The Dominion MONDAY, MAY 12, 1924. A CASE FOR CO-OPERATION

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 194, 12 May 1924, Page 6

The Dominion MONDAY, MAY 12, 1924. A CASE FOR CO-OPERATION

« lx any discussion of plans for the replacement of the existing Dominion Museum by a building worthy to house tile national collections, the responsibility of the Government in the matter ought to be clearly determined and understood. The prea.nt Government and its predecessors have admitted freely on many occasions that where the Dominion Museum is concerned die Government has an undivided responsibility. It is only very recently, and quite as an afterthought, that an attempt has been made to throw part of this responsibility on the City of Wellington. Over a lengthy period of years, the Government pleaded shortage of funds as an excuse for delay in erecting a new museum budding, the inference, of course, being that as soon as funds were availab e the building would be put in hand. The Government evidently will not create a valid excuse for further delay by asking the city to bear half the cost of a new Dominion Museum. The matter is one in which the Government has a well-defined liability, and the city has As it stands, the Government offer to provide a sum of £75,000 towards the cost of a new museum if the city provides an%?yual amount does not even deserve to be considered. The Dominion Museum is a national institution. It is the repository of many valuable gifts and collections presented to the people of New Zealand on the undei standing that they would be properly cared-'for and preserved for the information and edification of succeeding generations. At present these conditions are very far from being satisfied. Some of the collections have been accommodated temporarily in a fireproof building, but many irreplaceable exhibits are left to take their chance in an old, dilapidated and overcrowded wooden building where they are certain to deteriorate and are exposed to a constant risk of destruction by fire. So long as it allows this state of affairs to continue, the Government ia breaking faith with all who bave made donations to the national collections. It certainly cannot escape this reproach by suggesting that Wellington or any other city should take over half of its liability. The proposal that the Government and the City of Wellington should share equally the cost of a new museum building can hardly be regarded as anything else than a device to gain time. Had the Government been serious, it naturally would have proposed to share with the city not only the cost of a new building, but ihe control of the institution. It certainly cannot have been contemplated that the city should bear half the cost of housing an institution to be controlled, as it is at present, wholly and solely by the Government. It is all the more necessary that the facts of the position should be kept in clear sight since there now appears to be a possibility that the people of Wellington may be able to co-operate in a measure with the Government in providing a museum and art gallery worthy of the Dominion and its capital city. A basis of co-operation no doubt may be found if it is sought, but obviously it will not be the ridiculously inequitable basis submitted in the Governments recent proposal. Wellington at present comes a bad last among the four princrpal centres of population in the Dominion where its Museum and Art Gallery arc concerned. It would hardly be profitable to inquire how far this is due to lack of civic spirit and preoccupation with everyday affairs, and how far to the fact that the choice of Wellington as the site of the Dominion Museum and of the projected National Art Gallery has discouraged local enterprise in these directions. In any case, there are now some prospects of improving on a state of affairs which, as it stands, is not creditable to the city. Sir Harold Beauchamp, who has already made a substantial gift for the purchase of pictures, now proposes on certain conditions to donate the sum of £5OOO as the nucleus of a fund to provide adequate accommodation for art collections in Wellington. It has been suggested that a further sum of £lO,OOO could be obtained by disposing of the present Art Gallery and site. No doubt there is scope for an arrangement under which Wellington would contribute to the cost of a building to provide accommodation for museum collections and for national and local art collections, ouch a building could be erected by stages over a fairly extended term of years. The first section, however, should include accommodation for pictures as well as for museum collections. Thanks in great part to the offer of Sir Harold Beauchamp, there seems to be no reason why an early beginning should not be made on these lines, provided the Government meets the city fairly and reasonably in the matter of relative financial contributions. A contribution of £2 "by the Government for each £1 provided by the city might be regarded as satisfactory. With such a financial adjustment, the matter of control no doubt could be arranged with little difficulty. If it consented to take over half of the Government’s liability—not that it is over hkely do such a thing—the city naturally would expect an equal voice wi h the Government in the control of the whole institution. With financial burdens divided as we have suggested it would no doubt suffice that the Academy of Fine Arts should be allowed to control the Art Gallery, and that the city should be given some consultative voice in the management of the Museum.