PARK STATUARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 152, 30 June 1939, Page 8

PARK STATUARY.

FUNDS FROM ESTATE.

CITY COUNCIL PROPOSAL.

SUGGESTED LEGISLATION. At a special meeting of the Auckland City Council to-day, to consider the placing of statuary in Albert Park, the city solicitor submitted a draft clause for inclusion in a local empowering bill. It was suggested that the statuary should be known as the Watson Bequest tJroiip. the funds for same to be derived mainly from the Watson bequest account. It was explained in the draft that the council was entitled to oiict went y-sixth in the residuary estate iinder'tlic will of the late Mr. Alexander Richardson Dickey Watson for tile purchase of public statuary lor the City of Auckland, and the city was also entitle,l to a further one twenty-sixth share in the estate as the controlling body of the Auckland Art Callerv. As tiie money set apart for the purchase of statuary was insufficient tu ♦•liable erection, it was proposed that the council should be empowered to utilise part of tiie moneys received under the will, as controlling body of the Auckland Art (iallery. as might be requisite, to make a sufficient sum to pay tor the statuary. It was proposed that the group of statuary should be inscribed recording the bequest. The Mayor, Sir Ernest Davis, said that the trustees of the estate would like to see the statuary erected from the funds of the estate. The cost of the statuary was estimated at £6000. There wa« £4000 available, and it was proposed to apply £1500 from the picture portion of the bequest. Miss E. Melville said that she under■stoofj that the proposal was approved as a Centennial memorial, and that a subsidy would be available from the Centennial fund. It would make a big difference if a third of the picture fund were taken. Th? Mayor said that the proposal did not now come within the sphere of a Centennial memorial. Mr. A. St. C. Brown said that the point was whether the council, for statuary pin poses, would approve of depleting the fund intended for pictures. Mr. R. Armstrong said that he understood that they set out in the first place to establish a Centennial memorial for the city, and this was an entirely different proposal. The Mayor moved that the matter be referred to the library committee for a report. ' The motion was carried.