COMMEMORATIVE MONUMENTS.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17815, 14 July 1923, Page 13

COMMEMORATIVE MONUMENTS.

o THE TREATY OF WAITANGI SOLDIERS OF OTHER DAYS. (3PICIAL TO "THZ V 8205.") WELLINGTON, July 13. In his speech in tho Budget debate to-day, Mr K. S. Williams (Bay of Plenty) reminded the Prime Minister of a promise he had made to do something to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. He suggested that if the Government did not do it, privato people should bo allowed to take the matter up, but he thought tho work was one for the Government to imdortako. Some monument, it need not be an elaborate one, should be erected on the spot where the Treaty was signod, so that future generations might see it. He understood that an acre of land had been reserved at the spot, and what was not occupied by the monument could be planted with suitablo native trees and some oaks commemorative of the Navy, upon which the security of the Empire and the Dominion depended to sucli a great extent. He further drew attention to the fact that at the Ruapekapeka pa seventy British soldiers were buried, but there was no stone or stick to show who they were and that they had died fighting. He thought we owed some duty to them and to their relatives, and he commended it to the notice of tho Minister of Defence that some steps should be taken to mark their graves.