NEWS AND YOUR VIEWS FOR OUR DISTRICT

      

11-Sep-12

Letter to the Editor: Northern Wairoa Memorial Hall

The Editor,
An open letter to The Trustees of the Dargaville Community Cinema Charitable Trust.

The authority you claim to have to desecrate the Northern Wairoa Memorial Hall is very doubtful. It is not to be used as a cinema entrance.

The Northern Wairoa Memorial Hall was built by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and erected in Dargaville as a memorial to the 258 members of the New Zealand armed services who made the supreme sacrifice and were unable to return to their families.

Their names are on the Memorial Wall outside the Nothern Wairoa Returned Services Association clubrooms and are also embroidered with their family names on the large New Zealand flag inside the War Memorial Hall.

The hall is registered in Wellington and is subject to the rules governing it’s use, predominately that it is not to be used for commercial gain or profit. If there should be any surplus it has to be donated to a recognised charity.

The Kaipara District Council do not own this hall and at best acts as guardian for maintenance and overseeing it’s correct use. When the cinema stunt was discussed at a recent KDC monthly meeting, KDC were askedto guarantee a loan being raised by the Dargaville Community Cinema Charitable Trust. This was agreed in council with the mayor saying that there was not to be any cost to the ratepayers.

There needs to be a substantial rethink on this issue with the KDC and the Northern Wairoa Memorial Hall taken out of it.

J.A. Bull
Dargaville
(Abridged – Ed).