EDWARD GIBBON WAKEFIELD.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1425, 27 April 1912, Page 4

EDWARD GIBBON WAKEFIELD.

TO KEEP HIS MEMORY GREEN. The newly-formed Early Settlers' and Historical Association of Wellington is interesting i!' Self in the duty of keeping alive tho rather neglected fame of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, tho founder of New Zealand. At the meeting of (ho association last night, Mr. J. 11. Collier moved, "That tho highest part of tho Tinakori Hills, on which tho wireless station is now being erected should bo named Mount Wakefield, after tho founder of Wellington city and of the Wellington provinca. and that the committee bo instructed to take tho necessary steps to havo this resolution carried into cited." Mr. Collier said that ho thought tho Government, having taken the site on the hill, should plant and beautify tho top of tho hill. It' it was adjacent to an American city, thoro would be o cable tramway to the (op, and it would 1)0 a popular resort. He thought, there shoult? be a tablet at t)io grave of the t!uc< brothers Wakefield in (he Bolton Sued Cemetery, to stale what (hey had deal for New Zealand. A monument in Westminster Abbey would not lie too much. At. present the grave, which was covorcd with a plain slob, bearing only names and date?, u,\s rarely \isitcd, and when be recently iii((uircd for it, tho enretiker asked hini whether ho wa- a relative. Mr. .T. Smith said tho hill was already named Mount M'Laverty, alter Colonel M'f.averty, one of the earliest o£ the military settlors. He suggested that thn matter should be referred to llie Historical Sub-Committee for inquiry. The motion was amended so as to direct, the Sub-Committee to go into thc.wholn question of commemorating the Wakefinlds. H is interesting to recall there is another shadowy claimant to the hoiwir of commemoration on this sairto hill. Tho Maori name for the summit is VI. 'I'.iko— after a famous chief.