THE CENTENNIAL MEMORIALS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 225, 19 June 1936, Page 10

THE CENTENNIAL MEMORIALS

The Government's intentions concerning the national memorial it is proposed to erect in connection with the centenary celebrations in 1940, and to which the Minister of Interna! Affairs referred in his statement at yesterday’s meeting of the National Centennial Committee, have not yet been disclosed. A hint of what is probably in its mind was dropped by the Prime Minister last week in a reference to the public works now engaging the attention of Cabinet. “What better monument could we erect,” he said, “than by completing a number of public works, including public buildings?” The completion of Parliament Buildings is known to be one of the projects under consideration, but that could hardly be classed as a national memorial. More appropriate to the event would perhaps be a National Library, housed in an imposing building and functioning as the centre of the whole Dominion library system. Then there are the permanent memorials in the various centres. Auckland has a memorial jiark in the Waitakere Hills in view; Westland, a centennial highway. In Wellington the. idea of reconstructing Tory and Taranaki Streets in order, to provide more imposing and dignified approaches to the National Art Gallery and Museum has been discussed. Wellington citizens in their preoccupation with the exhibition project should not overlook the question of a permanent memorial of the centenary, which ought to receive equal consideration with the exhibition. One suggestion has been that the memorial should be dove-tailed with the exhibition—to be left in its wake, so to speak; but to many people clearance that would be effected by the replanning of the Tory Street-Taranaki Street block would be a more satisfying achievement.