A NATIONAL MEMORIAL

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 41, 18 February 1920, Page 4

A NATIONAL MEMORIAL

The decision of tho National War Memorial Committee that the site for the erection of the national tribute shall be in Wellington is doubtless one that will be accepted. Of nine members of Parliament comprising the committee, only one represents a Wellington constituency, so that the decision can truly be said to be one that is not dictated by local interests. In making this decision the Parliamentary Committee has endorsed the resolution passed by senior officers of the Expeditionary Force, who also recommended that the National Memorial should be in Wellington. Though it has not yet considered what form the memorial should take, ; t is evident that the leanings of the Parliamentary Committee are towards,' the . erection of an elegant piece of statuary which will convey everything it is intended to mean. "The memorial," says the committee, "should be so designed as to embody the objects and sacrifices of the war, and the virtues displayed therein, in such a way that they will be an education and an inspiration, not only to present but to future generations, and so be of immense influence in the formation of New Zealand national character." This is very much on all fours with the principle stated by The Post in a, special article published on Saturday last discussing variour proposals for the erection of a suitable memorial. In that article we /stated that the only principle upon which the carrying out of the project is justified is that "it is the national desire that some suitable memorial should be erected to commemorate for all time (1) New Zealand's part in the Great War, (2) the victory in the cause of humanity -which her-'sous helped in achieving, (3) the sacrifices they made on their country's behalf, and (4) the precious heritage of liberty, which, they handed down untarnished to posterity. The national war memorial, in other words, should be the nation's tribute—an expression at once of tho people's gratitude and remembrance, and in symbolic form conveying a phiin hut eloquent roi'sisftge . that will never cease to make its. appeal to all future

generations of New Zea-landers." It is plainly tho wish of the Parliamentary Committee to meet this desire—the carrying out of an ideal in which no selfish interest shall be served. It is to be hoped, now that the project has be-, come a really live one, that it will be fully discussed, so that a decision will be reached that will be an inspiration to all present and future New Zealanders.