SCOTT MEMORIAL BITE

Evening Star, Issue 15223, 30 June 1913, Page 4

SCOTT MEMORIAL BITE

THE MAYOR DISAPPOINTED

The Mayor (Mr Stewart), who returned from Wellington on Saturday, was an ardent supporter of the Captain Scott memorial being placed on the. Peninsula, and ho was hopeful that the Port Chalmers people, would give that proposal their support in preference to I)living a cairn at> the Port. "l" was greatly disappointed," he said this morning. "to .see that the attempt made to fix on a site for the. memorial to Captain Scott and his comrades—one which would have served the requirements! of tho people of Dunedin and West Harbor, as well as the people of Port Gha}mers —came to nothing while I was away. The site, which was suggest**! by Dr Fitohott on the. Peninsula was jiii ideal one. It is on the skyline, from the sen, so that every passing ship must see it, as well as almost every resident of Dunedin and those living between here and Port Chalmers. It could also be. well seen from Port Chalmers -and from the Heads, and indeed it would have been a very striking landmark around Dunedin and the harbor. In short, it would have, served about 70,000 people, instead of a. thou sand at Port Chalmers. Moreover, the memorial to he erected lit the Port will not be on the skyline to any people except those actually in Port Chalmers. Even to ships in tho harbor it will not be on the.skyline, and it will be. lost against the background of the hills behind. The memorial on the Peninsula would have been grand iind rugged and striking, like the memorial to Sir John M'Kenzie at Shag Point; whereas, if the monument at Port Chalmers is to take the shape proposed in the present sketch, it will look like a second-rate .headstone in a third-rate, cemetery. ; ' However, as it is useless to eontemplate two memorials in one harbor, and as the Port Chalmers people cannot see their way to join in the larger scheme, I propose, to return the subscriptions received to date, and allow the donors to exercise their own discretion as to what they will do."