“FIRST WEDGE IN”

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 152, 21 March 1924, Page 8

“FIRST WEDGE IN”

' SUBSIDY FOR DOMINION ’ MUSEUM £75,000 TO BE SUBSCRIBED BUILDING TO COST £150,000 “The first wedge in,” said the Hon. R 'T. Bollard (Minister for Internal Affairs) when announcing yesterday the decision of Cabinet to offer a subsidy of £75,000 towards the cost ot a building for ’the Dominion Museum in Wellington. It stated “Doa building worthy of the title of Do minion Museum” would cost £IoO,UU . “The Government,” Mr Bollaid said to a reporter ‘‘has not failed to reTO£,nise the°noed for a Dominion Museum whTch would typify t ie richness and value of this country s relics. ine trouble has been the want of inonej. When I became Minister of Interna Affairs, which Department deals with museum matters, I very quickly realised that the present building was altogether unsuitable for a museumI inspected the building with the officers of the Department an d found ’t ■to be in a worse condition that I had ever imagined. Some of the pill, • in the inside of the building have given way and very many of the weather boards are sc rotten that the rain beats in. Moreover there Jas not space enough to display some o our best ethnological collections. 1 approached the Cabinet in the mattei, as my predecessor in office, the Hon. W. D. Stewart, had done, but unfortunately the war slump was still giving the Minister of Finance anxious moments The best I could th°n do in those circumstances was to get Cabinet to agree to provide space in the Dominion Farmers’ Institute biplding for the temporary accommodation ot tho exhibits to mainly safeguard them against fire. , . . . „ “I must admit that this is not a satisfactory expediency—a building to hold all the exhibits is what is wanted I mentioned in an interview a few weeks ago that in view of financial difficulties it would liel" mo a great deal in my efforts to. secure a museum worthy of the Empire City if some interested societies were to start a fund for the building. As a result of that announcement I received a letter from the secretary of the Wellington Central Progress League (Mr. C. Mitchell) asking the approximate cost of a new building and the. amount it would be necessary to raise by way of gift before the work could be proceeded with. I submitted the question to the Cabinet at its last meeting, and it was decided to give a £1 for -A subsidy up to a total of filoO.OOtP‘for a new building, Meaning that £7.1,000 would have to be raised locally. Jhe amount is large, I must say, but the decision is really the first wedge in for a new museum. I hope the 1 regress League of Wellington will take the matter up actively and other kindrod societies also.” Mr. Bollard added that the Cabinet was agreed that a new museum budding in Wellington was required, and it was purely the uncertainties of finance that prevented the full cost of the building being provided by the Government.