention has been called to the vibration now so noticeable in the Asiatic gallery of the British Museum; whether he is aware that in certain central cases valuable objects exposed for exhibition can be seen to shake and move; and whether any part of the machinery required for lighting, heating, or ventilating the new buildings has been fixed underneath this gallery without clue consideration having been given to the dangers to which the objects exposed above might be subjected by almost incessant vibration?
Mr. BENNThe attention of the First Commissioner has been called to the vibration and steps are being taken to remedy this defect. The machinery which causes the vibration is not directly under any of the galleries.
§ 56. Mr. BENNETT-GOLDNEYasked the Secretary to the Treasury if his attention has been drawn, among others in the Asiatic Gallery, to one particular case in which some valuable mosaic work has been already damaged by the jewelled pieces being shaken out of their original settings?
Mr. BENNThe First Commissioner regrets to learn that some mosaic work in the American room has been slightly damaged.