LACK OF FUNDS.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19317, 23 May 1928, Page 11

LACK OF FUNDS.

AUCKLAND WAR MEMORIAL MUSEUM. BUILDING WITH NOTHING IN IT. [THE PRESS Special Service.] AUCKLAND, May 22. Unless the financial position of the Auckland Institute and Museum is improved immediately Auckland will be in the position of having a War Memorial Museum with the doors closed to the public. The building in the Domain is expected to be out of the contractors' hands in about two months, but the Institute has not the means which will enable it to arrange exhibits in the new home. "We have been up against a fearful position in regard to finance,'' the president of the Institute (Mr H. E. Vaile) told members at the annual meeting. "With our own subscriptions and a grant of £2OOO from the City Council we have managed to get over the . past year. This year we have asked the Citv Council for £4OOO, and they have stood aghast, but we must have the money or otherwise we shall not be able to open the doors of the new building. We have asked the suburbs to assist, and if we do not get the money then the building will have to remain closed. That will be a disgrace to Auckland." Mr Vaile Said the Institute must have a total of £6OOO this year, and thereafter £BOOO a year. He mentioned that the Wellington Museum was maintained by the Government at the expense of the general taxpayers. It cost £7OOO to maintain that museum last year, the people of Auckland contributing a third of the amount through taxes.