WAR MEMORIAL SUGGESTIONS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 201, 25 August 1945, Page 4

WAR MEMORIAL SUGGESTIONS

The letter of your correspondent suggesting that the proposed civic centre be treated as our War Memorial is timely, for now that the bells of peace have been rung the ambition of all civic authorities will be to give their joy and gratitude a suitable and tangible expression. After the last war we witnessed an exuberant construction of stone arches. These ungainly pieces of architecture are fortunately out of fashion, but we have no guarantee that some other monument, equally inartistic and useless, may not take the fancy of suburban Mayors and councils. It would be well, therefore, to consider the advisability of pooling the resources of all adjacent bodies with those of the metropolis, with the object of putting up a worthy war memorial. If this were done the erection of a civic centre, ennobled by a commemorative statue or group of statues, would seem most appropriate. After all, the metropolitan civic centre is also the suburban civic centre as, for a radius of 25 miles or even more, the people come to Auckland for their most important business and their pride in the city should be no less than that of the man who dwells within the City Council's rating area. It goes without saying that should a civic centre be chosen as our war memorial, the site and the manner of its treatment as well as the plans of the buildings to be erected thereon should be open to competition. E.M.