Power of Historic Places Trust severely limited by funds

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33917, 9 August 1975, Page 11

Power of Historic Places Trust severely limited by funds

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GARRY ARTHUR)

After Old Father Time and the property developer, the biggesi single danger to historic places in New Zealand may well be the existence of the Historic Places Trust.

It sounds paradoxical. The trust was established in the 1950 s to preserve buildings and places of national or local historic interest. It is funded by the Government and has official status. And this is just where the danger lies. People concerned about endangered historic places are lulled into a false sense of security by the fact of the trust’s existence. An official body exists to protect historic places, therefore places must have protection.

But this is not so. The trust has had so little money that it has been unable to protect more than a handful of the country’s most important buildings — nearly all of them in the north of the North Island.

It has no power to acquire buildings compulsorily to protect them from the bulldozer, and. of the few that are under its protection, some of the most important are in its care thanks to the generosity and far-sightedness of families and organisations which have given them to the trust for nothing. Moral influence Apart from the time ball station at Lyttelton, which was given to the trust by the Lyttelton Harbour Board, not one building in the whole of Canterbury is owned by the trust. It is remarkable that the trust has been able to do what it has in Canterbury, with practically no money or powers, its achievements here are due almost solely to the moral influence its regional committee has been able to bring to bear on officialdom. The trust was deeply invoved in the preservation of the Canterbury Provincial Government buildings — particularly in supplying authoritative information to local bodies as to the worth of the whole proposition to preserve them. In cash it was able to give only $2500 towards the restoration of the upper floor. Town site It has used its influence too in the successful move to have the university town site buildings retained for use as an arts centre. No money at all was available for that project from Historic Places Trust funds, but a fat file in the office of the regional secretary. Mr J. R. Allison, testifies to years of activity by the local committee’ A similar file shows how much effort the regional committee — all unpaid volunteers, except for the secretary-treasurer who gets a small honorarium — put into the move to save Trinity Church. It was eventually bought by the State Fire Insurance office. This move was first suggested by one of the regional committee members, and they count the result as one of their achievements. It has also helped local efforts to preserve such historic buildings as the cob cottage at Hororata. the Maori church at the

Kaik, Akaroa. and the Langlois-Eteveneaux house (now* a museum)) at Akaroa.

One of its current projects is to support the move to buy the original site of the Deans brothers’ house at Riccarton. “But we can't do any more than give our moral support,” said Mr Allison.

Some money has been spent by the trust in Canterbury, but as Mr Allison says, it has been only token help. For example, it was able to contribute a few hundred dollars towards the preservation of the Old Stone House at Cashmere, and to the preservation of Holy Trinity Church at Lyttelton. Mr Allison is an outspoken critic of the trust’s lack of Government support.

“We just haven’t got any money to buy properties,” said Mr Allison. “It is damn stupid. The trust should have the wherewithal! to buy — or help others buy — historic places that are in danger, 1 blame the Government’s administrators.”

He compared the New Zealand Government’s expenditure on historic places with the sl7m spent by the Federal Government in Australia to buy 750 historic houses in Sydney. In New Zealand the trust could not even afford to put out a map of the country’s historic landmarks. At last year’s conference the regional committees suggested that slm would be a good start as a grant for capital work. This year’s budget is the first to offer a little hope for the future. The Government grant has jumped from §25,000 to $65,000 and the Golden Kiwi lottery handout from $63,000 to $120,000. Mr J. R. S. Daniels, the trust’s director, says the total budget is about $250,000 this year. If it continued at that level the trust could consider buying one property perhaps every second year. It was inevitable that the trust felt frustrated at present —“there are so many things that we can’t do anything about.” An attempt was being made to

establish a capital reserve for the purchase of properties. But there was less than $15,000 in it at present. In many cases, all the trust can do is make as full a record as it can of historic places which it has no power or money to protect. One of its projects is the listing of all pre--1900 buildings in the country, grading them according to whether their preservation is considered vital, important, desirable, or just worth recording. Its classification committee — three historians, three architects and a research officer — has already classified and recorded 68 buildings in Christchurch, Lyttelton and Akaroa. Recently it spent four days in North Canterbury in an attempt to classify a further 110,

Under the trust’s present set-up, the exercise is largely academic. But it intends to present the list to the Government when it is complete and seek some form of authority over at least the first two categories of buildings.