Town Hall loss still growing

Press, 23 February 1978, Page 1

Town Hall loss still growing

Major economies will be needed in the running of the Town Hall, which is already costing ratepayers $lO,OOO a week, according to the secretary of the Town Hall board (Mr J. H. Gray).

Mr Gray issued the warning at a meeting of the board yesterday and said it was time that capital works programmes were diminishing in number and cost.

“I would not call it a crisis situation—crisis is too strong a word—but we have to work very seriously to prune our costs,” he said.

Diminishing returns from the building’s main venues, the auditorium and the James Hay Theatre, and generally increasing costs were at the root of the problem, Mr Gray said.

Compounding this problem is another spectre:

Many of the early loans raised to build the Town Hall are due for renewal and the money wiil be forthcoming only at higher interest charges than those at which tite first loans were raised. The servicing charges will almost double.

“The Town Hall is now costing about $lO,OOO a week in public funds and some $5OOO a week of that is to clear the mortgage,” said Mr Gray. Figures on the use of the various areas of the Town Hall showed that this year tlie auditorium ivould be in use just over twice a week, and the James Hay Theatre less than four times a week. The figures were based on the number of performances and did not include rehearsals. These showed a drop in the use of the main venues. By comparison, the use of the Limes Room, Con-

ference Room, and the Cambridge Room was still increasing. “We have become more and more a place for meetings, wedding breakfasts, and social functions than an entertainment centre,” Mr Gray said. The Town Hall’s manager (Mr B. P. Connell) said that the decline in use of the auditorium and James Hay Theatre was likely to continue, and the revenue from these venues would be down on the estimate. He predicted a drop of between 20 and 25 per cent in the use of these two venues. “The fall in use of the auditorium can almost entirely be attributable to a reduction in the number of international artists visiting New Zealand. This is a result of increased costs, mainly in transport and fuel, during the last 18 months,” said Mr Connell.