NATIONAL WAR MEMORIAL

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 127, 27 February 1928, Page 10

NATIONAL WAR MEMORIAL

MT. COOK SITE CHOSEN DECISION OF CABINET The Prime Minister, in a letter to the Mayor, announces Cabinet’s decision regarding the Mount Cook scheme for the erection of the (1) National War Memorial (campanile with carillon of i bells on top and Hall of Memories at base), (2) the National Art Gallery, and (3) the Dominion Museum. He states that the Government has decided that the proper site for all these purposes is that commonly known as the Mt. Cook site. "The Government,” wrote Mr. Coates, "is prepared to make available the Mt. Cook site for the purposes indicated above, on the understanding that in the meantime the campanile would be erected in such a position that the present Defence Department buildings would not be materially interfered with, and could remain in use by the Crown for their present or any other purpose until such time as the money (up to £lOO,OOO, which the Government has agreed to subsidise on a £1 for £1 basis) had been collected to carry out the buildings referred to above. It would then be prepared to vacate the site entirely and hand it over to a suitable Board of Trustees. It might even be arranged that the site could be handed over to a Hoard of Trustees as soon as the necessary legislation was passed, provided, of course, that the Government interests were safeguarded until such time as it became necessary to vacate.” The Mayor Gratified. “It is most gratifying to note that finality has at last been reached with regard to the Mount Cook site,” said the Mayor on Saturday. “For many rears various Mayors have striven to secure this site from various Governments for the purposes of a museum and are gallery, but without success. The Prime Minister and the present Government are to be congratulated on the consideration which they have given to the various representations made with regard to the matter, and for the big view and bold course they have taken in agreeing to the use of the site for the purposes indicated in the Prime Minister’s letter. For the location of public buildings the site is unparalleled in Wellington. “I feel that the area round about this site is destined to become in time Rie centre of Wellington. At present it is Hie educational centre. In time it will be more than this.”