WELLINGTON MEMORIAL

Taranaki Daily News, 13 December 1926, Page 11

WELLINGTON MEMORIAL

COMPREHENSIVE PROPOSAL. MR. HURST SEAGER’S PLAN. By Telegraph.—Preas Assoelatlon. Wellington, Dec. 11. Holding that the present site, outside the south-eastern angle of the Parliamentary grounds, is distinctly unsuitable for the memorial proposed to be erected by the Wellington Citizens’ War Memorial Committee, Mr. Hurst Seagar, in a report he prepared at the request of the Government, recommends the adoption of a big combined scheme of eommenoration with tbe magnificent Mount Cook ground as the chosen site. Mr. Seagar’s proposals provide for the erection of the citizens’ monument as an independent memorial in front of a group of buildings whieh could be* formed by the construction on that site of the new Dominion Museum, tbe new Art Gallery and the National War Memorial in the shape of the Hall of Memories and the incorporated carillon. Accompanying Mr. Seagar’s report is a covering statement by the ActingPrime Minister (Hon. W. Downie Stewart), which defines the attitude the Government has taken up in the matter. The Acting-Prime Minister states that the only commitment by the Government at present is that, If the citizens of Wellington raised £lOO,OOO for the erection of an Art Gallery and Museum, the Government would subsidise this by a similar amount. In reply to a question, Mr. Downie Stewart stated that his own personal opinion was that the Government were being asked to do too much, as the whole scheme involved a contribution by the Government of £200,000 and the appropriation of the Mount Cook site. However, he hoped to have the whole question looked into by the Cabinet, after the various views of the interested parties were ascertained as to Mr. Hurst Seagar’s report.