TO-DAY'S SPECIAL APPEAI

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 99, 27 April 1923, Page 7

TO-DAY'S SPECIAL APPEAI

HISTORIC VALUE OF. MONUMENTS

(By the Mayor, Mr. E. A. Wright, M.P.J

New Zealand is a young country; M has only a brief history; it has therefon few historic events to cherish, and fewel still are those, that have, been comment orated, in permanent form. In older countries, where civilisation has been in the making for thousands of years,, symbolical memorials adorn al the great cities. Throughput the cen^ turies hundreds of millions of people have received their inspiration, millions pass them daily now, scores of thousands of overseas visitors flock to see them; ta the unborn multitudes of posterity they stand for all time, conveying the mes' sage of their forefathers. Who are. thej who will say that such memoriajs hava not had q, powerful influence in bulging up I'ivic and national character, in the shaping of the highest civilisation the world has seen, and which, since 1914, the great modern democracies. ha.ye sacrificed so much to preserve? Yet New Zealand, ""thopgh still m itt youth, has passed through t|ie greatest epoch in all history, the greatest tragedy which called for the greatest sacrifice*, and to which the men of Weljington responded nobly.' They "fought in the highest cause—for the deliverance of the weak- from ■ the strong; -for the-, protection of us all; for the establishment on .earth of "Peace, and Goodwill Towards Men"; they suffered, unprecedented hardships, endured unspeakable horrors, and throughout the long years of the struggle won through to victory. Of. Wellington's sons, 1700 unselfishly gave their lives-^their all. They are known unto God. We our. selves knew them, worked wifh them, loved them. We benefited by their sac rifice. Is it not our duty, then, \o pre. serve their memory, to symbolise theij sacrifice and their vjctory, ,tp band on their message'so that posterity might kno.w of them too, of how they fought and died that their country mi^ht, ba free? . -.;-,.. ■ The qjtize.ns, of Wellington to-day, will, be known throughout New Zealand and tq posterity fqr the response they make to the present appeal. I am confident that the result will ijot be unworthy ol the 1700 men who fell, and of the inhabitants of the Capital City of New 2m, land; . : „. :