Have your say: How much?

Prosper Northland Trust has 36 percent of the funding needed to build Hundertwasser.

Like Gary Price (letters, October 24) I to have some questions I would like answered by the Hundertwasser Art Centre.

HQ manager Jenny Hill has stated that Prosper Northland Trust has 36 per cent of the total $15.8 million needed to build the centre.

Questions must arise from this statement.

In their full page advertisement in the Advocate it was stated that $16.5 million was needed for the project to proceed now it is $15.8 million. Do they really know how much money is required or are they simply plucking figures out of the sky?

Ms Hill also stated PNT already has 36 per cent of the total.

The question must be asked. Has PNT got this money in cash, in the bank' or have they simply had pledges for this amount? One must remember the "telethons" of the past where money was 'pledged' but never receIved.

Then comes the statement that an "eight metre pilot building is set to pop up at the Town Basin early next year". This now appears to have a new Maori name Te Kakano (The seed). Is this the same building previously called The Folly and why the change?

I have in writing, an answer to an IOA I submitted to council, that before this can be built on ratepayer land it must be "considered by council" and to date I believe this has not happened. I urge people to watch and see that this indeed does take place.

Remember council has said "no more money will have to come from ratepayers".

I hope this means the use of our land comes into this category.

L Craig
Whangarei

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