NEW GALLERY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22519, 29 September 1938, Page 10

NEW GALLERY

* CANTERBURY SOCIETY OF ARTS PRESENT BUILDING TO BE REPLACED

The Government is to build a new art gallery for the Canterbury Society of Arts at 66 Gloucester street to replace the society’s present gallery in Durham street, which is to be pulled down to make room for the new law courts, according to information given to “The Press” yesterday by Mr G. L. Donaldson, secretary of the society. The Gloucester street site is part of a piece of land* acquired some time ago for the National Broadcasting Service, when it was understood that a new station was to be erected there.

The plans for the new building are being drawn up by the Public Works Department, and it is expected that they will be completed in a fortnight, when tenders will be called for. Unless any change is made in the plans, the society is to vacate the present building by November 1.

The new building, according to Mr Donaldson, will have a frontage of 38 feet and a depth of 166 feet. It will cover the whole of the section except for a right-of-way of six feet from front to back. It will be somewhat narrower, than the main room of the present gallery, and the length will be about the same as that of the main and smaller rooms combined, with the addition of offices at the front of the building and -kitchen accommodation *t the back. In the middle of the gallery a bay will be formed on each side by erecting interior walls at right angles to the main walls. Extra space for pictures will thus be provided.

It is thought probable that a considerable part of the material in the present building, possibly even the bricks, will be used in the construction of the new building. The floor, for instance, which is of timber two inches thick, could hardly be bettered for its purpose. The buff-col-oured burlap lining on the walls, which was a gift to the society, may also be removed, and placed in the new building. The new building will have overhead lighting similar to that of the present gallery, and though there will be a big difference in that the new gallery will consist of one oblong room with the two bays already mentioned instead of two rooms as at present, it is not expected that there will be any great difference in the general fittings and appointments.

amount for sqldiers’ pensions of about £2,000,000. would bring in £5.000,000 and the wages tax £5,000,000. That sum (the total existing taxation for these services) was £10,000,000 in all. The extra wages tax of 4d in the £ would bring £3,500,000, and an extra amount of £1,500,000 would come from the Consolidated Fund. The total revenue, then, was £15,000,000. Mr Nash said that increased revenue would make increased taxation unnecessary. Yet Mr Nash in his own Budget forecast a reduced revenue of £214,000. The 1938 Budget showed an actual revenue in 1937-38 of £36,059,000, and estimated the revenue for 1938-39 at £35,845,000. The statement was not consistent with the Minister’s own Budget.

Actuary’s Estimate

But the actual bill of costs, on the estimate of Mr Maddex, . was £17,850,000. Since Mr Maddex left, an additional £550,000 was added in new benefits. The total, then, was £18,400,000. Extra provision for unemployment totalled £3,500,000. The total costs for the first year would be £22,000,000, after five years £24,500,000 and after 10 years £26,000,000. There were no financial provisions in those figures for superannuation. New taxation in the first year of the scheme would be £10,000,000, made up by the revenue from the 4d in the £ additional to the wages tax and the £6,500,000 extra from the Consolidated Fund. Present taxation would bring £12,000,000, so that the total bill from taxation would be £22,000,000. Total new taxation in the fifth year would be £12,500,000, and in the tenth £14,000,000. Superannuation was not provided for in those figures. New classes of taxpayers (based on the Year Book for 1938) would be: Persons under 20, £200,000; relief workers, £180,000; domestic workers, £75,000; other income of women, £225,000. “Can New Zealand Pay?”

Discussing the capacity of the country to pay for the scheme, Mr Holland said that during the last five years the value of exports was £50,000,000 a year. The sockil security scheme would cost 8s in the £ of our exports in the first year, 9s 9d in the fifth, and 10s 3d in the tenth. To meet th j first year’s expense it would take all of our exports of frozen lamb, valued at £8,956,000; all of the exports of cheese, at £5,282,000; pork, £1,630,000; frozen mutton, £1.500,000; gold. £1,378,000; sausage casing, £750,000; tallow, £709,000; frozen beef, £540,000; fresh apples, £457,000; chilled beef. £426,000; dried milk, £193,000; preserved milk £120,000. These totalled £22,000,000. Mr Nash, Mr Holland, said, had estimated the national income at £175 million Mr Maddex had made the estimate £150,000,000. But Mr Nash had said in the House that Mr Maddex had a narrow outlook. Mr Nash’s figure was a guess, for which he had no authority. • j Mr Holland went into figures a good deal further when suggesting that the Government had not gone deeply enough into, the potential resources of New Zealand and its ability to pay the burden of the scheme in future years. Already butter production was down, cheese down, and wool prices down by from £6,000,000 to £7,000,000. In the past these factors had proved reliable barometers. Work of Lodges Strong support for the work of the i friendly societies wgs one of the key-! notes of Mr Holland’s references to the health scheme. The scheme threatened the very existence of the societies, he said, and there was warm applause when Mr Holland declared that the National Party; by winning the elections, would prevent that.

“The medical profession,” he said, "had made it abundantly clear that its members cannot remain happy and contented as part of a Socialist economy. They say they cannot co-oper-ate in bringing about Socialism. They do not believe in it. You might as well ask the No-licence Party to run an ‘after-hour pub’ or Socialists to run a garden party.” Mr Holland was warmly applauded when he detailed the intentions of the National Party, including the plan to operate a free health service for those in need of it. liberalised family allowances, and the exemption of taxation for pepole from 16 to 20, for domestics, on women’s income up to £250, pensioners. and relief workers.