TURUTURU-MOKAI.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 18 July 1929, Page 9

TURUTURU-MOKAI.

memorial to fallen soldiers CAIRN TO BE ERECTED. Following a meeting of the Turu-turu-Mokai Reserves Committee at Hawera. to-day, a “Hawera Star” reporter was informed during an interview with the committee chairman (Air. J. M. Townsend) that it had keen decided to proceed immediately with the erection of a memorial to the British soldiers who lost their lives in the battle at the Turuturu-Mokai redoubt m July of 1868.

Committee members present at the meeting besides the chairman were Mi ss liuehanan and Messrs B. C. Lysaght and J. S. Murray. These three belonged to the original committee appointed to deal with the matter, said the chairman. Air. Townsend recalled that it had formerly been intended to provide a memorial, the cost of which was estimated at £3OO. Rians for such a monument had been prepared and approved. Certain amounts had been donated, and the receipt of a Government subsidy had at one time appeared probable, but it had been made definitely clear that- such assistance could not, he looked for. At present the funds amounted to £132, and, there being no prospect of that sum being augmented to any considerable extent, the committee hail decided to abandon the original plan and proceed with the amount available.

The architects (Messrs Duffill and Gibson) were to be requested to submit plans of a suitable cairn, which could be erected for the sum available, and it wars hoped to proceed with the work at ail early date. The names of certain of the men wlio fell in the engagement were known to the committee, proceeded Mr. Townsend, but in the endeavour to ensure that none would bo omitted from the inscription Mr. G. Beamish, of Ratea. a survivor of the engagement, would he consulted, and Mr. H. Findlay. of Tokaora, was to be asked if any information was available in records kept by the late Air. John Findlay. The committee would also, appreciate any assistance in this direction from district residents having knowledge of the men who were killed in the engagement, said All - . Townsend.