WAITANGI GIFT

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 97, 21 October 1932, Page 9

WAITANGI GIFT

APPRECIATION EXPRESSED

Yesterday's conference of the Town Planning. Institute of New Zealand expressed its appreciation of the gift of the site of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi made'by His Excellency the- Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, and of. his efforts to preserve the j amenities of these islands. Mr. G. A. Hart, the "Wellington City Engineer, brought the matter up, and his suggestion, that a letter of appreciation should be sent to His Excellency was carried with applause. Mr. C. K. Grierson, who presided, said that all were much beholden to the Governor-General, not only in regard to what he was doing with'respect to roadside hoardings, but for the way j in which he was awakening the national spirit which had apparently gone to sleep since the War. People were now beginning to ask why no New Zealander had ever thought of making such a gift before. There were in Ne\v. Zealand many other historic spots, and the institute had the opportunity of. urging upon citizens in all parts ■of tho Dominion tho necessity of preserving historic and beauty snots as links with the past. There were locations where barracks had stood or where.. actions had been fought with the Maoris...These, in fifty years' time might be forgotten unless some society took the. matter up, and this was work in which branches of the institute could ' render valuable assistance. There. was . no need, he added, for the institute to pledge itself to support such. a movement, as its constitution -already pledged it to do-so.