A number of your correspondents have suggested the Historic Village as a site for a new Tauranga Museum. There are several reasons why it is unsuitable.
Museums are highly specialised buildings, requiring exceptional stability to protect the collections they house.
The Historic Village site - an old slip face above a reclaimed swamp - does not provide the reliable foundation which such a building requires. This, together with its relative isolation, is among the reasons that the village was not considered as a site for a new museum when its former collections were moved to storage twelve years ago.
Museums attempt to provide authentic experiences, using real objects to educate people about their past and their environment. Apart from four or five original and relatively intact historic buildings which have been moved onto the site, the Village is not authentic. It is largely a post-colonial dream of how things might have been, put together from bits and pieces of old buildings.
With its cobbled streets and fantasy frontages, it has never represented the reality of what Tauranga once was. It would not provide an appropriate setting for a museum which tried to present a broader view of Tauranga's heritage.
In spite of the input of many dedicated volunteers over the years, the Village could not have developed to its present extent without support from the Government-funded work schemes of the late 1970s and early 80s. Its unrealistically-rapid development of infrastructure in this period created an ongoing maintenance requirement which became a major financial liability. It was partly for this reason that its museum function was closed down.
The Historic Village was never financially viable. It has required ongoing support from the City Council since its inception, nearly forty years ago. It would be foolish to saddle a new civic museum with the mistakes of the past, fond as some Tauranga residents might have become of the Village and its memories.
John Coster, Kaimai.