NATIO.NAL WAR MEMORIAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 264, 7 November 1932, Page 3

NATIO.NAL WAR MEMORIAL.

BIG BUILDING SCHEME. TENDERS CLOSE ON WEDNESDAY. Tenders for the erection of the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum on Mount Cook will close next Wednesday.

The amount contributed by the public to date is approximately £65,000, and under the old understanding the expenditure of contributed money was to have been supported £ for £ by the Government. Now the Government, though anxious that the work should be put in hand as soon as possible, because it will provide employment, directly and indirectly, for a considerable number of men, has not anything to epare, and the general agreement now reached is that tho board of trustees should use its £65,000, sufficient to carry the- work on till, say, March, 1934, and that the Government should then finance the completion of the plans.

The terms under which contractors are tendering do not require' them to commence operations until the end of March. Immediate consideration will be given to the tenders, but it will be for the successful tenderer to elect whether lie shall commence right away, with a consequent longer wait for'his first payment, or mark time till April or thereabouts. The launching of eo big a building scheme at the present time (says the "Post") has excited the interest .of builders and contractors throughout the country, and no doubt competition will be keen.