NATIONAL ART GALLERY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10206, 17 February 1919, Page 4

NATIONAL ART GALLERY

. The project of erecting in Wellington, our capital city, a Dominion Art Gallery as a National Peace Memorial, has undoubtedly been brought a step nearer realisation by the deputation on Friday from the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts to the Hon. G. "W. Russell,, Minister for Internal Affairs." The; case for the Dominion Art Gallery was clearly and cogently stated by Mr H. M. Gore, president of the Academy, Mr,W. H. Field, M.P.. Mr R. A. Wright, M.P., and Mr von Haast; and the Minister's reply was most sympathetic. As Mr Gore well said, a Dominion Art Gallery constitutes a. national peace memorial that can be subscribed to and supported by all classes and creeds; and if the gallery is situated upon a commanding site it will not only serve as a landmark for visitors, but can be made the centre and inspiration of a great town-planning scheme that would make Wellington a capital city worthy of the Dominion. The gallery would be at once a standing memorial to the valour of New Zealanders in war and a tangible pledge of their determination to take also a foremost plao« in the . arts iof peace. With Mr Gore, we hold that, while other centres will no doubt establish memorials, there should be, in addition, at the seat of Government, at the capital of the Dominion, a great national peace memorial to which coming generations can point with pride and satisfaction. Though so closely identified with Christchurch, one of the three other groat centres, each of which, as tlio Minister stated, claims to be quite equal to, if not better than the cap> al city of the Dominion, tho Hon. G. W. Russell did not hesitate to declare that ho realised that there ought to be a centre where tho nation, as a nation, can set up its peace memorial and express its gratitude to our gallant dead, and that in his opinion, that centre is Wellington, and only can be Wellington. This declaration cannot but bo endorsed by every unbiased mind throughout the Dominion; and, that being tho caso, there seoms to bo no good reason why tho Academy should not get to work immediately to organ-: ise noi only in Wellington, hut in every part of New Zealand, a movement to raise a substantial fund, to be subsidised by the Government, for the erection of an art gallery worthy of the Dominion and of her sons whose valour and self-sacrifice it Is to commemorate.