CENTENNIAL PROJECT

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25834, 20 June 1949, Page 6

CENTENNIAL PROJECT

TEMUKA’S OPPOSITION TO MUSEUM SCHEME MEMORIAL ON PORT HILLS SUGGESTED

From Our Own Reporter TEMUKA. June 19. “We note that the Temuka Boroufiß Council is assessed at £306 as a contribution towards the cost of remodelling the Christchurch Museum. We emphatically protest and JJ® against paying for additions to museum,” said the Mayor of Temuia <Mr G. A. Harris) in a letter, approved by the Temuka Borough Cqunci., W the Christchurch City Council. Moving that the council decline w contribute to the project, Mr Harris. 31 the council’s monthly meeting, saw that Temuka had pioneered the objeC' tion to the scheme. The fact that tne council was not alone in its stand was shown by the recent decisions of tne Timaru City and Mackenzie County Councils. “The Christchurch City Council, is assessed at £19.877 which it is out of the profits in its Municipal Electricity Department, while boroughs and counties have to P« their levy out of rates and at the same time pay high electricity charges, saia Mr Harris’s letter. “In view of the fact that a ratecontributing district has been set up, with the Conwzfy as the boundary i“ the north and the Rangitata as ' nc boundary in the south, we are strongly of the opinion that the museum in Christchurch should be remodelled ana maintained by the city and the area which it serves. “Seeing that the activities of pioneers were not restricted to tne City of Qhristchurch alone, but to tne development of the agricultural, pa* toral, and other industries of the vince of Canterbury as a whole, w® maintain that some form of centennial memorial should be erected in Canterbury. Canterbury being no longer a single province, we suggest a nonutilitarian type of memorial on the Port Hills, say at the point where tne Bridle Path reaches the summit, to which all in Canterbury, including local bodies, could contribute without undue hardship. ‘‘A museum in Christchurch can have httle educative value as far as tne people of South Canterbury are concerned. That being so, we shoulfl our own museum on Pi o *} 6 ?; Hill. Timaru. the area bequeathed to the people of South Canterbury by T. D. Burnett for such a purpose, u l6 letter concluded.