CITY WAR MEMORIAL

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 101, 30 April 1923, Page 8

CITY WAR MEMORIAL

STIMULATION TO EMULATION

(By the Eight Key. Dr. T. H. Sprott,

Bishop of Wellington.)

I have been asked to write a few words in commendation of the proposed Citizens' Memorial; to the men of the city and suburbs of Wellington who were killed in the Great War. I gladly do so; but surely 6uch a project is its own most appealing commendation.

Nine years ago these men in response to our most urgent call put all their hopes, all that was moat dear to them, and life itself to the hazard on our behalf. It is but common gratitude that we should see to it that their names do not drop into oblivion. Such visible and permanent memorial is needed for the sake of the higher life of our, people in generations to come. We are, indeed, bound to look forward to, to work for, the timo when wars shall cease, and nations shall have learned to work together for the common good, and to settle their misunderstandings on principles of reason and justice, and not oy tho blind arbitrament of war. But, even so, there will always be need for courage and self-sacrifice in one form or another. And these high virtues are best sustained by conspicuous examples. "We live," says Wordsworth, "by admiration, hope, and love." It is by the sight or memory of great examples, evoking admiration and love and stimulating to emulation, that character, whether individual or national, is trained and developed to worthy issues. I heartily commend the memorial.