Alternatives to new Ballance statue considered

COULD 1800s Wanganui statesman John Ballance be honoured in some way other than by replacing his statue at the city's Moutoa Gardens?
Wanganui District Council's new heritage committee began grappling with this question yesterday.
The statue was smashed in 1994, before the occupation of the gardens by Maori. Only the plinth and a pair of feet remain.
The statue's insurer has provided around $60,000 for a replacement.
The gardens' governing board has given Wanganui District Council the responsibility of deciding on a suitable memorial for Mr Ballance, who was New Zealand's premier when he died in 1893.
Council policy analyst Clive Aim said Mr Ballance promoted votes for women and sought to protect Maori land from private sale.
But to some Maori he represented the colonising government, and that was why his statue was destroyed.
Some members of the heritage committee said the field could be open for another way to remember Mr Ballance ? a portrait for example (there is one in the Sarjeant Gallery) or fountain, or some other work of art.
Others thought a new statue should be made.
There was agreement that the plinth and statue, in whatever condition, were pieces of history that told a story.
Committee member John Maihi said it was his opinion that people of history needed to be acknowledged.
When the Ballance statue was destroyed, Maori feared for their own taonga.
"We lost Kemp's Pole, and Kaimatira was destroyed. If you destroy one you should expect a return."
He said it would be provocative to return Ballance to Pakaitore (Moutoa Gardens), but another location could be found.
Various suggestions were made: Ridgway Park, outside the district council office or in the upper garden of Majestic Square.
None was agreed on, because the committee needed to first find out whether there were any conditions on the use of the insurance money.
The new committee, of four councillors and six co-opted members, also defined its role, heard about council's heritage work over the past 15 years and agreed to begin work on an ambitious 10-step heritage strategy. One step would be to see how other districts handled their heritage.
The strategy would set a course for full council to agree on. It needed to be action-oriented, be budgeted and have a timeline, environment manager James Low said.
"The committee has to prune costs to a realistic extent, so that what goes to council has the best chance of being approved."
Over the past 15 years of work on heritage, council had never gone as far as offering rates relief to building owners, funding them directly or rationalising its list of heritage buildings.
Mr Aim said its 1990 Heritage Study was being fleshed out by historian and committee member Wendy Pettigrew. She was expected to make recommendations within the next three months.
Work of the last few years had tended to focus on retaining the heritage feel of the central business district and making sure demolished buildings were replaced by quality new ones: "not getting the main street full of tin sheds, which was a bit of a concern".
But heritage was broader than that, he said ? as broad as "people and land across time".
The new committee hoped to reflect this.