WAR MEMORIAL AS COMMUNITY CENTRE APPROVED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 87, 25 August 1950, Page 5

WAR MEMORIAL AS COMMUNITY CENTRE APPROVED

Acceptance of a Community Centre as a war memorial in Whakatane was decided on at a

public meeting last night. The meeting, presided over by 'the Mayor, Mr B. S. Barry, was well attended.

A paid organiser would be necessary for any scheme Mr Barry thought. Otherwise, what was everyone’s business would be no one’s business.

The Winter Show Association’s proposal was explained by the chairman of the • association, Mr H. G. Warren.

He explained that the association’s building could be sold for from £5,000 to £B,OOO which would be given as the basis of a fund, presumably subsidised, for the erection of a Community Centre. The present building, he said, was almost a Community Centre but it was wrongly situated. Any donation should be voluntary, Mrs A. W. Winstone said. She thought that the Winter Show Association was ensuring itself of a hall in perpetuity—a good business proposition. Nb, organisation should benefit from a war memorial. The association’s offer should be accepted only without tags. If the association’s offer was refused, the Community Centre could be forgotten, Mr Barry said.

“The R.S.A. would assist in any way possible,” it was said.

Mrs Winstone said she did not object to the use of a war memorial by organisations but she objected to financial profit accruing to anyone from it. There were people who would like to see a good swimming pool at" the Domain, said another speaker.

The Citizens’ Association submitted a resolution that the war memorial take the form of a Community Centre, that the Borough Council be requested to lodge an application for a subsidy, that a provisional committee be set up to convene a full committee which would raise funds to finance and prepare tentative plans. On Mr Barry’s suggestion, the motion was split into sections. The first part was carried without dissent.

Twenty-seven organisations had been invited to the meeting, said "the chairman. He thought that each interest should be represented on the committee. It was decided that these organisations would be asked to appoint representatives to a committee within seven days.

The committee, it was agreed, would decide on means of raising finance and on the form of the Centre. It was recommended to the committee that a paid organiser be engaged. .It is expected that the committee will meet in little more than a week.

A motion of thanks to the Winter Show Association for its offer was passed on the motion of Mr B, Butler.