MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 28, 3 February 1932, Page 6

MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY

i I (To the Editor.) Sir,—l read with dismay the article m Fndaj s issue to the effect that the. construction of Mount Cook Museum and Art balleiy may possibly be postponed foi some considerable .time. It., seems unfortunate that in anew of^ihe consideiable number of skilled and unskilled men this scheme would employ, o\er a lengthy period at economic wages, the 'large' amount of the subscribers' money already available cannot" be utilised. It 33 obvious that the longer the com mencement is delayed -the greater the danger that some of the premised subscript I tions will not materialise, and there must be many subscribers getting on in je.irs whose disappointment at not seeing the fruits of then: generosity will be great. It does seem to me that the stoppage by I the Government of all its bmldmgioperationS when the trade is so depressed is unwise, and in this particular job whore 50 per cent, only of the total post is asked' of the Government (presumably- spread over a period of two years), is in quite a different category to that where the whole cost is borpe.by the taxpayer Surely the total expenditure of, saj, £200,000 borne equally by both the Board of > Trustees -and the Government?would provide more employment (and this of a< productive ratine) than '£100,000 spent by the Government in relief work, mostly of a' doubtful value. f I believe that 85 per cent of the average building cost is returned directly and* indirectly to labour benefiting artisans of all classes, rail tiansport woikeis/jcoalimncrs, quarrymen, and unskilled labour, and the construction of a building of .this character would enable'hundred* of these men to maintain self-respect.—l am, 'etc., CIVIC?