TOWN HALL PROPOSAL

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22111, 5 June 1937, Page 20

TOWN HALL PROPOSAL

TO TUB BDITOR 07 TtTE PRESS. Sir, —Reading the report of the meeting of the executive of the Canterbury JProgress League, and the discussion on the town hall proposal submitted by me, it is evident that the Mayor misunderstood my action. He wrote stating that it was not a matter for the Progress League, but for the City Council. Now, my suggestion was that the Progress League, North Canterbury Labour Representation Committee, and others should co-operate in arranging a representative deputation to wait upon the City Council and request the latter to prepare a scheme for submission to the citizens on a poll. I should like the matter to be gone into thoroughly, and let the poll be taken at the time of the next election of councillors. A correspondent, “Canny Scot,” congratulates me on my “fertility of invention and suggestion,” and also my “imperturbable amiability.” I shall readily admit I am a' bit tough in the hide. I am very sorry that I cannot return with a compliment to him, as I believe in the golden rule, but 1 am thankful indeed that all his countrymen are not as canny as what he claims to be. I have in mind that beautiful building in ■ Dunedin, the Scots’ kirk, it is a thing of beauty, and a joy to behold. Then there is the Town Hall in that city. These two instances are enough to confound “Canny Scot” that all Scotsmen are not animated by parsimony. St. Paul’s Church. 'Christchurch, is another tribute to the pride of the Scot. The Anglican Cathedral in this city is a monument to the grit, enterprise, and .pride of the handful of Anglicans responsible Jor its being. Then there is the wonderful mansion in Barbadoes street, ■which goes to prove that the Irish are not to be left in the lurch when it comes to finding the money for a cathedral that they can honestly be proud of. The question of the buildings being a paying proposition is out of the question Tire being who lacks pride in his city is just a being; he docs not measure up to full manhood, and he who says that Christchurch does not want a Town Hall is to be pitied for his lack of civic pride vision, and common sense. The Christchurch City Council was at one time unanimously in favour of this proposal that I have resuscitated, and that after very full deliberation. The following motion was carried: “That a poll of the ratepayers be taken for the purpose of deciding whether the council shall purchase all that block of land bounded bv Cambridge terrace and Colombo, Kilmore. and Victoria streets for municipal purposes, including a Town Hall.” That was March 15, 1920. That scheme was defeated at a subsequent poll, because an alternative and cheaper one was submitted at the same time. Had it not been for the latter. Christchurch would have had to-day a building that would have been something to be proud of. Whenever the city has a meeting too big for the ordinary halls it has to go to the King Edward Barracks, a corrugated Iron barn, or to some woolshed down by the railway. A Town Hall is badly needed, and there are thousands ol my way of thinking. This is going to be a sustained effort, even to the next election; we do not want this council to do more than to prepare the necessary data.—Yours, etc., HIRAM HUNTER. June 4, 1937.