GIFT FOR ART

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 24, 29 January 1927, Page 10

GIFT FOR ART

BAILWAY PUECHASE

OVER SIX THOUSAND POUNDS

SIR H. BEAUCHAjVIP'S HOUSE

Art'in Wellington in fact, in New Zealand generally, will presently benefit to the amount of over £6000. This handsome gift has come abou!: in a curious fashion, and it is due to the public spirit of' a'citizen of Wellington. When the inovepient-for enlarging the gallery o£ the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts was mooted the idea was put

fbrth :that "the scope, of the 'gallery

should be enlarged, it should mxx deed/be a Dqminion'or National Art Gallery in the sense that the Museum' in Wellington is officially, and, in fact, a" Dominion Museum. There w.'- a suggestion, that the gallery and museum should be on one site, • and even under one foof. , Of couT;Se> money ras wanted—a: iot of it—,to build a gallery or gallery and museum. The academy, howoxer. resolved to dispose of its gallery in Whitmore street—a most valu-able-.site", to say nothing of th nature of the bu'lding thereon—and - put the proceeds - into tho National Gallery "Fund; Some money was collected for the purpose and is in hand; some was promised. Sir Harold Beauchamp gave a'house.and land for realisation for the fund. It' was his former residence in "Pitzherbert terrace, a section measuring ;66 by 220 >feet. and carrying a house of seventeen rooms. The site is one of'themost-important in tLat part of'; Wellingtonj moreover j it is one of the veryvfe-vf freeholds in the block. Sir- Harold thought its sale would bring in 'a' substantial sum for the proposed National, Gallery, : and so it',will, for the property was recently disposed of by Messrs. 3. , B. Harcourt and Co.,' Wellington, .for'£62so, and the purchasers ; are the Government Railways Department.^ ' - .'.< .'.'. It should be >.6ntibned that the academy's pictures .and .many other gifts and purchases of works of art by British and foreign painters of high repute, will form, the nucleus of the national collection. -..;-'-. : .; -; ■ •'- - '. : . The' Bailway. Department has acquired ithe property'fbr'the purpose of concerting the "house into a hostel for cadets who come from different parts of the Dominion to headquarters," at the commencement of their career, for train-ing-in. the various phases of ■ railway work. ■ The; building can be readily made suitable for the purpose intended, and its proximity to; the headquarters' offices will be an additional advantage. Young lads coming from a distance -to Wellington to start their life,'a work in the Departrjjnt will have comfortable

quarters, apd'the fact of the establisli- / ment .being under competent- supervision will give an assurance to parents that the boys-on leaving home will be- housed .under conditions of a congenial and desirable nature.