SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 292, 10 December 1929, Page 6

SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS.

When the range of the proposals and the difficulties to be encountered are considered, it . is not surprising that the scheme for making the Old Grammar site in Symonds Street a centre of fine arts has not advanced further. We hope, however, that when Sir George Fowlds says there are still possibilities in if, ho speaks conservatively. The Grammar School Board is in full sympathy with the University Council, but quite properly it stipulates that if it gives the site, land of equal value should be handed over in exchange. The Grammar School Board should not ne asked to part with a valuable endowment for purposes outside its oavii educational world; indeed, it would have no right to do so. The proposal to use the Symonds Street site for a University Fine Arts block and a public art gallery concerns the whole community, the State as well as the city. The first thing to obtain is general recognition of the suitability of the site for such a purpose. The University must extend, the Art Gallery and the Public Library are both overcrowded, and the Arts Society needs a home. What better use.could the Grammar site be put to than to group these needed buildings there, and where else could they be placed? There should be general agreement that the site should be used for this kind of purpose.