AGAINST UTILITY MEMORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 520, 24 November 1928, Page 13

AGAINST UTILITY MEMORIAL

Dissatisfaction with the revised plan of the War Memorial Museum, from which some of the memorial features had been excluded, was again expressed by the executive of the Auckland Returned Soldiers’ Association last evening. Lieutenant-Colonel T. H. Dawson, the president said that the association never had and never would agree to j, purely utilitarian museum. “It was the memerial features not at present included that appealed to large numbers of people who made donations. What caused public support of the memorial taking the form of a museum was that in front of it there was to be a cenotaph. To the soldier mind it was the cenotaph first, with the museum in the rear.” The committee of the Auckland Provincial War Memorial Fund wrote, replying to the R.S.A. letter: “You imply that the committee has deliberately and without justification excised theme mo rial features of the buildings and this is entirely contrary to fact.” It could be asserted, said the ; comr raittee, that no other building in the Empire of a utilitarian form had such a large and purely memorial content. The memorial hall had to be abandoned as a separate part of the scheme. There remained'the hall of memories and tho war trophies hall. The latter was retained in its entirety, but as the building progressed it was considered the upper portion of the large central hall of the building could be better utilised as a hall of memories than the room now allocated to the institute library. Provision had been made for a noble shrine. The paved court of honour and the cenotaph formed no part of the original scheme, and only found a way by chance in the winning design. If, unfortunately, sufficient money should not be in hand, it was felt the provision of these desirable additions would form a fitting object for future public benefactions. The provision of a roll of hoiiour was abandoned by tho committee in view of the grave difficulty the completion of such a roll had proved elsewhere. The R’S.A. left the subject in the hinds of the president and Messrs. C. Reid, E. W. Inder and T. S. Miller.