ART UNIONS FOR PUBLIC PURPOSES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3045, 8 June 1926, Page 1

ART UNIONS FOR PUBLIC PURPOSES.

OUTSPOKEN CRITICISM OF PRIME MINISTER. “I will tell you in a few words what I think about your art union suggestion. I will not consider it for a moment.” It was in this emphatic manner that the Prime Minister again made plain his attitude on the holding of monster art unions with the object of raising funds for public and semi-public purposes, says the Auckland correspondent of the Dominion. A member of the Raupo Drainage Board had suggested that failing the Government makin|g ’a grant for some essential works the money should be raised by means of an art union, and he asked Mr. Coates whether the proposal would be entertained. “Wlhat is New Zealand coming to that we resort to an art union to raise funds for public purposes?” Mr Coates asked. “What are we bringing our children up to Are we going to bring them up in an atmosphere of gambling? We will not if I can help it. It is not worthy of us. Where is our manhood? Where is that sturdy spirit of independence, that we should try to get somebody else to pay for what we should pay for ourselves? That is all it is. You give a big prize in the hope that you will get a lot of money in to pay for somthing which you will not pay for yourself. It is not British. There is this to be considered also: either the proposed works are a necessity or they are not. If they are necessary, then the money must be found in a proper way—if they are not necessary, then we should not undertake them.”