WAR MEMORIAL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 81, Issue 7251, 13 September 1950, Page 8

WAR MEMORIAL

PROJECT tfOR OTOROHANGA VESTMENT IN LOCAL BODIES In a communication to the Otorohanga County Council, which met last Monday, the organising committee of the Otorohanga War Memorial project (a three-acre park and community centre estimated to cost £24,000), stated it had been recommended that the proposed scheme should be vested jointly with the Otorohanga Town Board and the Otorohanga County Council. The letter asked if the Council was agreeable to having the War Memorial vested jointly with the Otorohanga Town Board an<J whether it accepted the project as being the War Memorial for the town and district. The chairman, Mr. J. L. Wallis, said that he had attended a meeting of the three committees (planning, publicity, and finance) which proposed that a sum of £24,000 should be raised. It was stated that £16,000 would be obtained by subscription and £BOOO as a subsidy. Of the total, £20,000 would be spent on the building and £4OOO on the park and furnishings. Plans were already drawn and the meeting had been confident that the sum of £24,000 would be obtained. The application for subsidy had to be made by a local body, and it devolved upon a question ot which body or bodies would sponsor the application. Mr. Wallis said that he thought that the County Council should be one of the bodies and he had recommended that course. The county was •sharing in the project and should share in its control. Mr. Wallis advocated that a proper constitution should be drawn up for the control of the park and community centre buildings. “Otorohanga once had a far-seeing town board,” said Mr. Wallis. It had built the Town Hall and administered it well. Since then it had been let to picture interests and was not able to be used very frequently for the purpose which it was intended. A constitution would prevent any such use of the war memorial building. Dealing with the question of maintenance on the project when it was realised, Mr. Wallis said that if- the Council accepted joint vestment of the scheme with the Town Board, it would have to agree to meeting half the cost of maintenance. The clerk, Mr. M. P. Goldsbro, who is also secretary of the organising committee, outlined the, methods by which it was proposed to raise the funds for the memorial project over a two-year period.