STATUARY IN BOND

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1931, Page 15 (Supplement)

STATUARY IN BOND

DUTY NOT FORTHCOMING.

SYDNEY MEMORIAL’S FATE.

Another obstacle to the early erection of the Archibald Memorial in Hyde Park, Sydney, was revealed at a recent meeting of the Sydney City Council, when Aiderman Marks said that the statuary had arrived in Sydney, but was being held in bond pending the payment of customs and primage duties amounting to between £lOOO and £2OOO. He requested that the Lord Mayor should make representations to the Prime Minister with a view to having the duty waived. The Lord Mayor, Aiderman Jackson, suggested that the matter should first be dealt with by the Health and By-Laws Committee. It is stated that the statuary has been in Sydney for some time' and has remained in bond because of the lack of funds to pay the necessary sum of money to release it. Last year representations were made to the City Council bv the trust governing the fund that it should make some contribution to the cost of laying the foundations and erecting the superstructure to take the monument, in view of the fact that tenders for the work exceeded the original estimate by £3045. The council, however, in November deferred consideration for six months. Meanwhile, the • statuary, which is consideicd by experts to rank with some of the finest of its kind in the world, is being held in bond pending payment to the Federal Government of the amount claimed.