Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, SEPT. 7, 1906. DUAL PURPOSE MEMORIAL.

The visitor to Gisborne fifty or one hundred years hence, viewing tlie obelisk that has been erected on the Kaiti Beach, will probably be thrown into some perplexity m assessing the proportionate historical value of the two events that are therein commemorated. Upon the west side of the monument are inscribed the words : "This memorial is erected iv commemoration of the first landing m New Zealand at Poverty Bay of Captain Cook on Sunday, Bth October, 1769." There is no attempt to "paint the lily" by setting out the achievements of the immortal navigator, nor to describe the significance of his visit, and the fact remains unnoted that the monument overlooks the very spot where the landing took place and that it was here that the British flag was first flown, and New Zealand, brightest gem of the Pacific, secured to the British. Crown. These remarkable omissions are probably due to the circumstance that there was no room on the stone for more than the meagre reference we have quoted, the other three sides of the memorial having been monopolised with commemoration of an event, of very minor importance compared with that for which the memorial was primarily intended. Upon tlie east side of the obelisk is the record that following are the names -of those who went from the Poverty Bay district to the South African war, under-. neatJi being .the names of the officers and non-commissioned officers; the northern face of the stone bears the names of sixty troopers, and a similar number are scored on the southern side. It lias, of course, long been known tihat m consideration of the Cook memorial committee securing some £150 of the unspent balance of the patriotic funds raised during the excitement m connection with the South African, war, the names of the local contingenters would be placed on the monument, but it was never dreamt that the record of this purely local enterprise Iffould be permitted to take up so much B^i monument that was supposed to be m character and was to give tribute achievements of the man to. whom of New Zealand owe so much, were to be measured on a _ it would be found that the H^^^Lf 1 °f the patriotic fund payment cost of the monument is as whereas the amount of space the patriotic event is as three inequality is further m the matter be viewed, from the amount of historical importevent, which, we presume, of this sort are erected impossible to compare the sendl.ndful of troopers from this to t..se part m a war which one yea»i hence may hold a very WW- part ii., history, with the fact of Capi._:T. Cook's timely arrival at Poverty Bay, arid \] m _ .acquisition of this colony for the Bntisl, Crown. Tlie utilisation of tlie monument for a . dual purpose was clearly a blunder, ah* the blunder has been enlarged by the fact-tjiat so much prominence has been given te- -■___ n»W_. event and to the perpetuation r of names which, however much they mayb e held m respect locally, have no call to a niche of fame alongside that of Captain Cook. In other towns where troopers' memorials have been erected, it has only been tliought necessary to engrave the names of those who were killed and wounded m the war. If the thousand pounds that the monument has cost — it seems to us an excessive amount for such a plain piece of granite — liad been subscribed locally there might not be so much reason for complaint, but we would point out that tlie fund wa.. made a national one. Subscriptions were solicited from all over New Zealand, ,and even from the officers of the British navy. When the school children of Toitoi Valley or Hakataramea generously gave their pennies for a Cook Memorial they had no conception that threefarthings of each .copper would be devoted to a memorial to the Poverty Bay troopers who went to the war. We fear tliat outsiders who have contributed to the fund have some cause of complaint at the manner m which it has been expended, and that when the Governor, Ministers and members of Parliament come along on October^ and discover that the memorial that is to be^ unveiled is not so much a Cook memorial as it was represented it would be, they may have something sarcastic to say that will make sensitive citizens present at the ceremony wish they had remained at home.