NATIONAL ART GALLERY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3803, 1 February 1927, Page 25

NATIONAL ART GALLERY.

A HANDSOME DONATION. i WELLINGTON, January 29. Art in Wellington—in fact, in New Zealand generally, will presently benefit to the amount of over £6OOO. This handsome gift - has come about in a curious . fashion, and it is due to the public ( spirit of a citizen of Wellington. When the movement for enlarging the gallery of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts was mooted the idea was put forth that the scope of the gallery should be enlarged, that it should, indeed, be a Dominion or national art gallery in the sense that the museum in Wellington is officially and, in fact, a Dominion museum. There was a suggestion that the gallery and museum should be on one site, and even under one roof. The academy, however, resolved to dispose of its gallery in Whitmore street, a most valuable site, to say nothing of the nature of the building thereon, and put the proceeds into the National Gallery Fund. Some money was collected for the purpose, and is in hand and some was promised. Sir Harold Beauchamp gave a house and land tor realisation for the fund. It was his former a-esidence in Fitzherbert terrace, a section measuring 66ft by. 220 ft, and carrying a house of 17 rooms. The tite is one of the most important in that part of Wellington. Moreover, it is one of the very few 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 A. B. Harcourt and. Co., Wellington, for £6250, and the purchasers are the Government Railways Department. It should be mentioned that the academy’s pictures, and many other gifts and purchases! or works of art by British and foreign painters of high repute, will form the nucleus of the national collection. The Railways Department has acquired the property for the purpose of converting the house into a 'hostel for cadets who come from different parts of the Dominion to headquarters at the commencemerit of their career for training in the various phases of railway work. The building can be Teadily 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’s work in the department will have -comfortable quarters, and tho fact of the establishment being under competent supervision will give an assur» ance to parents that the boys, on leavinff home, will be housed under conditions of , a congenial and desirable nature. -4