I read recently that a museum for Tauranga was possibly back on the agenda. If I may make a comment; I imagine the core genre for a museum would be local Maori history.

While this is relevant, does it justify the cost of a dedicated building to display a limited amount of Maori and flora and fora artifacts? And who will meet the huge cost of acquisitions? And where are these acquisitions to be sourced?

I suggest a more cost-effective solution that would meet both the needs of our growing local population, the recognition of local Maori for their culture and heritage, and to also satisfy the now hard-pressed local ratepayers, is a largescale new library.

The library would be ideally an architecturally standout building that would include a museum section to house both local Maori and early settlers history, dedicated education space, a cultural center for suitable events and lastly a much larger reference and lending collection of books than the current limited facility and lending collection.

Such a building with its collection functionally would fulfill the one critical entity that is lacking in Tauranga's city centre, the role of central hub or centre point that the city needs to re-energise commerce and interest in Tauranga's identity.

S McLean, Tauranga City.