Museum project well underway

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 524, 22 February 1994, Page 4

Museum project well underway

If you've driven past the army museum in Waiouru lately, you may have thought it looks more like a war zone than a tourist attraction. Work is going 'great guns' on building stage three - the Kippenberger Pavilion which will house archives and offices, a new cafeteria and the main entrance. Construction is expected to take six to seven months. Engineers from 2 Engineer Regiment, Linton camp, Palmerston North will be carrying out the bulk of the work. Foundations will be laid in the next month or so. Due to the swampy nature of the ground, the foundations are not the normal , type. A raft-type foundation will be used to 'float' the building on the ground underneath. The extra space in the pavilion will provide room for new displays, one of which will depict the role played by New Zealand peace keepers. Another, the role of women in the New Zealand army. Another possible development is a swipe-card deTurn to Page 5

A teachers' memories • The photo ' Staff 1954' (. Bulletin 1 February) did indeed evoke memories for me as it contains many of my peers, although I had left to get married a year or two earlier. There forever - or as long as the photo survives - sits our principal, T G MeCullough. Oh how he blighted many of my weekends with his insistence that our workbooks be handed in to him on Monday mornings. These contained an account of the work one hoped to achieve with each group in every subject for the week ahead. Ithadtobe 'indepth' too - he saw to that!

Museum project

FromPage 4 vice that gives visitors a certain identity. As they move through the museum, the life of that person unfolds as the visitor follows their path through history. Funding for the Kippenberger Pavilion is provided by the army museum trust board, which is separate from the army itself. No tax-payers' money isgoing into the project. Museum staff said engineers on the job would be paid anyway, and that the experience is good for keeping up construction capabilities. The pavilion is named after General Kippenberger who was a commander in World War Two and the Editor-in-Chief of the New Zealand WWII official histories. General Kippenberger' s family trust in the United Kingdom donated $250,000 towards the building of the pavilion. It is hoped the development will see an increase in visitors to the museum. The number of visitors to the museum has almost halved since it was opened in 1978. In the first two years the museum saw 120,000 visitors a year. In 1993 there were about 60 000.