PRINCE OF WALES MUSEUM OF WESTERN i: DIA. 927 



Funds are wanted. 



To sum up, funds are required to provide the extra accommodation 

 and to maintain the expanded museum. The Trustees see only one 

 means of obtaining these funds. The Museum site is six and a half 

 acres. Government in allotting the site to the Mus.:!um made an ex- 

 tremely valuble gift. The site is for business purposes a very central 

 and valuable one. The trustees are contemplatiug the erection of ex- 

 tensive building on the site from loan money to be obtained from an 

 amendment of the Museum Act, either from Government or the public, 

 on the security — a first class one — of the land and buildings. 



The greater part of the accommodation would be let out at first 

 for business purposes and will fetch a very large rental. The demand 

 for office and business accommodation in the Fort is far in excess of 

 the supply. Even when the Back Bay IJeclamation is effected buildii^gs 

 ■on the museum site will alwaN^^s command a high rental. Part of the 

 new buildings, a part small at first but gradually increasing, would be 

 used for the expanded museum. All the buildings will be so designed 

 that any part of them can be resumed and used at any time for 

 Museum purposes as the Museum graduallj'^ is enlarged. It is anti- 

 cipated however that two-fifths of the additional accommodation would 

 be the utmost future requirement of the Museum. The remaining 

 three-fifths would ahvays be used for business, ^. e., revenue producing 

 purposes. 



The Best in Asia. 



The additional buildings would be in harmony with the existing 

 Museum building and the adjoining public buildings, and be a fine piece 

 of archit9cture. As the land costs nothing and the value for business 

 purposes of the site is so high, the building enterprise cannot fail to 

 be extremely remunerative. Assuming that money is borrowed at 

 8 per cent, and repaid in a twenty-year period and that part of the 

 building is used for Museum purposes it is calculated that the net in- 

 come will be 7^ la'chs a year when the buildings are completed and 

 13^ Jakhs when the loan is repaid twenty years thereafter. "With 

 this revenue it will be possible to equip and maintain a Museum on a 

 magnificent scale, which it is hoped will become one of the best in 

 Asia. The Trustees, if their scheme is carried out, will have achieved 

 the creation of such a Museum by developing their own resources and 

 without drawing upon the funds of Government or the public. Instead 

 of slowly accumulating funds by subscriptions and grants, a process 

 which might take decades, construction by loan money will provide 

 ample accommodation and revenue and therefore a well equipped 

 Museum within a few years. 



Meeting a City need. 

 Another advantage will be the early provision of a large extent 

 of first class business and office accommodation of which there is 

 a famine and the absence of which must be seriously retarding the 

 development of Western India. The possible objection that use of 

 part of the building for business purposes would not be in harmony 

 with a Museum is met by the fact that the design of the buildings 

 will be one suitable to a TNluseum while the business part will not be 

 allowed to interfere with the amenities of the Museum. If m the 

 distant future Government or the public were to provide sufficient 

 income there would be nothing to prevent the whole of the buildings 

 being converted into a Museum. 



