MUSEUM OPENING

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 831, 27 November 1929, Page 1

MUSEUM OPENING

OUTLINE OF TOMORROW’S CEREMONY

PRESIDENT ISSUES REVIEW

Preceded by a solemn ceremony, unique in the history of Auckland, the War Memorial Museum on the Domain hill will be declared open by hla Excellency, the Governor-General, tomorrow afternoon.

First the cenotaph will be consecrated by the Primate, Archbishop Averill, and after the formal transfer of the building from the Citizens* Committee to the museum trustees, the opening will be performed by the Governor-General. The ceremony will begin at two o’clock. For returned soldiers and next-of-kin, 5,000 tickets giving admission tx> the marble court of honour have been provided by the Returned Soldiers’ Association. At 6.15 pm. soldier* and relatives of the men who fell will meet to place wreaths on the cenotaph. On Friday morning the picturesque Maori dedication ceremony will take place in the presence of the GovernorGeneral. . Returned men and ncxt-of-Kin will be admitted to the building after the ceremony tomorrow afternoon, while subscribers to the building fund and members of the Institute will be guests at a private view of the interior on Friday afternoon. PUBLIC INSPECTION Public inspection will be permitted on Friday evening and on Saturday morning, afternoon and evening. It has been stated by Mr. S. E. Wright, secretary of the Employers’ Association of Auckland, that shopkeepers have agreed to grant leave tomorrow to employees who are returned soldiers or to the relatives of fallen soldiers. A review of the history of the museum and memorial movement, in the form of an attractive brochure, has been issued by president of the Institute, Mr. H. E. Vaile. In it he observes that the movement to secure a new museum began almost 17 years ago. The Domain site was secured in February. 1918, and before the end of June, 1920, over £52,000 had been secured toward the "erection of a new museum in the Domain.”

In the middle of 1919 citizens had begun to consider the provision of some suitable war memorial, and the Institute suggested that as it held the most suitable site, m considerable sum of money as a start and the wherewithal to furnish the building, the museum should be adopted as the Auckland provincial war memorial. That was agreed to by the citizens and approved by the Returned Sol. diers’ Association. A citizens’ committe was constituted in October, 1920, and comprised 42 members. CRITICISM RECALLED “No great project is free from detractors, and it may be well to refer to the criticism of the so-called Hall of Memories,” writes Mr. Vaile. "On the original plans every part of the building was named, and someone in the architect’s office wrote on a room in the eastern wipe of the top floor (for lack of a better name), ‘Hall of Memories.’ “Later the Institute was asked to consent to the library going there in, stead of, as planned, adjacent to the administrative quarters. Placing it at the furthermost corner of the building was very inconvenient, but we had to agree to it, whereupon large sums were spent on enlarging and decorat. ing the memorial gallery. “More than ample space is, and always has been, provided here, as the only appropriate place for the Inscription of names. More spacs than can be filled is provided in the war trophies hall, and nobody can It'll us what could be done with the socalled Hall cf Memories if it were vacant. The inscription of names would never be done there, because by comparison with the rest of the building it is little more than s cupboard. “I am one of the many who consider that the writing on the walls of the names of those who fell in their country’s service is not the most appropriate way of recording their sacrifice. I believe that the roll of honour should be kept in a properly designed bronze receptacle on the shrine, and that copies should bo printed and given to the relatives.”