CITY WAR MEMORIAL

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 108, 8 May 1923, Page 7

CITY WAR MEMORIAL

ANNO DOMINI 2000

(By Councillor John Burns.)

"Look, Grandad, what a lovely monu. ment. What is it for?"

"My boy, that beautiful monument was erected by the citizens of Wellington seventy-five years ago, in remembrance of her soldiers who fought and died in the Great War of 1914-18."

"Who paid for it, Grandad? Did'you give anything towards.it?" "I was too young, my boy, to understand what trials, pain, and suffering, hunger and thirst, and misery those brave lads endured; too young to understand that thousands of the finest young men of New Zealand suffered and died that we should have, the freedom we now enjoy. They died that others miglht live! Your great-grandfather fought and died in the Great War, my boy. This monument was erected to his memory, also. Laddie, not one of those brave soldiers is alive to-day. This monument will keep their memory with us for all time. I believe the poor people and the rich, people of Wellington all subscribed what they could spare —many, more than they could afford. "Grandad, I wish I had been a rich man in Wellington when they built that monument. I would just love to say that I helped to build it. Wouldn t you?"