Councils Review Orchestra Grant

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32036, 10 July 1969, Page 1

Councils Review Orchestra Grant

A conditional grant of $lO,OOO from the City Council to the Civic Orchestra Foundation will be reconsidered in the light of an apparent inability of the other councils in metropolitan Christchurch to increase their grants.

This was made clear at a meeting of representatives of the councils called by the Waimairi County Council to consider the foundation’s request for $5OOO from the Riccarton and Lyttelton Borough Councils and the Waimairi, Paparua and Heathcote County Councils. So far, these councils have made provision in their estimates for $550. The City Council’s grant was approved on condition that the other councils paid pro rata. The Riccarton Borough Council has not decided on its grant, and will now do so in the light of the discussions at the combined meeting.

Paparua, having refused at its meeting on Monday evening to make a grant, was not represented. The Heathcote County Council, which made no grant last year, has not allowed for one this year. Waimairi, asked to contribute $3OOO as its proportion, decided to contribute $5OO, and Lyttelton increased its grant from $25 to $5O. “It is now a question for the representatives to report back to their councils, but as the estimates have been struck by all the councils, it might be difficult now to make more provision,” said

Waimairi's chairman (Mr D. B. Rich), who presided. “It was decided to call another meeting of the six councils next March to see if more general support can be given to the foundation, and there was a strong feeling that a meeting like this should have been held before the foundation asked for money, so that the councils could have been better prepared,” he said. Mr Rich said that both the City Council and Riccarton representatives had said that their councils would reconsider their grant decisions.