WAR MEMORIAL

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 99, 23 October 1924, Page 4

WAR MEMORIAL

10 THB EDITOR. Sir. —Might I be allowed space in your columns to voice a widespread opinion on a matter which vitally concerns the whole city, that of the WeEington Citizens' War Memorial Fund. What is intended to be done with the £25,000 which is being raised for the erection of a war memorial? Do the War Memorial Committee hope to do justice to the memory of our glorious dead with a structure costing £25,000? When we compare Wellington with other cities and think of it as the Capital City of the Dominion we are compelled to admit that we are far behind in public buildings o£ all kinds and particularly in municipal buildings. We have on our city coat of arms the words "Suprema a Situ," and as citizens we seem content to leave the supremacy entirely to its situation without making any attempt to raise the city above others by our own efforts. If we turn to other cities we find that they intend to spend several times as much as ourselves on a war memorial. -We read of a scheme to spend nearly half a million on a cifcv square. _ Yet Wellington does not do these things, and the sum we set ourselves to raise for a war memorial seems difficult enough. Our requirements in public buildings are far from being satisfied, and any visitor to Wellington is immediately struck by the lack of suitable erections to mark the Capital. • The answer is "Not enough money." and we now intend to -spend a sum iis large and yet as paltry as £25,000 on a small war memorial, of perhaps little practical value, and which will probably be inadequate to force home to the mind the tremendous sacrifice it represents. Would it .not be infinitely better if the, War Memorial Committee could co-operate with public bodies' and hasten' on to realisation the erection of some outstanding public building which, while filling a much-needed want, would serve as a fit statue to commemorate the passing v of pur heroes? Could we not have a memorial station or a memorial museumj etc., in lieu of adding another to the numbers of useless and not altogether lovely monuments already springing up. all over the country. Such a building as might be suggested, while being of immense practical value, would admirably serve the same purpose as a monument, special provision being made for its beautification, and for recording the memories of those so dear to many of us. . A citizen or a visitor on seeing, say an imposing memorial museum, would be at once struck by its meaning,' even more than by a monument, and on entering the building itself, and on coming upon the particular memorial portion of it, would be still further impressed by the sacred purpose of its erection. I am sure that subscribers would feel that their money had been wisely, spent should itassist in the production of such a building, and that with such a goal in view, public spirit could be aroused into doing greater things than are now being done, and thus materially assist in the beautification and .advancement of our city.— I am, etc., ARCHITECTURE. 22nd October. [On the above letter being Bhowri to a member of the Wellington Citizens' War Memorial Committee he said that the city was irretrievably committed to the erection of a purely symbolical memorial. For three years after the Armistice, and without any public protest being made, the Wellington Returned Soldiers' Association urged the erection of a symbolical-memorial, and then, in September, 1922, convened a public meeting at which" the present committee was elected and entrusted with the task. It there had been . any general desire among citizens for" "the. "erection of a utilitarian memorial it should have been given expression to at that meeting, but that was not done. Two further public meetings were held, at which the war memorial project was discussed, but on neither of these occasions" was a single voice raised in favour of utilitarianism. "Of what use, then, is it to raise the utilitarian cry now, when on every possible occasion since the Armistice it has been allowed to go by default?" asked the member of the committee. "The War Memorial Committee, for a; purely symbolical memorial, has succeeded in raising £17,000. That money obviously cannot be diverted from its purpose; it would be illegal to do so. There is,' therefore., no proposal, other than the erection of the symbolical memorial, before the citizens, and the committee looks to them to subscribe the balance of ■ the money required—£Booo. "As for the meaning that can be conveyed by a symbolical memorial, only two instances need be cited—Nelson's Monument in Trafalgar Square arid the Cenotaph in Whitehall. Whereas the meaning of utilitarian memorials vanishes with increasing rapidity with the passage of time, Nelson's Column, as a matter of fact, has . a far wider influence to-day than when it was originally erected. Millions who have never even seen it are familiar with its outline, and are influenced by what it means. Again,- in the case of the Cenotaph in Whitehall, • erected to the memory of one million of the Empire's sons who fell in the Great War, men do not pass that sacred emblem by without raising their hats, while countless' thousands who have never even set foot in England salute it in their souls. Such an effect could never be got by any building. In Australia and New Zealand no monument has yet been erected costing more than £12,500, and tha War Memorial Committee is assured by the highest expert advice that if the citizens will provide the total sum of £25,000 required for their memorial it will be abla, by calling for competitive designs throughout the Empire, to secure a result that will be worthy not. only of the city, but of the purpose for which it was erected, and will stand as an inspiring evimple to the rest of New Zealand for all time."]