MEMORIAL TO MR COATES

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24370, 23 September 1944, Page 8

MEMORIAL TO MR COATES

CHURCH TO BE BUILT AT MATAKOHE

(P.A.) WELLINGTON. Sept. 22. After consultation with Mrs Coates and relatives and the people of the Matakohe district, the Government has decided to erect a national memorial at Matakohe to the memory of the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates. This was announced by the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) this morning. The Prime Minister added that the memorial would take the form of an interdenominational church to be erected in the Matakohe cemetery grounds. It would replace the existing church, which had served the community for some 60 or 70 years. The Government had entrusted the preparation of plans to Mr H. L. Massey, of Auckland, and had received from him a preliminary design which had met with the approval of the Government and those with whom the Government discussed the memorial, continued Mr Fraser. It was intended to build the church in brick, internally faced with mottled textured bricks of autumn tints, the roof to be covered with shingles. External facings of the doors and windows would be in cast stone; Internally the walls would bd finished with tinted plaster, with open timber roof trusses. The font would be in stone, and the pulpit, reading desk, and pews in timber of simple character, embodying carved motifs. The church would not be a large structure, designed only to meet the needs of the district. The seating accommodation would be for 100 worshippers.