WAR MEMORIAL

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 130, 6 June 1927, Page 9

WAR MEMORIAL

MOUNT COOK SITE

MR. HURST SEAGER'S

SELECTION

The reasons why Mr. S. Hurst Seager considered the Mount Cook site a most appropriate one for the combined scheme of a war memorial, museum, art gallery, and carillon are outlined in a statement which he made to the Christchurch "Sun."

Mr. Seager referred to a suggestion made at the interview with tho Primo Minister, that tho Wellington citizen's war memorial might take the form of an_ archway to the Mount Cook site. This-suggestion must have come," -said Mr. Seager, "from one who could not have read my report or- did not fully understand what it intended. In that report I stated thai the Wellington Citizens' War Memorial CV ; -t.tee has chosen and given a prize f /cry fine memorial, and I have sli. that it is a memorial of such value chut it requires a better and more appropriate site than that which the committee selected in front of the Parliamentary Buildngs. If it stood on tho sloping ground below the piateau of the Mount Cook site it would form an exceedingly fine and independent memorial, terminating the v ls ta along the avenue which the City Council proposes to form from the Te Aro Flat to the foot of tho Mount Cook site. This would show to advantage the splendid base of the memorial, and would not in any way interfere with tho view of tho buildings to be erected on tho plateau itself. This plateau is tennintaed at the northern end by a terrace, and is reached'by inclined curved roads at either side of the memorial site. When on this terrace the Wellington citizens' memorial would be to the north of the group of buildings. Moreover, tho memorial chosen is 65 feet high, and is crowned -with a fine group, of sculpture, designed by Mr. Gross, of Auckland. The group could be seen from the terrace m detail, and would have a far better effect than if seen J rom the ground level.

I ■ Wanfc ;to correcfc au impression that has seemingly gained ground," continued Mr. Seager, "and that is that the Museum and the Art Gallery are the proposed memorials. They are notthey are only placed in tho group so that a fine impression might be created by the approach to the National War Memorial, which will close the vista at the southern end. This memorial will stand quite independently of the Museum and Art Gallery, and it is proposed that it should be a domed structure, in which the bells forming the carillon, which have already been obtained by ithe Carillon Committee, should be placed. This scheme has appealed strongly to the Wellington City Council and a great number of citizens, and it would be much to b« regretted if any misapprehension prevented all those interested from joining together and carrying it to a successful issuo."

Commenting on the financial aspect of the scheme, Mi. Seager agreed with the Hon. W. D. Stewart, that it was not by any means necessary to spend £100,000 ou the National War Memorial. "A building of great architectural merit," he said, "might bo built for a much less sum, and would serve all the purposes of a design of a more expensive character. In all modern memorials simplicity is the keynote. An elaborate^ design might frustrate the end in view, and rob the memorial of * great deal of its significance."