ART GALLERY AND MUSEUM

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 185, 4 May 1936, Page 8

ART GALLERY AND MUSEUM

Laying Out the Grounds TWO ROADS TO CONVERGE AT ENTRANCE The work of laying out the grounds and forming the roads for an approach to the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum is already in hand. Under- an arrangement with the trustees of the gallery anti museum, this work has been undertaken by the city engineer (Mr. K. E. Luke), and when the roads are formed and paved and everything is in order, the work of setting down the lawns and planting the areas set apart for planting will be taken over by the director of parks and reserves (Mr v J. G. MacKenzie). In general there will be the two main approaches to the new building, one on each side of the carillon tower, but symmetrically designed and graded in conformity with the tower and buildings to be served. These two 30-foot roads will merge into one in front of the gallery and museum, where there will be space for a 60-foot road, and also room for shrubbery plots. It is on this forecourt that Mr. G. A. Troup, who has done so much to vitalise the movement so happily culminating, Has suggested that two statues should be erected—one to Captain James Cook and the other to Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield, one the discoverer of New Zealand and the other the founder of Wellington. So far there has been no response to Mr. Troup’s suggestion, but he has little doubt that some day tangible expression will be given to his idea. , „ In connection with the laying-out of the grounds, it is understood that some effort will be made to get the police authorities to remove the old cottage next to the Mount Cook Police station in'Buckle Street. This cottage has been vacant now for some years, and has been allowed to go to wrack and ruin. It certainly stands in the way of the permanent improvement the authorities would like to make in that corner of the grounds, for the rear of the premises will probably have to be encroached upon for the building of a retaining wall for the eastern approach road. This cottage is now an eyesore, and is seiwing no purpose whatsoever. It is the onlv residential propertybarring the police station-on the block, and its removal would certainly be in the interest of the great work now in hand.