BURNS’ FAMILY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 128, 12 March 1935, Page 3

BURNS’ FAMILY

LINK WITH NEW ZEALAND. MEMORIAL UNVEILED. 'Pile association between Robert Burns’ family and New Zealand was mentioned by Sir Thomas Oliver, D.L., when on January 19 he unveiled a statuette of the great poet at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, in the presence of a representative gathering of Tyneside Scots. “It may well be asked,” said Sir Thomas, “why should there be in this city a statuette of Robert Burns, a man who was born north of the Border, whose sympathies were mainly with the country of his birth, and who only once visited Newcastle. My answer is, that although born in Scotland and regarded as her national poet, his reputation has long outstripped the limits of nationality and made him a citizen of the world.

“It is not sufficiently known, from a colonial point of view,” he continued, '“the debt the Empire owes directly and indirectly to Robert Burns and his teaching, also to the family of which he was a member. The Southern Island of New Zealand was colonised by the Rev. Thomas Burns, a Free Church minister, of Ayrshire, son of Gilbert Burns, and therefore nephew of the poet, who, with a band of carefully selected, healthy and capable Scottish people, sailed for New Zealand in 1848 and founded the city of Dunedin, the name signifying New Edinburgh.

“The two islands have become one of the prosperous colonies of the British Empire, for in her government, management of her own affairs, and in her industrial and commercial progress, New Zealand has proved herself to he a worthy daughter of the Empire. Jn the principal square of Dunedin is a statue of Hebert Burns, also a column commemorating the founding of the city by his nephew.” Accepting the statuette on behalf of the Corporation, the Lord Mayor mentioned that he andi his son were in Dunedin some 18 months ago and learnt something of the struggles of the early Scots’ settlers, who were saved by the leadership of the Rev. Thomas Burns.

In Dunedin, which he visited about two years ago, the Lord Mayor of Newcastle found that the people were rather unkind about a statue there to Burns. They would call attention to the fact that the poet had his hack to the church and was facing a publichouse. “The fact is stated in the guide book to Dunedin,” said the Loid Mayor in -a. speech at the unveiling ol a statuette to Burns in the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle. He expressed great admiration lor the courage and hardihood of the early settlers in New Zealand. While he was there, lie said, he went to see an old woman because she came from Newcastle. She told him she had gone out to the new country with a nine months’ old baby and had to sleep in the open for the first six weeks. “The visit to the South Island gave me more inspiration than any other place 1 haye visited,’ added the Lord Mayor.