Enthusiastic Folly.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 20, 15 May 1912, Page 58

Enthusiastic Folly.

What has happened to the Imperial Institute? asks a writer in the “Watchdog.’’ When the Empire was bursting with loyalty in the Jubilee year of 1887 a number of high personages conceived a scheme for setting up a monument of imperial aspirations. Money flowed in like water, an.l nrieh bombast v/as < xpendrd over the g.cat things that

were to be done for commerce and the colonies and the fraternisation of all the teeming millions who acknowledged British sway. It was all very fine in theory, but it is not sufficient to build a palace and throw up bonnets in order to accomplish high political and commercial enterprises. It did not seem to strike anyone to begin by inquiring what was to be done with the Imperial Institute when it should come into being. Enough f or the happy moment to

give expression to the exuberant loyalty that filled every heart. After a feeble attempt to do serious work, the managers of the Institute sought to turn it into a place of amusement, but their business capacity did not avail to establish a serious rival to the Alhambra or the Crystal Palace, and the consequence was a dead loss of some £5OOO each year. Then in despair they remembered the serious character of the undertaking, and significant nobodies were encouraged to deliver lecture- which no

one troubled to attend. Then came * proposal to transfer the white elephant to the State and saddle the taxpayer with the consequences of a gigantic piece of enthusiastic folly. At present no one seems to know anything about the Imperial Institute, scarcely even where it is to be found. Before it is turned into an opera house or a music-hall or a skat-ing-rink, there should be a searching inquiry into the monstrous mismanagement of those high personages who are responsible for this astounding and scandalous failure.