TANGLED FUNDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 134, 3 December 1940, Page 6

TANGLED FUNDS

MEMORIAL AT PETONE

TROUBLE OVER QUOTAS

The alleged failure of some local bodies to meet their obligations in regard to funds for the Wellington Provincial Centennial Memorial on the Petone Esplanade was the subject of some criticism at the meeting of M;he Petone Borough Council last evening.

When the project was first proposed a pro rata allocation from local bodies in the province was suggested. In recognition of the fact that the memorial was to be erected in the Hutt Valley the local bodies in the Valley undertook to raise a much larger amount than the population warranted. Among other districts, Wellington City agreed to find a stipulated amount. The Hutt Valley organised an efficient campaign and raised a sum very considerably in excess of its quota.

When the final accounting was done, it was found that other districts, Wellington City included, had fallen woefully behind the amounts promised and the Hutt Valley was compelled not only to pay its already heavy quota but was required to pay in the whole of the money it had collected, portion of which it had hoped to hold to pay future maintenance costs;

Instead of some thousands of pounds, all that is now left is £515, and out of this some accounts have yet to be met.

The Petone Borough Council was last evening asked to take over the memorial, and finds that, although all future charges for maintenance will fall upon it, the council cannot even claim the balance of £515/ as the Provincial Council (now defunct) has paid the money over to the Hutt Valley Centennial Committee, a body composed of representatives of various Valley local bodies.

The council refused to take over the memorial until the question of disposal of the balance of the money is finally agreed upon.