The Southland Times “LUCEO NON URO." MONDAY, APRIL 26, 1937. A Blow To The Museum Project

Southland Times, Issue 23183, 26 April 1937, Page 4

The Southland Times “LUCEO NON URO." MONDAY, APRIL 26, 1937. A Blow To The Museum Project

It is regrettable that the Southland County Council should have seen fit suddenly to change an assurance of support for the centennial museum project into a blunt refusal to give any help whatever. At a meeting of the Centennial Committee on April 16 it was reported that in reply to a request by the Mayor of Invercargill (Mr John Miller) “the clerk of the Southland County Council gave an assurance that provision would be made in the coming financial year, and in subsequent years, for a contribution towards the council’s proportion of the cost of a centennial memorial in Southland.” In a leading article a few days later we commended the council for giving such a plain, unqualified promise of support while other local bodies seemed to be afraid to commit themselves. Our article evidently did the council something more than justice. At its meeting last Friday a resolution was carried unanimously that “owing to the increased costs brought about by recent legislation and Government interference with the council’s revenues, and being faced with the necessity of increasing the rates, the council cannot support the proposal.” Such a sudden reversal of opinion in a major local body is astonishing, to say the least. It is possible to understand the council disagreeing with the proposed allocation of contributions among the local bodies* of Southland—an allocation in which it was asked to make the highest minimum contribution of all; but such a disagreement seems a very inadequate reason for the council to nass a motion withdrawing support from the project altogether. Considering that its meeting was.poorly attended the Centennial Committee was perhaps a little hasty in approving the principle on which contributions were to be assessed before some of the authorities concerned had had an opportunity to discuss it. It could certainly be argued that the city, as the home of the museum and art gallery, should bear a greater part of the cost than the county; but, as we understand the position, the contribution suggested for each local body was to be regarded only as a minimum, and it was the Mayor’s intention to ask the City Council to vote considerably more than the minimum sum besides providing an appropriate site. One thing is certain: if there were differences of opinion on this point, a friendly conference of the bodies concerned should have had no difficulty in settling them and reaching a basis for the assessment of contributions that was acceptable to all. But if the Southland County Council, as the first authority of the province, is prepared to give the memorial project no more than the casual and summary treatment it has, then clearly the Southland museum and art gallery will never be advanced beyond the dream stage.