HC Deb 19 July 1938 vol 338 cc2162-5

Order for Second Reading read.

12.27 a.m.

The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Captain Euan Wallace)

I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

This Bill is brought forward to enable the trustees of the British Museum to accept a certain bequest made to them by the late Lord Rothschild, who was for many years a keen collector of zoological specimens. Fifty years ago his insect collections were housed in a cottage at Tring. By the time of his death his collection had grown and become one of the greatest interest and value, including many rarities and unrivalled collections in some branches of zoology. By a codicil to his will, which is printed as a schedule to the Bill, Lord Rothschild left his zoological museum to the trustees of the British Museum, together with all the collections and objects which it contained.

The trustees are naturally anxious to accept this munificent bequest, but before they can do so they require the authority of Parliament. The trustees, of course, receive bequests from time to time and accept them under their general powers, but in the present case statutory authority is necessary because the bequest is subject to the condition that the legacy will be accepted as an annexe of the British Museum and the Tring Museum used in a modified form for zoological research. Under the original Act of incorporation of the British Museum it was provided that the collections were to be kept in one general repository, and an amending Act had to be passed when part of the collection was transferred to South Kensington in 1878, and again when part was transferred to Hendon in 1902. Further statutory authority is required to enable the trustees to keep the new bequest at Tring. It is the purpose of the present Bill to confer that authority.

There is one point which, despite the lateness of the hour, it is my duty to mention to the House. Since this Bill was printed it has been brought to our notice by the solicitors to Lord Rothschild's executors that Estate Duty will probably be payable on the freehold property at the zoological museum at Tring and the laboratory premises close by. The trustees of the Museum will have to pay it. The point would have been mentioned in the Financial Memorandum if I had been aware of it in time, and I would ask the House to accept my apologies. I cannot say what the amount will be but it will not be large. There is no question of payment of any Estate Duty on the collection itself.

This collection will be open to the public free of charge, just as the collections are at present. While this collection comes under the general powers of the Trustees of the British Museum to lend specimens to other museums under local authorities, it was Lord Rothschild's wish that this collection should not be broken up, but should remain at Tring where it has a very great value in its completeness, so that it is not proposed that specimens should be lent out of the Tring collection, though of course certain specimens will be transferred to the South Kensington Museum. But it will be within the province of the Trustees to lend specimens out of the South Kensington Museum. I apologise to the House for having spoken so long on this Bill, but I thought that in view of the munificence of this bequest it would be right to pay tribute to it by making these remarks.

12.32 a.m.

Mr. Markham

There is an old adage that one should never look a gift horse in the mouth, but I am sure that does not apply to myriads of fleas and bugs, to squads of squids, platoons of baboons and to all the other things which go to make up the greatest Noah's ark which has ever been in private hands. It is true that this is a magnificent collection, and a magnificent gift for which the nation as a whole will echo the words which have just come from the Treasury bench. I think, however, that it would be inadvisable to let a Bill of this magnitude go through without a full understanding of what we are doing. The Bill, in fact, sets up a new national museum. just as the British Museum of Natural History was set up under the old British Museum Act and became a separate museum, so this in time will probably become a separate national research museum. Therefore, I think we have to be very careful what is in this Bill and what is out of it. Regarding what is in it we have had a statement from the Minister that the collections at Tring will be kept intact except in so far as they are to be exchanged with the British Museum, and he has said that it was the wish of Lord Rothschild that the collection should be kept intact. I regret I cannot read that into the extract of the codicil of the will which is given in the Schedule. In the codicil there is simply a reference to the "type" specimens which it says may be transferred to the British Museum as the Trustees might decide and no reference is made to duplicates. I was sorry that the Minister did not give any indication that the loan of duplicates to provincial institutions would be permitted and I hope that we shall at a later stage have someing in this Bill which will allow the loan of duplicates to provincial institutions.

With regard to what is out of the Bill, I welcome the Minister's assurance that the exhibited collections will continue to be open to the public, but I wish he had made some statement to the effect that they would be better displayed. At present the exhibited collections are shown in very poor cases, lighting is bad and reflections make it almost impossible to see many of the exhibits. I sincerely hope that the national authorities will see to it that these collections are now properly housed. The amount which ought to be spent on rearrangement, re-casing and re-lighting is something far beyond that covered in the financial arrangements of this Bill. The amount allocated will not apparently exceed £5,000 a year and how an adequate staff, and an adequate reorganisation are to be got from that sum I do not know. I hope that in accepting this collection, as the nation is doing from the executors of Lord Rothschild, we shall see to it that not only is it adequately housed, but that the casing and equipment are good and that the public galleries are made first class.

Finally, I would make an appeal for an opportunity at least once a year for a general discussion of museum and art gallery problems.

Mr. Deputy-Speaker (Captain Bourne)

This Bill is very limited. I do not think we can go into that.

Mr. J. J. Davidson

I understand that this collection is rather a live-stock collection of fleas and bugs and things like that.

Captain Wallace

It is dead-stock.

Mr. Davidson

That is all right then.

Bill committed to a Committee of the Whole House for To-morrow.—[Captain Waterhouse.]