WELLINGTON’S WAR MEMORIAL

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 164, 29 March 1923, Page 11

WELLINGTON’S WAR MEMORIAL

DECISIONS OF CITIZENS’ COMMITTEE £25,000 TO BE RAISED BY PERSONAL CANVASS IN FORTNIGHT’S CAMPAIGN It is announced by the Wellington Citizens' War Memorial Committee that as a result of many committee meet-. Ings and conferences with representatives of various religious, business, industrial, and professional interests of the city, a fortnight’s intensive personal canvass campaign will be launched on April 26, with a view to raising the £25,000' necessary for the erection of a suitable memorial to the 1700 men of Wellington city, and suburbs who fell in the Great War. It has been decided to proceed with the formation of some 13CI sectional committees for this purpose, and the necessary steps are now being taken with excellent prospects of success.

The committee’s scheme was submitted to two privately-convened meetings of the various sections on March 19 and 26, and met with whole-hearted endorsement, ' all present agreeing to carry it to a successful conclusion. The history of the movement and the committee’s scheme for raising the necessary funds were explained by the chairman (Mr. J. P. Firth). “This meeting,” said Mr. Firth, in the course of his address on Monday night last, “has been called by the Wellington Citizens’ War Memorial Committee for the purpose of laying before you a scheme for raising the funds necessary for that memorial, of asking for advice, and for your active and hearty co-operation. Before outlining the proposals which the committee wishes to place before you. it may be well if I explain what has been done since the committee .was formed at a public meeting held in the lown Hall last October, five months ago. Ihe task set to the committee was the erection of a memorial worthy not only of the dignity of the City of Wellington, but also of her 1700 heroic dead, and of the sacred cause for which they gave their lives. Advantage was taken of Armistice Day to make a special appeal, and the sum of £2OOO was raised. This may be regarded as a disappointing response; but it must be remembered that the committee had been in existence only throe weeks, and was at that time unable to say what form the memorial should take, and where it should be placed. After many meetings and after inspection of the various sites proposed the committee unanimously resolved that the memorial should be not utilitarian but symbolical in form, and that it should bo placed on the site vacated by the old Turkish Baths in Manners Street. “The committee at first named £lO,OOO as the minimum amount to be aimed at. It then asked the New Zealand Institute of Architects to recommend for appointment as assessor one who should advise as to how much money would be required, should draw up conditions for competitive designs, and should act generally as professional adviser to the committee. Ihe result was the appointment of Mr. W. H Gummer, of Auckland. After inspecting the site, Mr. . Gummer expressed great satisfaction with .it and said that for £25,000 a memorial could be obtained that would be unique in Australia and New Zealand; for that, in neither of those countries had any purely symbolical memorial costing more than £12,000 yet been erected. The committee finanimously adopted Mr. Gummcr’s recommenda“This brings me to the scheme for raising the money. It is clear that a total of £25.000 cannot be obtained unless we follow some comprehensive scheme for which we all work simultaneously and enthusiastically.. The committee is of opinion that it has devised such a scheme. This I now place before you : — “(1) That the whole of the commercial, industrial, and professional interests in Wellington be divided off each into its particular section. “(2) That each section be asked fo convene a meeting of the whole of its members forthwith, with a view to determining of its own volition what amount it will raise towards the erection of the Wellington Citizens f War Memorial, and that upon arriving at sueb determination the meeting of such section bo asked to appoint an executive committee (with convener), who shall undertake to carry out a personal canvass of all members of the section, asking them to contribute according to their means, and the object to be served. “(3) That such personal canvass be carried out simultaneously by all sections during the fortnight beginning April 26 next. “(4) That the three daily newspapers of Wellington be asked to publish appeals in their news columns during the fornight of the canvass. “(5) That all citizens not otherwise contributing be asked to subscribe towards the Wellington Citzens’ War Memorial.

“(6) That all churches be requested to devote their collection at religious services on Anzac Day to the Wellington Citizens’ War Memorial Fund.

“(7) That a request be made to the Wellington Returned Soldiers’ Association to co-operate to the fullest extent in the carrying out of 1 this scheme.

“Auckland has decided in favour of a memorial museum to cost £200,000. and has already raised £145,000, still requiring more than twice the total sum we ask for. Christchurch has raised some £24,000 for a Bridge of Remembrance and a Column. Dunedin is to erect a memorial at a cost of £lO,OOO, and has in hand some £4OOO. Invercargill has subscribed £lO,OOO, and has spent £B5OO of this sum on its monument.” (Applause.) The scheme as submitted was unanimously adopted in its entirety, various representatives rising and promising their whole-hearted support. In reply to a question why the committee was only asking £25,000, as compared with Auckland’s £200,000, it was explained that this was deter mined by tho character of the memorial to bo erected. Auckland had chosen one form and Wellington another, and tho Wellington amount was fixed on the advice of Mr. W; H. Glimmer, the committee’s expert adviser. It was not by the amount expended that • tho project should bo judged, but by what

they got. As an illustration of this, it was pointed out that the cenotaph in Whitehall, London, cost only £34,000. Yet no one sneered at it; instead, it ranked as tho outstanding memorial in tho Empire. It was the desire of the committee to erect the best possible memorial on the site chosen, and the assessor had said that this could bo done adequately for a sum of £25,000. The memorial would involve the erection of a screen will' along the entire Iqngth of the adjoining section, and would stand out fiom it. „ , It was resolved that all present should act as conveners of their respective sections, and in answer to a question whether he would be available to address meetings, Mr. Firth stated that he would devote his whole time to the task if lie was so required —an announcement which was greeted with applause. Messrs. A. Jolly and J.. Myers were elected members of the Citizens’ Committee. . The meeting further decided, to communicate with dll other sections not represented, with a view to their taking similar <action, and to hold a general meeting of all members of sections and all others interested in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall on April 16. ANOTHER SUGGESTION STREET OF MONUMENTS. Some of the City Councillors still seriously doubt whether the Manners Street site (opposite the Grand Opera House) is the most suitable for the proposed Wellington Soldiers’ Memorial. They consider that a memorial, whatever its form, would not show up to the best advantage in a confined area, between two very busy thoroughfares. Councillor L. McKenzie puts forward the idea of a street of monuments on the lines of Sturt Street. Ballarat, and suggests that the only street that lends itself to such an idea is that formed by Kent and Cambr.dges Terraces. He points out that already one of the finest statues, in ths Dominion (that of Queen Victoria, by Alfred Drury) stands in the reserve in this thoroughfare, where it is bokllv silhouetted against the southern sky. If. other statues were similarly placed in different parts of this reserve, it. would add to the dignity and artistic atmosphere of one of Wellington’s finest thoroughfares.