Hillary lecture postponed because of museum row

Peter Hillary walked up One Tree Hill yesterday to mark 56 years since his father conquered Mt Everest. Photo / Greg Bowker

An Auckland Museum lecture celebrating Sir Edmund Hillary's life and legacy has been postponed because of the dispute between his children and the museum.

The annual lecture, organised by the Museum Circle fundraising group, was to have been delivered this week by former Commonwealth Secretary-General Sir Don McKinnon.

Museum Circle chairman Chris Devereaux, whose group has raised millions of dollars for the institution and had Sir Ed as its patron, said last night that he hoped Sir Don would be able to deliver his lecture in the next few months.

"Sir Don's lecture was going to be very Hillary-focused in terms of the legacy Sir Ed left. It was to do with how an indomitable spirit would reflect in an age where we're having a lot of world difficulties," Mr Devereaux said.

But he said the former National Party deputy prime minister and foreign minister agreed with the group that it would have been inappropriate to hold the event after Prime Minister John Key had indicated his wish for the parties to be given free and unfettered space in which to resolve the dispute.

An offer of assistance by Mr Key in settling the dispute over the control of the adventurer's writings, diaries and family photographs has led to the appointment of a mediator, and the parties have agreed not to comment on it in the meantime.

Sir Ed's son Peter Hillary told the Weekend Herald that he could understand and had no criticism of the decision to postpone the lecture until "this terrible situation" could be resolved.

* One event that no dispute could interrupt yesterday was a "climb" by Mr Hillary, accompanied by children from Royal Oak Primary School, up One Tree Hill to commemorate Sir Ed's ascent of Mt Everest 56 years ago, on May 29, 1953. Mathew Dearnaley