TENDER ACCEPTED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 175, 11 August 1937, Page 11

TENDER ACCEPTED

Municipal Theatre for Napier APPEAL FOR FURNISHINGS The tender of £15,485 by W. M. Angus, Ltd., has been accepted by the Napier Borough Council for the erection of the new Municipal Theatre in Napier. The site has now been almost cleared of the ruins of the old building, and is almost ready for construction work to begin. The Mayor, Mr G. O. Morse, Mx1 J. H. Oldham and the town clerk, Mr F. R. Watters, were authorised to prepare a stateemnt, which is as follows: "After- many ups and downs with regard to proposals to rebuild the Municipal Theatre, the council is now pleased to be ahle to report definite progress. "At a special meeting held last evening, the tender of W. M. Angus, Ltd., for £15,485 was accepted for the building. To this figure must be added the cost of certain materials to he supplied by the borough. "Including the demolition of the old building and the sub-contraets for the furnisliing . and equipment of the new one (approximately £2750), it is estimated that the total cost of ihe completed theatre jvili be £23,010. This amount is some £6000 beyond what the council has in sight, and, in addition to the appeal already issued for donations to the cost of seats, the council appeals to interested citizens for assistance in the purchase of other furnishings. "Judging by the support of local organisations and individuals to the theatre proposal and the lack of opposition to ifc, no move of the council's in recent years has pleased the public more. The council feel3 confident, therefore, that if it can finance the building the public will not allow it to remain unfurnished. ' "As an earnest of the council's sincerity in holding thjs view," individual councillors last evening made spqntfineous donations totalling £97 towards furnisliings "A very strong cominittee has already been set up, consisting of the Thirty Thousand Club, Hepertory Players, Competitions Society, Boxing and VVrestling Associations, Frivolity Minstrels, Operatic Society, the Napier Citizens' Band and the Junior Qrchestra, wlio have pledged th,emselves to leave no stone unturned to provide all the seats required. If other groups or individuals with a sense of civic pride will co-operate with a view to making provision for the balance of the furnishings and equipment, we shall then be able to open a theatre of which all may be proud, and, moreover, a building free of debt. "The Mayor and councillors realise that they have entered on an ambitious project, but feel that, with the public so strongly behind them, their action in accepting a tender is fully justified. "In the past the public of Napier iiave acknowledged .with grateful thanks the generous- assistance they have received from outside in regard to restoration generally. Now that it comes to making provision for a theatre and meeting-place jvhere all citizens can foregather, it behoves the people of Napier to make this provision from their own resources. The council is confident that the public will wholeheartedly and generously exert every effort to bring this worthy object to a successful consujnmation."