Evening Post. MONDAY, MAY 30, 1927. SOMETHING DEFINITE WANTED

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 124, 30 May 1927, Page 8

Evening Post. MONDAY, MAY 30, 1927. SOMETHING DEFINITE WANTED

_ From the report of the deputation to the Government on Friday it is evident that even Ministers are not certain of the position regarding toe Art Gallery, Museum, and War Memorial project. Citizens are probably even more in a fog as to the facts. The first point to note is that the National War Memorial is not a Wellington City proposal. It was proposed by Cabinet, and a vote of £100,000 was approved by Parliament several years in succession without reference to any citizens' authority. It had no relation whatever to the Dominion Museum and Art Gallery project. The Government promise of. a subsidy of £100,----000 was not intended as a War Memorial subsidy. It was the outcome of* many years' agitation to have die Dominion Museum and a National Art Gallery placed upon a secure foundation. ■. The Dominion Museum is. a national institution in the control of which Wellington citizens have no voice. For many years the Government had acknowledged its liability for the cost of providing a safe and suitable repository for the National Museum treasures. While acknowledging this responsibility, however, it did nothing; and to bring the proposals to a definite point citizens interested in Art and the Museum urged the Government to make a definite statement of its intentions. It was then that the Government agreed to grant £100,000 for a combined Gallery and Museum on condition that citizens subscribed an equal amount. This was not in substitution for the National War Memorial, nor had it any relation thereto. It was hot even at the time a local War Memorial proposal. With respect to grants, therefore, the Government position is this: It has promised a subsidy of £100,000 for a Dominion Museum and Art Gallery,, and it has voted, but never spent, £100,000 for a National War Memorial to be erected in Wellington. The only connection between these two proposals is that a Citizens' Committee has shown the Government how its National Memorial may be combined (on a plan endorsed by the Government's own expert, Mr. Hurst Seagar) with the Dominion Museum and Art Gallery, the War Memorial Carillon, and die Citizens' War Memorial. If the Government should now say that a National War Memorial is unnecessary or that one costing £5000 will do, it cannot excuse its action (which would,be directly contrary,to the decisions of earlier Cabinets and Parliaments) on the plea that the citizens have not done their part. With respect to payment of the Art Gallery Museum subsidy, the Minister of Finance emphasises particularly that there is to be no piecemeal grant We cannot recollect this condition having' been laid down so emphatically before, and it certainly does not seem reasonable that the whole subsidy should be withheld till the last pound of the City's £100,000 is received. The Finance Minister knows that it is always desirable to put a work in found so as to stimulate public interest, and we believe he would hot insist upon fulfilment of a harsh condition if it threatened to delay the inauguration of a worthy scheme. There is, however, a further unforeseen difficulty. When the Mus-eum-Gallery proposal was made it was believed that the present Museum site would be available for a new building. Later it appeared that the Government wished to have this site for other purposes, and a member of the Government strongly urged the promoters to take the Mount Cook site instead. When the combined scheme was suggested the Citizens' Committee agreed to this change. Now it seems that other members of the Government are doubtful about this site being available, and the Finance Minister speaks as if, in asking for it, the Citizens' Committee were demanding yet another favour. We cannot see why this should be. The Government itself (or one member who we assumed spoke with authority) desired the change, and if this change is made the Government secures a valuable site at present occupied by the Museum. It is not helping the work forward to introduce this element of uncertainty, and those people who are 'working for a national and civic purpose have a right to expect something better of the Government* Obviously the only way in which the Avhole scheme can.be advanced is to clear up uncertainties one by one. To do. this we would propose the following programme:—(l) That the City Council should prepare and submit to the Government its plans for a suitable approachl to Mount Cook, arid obtain a definite promise of this site; (2) that the Government should decide whether it will have a National War Memorial as a part of the combined schemer—such a decision is necessary before the buildings can be grouped and de-. signs called for; (3) that a Board of Trustees should be constituted for the Museum and Gallery with representation of the City; (4) that the Government should come to a definite decision with the Citizens' War Memorial Committee concerning the location of its Memorial. Until these steps are taken, and a basis reached upon which to prepare definite plans, it would be futile to launch a cam-

paign for funds. We do urge the Government, however, to facilitate the settlement of these preliminary issues, or the interests at present combined may become impatient and begin work on separate less satisfactory schemes. The Government's nervousness may spring from fear that it will be called upon immediately for a great sum. With all the dispatch possible in the arrangement of preliminaries, we cannot see that an early call can be made, and delay cannot therefore be excused on the ground that financially times are bad.