MEMORIAL HALL MAY GO TO BOROUGH COUNCIL

Chronicle (Levin), 1 October 1948, Page 4

MEMORIAL HALL MAY GO TO BOROUGH COUNCIL

By an almost unanimous vote, a special meeting of the Levin Returned Services' Association last night decided to favour the vesting of the Memorial Hall funds and the' R.S.A. section in the Levin Borough Council as a Levin and District War Memorial, subject to certain provisions being substantially agreed to by the council.

Should this be brought about, it will mean that the council will take over the control of the structure when erected and, meanwhile, will proceed to secure from the Government the £1 for £1 subsidy which would. otherwlse have been with-held from the association. Under the legislation governing the erection of war memori&xS, no subsidy can be granted without the assurance that he control of the building will be vested in a local authority. Up till now the Levin R.S.A, has been unwilling to give that assurance. The attitude of the association has been that practically all the money on hand was raised before the regulations were t brought down, and the donors were assured — and in some cases they insist3d— that the' control of the build-

ing be in R.S.A. hands. Recently the Levin Borough Council and the executive of the Levin R.S.A. held a full discussion on the matter, culminating in the suggestion that the council be the ietting agents with the association still the owners until the branch ceased to function, or a judge of the Supreme Court ruled that. the time had arrive $ when it would be in the best interests of aU concerned if a transfer to the council was made. The Government-, through the Department of Internal Affairs, would not agree to such an arrangement, and reiterated its previous ruling that no departure could be made from tne original regulations. The R.S.A. then decided to play a waiting game in the hope that1 Government policy might change, or that a change of Government might result in its case being again consi'dered. It was more than a little disturbed at the prospect of losing a sum of in the vicinity of £6000 raised over the past four years by the association, Since then, however, the ' Campaign Committee, under the

chairmanship of Mr. H. J. Lancaster, and the R.S.A. executive, presided over by Mr. N. M. Thomson, have given the matter considerable thought and as a result of thorough investigations, last night brought down a joint recommendation that the transfer be made. The following are the provisions which the R.S.A. will ask the council to substantially agree to: — 1. Neither the money nor the section be vested in the council unless and until the council has applied for and been granted the £1 for £1 subsidy. 2. The building to be substantially in accordance with the plans originally drawn up by our architect with such variations thereof as the R.S.A. executive agrees to, this condition being to enable us to keep faith with the donors. 3. The council to take steps immediately ^ on grant of the subsidy to obtain a permit for the erection of the whole scheme if possible, but otherwise for the clubrooms portion thereof substantially in accordance with the recent plans thereof prepared by the architecu. 4. The council. to lease -the clubrooms portion of the building to the Levin R.S.A. during the lifetime of the association at a pepper-corn rental. 5. Such lease to provide that the council be responsible for all repairs and maintenance in respect of the exterior of the clubrooms. 6. The interior of the clubrooms to be cleaned from time to time by i the council's car.etaker to the fsame extent as such caretaker will clean the remainder of the building. (7) That the hall be let to the R.S.A. free of cost on two nights of each year. Speaking to the meeting last night, Mr. Thomson, as president of the association, said that it was feared that if the association was to maintain its previous attitude

the time might come when the Government subsidy might be withdrawn. If a recession occui*red, subsides would be the first things to be discontinued, possibly almost overnight. There was no reason to expect that the Government would change its policy, or that any future Government would adopt any other policy in regard to the subsidising of war memorials. "We promised Levin and district a war memorial. Can we 'look the people in the face if, through selfishly hanging on to the money and our section, we were to. lose for the district the memorial we promised it, I for one could not. (We would be breaking faith with the public," said Mr. Thomson. "I have never been keen on handing the funds over to the Levin Borough Council, but I fear that some day there will be no subsidy — simply that. Can we risk dong nothing? "We were the first in the field with the scheme for a war memorial and I'm glad it was us, but if it • had not been us there would have beeru others. Both the committee and the executive feel we should make this decision, but we can do so with certain conditions. I don't know if these conditions will be acceptable to the Levin Borough Council, but if they are acceptable you must agree that we will get all that we expected to get in the first place. 1 The reason why it was recommended that the_ transfer be made to the Levin Borough Council instead of the Horowhenua Co.unty Council or both, was no reflectlon on the county council, continued Mr. Thomson. "It was simpler to deal with one local body than two, and It was felt that as the county council covered a very wide area^ Incorporating many boroughs and the "Otaki R.S.A., part of the Shannon R.S.A. and part of the Paraparaumu R.S.A., the County Council would 'probably not be as willing to spend local body funds on the upkeep of a Levin building." After outlining the six provisos recommended by the executive and committee and explaining each sparately, Mr. Thomson mov(Continued on Page 5)

R.S.A. Memorial Hall fContinued from Page 4) ed that they be open to full discussion. Opposition to the Press being allowed to report the discussion was raised by Mr. H. J. Lancaster, who was supported by Mr. A. M. Colquhoun, but a motion that it be heM in committee was lost by a considerable majority. Even t-hough the R.S.A. had control of the building, it would eventually have to hand it over to a local body and he was in favour of the proposals made that night, said Mr. S. Atkins. The fact that it was to be a memorial hall made it only right that ail servicemen, and in fact everyone, should have the use of it. The president had given a clear and concise report on the matter said Mr. C. E. C. Webb. The proposed attitivde was the most loglcal one, That the R.S.A. should not rusn the building of the hall, but wait and continue to raise money for the scheme, was put forward by Mr. D. W. N. Pratt. A member of the Campaign Committee: We've tried for three years. Mr. Pratt: I'll give it a go. It is too soon yet to throw up the scheme. Mr. P. Young: I am oue of the original members of the campaign committee. I do hope that if we are not successful with the council, and have to raise fun'ds we will get men as energetic as Mr. Pratt to give us a hand. We've been very short of them. Mr. D. Hair: I admire the spirit of Mr. Pratt. Where there is spirit it can always be done. I was always for our own rooms, but in view of the reports of the president and Mr. Lancaster, I now realise that we cannot do better. In fact we have no alternative. Dr. S. J. Thompson: Generally speaking I have always been in favour of this .way. There is no other way. I would, however, sug■gest that in return for the R.S.A.'s initiative in the matter it be a . clause that the R.S.A. be allowed the hall free of charge twice a year. Mr. c. E. Wiseley: Two things have changed fny views. One is the reports presented tonight and the other is tonight's attendance. Those many members who are not here must be in 'agreement with the scheme, otherwise they would be here to oppose it. I admit the position as it is today. It is clear cut. Following further discussion the 1 six points, with the inclusion of ' Dr. Thompson's suggestion, were •put to vote and passed, there being ' only one dissentmg voiee. s