Museum better run by C.U.C.?

Press, 27 May 1983, Page 4

Museum better run by C.U.C.?

Spending by the Canterbury Museum should be policed for Heathcote ratepayers by a County Council representative on the museum’s trust board, Heathcote’s chairman, Mr W. M. Hindmarsh, said last evening.

Proposed changes to the act governing the museum meant the board could levy contributing local bodies for its running expenses. “There appears to be no limit on the amount it can levy,” Mr Hindmarsh told councillors at their May meeting. He said that as Heathcote contributed it deserved a say in the museum’s running. This year the council had been asked to give the museum $20,600 and yet it had no representative on the board. One option to increase museum revenue was the installation of a coin-oper-ated turnstile. This matter had not been raised with the board because Heathcote was not represented. In a report critical of aspects of the proposed act, Mr Hindmarsh said the museum would be better run by the Canterbury

United Council. It could be run by a United Council committee similar to the Summit Road advisory committee. The number of ad hoc bodies in New Zealand had often been criticised and Mr Hindmarsh said a museum board was just another example of an ad hoc body. “It is disappointing, to say the least, that those in local government who would espouse the reduction of ad hoc authorities in Canterbury are not making use of the opportunity to do something about it,” he said. Mr Hindmarsh said the opinions of councils on the proposed act should have been sought. The council decided to ask the member of Parliament for Lyttelton, Mrs Ann Hercus, to take up its case. It wants an amendment to the bill giving Heathcote a representative on the board or a chance for councils to make comments before it becomes law. A copy of the chairman’s comments will also be sent to the Labour member for Christchurch Central, Mr G. W. R. Palmer.