Residents Still Favour A Memorial Hall

Chronicle (Levin), 16 February 1948, Page 3

Residents Still Favour A Memorial Hall

As there has been every indication/that the public, of Shannon had lost interest in the proposed Shannon and district War Memorial Hall, the hall committee 'deeided to call a public meeting to ascertain why support was not forthcoming to such #, worthy object with the result that the largest gathering yet seen at a public meeting in connection with the hall met in the Renown Theatre , on Thursday night. Some 150 persons from all parts •of the district were present. The Mayor, Mr. D. A. Fitzgerald, presided and called upon Mr. R. R. Lind, chairman of the committee to open the discussion. Mr. Lind outlined, the progress of the hall right from 1 the time the R.S.A. met the Borough " Council regarding the erection of a suitable war memorial. The speaker stated that a committee of five members had

been set up by the public at a meeting to consider the ways and means of raising funds to build a memorial hall, as was the choice of the people. The committee was then given the sanction of the public to appoint two assistants to each committeeman to carry out a house-to-house canvass of the district to obtain funds through a voluntary contribution scheme. Mr. Lind said that this scheme had failed dismally in the eyes of the committee. In reply to a question, Mr. Lind said that as these assistants had given much of their time to assist the committee and in view of the interest they had shown in the hall project, the committee invited them to join the committee as members and in his opinion their strength on the committee has been a great asset. Mr. Lind then stated that as the public seemed to have lost interest in the hall project, the committee deeided that the best course to follow was to place its cards on the table and return to the people of the district asking them if they were still in favour of the hall and if they would give their support to the committee in the fujture. The next speaker was the secre-" tary of the committee, Mr. R. Hook, who outlined the financial position of the hall fund stating that the receipts'to date totalled £390 4s 4d, ,of which an expenditure of £14 2s 9d had brought the total down to £376 ls 7d which was placed in the Post Office Savings Bank. Mr. Hook said that he had been promised a considerable sum at a later date when some progress in the development of the fund was beginning to show. The Mayor then asked for a dis-' cussion on the subject and this brought forth an enquiry from Mr. S. W. Barber as to what was the opinion of the present council on the matter. The Mayor replied that the present council had never discussed the hall project. Mr. R. S. Downes, a member of the committee, said that the reason for the meeting was to get the feeling of the public as to whether the Jiall should be gone on with or not and moved a motion along these lines. Stating that the motion was out of order, Mr. R. Herbert said that it had already been agreed that a hall be built. To this Mr. Downes stated that whereas the first meeting had deeided on a hall as a war memorial the committee felt that the people were in doubt as to the first decision being the right one and his motion was to find out if the public still favoured the hall project. The motion was then put to the meeting and was carried on a show of hands. Mr. Herbert then stated that he was very pleased to see that the people • still were in favour of the hall and dealt at some length on other ways of raising the money as he considered that the voluntary system was a failure. He moved that a committee consisting of the present committee plus other members of the public should consider. ways and means of how finance for the hall shall be raised and shall report to the public in one month's time. The motion was put to the meeting and was carried on a show of hands. The Mayor then called for nominations and the following were elected to the committee: — Messrs. D. Richards, R. Herbert, C. G. Wishart, R. Vinsen, R. Roberts, F. O. Burtt, the Mayor and Mayoress, Mesdames R. Roberts and W. Third. The Mayor extended thanks to the public for their attendance, and a vote of thanks to the chalr brought the meeting to a close.