Town Hall funds handed over

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32958, 3 July 1972, Page 12

Town Hall funds handed over

The accumulated funds of the Town Hall Promotion Society, amounting to $409,489, were handed over to the Christchurch City Council’s town hall committee on Saturday afternoon at the first meeting to take place in the new Christchurch Town Hall.

“This is quite a historic occasion—no meeting has been convened in this complex before, and I think it particularly appropriate that this is the first meeting to be held here,” said the presi-

dent of the Town Hall Promotion Society (Mr H. G. Hay) at its fourteenth and final annual meeting. Mr W. J. Cartwright, vicepresident of the society, handed over a cheque for almost the total amount of the accumulated fund to Mr Hay, who is also the chairman of the town hall committee. “The Town Hall Promotion Society is proud to have played a leading part in this magnificent enterprise during the last 15 years, to serve generations to come in a new and culturally elevated city,” Mr Cartwright said. Mr Hay said that although it was the last meeting of the society, it would remain in existence for legal purposes in case of legacies being left to it.

Although almost sjm had been raised for the project, there was still a debt of s2|m to pay for the Town Hall complex, he . said. “Mr W. J. A. Brittenden has been commissioned to write a short history of the Town Hall and previous town halls in Christchurch,” Mr Hay said. “Our record of donors is under way at present.”

Mr Hay thanked the news media for the part they had played in promoting the cause of the Town Hall, and said that he believed they had played a big part in the success of the project. A further contribution of $5OOO from the “Christchurch Star,” bringing its total contribution to $lO,OOO, was an-

nounced at the society’s meeting.

Mr Hay said that the contribution had been made after the board of New Zealand Newspapers had inspected the Town Hall recently. ,He emphasised that guided tours would be given

to those organisations thinking of making a contribution. No change was made in the officers of the society, and the auditors, Morris, Pattrick and Company, were re-elected. After the meeting, mem-

>ers were shown round th< (own Hall by the manage: Mr P. Connell). In the photograph, Mr Cartwright (left) is shown handing the cheque for the accumulated funds of the Town Hall Promotion Society to Mr Hay.