CARNEGIE GRANT

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 230, 24 June 1932, Page 9

CARNEGIE GRANT

Auckland Fine Arts Centre PROJECT POSTPONED Dominion Special Service. Auckland, June 21. An offer o£ 5000 dollars (approximately. £lOOO at par) annually for three years for the purposes of the proposed. Fine Arts Centre, has been received by the Auckland University College Council from' the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Corporation, New York. The offer is an outcome of the visit paid by Dr. L. D. Coffman, president of the University of Minnesota, to the four New Zealand university colleges some months ago as representative of the corporation. .The college council yesterday received a copy of the following resolution passed by the corporation’s board of trustees: —“That, from the balance available for appropriation in the special fund (applicable elsewhere than in the United States of America) the sum of 15,000 dollars, payable 5000 dollars annually for three years beginning 1931-32, be, and it hereby is, appropriated to Auckland University College toward support of the Fine Arts Centre of the City of Auckland, upon receipt of a plan of action satisfactory to the executive committee.” • The council, after discussing the offer in committee, resolved to thank the cor poration for its offer, and to state that for the present the project would have • to stand over until the times improved. The Carnegie Corporation, which has certain funds available for assisting higher education outside the United States, has already made.annual grants for a limited period to Otago University for country extension work in home science. Last year it decided to grant each of the university colleges 1000 dollars yearly for five years for library purposes. The registrar of the Auckland University College, Mr. M. R. O’Shea, will leave shortly under a travelling fellowship granted by the corporation, for the purpose of studying university methods in the United States. For some considerable time prior' to the depression the college council had under discussion proposals for erecting a building, in co-operation with the City Council and other bodies, to form a centre for the fine arts in Auckland, and for endowing a faculty of fine arts at the college. Considerable progress was made, but it was realised a year or more ago that the scheme would have to be shelved until more prosperous times. - --