TOWN’S TRIBUTE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 38, 25 November 1940, Page 3

TOWN’S TRIBUTE

TO THE PIONEER RESIDENTS.

MEMORIAL SUNDIAL UNVEILED.

CEREMONY YESTERDAY AFTERNOON.

FINAL CENTENNIAL GESTURE

In completion of the Borough’s recognition of the Dominion Centennial, the Ashburton memorial to the pioneer men and women of the district, in the form of a sundial, was officially unveiled in the Ashburton Domain yesterday afternoon by the Very Rev. George Miller.

The attendance was very large, having moved to the site of the sundial from the Oval ati the conclusion of the band concert, and the whole of the area formerly occupied by the rose garden and more lately by beds of flowers surrounding the memorial was taken up by the people, who included many old identities. There was no doubt that the size of the gathering was a direct tribute to the memory of the late Dr. C. I. Miller, who, had he lived another 10 days, would have unveiled the memorial. ' • ' / • Selection of the Date. The late Dr. Miller, as Mayor of Ashburton, was one of the prime movers in the establishment of a suitable memorial to mark Ashburton’s part in the Dominion Centennial celebrations. The war upset the original plans, and a sundial was chosen. One of the last things he did was to- select the hour and the date for the unveiling of the sundial, but his death three days later caused an alteration of the ceremonial. Standing in a beautiful site, made more beautiful by the specially arranged, beds of flowers, the sundial is of bronze, about three feet high, standing on a stone pedestral reached by steps which run round it on four sides, with small flower plots at the corners of each tier of steps. The memorial was covered by a Union Jack as the people assembled for the ceremony. The St. Kilda Municipal Band, Dunedin, which was in Ashburton for the week-end, was invited to take part in the function and opened the proceedings with the playing of the hymn, “Oh, God, Our Help in Ages Past.” Reference to Dr. Miller. ■■ i j ■■■■.■ ' • The Mayor (Dr. J. Connor), who had with him several members of the Ash- < burton Borough Council, the Town Clerk (Mr R. C. Major) and officers of the Council, said that the assembly was the occasion on which Ashburton completed its Centennial celebrations. The ceremony had been considerably delayed, he said-, first in waiting for tli£ construction of the memorial and its erection on the site and then by the prolonged illness of the late (Mayor. It had been arranged that Dr. Miller should unveil the memorial and everyone would regret the circumstances which had compelled an alteration in the plans. They would all extend to Dr. Miller’s family their most sincere sympathy in his passing. Dr. Connor said the Council had to thank the Very Rev. Georgo Miller, father of the hate Mayor, for having come to Ashburton to unveil the sundial; his fiction had been greatly appreciated. It had originally been intended, Dr. Connor added, that the Centennial Memorial should bo on a much more ambitipus scale, probably taking the form of a modern swimming bath, but the outbreak of the war had made that proposal impracticable. The Council felt, however, that it. could not let the occasion'go by without erecting some form of memorial to the' pioneers. The sundial was a very beautiful and appropriate little monument and it could not be in a more appropriate place than in the Domain, which had been set ffside by the pioneers as a place of rest for the people who would ( come after them and a place of beauty for the town. In both these things it had achieved all that it had been laid out to do. Dr. Connor complimented the Christchurch artist who designed the sundial and the Domain Curator (Mr D. H. Leigh) for the beauty of the setting in which the monument stood.

The Unveiling. “I unveil this memorial as a tribute to the men. and women of the town and the County who did so much for the district. We should be thankful to Almighty God for all tine blessings he has poured down on us during the last 100 years,” said the Very Rev. George Miller as he removed the flag from the memorial. “That was all I had intended to say,” he added, “but looking back over the years we see the changes that have taken place, and we "must remember them. One hundred years ago there was no Ashburton, no Christchurch ; only one or two settlers to the north. These plains lying between the rivers were a. long stretch of

nothing inviting, very dry ground, but see what has taken place. “The settlers came in and built their houses and farmed their land. They planted trees and mndte the County a very beautiful place in which to liveone of the most beautiful. It has its marvellous plantations and' its beautiful homes,” he continued. “The early settlers had a hard row to hoe. They did not have the advantages have to-day, not bv a long, long way. ’ The. people' of to-day, tiw> speaker went oh, were very proud of *ie fact that one ,of the first things the early settlers thought of was the building of a house in which they could worship God. Then they built the schools, and the presont-dav residents should' be thankful'fo God for the blessings that had come to them over the yicars. Mr Miller referred to the {Domain and the wonderful improvements which had been effected in it in: recent years. The town had made recreation grounds for the old as well as for the young, and no#, he understood, it was going to

provide a special ground for the children. The Domain was a. tribute to the people of long ago who set aside that ground for the use of thd people to come. “There is beauty everywhere in. it now,” he added. “You must he proud of the Domain, and this memorial will serve to remind you of the swift passing of time, urging the people to do their very best in their duly, in whatever way it may come to YOU.”

The ceremony closed with the, playing of the National Anthem by the band.

The plate on the sundial, arranged for and ordered by Dr. Miller shortly before his death, reads as follows: — “New Zealand Centennial Memorial. Kneeled by the Ashburton Borough Council. Unveiled bv the Mavor, Dr. G. I. Miller.”

The date, “November 24, 1940,” will be inscribed on the plate at a later date.