People and Their Hobbies

While talks on the erection of a new museum continue in Nelson, Ken Mathie of Richmond has gone ahead and built his own. It is certainly not as elaborate a building as that contemplated for the provincial museum, but it is fairly large. It has to be large for it houses one of the most comprehensive collections in New Zealand. Ken has a passion for collecting - it started when he was a youngster in Pahiatua - and in more recent years he's given this passion free rein. He's collected coins, medals, military badges, gold mining impedimenta, antiques, coins and rocks and minerals and many other articles. Pride of his collection is an amethyst hand-carved statue of the Goddess of Mercy. Included in his medal collection are two issues for the Maori wars (Ken's holding them, left.) He also has miniatures of medals from the Victoria Cross to an issue for the Vietnam war. At right he displays a variety of old objects, many of them pertaining to early gold-mining days. At bottom left Ken shows part of his collection of minerals and below, some of the hundreds and hundreds of military badges he has.

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