IN GOD'S ACRE

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 22, 25 January 1919, Page 12

IN GOD'S ACRE

SERMONS IN STONES

AN ANNIVERSARY DAY

SOLILOQUY.

(N.J.8.)

At high noon, or eventide, there clings to "God's Acre "in Sydney-street an attraction that surpasses that of all other places in this Empire City of ours. Although at our very doors, few find time to avail themselves of visiting this quiet place save those whose filial duty it is to occasionally pay a fitful homage to the grave of some otherwise longforgotten relative whose headstone shows that at a distant period one lies there who helped to form the city's history. Surrounded by so much that shows civic advancement since their day, " the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep" within sight and sound of the Quay; yet few there are, seemingly, to do them the honour they so richly deserve.

For myself 1 can always find solace in a visit tc that restful spot where sleeps so many an early citizen; and I come away more satisfied with my lot and determined to do as they did; " leave the land better than they found, it," and chance whatsver falls between.

Good may be .found in silent communion with the dead of a time wherein ■were written, in high honour, the noble traditions of the Homeland as handed down to us of the younger generation. Removed, doubtless for safer keeping until is raised a more imposing monument to his illustrious memory, one "will find, leaning and broken against the southern wall of the quaint mortuary chapel which is now seldom used, a headstone wherein one may learn more about the anniversary of Wellington than the books can tell us.

Hereon is written that beneath the stone rested one whoss name should always be associated with that anniversary which Wellington finds so many ways of celebrating to its liking. To save fellow citizens the troublfe of seeking it out themselves, word for word, all that is engraved upon a broken headstone is the story:—

Sacred to the Memory of WILLIAM WAKEFIELD, First Principal Agent of the New Zealand Company; Colonel of the First Regiment of Lancers, .in the British

Auxiliary Force of Spain;. Knight of the Tower and Sword of Portugal; Knight of San Fernando; etc, etc. Colonel Wakefield was the fourth son of Edward Wakefield, Esquire, of Bumham, in the County of Essex, in England. In the yeai 1823 he acted as Secretary to the English Minister at Turin. In 1828 he travelled through Austria, Russia, and Lapland. From_ 1832 to 1838 he served with distinction in the English Regiments of Lancers engaged in the Consti-

tutional cause throughout the Civil Wars in Portugal and Spain. ' • In 1839 he led the first body of English Colonists to the1 shores of New Zea-

land. From this period, unto his death, Colonel Wakefield conducted the affairs of the New Zealand Company throughout their difficult and varying relations with the Government, the Settlers, and the Natives, -with, eminent temper, moderation, and prudence; with great sagacity, judgment, and ability. In private life he was esteemed for urbanity of manners, and kindliness of disposition. He was hospitable, • liberal, and unassuming. His hand was ever open to assist the poorer Colonists; in the evil days of the infancy of the settlement; generous ly, but judiciously; without ostentation, as without indifference. He died at Wellington on the 19fh of Septembei, 1848, in the 48th year of his age; and was followed to the grave by a large body of the Settlers and of Natives from all the surrounding districts.

Whatever mound,, hereabouts, is sacred to the memory of so distinguished a soldiei, statesman, and coloniser, must be left to a future monument to mark. Meanwhile, there are many persons of humbler Tenown whose headstones bear ample testimony to the spot whereunto kindly hands have borne them.

In like manner, and doubtless for a similar reason, have been removed to the mortuary chapel several other headstones, including that of

GEORGE C. ELIQ,TT LOCKHART. Lieut. R. N. (second son of Major W. Eliott Lockhart, Madras Army), who died from exposure near Mataikuni, 4th September, 1871; aged 30. " Much loved, and deeply mourned." Likewise that erected to the memory of . ' WILLIAM MINIFIE, A Royal Marine, who fell whilst gallantly engaged in the attack on the Rebel Chief Kawhiti, at Ruapekauera Pah, on the 11th of January, 1846.

.Also that erected by Lieut. Page and surviving comrades of the 58th Regiment to the memory of

SERGEANT INGRAM, And other Regimental Comrades, who fell on the morning of the 16th of May, 1846, whilst gallantly defending their post, at the Hutt, against a desperate attack made on it by the Rebel Natives. *. Then there is that erected by members of His Majesty's ship Calliope to the memory of several comrades in 1846-7 who were fated to leave their bones to moulder in the only burial grotand Wellington knew in days far back, when Karori was a bush-clad wilderness.

All interested in seeing ample memorial justice done to the memory of those who fell in battle in the great war of 1914-18 should surely ,draw the attention of the authorities to the fact that' such old-time worthies are equally deserving of a more fitting and permanent memorial than! within a place to which so few have entry.

Among the sad and yet beautiful tributes to the memory of childhood, is that of a stately monument whose mute appeal is made unto the East, from whence came those beantiful passages of Scripture, "Suffer the little children," etc.; and "In thy Father's House are many mansions; if it were not so I wojald have told you. I go to prepare a place for^you." '

Who can read unmoved the story of three little boys stricken down by an epidemic, and stand tearless and read :

" Thou that urt gathering from thy children's smiles

Thy thousand hopes; rejoicing to behold All tho heart's depths before thee bright with truth,

All the young mind's treasures silently unfold: Look on this tomb! For thee, too, speaks the (jrave - Where God lias sealed the fount of love he ptave." Then theft 'is the story of an even remoter household catastrophe wherein, so far back as Octobar, 1855, was lost to a Colonel OoW, o( She 65th ReHiraetiti and Ilia beloved wife^ two little gitlsi.

whose memory is recorded in simpler fashion; visualising tho words of Longfellow :-

" There is a Reaper whose name is Death, And with his sickle keen, a rsap^ t' le bearded grain at a breath, And the flowers that grow between."

Then, time permitting, gaze upon a small green mound above which, in the. leafy boughs near-by, sings the thrush, then a new bird in a strange land. Here was laid to rest with gentle care a little mj» d of five whose mother—as she folded those fragile arms of her dead darling across the cold breast as if in prayer—so long ago as "sixty-five," doubtless counted the long years between the Inen and Now of a meeting in Paradise. How many sympathisers she will have among present-day mothers similarly plunged into deep sorrow at the loss of dear ones, both on land and sea, as a result of war and a visitation of sickness such as we have never known before! Those who are content to sit in solitude and gaze out upon the placid waters of Port Nicholson may hereabouts seat themselves before the memorial to a citizen of past good report, and meditate upon the panoramic beauty of the distant Rimutakas—snow-capped for ■ most parts of the year—speculating as to why the" not far-distant Petonc foreshore was foresaken by the early immigrants—after naming it " Britannia " —and the windswept Thorndon-esplanade (then Pipitea Point) chosen in its stead. _ Rides 'at anchor in the roadstead a ship of stout timbers, equal to. any which traversed the ocean in the " forties," awaiting wind and tide, of which bygone skippers and crews knew so well how to make use when "outward bound." The last remembrance of all is the moss-grown mausoleum of one who had not reached middle life, daughter of a Captain of the 11th Regiment and wife of a Surgeon of the 65th; whose manly grief even the moss-grown tomb bears mute testimony to in words of his own choosing: "The loving and devoted wife," etc.; recalling to mind the poem of Meng Hao-Jan ,(written A.D./ 689-740) from " A Lute of Jade "■:—••

-" I open wide my casement To breathe the rain-cooled air, And mingle with the moonlight The dark waves of my hair. "I fain would take the zither, By some stray fancy led; But there are none to hear me, And who can charm the dead? " So all my day-dreams follow . The bird that leaves the nestj And in the night I gather The lost one to my breast." Behind, one clatters the gate of this beautiful "garden of sleep, as though warning "a friend" that harshness of city, sounds and clanging of tramway bells and the roar of traffic generally lie at the foot of Mee's Steps, Lambton-quay, for him who can desert so safea retreat from the perils of " hustling " Time.