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“Memorial Hall: Fun Parlour Plan Is ‘Sacrilegious’.

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Description: This image was published in the July 30th 1978 edition of the Tribune weekly newspaper with the caption: “Mr Baker and the Maori Battalion Hall: Fishbowl’s plans are ‘sacrilegious’, he mya

An excerpt from the article read: “Plans to turn Palmerston North's Maori Battalion Memorial Hall into a ‘fun parlour’ with dances, slot machines, and other activities for youth are ‘sacrilegious’, and against the intent of the building. So says the building's caterer, Matau Matenga (Peter) Baker. He says a meeting of the Raukawa Maori Trustees has been called for August 12 to stop a proposal which would allow the Fishbowl organisation to use the hall.

Mr Baker said plenty of people concerned with the hall are unhappy about the way the ‘Fishbowl’ matter has been handled. Not the least of which are 44 organisations which had booked the hall for use later in the year and who are now being told they may have to go elsewhere.

And the people involved in looking after the hall are angry about the sort of activities which will be talking place in the hall if and when Fishbowl takes it over, he said. He said the decision to allow the Fishbowl project to use the hall came at a public meeting of the Rangitane Maori Committee in June. However, when the motion supporting the plan was put, there was silence, he said.”
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“The chairman of the Rangitane committee and member of the Raukawa executive, Mr Sam Mihaere, was worried that such accusations could be made. ‘Many of the accusations made by Mr Baker are entirely incorrect and also damning against the people of Palmerston North in their desire to assist the youth of the city’. And he did not feel that turning the hall into a place for the city’s youth was ‘sacrilegious’. ‘The returned servicemen of the Maoris of New Zealand would be honoured to know that the hall in their memory is being used for the youth of Palmerston North.’ He said the building’s Maori trustees understood the functions of Fishbowl. They praised the organisations intentions.”

These images form part of the Manawatū Evening Standard Negative Collection. Unfortunately, only negatives between April and December 1978 are held.