A new charitable foundation aims to build up a fund that would ensure the financial security of one of Dunedin's top tourism and cultural ''treasures'' in perpetuity.
The Olveston Charitable Foundation was launched last night in the grand hall of the subject of its purpose, Olveston Historic Home in Royal Tce.
George Friedlander, the chairman of the Theomin Gallery Management Committee which runs the house, told about 80 people gathered for the launch Olveston had an important place in the city's cultural history and as a tourist attraction.
It was this generation's job to preserve that place for the house, but that, ''of course'', came at a considerable cost.
The patron and chairman of the new foundation, Sir Julian Smith, Allied Press managing director and chairman, described the house as a ''marvellous asset'' to the city and said it was right there should be a fund those responsible for the house could rely on that was independent of uncertain grants and income.
The foundation was in the spirit of Dorothy Theomin, who gave her family home to the city in 1966, and who said in her will she hoped it would not become a burden on the ratepayer, he said.
Mayor Dave Cull said the house was a treasure and a monument to a particular culture, class and time as well as a particular set of values that recognised the wellbeing of the wider community.
As a former committee member, he was also well aware of how much it cost to maintain and that unexpected problems could often be expensive on such a grand house.
While the council paid $50,000 towards the home each year and would always have an obligation to care for it, it did not want a situation whereby the house started competing with other pressures on the council purse.
''This is the right time to set up a fund to protect the house into the future.
''The onus is on the current community to preserve it as a reminder of some of what shaped our community 120 years ago.''
