LINKS WITH THE PAST

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 December 1934, Page 18

LINKS WITH THE PAST

The close identification of HQkitika with Canterbury is specially marked and kept in memory by the names of the streets. The surveyors came from Canterbury, and the town was planned very thoughtfully. It is laid out on old English lines, with a generous disposal of special reserves and parks to meet the demands of civic life, and the community owes much to the forethought shown when the borough was mapped out. .Tn the naming of the Streets, too, the association is most, marked, for the streets carry many familiar Canterbury names, as well as of those who were prominent political figures. Weld, Stafford, Sewell and Fitzherbert Streets suggest prominent political giants of early New Zealand. Of Stafford, his biographer said “he talked too much.” Sewell was “a man of culture and ability”; Fitzherbert “able and astute, the Ulysses of

statesmen, of great debating power.” Weld was defeated by the Speaker’s casting vote, and succeeded by the Stafford Ministry.

Then there are such streets as Hall, Rolleston, Bealey, Jollie, Tancred, Hamilton, all fitting the names of officials of the Canterbury province when Hokitika was laid off as a town. Sir

John Hall and Sir William Rolleston figured later in the New Zealand Parliament.* But what is particularly worth recording is the learning anil ability of these men, most of whom were of university training at Home, holding scholastic degrees; This gives the.clue to the sound foundation on which it was possible to found the affairs of the young colony in the ’sixties, and the same experienced and scholarly leadership was loaned to put Hokitika as a separate entity <n its feet. Hokitika has several monuments to mark connection with the past. The Westland Explorer’s Monument, now on Cemetery Hill, is a memorial to Henry Whitcombe, surveyor; Charles Howitt, explorer; Charles Townsend, Government Agent; and George Dobson, surveyor; all of whom lost their lives in the public service in the earlv days. There is the Westland Pioneers’ Memorial in Stafford Street, erected 20 years ago; the statue to Richard John'Seddon, New Zealand’s greatest Premier; the Clock Tower, to King Edward and the Boer War; the'simple and expressive cenotaph, the Great War Memorial and the figure of peace to mark the sixty years of Westland’ and the opening of the Odra tunnel