Centennial Funds

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25742, 2 March 1949, Page 4

Centennial Funds

’At its meeting on Monday evening the finance committee of the Centennial Association fixed £150,000 as the amount to be raised for the memorial of Canterbury’s centennial and the holding of celebrations. The amount, to which Canterbury will have to contribute £llO.OOO, is large; but the committee has not set its mark too high, for the greater part of the money will be absorbed by -the cost of the memorial scheme. The sum of £ 150,000, which includes a subsidy expected from the Government, is, however, well short of the provisional estimate of £187.000 for the Canterbury Museum rebuilding and additions scheme, which the committee has recommended for endorsement by the Centennial Association executive as the memorial. Expenditure on the celebrations can be expected to diminish further the amount available from centennial funds for this purpose. The question which, it seems, should immediately concern the committee, is how to make up the apparent difference, a considerable one, even if the museum’s building reserve still stands at about £lO,OOO. It may be suggested that tfie Government could fairly be apked for a special grant for the museum over and above the promised subsidy, in part for its general educational value but less for that than for the great and increasing school services it provides and will provide. The Museum Trust Board as a rating authority could, if compelled, borrow to fill tip a margin on the security of its rates; but the whole of its rate revenue is needed for annual expenditures, and the setting aside of any part of its barely adequate income to meet loan charges’ should not be for a moment. It is obvious that the local bodies already contributing pj the maintenance of the museum should firmly support the memorial scheme: and no time should be lost in working out the appropriate methods and proportions. The finance committee of the Centennial Association might well consider the possibility of making the memorial scheme the subject of a separate appeal for funds, which could draw inspiration from the late Mr E. F. Stead’s gift of £4OOO to the museum. Canterbury’s centennial should be fittingly celebrated; but celebrations are transient, and the occasion requires a lasting memorial. The museum scheme has been generally accepted as the most •ppropriate; but it has to be bought and paid for now. The finance committee should not hesitate to ask the people of Canterbury to contribute to it specially and separately.