MASSEY MEMORIAL

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 184, 7 May 1928, Page 8

MASSEY MEMORIAL

TENDER ACCEPTED WORK TO BE COMPLETED IN SIX MONTHS According to an announcement by the Prime Minister (Right Hon. J. G. Coates) on Saturday, the tender of Messrs. Hansford and Mills, of ’Wellington, has been accepted for the erection of the Massey Memorial at Point Halswell. The contract price is £9995, which is stated to be within the architects’ estimate, and tht> work is to be completed in six months’ time. The use of New Zealand white marble, from the Kairuru quarries at Takaka, is stipulated, as is also Coromandel granite for the base of the circular screen at the northern end of the memorial.

Considerable progress has already been made with the preparation of the site. .Next Thursday will be the third anniversary of the death of Mr. Massey.

The site of the tomb, in the old gun-pit on the top of the knoll that overlooks Point Halswell, is the finest that could be selected in or around ■Wellington. Point Halswell projects well out into the harbour from Watt's Peninsular. Every passing steamer, inward or outward bound, must approach within a few hundred yards of the spot, and from the city wharves right round the harbour to Eastbourne the white pyramid that marks the spot is clearly visible. The design of the memorial follows the Italian style, not uncommonly seen throughout the southern parts of European ordered approach to a semicircular screen of marble, on which are usually inscribed the name and deeds of the man who sleeps below. The approach may consist of a level sward or geometrical garden plots (or both) either on the Hat, or in terraces, according to the nature of the site, whilst the round of the inner side of the screen usually provides for a handsome marble seat, usually with highly ornate arms at either end, for the accommodation of those who would rest and meditate. As a rule such monuments are erected with a commanding aspect, overlooking some fine park, or causeway, or piazza; but in this case, though the aspect from the knoll above Halswell commands the fairway and the whole of the harbour, the screen referred to has its convex or rounded side towards the harbour, so that the prospect from the inner or concave side of the screen will be the prison-built slopes of Watt’s Peninsular.