Editorial: Council must let suffrage memorial stay

The suffrage mural in Khartoum Place, Auckland. Photo / Richard Robinson

Five years ago, the Auckland City Council chief executive, David Rankin, conceded that a plan to demolish or move the tiled suffrage centenary memorial in Khartoum Place was badly flawed.

Too much emphasis had been placed on a modern makeover of the area and not enough on keeping historic features, he said.

Mr Rankin was right. Exactly the same view should be adopted by the present city council as it addresses yet another attempt to have the memorial moved.

Unfortunately, that has not been the case. The council's arts, culture and recreation committee has declined to provide an assurance that the mural, which commemorates the ground-breaking success of New Zealand's early suffragettes, will remain where it is. Clearly, that represents an encouraging development for the city's arts fraternity.

It wants the memorial shifted - it does not say where - thereby opening up the view from Lorne St to the upgraded Auckland Art Gallery in Kitchener St.

That may well attract some people to the gallery. Equally, there may be some justification for the fraternity's claim that the memorial has little artistic merit, even if not to the degree of art dealer Gary Langsford's observation that it belongs in "a 1970s craft shop".

But that is not the point. The memorial commemorates an important part of New Zealand history, one in which this country led the world.

It warrants respect. It has also been in place for only 17 years, having been commissioned by the city council and the Ministry of Women's Affairs. That is a brief history for any man-made item, let alone one produced with considerable pride.

The ill-advised nature of the arts fraternity's campaign is confirmed by the forces that rallied against it when the memorial was first threatened. Several prominent dames, including Catherine Tizard, Thea Muldoon, Dorothy Winstone and Georgina Kirby, came forward.

Women's groups spoke of their "horror, outrage and shock". Other Aucklanders made their feelings clear. Finally, the mayor, Dick Hubbard, stepped in.

"The message has come through loud and clear," he said. "People are saying, 'there are parts of our city that we are proud of and we want to protect'."

The saving of the memorial was accompanied by plans for it and the adjacent square to receive a makeover. That was important because the area, which sees little sun, is naturally inclined to dowdiness.

In 2006, the council spent $2 million preserving the memorial as the first stage of the upgrade. Work costing a further $1 million on upper Khartoum Place is to begin this year.

Part of this is designed to provide a better connection to the forecourt of the redeveloped art gallery. That work now appears to be on hold until the mural issue is resolved.

In effect, the council has already catered for at least some of the line of sight wishes raised by the arts fraternity. It simply has not answered them in a sufficiently grandiose manner.

Arts patron Jenny Gibbs has spoken of a redevelopment along the lines of Rome's Spanish Steps, with a sweeping view from Lorne St to the art gallery. The cityscapes are hardly comparable.

And the Spanish Steps, for all their aesthetic appeal, lead to nowhere in particular, least of all an art gallery.

The threat to the suffrage memorial harks back to a time when the city council was obsessed with modernisation and what officialdom saw as cutting-edge urban design. It erred, similarly, with its plans for Vulcan Lane.

It is nonsensical that, having conceded that this approach neglected heritage features, the council should be reprising the issue.

A cast-iron assurance that the memorial will stay where it is should be given, and work on upgrading Khartoum Place should be completed.