STATE LITERARY FUND

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25270, 23 August 1947, Page 8

STATE LITERARY FUND

ASSISTANCE TO NEW ZEALAND WRITERS

ADVISORY COMMITTEE APPOINTED

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, August 22. The appointment of a State Literary Fund advisory committee was officially announced to-day by the Prime Minister (Mr P. Fraser). The members of the committee are Sir James Elliott, Professor I. A. Gordon, Dr. Guy H. Scholefield, Mrs Craig Mackenzie, Miss Ngaio Marsh, Mr Pei Te Hurinui, Mr O. N. Gillespie, Mr Ormond Wilson, M.P., and Mr J. H. E. Schroder.

Making this announcement, the Prime Minister said the Government had for a long time been considering the possibility of giving some practical assistance to New ‘Zealand writers. Suggestions made by P.E.N. and a similar scheme operating in Australia had been thoroughly investigated, and the result had been the setting-up by the Government of a State Literary Fund, to which the Government would make an annual grant of £2OOO. The trustees of the fund are the Prime Minister and the Ministers of Finance and Internal Affairs, and the purpose of the committee is to advise the trustees as to the best way to administer the fund. Three members of the committee, Sir James Elliott, Dr. Scholefield, and Professor Gordon, are the approved nominees of P.E.N. The secretary is Mr P. A. Lawlor. It had been decided on the recommendation of the committee, continued Mr Fraser, that assistance should be given: 1. By grants towards publishing costs Oor by other appropriate means) to enable the publication of such writings as historical works of a high standard, including works of fiction, contemporary creative literature, reprints of New Zealand classics, and Maori literature.

2. By grants to New Zealand authors undertaking creative work on approved 3. By encouraging the reading and study of New Zealand literature by means of grants towards the cost of publication (or other appropriate means) of critical books and studies.

4. By such other means as the committee, with fuller knowledge gained from its experience, may deem desirable.

“The Government has been anxious,” said Mr Fraser, “to encourage literary art in New Zealand, and much has actually been done, particularly at the time of the centennial, by the Department of Internal Affairs. It is hoped that this further step will materially assist in the cultivation of a national literature, a field in which there has already been some notable achievements.”