Not Statues Or Coloured Lights, Please!.. by the Editor

Radio Record, Volume XI, Issue 1, 10 July 1936, Page 5

Not Statues Or Coloured Lights, Please!.. by the Editor

HAT the time has come to think of New Zealand’s centennial is evidenced by a circular which has been sent out by the Mayor of Wellington (Mr. T. C. A. Hislop), calling attention to a meeting which will be held in the capital on August 3 to discuss the proposed celebrations, which will be Dominion-wide, and

also to select four delegates to represent the Wellington province at a Dominion conference of all provincial delegates. It is an easy enough matter to discuss coloured lights and decorated wagons in a cele« bration of this kind-but it is more of a.problem when the. conference really gets down to

the business.or deciding what form a permanent memorial should take. Statues in the market place. may be all right in their way-but there’ are many things that New Zealand needs more than statués. The suggestion has been advanced by Mr. H. F. Toogood, well-known Wellington citizen, that the Capital City is in sore need of a building capable. of housing the executive bodies of the arts and professions of New Zealand. Every country of any importance has one-London, Washington, Paris, and i in Sydney there is the fine block known as Science House.’

' Let us. take ‘some concrete examples. .At the present time the New Zealand headquarters of the British Medical Association are housed in an old wooden building on Wellington Terrace. The B.M.A. has a valuable library which is worthy of better and more fireproof quarters. The members, too, might meet under conditions . more in keeping with the dignity and traditions of medicine. New Zealand's engineers have no definite headquarters of their own. These people, too, have a valuable

library of technical and other books that would be of considerably more use and value if it was housed in one room and fully catalogued. And what about the legal profession? And the Church? These bodies, too, would no doubt be more than grateful for a building that would bring their executive activities under one roof.

And then there is the repertory theatre movement. Already a move has been made to mark the celebration of New Zealand’s centennial by the establishment of the longdiscussed National Theatre. This building, dedicated to the arts’and sciences, could well be equipped to contain a small theatre, well constructed with

a large stage, a raked floor and comfortable seating -the headquarters and obvious geographical home of New Zealand’s National Theatre. As I have already implied, the Dominion contains many valuable books of a technical nature, books that, for want of a central home, are scattered all over the country. How much more useful would it be if these were duly catalogued in such a building _as the one suggested. Conferences could be made. move helpful. by the fact that the members had at their ‘beck and call all the useful books connected

with their profession. The cost? Something’ in the neighbourhood of £30,000 fora ‘building of sufficient dignity to become New Zealand’s national reminder of the 1939-40 centennial. ©The various bodies that would be served would probably be willing to contribute something toward the cost, while it does not seem unreasonable to hope that the Government would advance a portion of the £250,00 that has already been earmarked for the centennial celebrations.

Next week’s signed article. is entitled "The B.B.C. at Play," and has been written by

W. J.

Cross