A NATIONAL TRUST?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 480, 3 September 1948, Page 24

A NATIONAL TRUST?

----- | Written for "The Listener" |

by

A. R. D.

FAIRBURN

W ZEALANDERS are strongly conscious’ of themselves as a community. Our writers spend a good deal of their time in what might be called "national introspection." On the whole, I think this is a healthy sign. For every community, if it is to exist in any other than an atomised form, must become aware of itself; and it must have its myths and its monuments, and its written history. It is the monuments that I am con‘cerned about just now. The story of our sojourn in these islands, and of our attachment to them, has its concrete embodiment in the works of nature and in the works of man. There are landscapes most of us would not wish to see deftled, even if the god of Commerce sent us out against them with axes and fire-sticks. And up and down the country, in a thousand odd corners, there are old buildings and other historical monuments that link us with the past. It is only a barbarous people that lacks the "sense of history," of kinship with its*own past. Only a_ barbarous people will tread the past underfoot as rit marches forward to .. . wherever it may be going. On the whole, we have preserved our monuments with sufficient care to be able to refute the charge of barbarism. But the preservation of national monuments is a difficult business. Even when the historic sense exists, there are strong forces working, in an impersona! ‘way, towards the constant destruction of the past. Little or nothing can be done, in fact, without organisation. I am very doubtful whether our present organised efforts to preserve historic monuments are either strong enough or sufficiently coordinated to prevent the tide of "progress" from washing away some important parts of our story.

Britain’s Example ‘Let us glance for a moment at what Britain has done. The National Trust Act of 1937 extended the powers of the Trust "to hold properties as investments, using rents for Trust purposes, and extended the purposes of the Trust to include the preservation of buildings, etc., of national, architectural, historic or artistic interest, the protection and augmentation of the amenities of such buildings, etc., and their surroundings, the preservation of furniture, pictures and chattels having a similar interest, and the access to and enjoyment of such by the public." That is about as comprehensive ‘4s ene could wish. The National Trust has acquired the "George" Inn in Southwark, and many other old buildings. It has put the work of preservation on a thoroughly systematic basis, so that little or nothing of importance anywhere in the British Is’es will, we may be sure, be destroyed in future. I say "in the British Isles"; but I am forgetting that there is a Scottish National Trust as well. Obviously the matter is taken very seriously. :

Another thing the Trust has done is to acquire strips of coast itt Devon, Cornwall, and Pémbrokeshire, woodlands in Oxfordshire, downland and hills in Gloucestershire and Surrey, and nature reserves in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. Foundation Has Been Laid Here in our own country the Internal Affairs Department has done a great, deal of valuable work along similar lines. But, of course, this is only one of many of the Department’s activities; and the good work that has been done has, I feel, lost some of its efficacy through lack of publicity. There is no doubt that the Department deserves very great credit for the conscientious way in which it has approached the problem. But-there is no harm in asking frank questionscan we expect any Government Department to carry out, as one of its incidental activities, the sort of work that is implied in the account I have just given of the British National Trust? In short, do we need a full-scale National Trust of our own? Perhaps the thing is impracticable. With our small population we may not be able to afford the outlay of monies necessary to make a National Trust effective. I feel; however, that even if it had a modest beginning, the very fact of its having been established would do a great deal to make New Zealanders more aware of _ their past history, and of the need for preserving monuments connected with it Regrets in Prospect Many fish have got through the net already. And others will follow them, no doubt. The Bank of New Zealand building in Auckland is to be pulled down before long, to make space for a tall modern building. There are many Aucklanders who would like to see the

existing ome preserved, and _ perhaps turned into an Old Colonists’ Museum. It is one of our finest pieces of architecture;.and it forms an important link with the city’s. past. Even if it_ is demolished, could it not be "re-erected on some other site, as has been done with some of the old stone buildings in Sydney? The Old Mill in Auckland, which was built in 1852 or earlier, has been a landmark from pioneering days until the present. Soldiers returning from the south during the Maori Wars fastened their eyes upon it, and made it a symbol of home. It has a symbolic significance of another kind: for a long period of Auckland’s history it provided bread for the people. Efforts have been made to save it, but the prospect is not hopeful. It will no doubt go the way of all flesh, and of most stone. On the hill that is now Albert Park there were once six blockhouses, relics of the time when this area was occupied by the Barracks. They were placed on strategic high-points in defence against (continued on next page) ‘> _ Va ga sae PSE ee

(continued from previous page) attack by the natives. Not one of these is left to-day. They have vanished completely. History and Pre-History The steeple of the Pakaraka Church was blown down nearly two years ago. It smashed the railings around two graves, broke the gravestones, and turned one of them face downwards. Something may have been done by this time to restore these graves; but they lay for a long time in disorder, Two members of the Williams family are at rest in those graves. Nobody can be blamed for neglect when it is nobody’s job to look after such thingsor when the work is beyond the capacity of those who might be nominally in charge of it, But a National Trust would no doubt have the resources necessary to carry out such tasks. The Marsden Cross at Oihi Bay, in the Far North, was completely overgrown with blackberries and other weeds not long ago. Here again, the work of constantly tending such a monument is probably beyond the powers of any organisation but a national one, with funds available for that specific purpose. The many examples of Polynesian cave-drawings scattered throughout the South Island are worth going to a great deal of trouble to preserve. Their value, from both an anthropological and _an aesthetic point of view, is only dimly appreciated by most New Zealanders. The Internal Affairs Department has done as much as it can (which is a good deal) to protect them from destruction; but once again’ the work, if it is to be done thoroughly, calls for organisation on a larger scale. In 50 years’ time those who succeed us may be speaking sadly of the wonderful examples of Stone Age art that used to exist in such-and-such a valley. The nub of this whole question is, of course, the need for looking ahead. It is easy to deplore the destruction of valuable monuments and works of art. There are always plenty of mourners to be found. But the only person who is really helpful is the one who can anticipate the value that will accrue with the passing of years. It is necessary to realise that something that has only’ a moderate value now may in future come to have a very great value. If the Bank of New Zealand building in Auckland is completely demolished, I am sure there will be historians in a century’s time who speak with regret of the lack of foresight, the lack of the historical sense, of those who lived in the 1940’s. The establishment of a National Trust with wide powers and a~ substantial grant of funds would, I am sure, do much to help us to realise that we have come of age.