It is very pleasing to see that our council has taken a step towards underwriting the budget for the Hemo Gorge sculpture. It is a very impressive sculpture and I believe it will make Rotorua not only nationally but perhaps even internationally renowned as a city of artistic and cultural excellence with its live koru and spiritual design. I would also like to see if our council could interest some of our local artists in working together with the Te Puia Arts and Craft Institute to make this project a community-driven piece. Perhaps Te Puia could also take over $150,000 of the costs, relieving our ratepayers of some of their financial burden. After all, it is going to become [Te Puia's] front door attraction and should have a massive impact on their visitor numbers. It is even possible that it could save millions for Te Puia in public relations costs and our ratepayers would be delighted to promote this magnificent sculpture if they were not required to shoulder all of the financial burden.
WAITSU WU
Western Heights
I read with interest councillor Charles Sturt's comments challenging Rotorua's arts and philanthropic communities to cover the costs for the sculpture. Would this not be at the cost of other more cash strapped organisations. Anyone who has applied to the philanthropic organisation is aware of the amount of competition for the funds available. It was very interesting to read an article on the following page telling us that the sales of houses in Rotorua show little sign of slowing, in fact it mentions an increase of 27 per cent. In light of how well the real estate firms are doing, wouldn't it be wonderful if all our real estate companies in town agreed to part-fund the sculpture. Ah well, dreams cost nothing.
MIKE LONG
Lynmore
