MEMORIAL TO LATE GEORGE VESEY STEWART

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume L, Issue 7969, 26 April 1922, Page 3

MEMORIAL TO LATE GEORGE VESEY STEWART

UNVEILED IN URETARA DOMAIN

There was a large gathering of people in the Uretara Domain, Katikati, at noon yesterday, when a monument was unveiled to the memory of the late Mr George Vcsey Stewart- Amongst the visitois present were Sir William Herries (M.P. for Tauranga), the Hon J. G. Coates (Minister of Public Works), and Mr H. Poland (M.P. for Ohinemuri). Mr W. J. Gray called on Sir William Herries to unveil the monument that had been erected in ire r.ory cf the father of the Katikati Settlement.

S.r William Herries said they had assembled on Anzac Day to honour the memory of those who had died on the battlefield and they were now to honour a pioneer, who had served his adopted country to a great degree. The late Mr George Vesey Stewart had been energetic in bringing people to this country and had had the pleasure of seeing the children of those settlers grow up in the district for which he had worked so long. Truly he was the Father cf Katikati Settlement. Everyone in the district looked to the late Mr George Vesey Stewart for advice, to take action in any emergency,, and to represent the settlement when questions concerning it had to be placed before the legislators of this country. In order that he should not be forgotten the people of Katikati had rightly resolved to erect a monument to his memory. The late Mr Stewart had endeavoured in every way to advance the interests of his adopted country and he hoped they would have many more of nature’s gentlemen, like their old friend, come to the Dominion from the Old. Country. He then unveiled the memorial.

The monument is of granite, standing about nine feet high, and the cost was met by the subscriptions of friends of the deceased in the Katikati, Tauranga and Te Puke districts. The memorial bears the following Inscription : “In memory of George Vesey Stewart, Founder of the Katikati and Te Puke Settlements 1875 t 0 1 878. Died 3rd March, 1920. Aged 88.”