£17,000 THEATRE FOR NAPIER

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 108, 24 May 1937, Page 8

£17,000 THEATRE FOR NAPIER

Mayor Says That Finance Has Been Arranged BOROUGH FUNDS TAPPED More than six years after the Napier Municipal Theatre was destroyed by earthquake in 1931 comes the announcement by the Mayor, Mr C. O. Morse, that alinost all the necessary "finance for the erection of a new building has been arranged. In an effort to ensure that the new building will open free of encumbrances, various Napier organisations interested are to be asked to canvass the people of the town to provide sutficient funds for the seating, which is not at present provided for in the amonnt available. Approximately £17,000 has been collected from various sources by the borougb. * Aid has already been offered in regard to the seating by several citizens, and, for the purpose of enabling contributions to be made, the cost of each seat has been worked out at £1 13/9. It is hoped to persuade many organisations which have been restricted since th© earthquake by lack of a theatre to buy bloeks of seats. By Ihe concentration of funds from a number -of sources an amount of roughly £17,000 h'as been reserved for ffie erection of tbe theatre, Mr Morse explains. The sources and approximatd amounts derived from them are as follow : — v £ Municipal tramways depreciation reserve fund 7,000 Borough insurance fund 4,000 Electrical equipment, includ- , ing beating, carried out by the municipal electricity department (between £3000 and £4000) 4,000 Unemployment Board subsidy 2,000 Approximate total £17,000 Under the direetion of the electrical engineer, Mr D. H. Hastie, and the arehitect to the borough, the municipal electricity department will carry out the installation of the electrical equipment in the theatre, including heating apparatus. The amount of ;between £3300 and £4000 involved would be met out of profits from the department over a period of two years. By means of an Unemployment Board subsidy. sought by the Mayor three years ago when dealing with subsidy claims for the whole of the earthquake restoration work in the town, the amount of £17,000 is completed. The subsidy is understood to provide in the vicinity of £2000. ' • "It will be readily seen that the necessity has been obviated of going before the Loans Board for approval of a loan for the theatre," Mr Morse states. "In addition, there will be no necessity to co'nduct a poll of ratepayers to sanction a loan, thus effecting a substantial saving in expense and time. It can now he stated definitely that tho provision of a theatre is certain "I am in a position now to announce that financial arrangements in connection with the theatre project have been completed," he added. "An amount of approximately £7000 is available from depreciation reserve fund of the Napier Municipal Tramways Corporation. We have definite advice from all authorities that this money can be used for the purpose. On first thoughts it may be considered by some people that the depreciation reserve should go towards liquidating the tramway losses, but the fund was definitely for the replacement of equipment.- Moreover, under the conversion scheme recently brought about the loans have beeii covered." .