CHURCHILL AUCTIONS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 284, 29 August 1942, Page 3

CHURCHILL AUCTIONS

Comment On Christchurch

Failure

•Commenting yesterday on the failure Commenting on the failure of Canterbury to participate in the Churchill auctions, the hon. Dominion organizer, Mr. I’at Lawlor, said : — . , “Till I read the somewhat misleading remarks of Mr. E. J. Dell, of Christchurch, I had proposed to observe a charitable silence over the failure of the Christchurch auctions committee to do its job. However, as Mr. Bell has made comments which infer that there may be only one auction, and ‘it may’ be held in Wellington, I must state the correct position. If Mr. Bell will refer to my correspondence with him he will see that the Churchill' auctions will be held in Auckland, Wellington ami Dunedin. These auctions will contain the finest collection of literary and art treasures ever seen in this country. That Christchurch will not have a sale of its own is due to the fact that the committee set up was either too busy with other activities or disinclined to fa.ce «i uilHcult undertaking. However, the war has proved to us repeatedly that it is onlj those fighters who are not dismayed, but who fight on against diflicult odds, who achieve their objective. “Christchurch was the first place 1 visited in my auction campaign. I established there a foundation of Press and radio publicity and" promises of gifts from leading citizens. Shortly it was ■ obvious to me that with one or two excpptions the committee was dismayed at the hard work to follow. After several weeks they confessed failure. Mean while, towns like Wanganui, 1 eliding, and Palmerston North, where I «P'-fit just a fraction of the time I put m in Christchurch, have been producing great results, it is conceivable even that one other town may yet put Christchurch to shame by being the fourth city in New Zealand to hold a Churchill auc‘>on. “I must also correct Mr. Bell when he states that the few Christchurch gifts ‘sent in’ (significant words) will Probably be sent to Wellington. I advised him days ago that unless the donors wished otherwise their gifts were to be sent to Dunedin. . “I am sorry about the Christchurch failure, for I always had the thought, that that city was a stronghold of culture —in which very word is wrapped up the ideal of tho Churchill auctions.”