A CONTEMPLATED DESECRATION

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 12377, 21 February 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

A CONTEMPLATED DESECRATION

A correspondent writes to the Evening Post ; —l am sorry to eee that it is in contemplation to disturb the remains of the late Captains Canning, Carr, and Hussey—now interred in the spot where they gave their lives for their country, and for ever hallowed by their heroism —and reinter them in the Wairoa Cemetery. The like has already been done in another ease, and it was not anticipated that the mistake would be repeated. Among those who fell in the f ast Coast campaign was Captain St. George, a nephew of the late Allred Domett. As he was gallantly leading a crarge close to the beautiful Eotoaira, a Haubau bullet pierced his brain. The body was reverently laid to rest by his comrades in tte place whore he fell, and Hew ZeaJ land holds no lovelier spot. * Mo nisleis ooSin enclosed bis fcreait, Not in sbee* nor in abroad they wonsd him; Bnt he ley like a warrior taking his rest, With hie martial cloak around him.’ In the great Hew Zealand poem, ‘ Eanolf and Amohia,’ his memory was enshrined, witii explicit reference to the locality: I ‘ Their death?, those gallant ones attest.

* * » * Attcat it hts, amoag tbs rest—(Be tbii much laid for kinship's aika) Who sleep* the *Kep no mire to wake On earth, 'mid Lvdieit tcenes afar Where Tongsriro’s >n. wa disgorge Their flamrs by blue Te -lira's lake, Y, urg, kindly chivalrous fit. Georgo ’ It was thought tiiat at some future day a ii’ting memorial taicht mark the sacr-d coot, but it was not to be. Some years after the publication or Domett's tribute, which had made the place classic ground, the grave was violat-d. and the body ei'amied that it might be ‘h mored’ with a formal military funeralThe bones, after being prepared by Maori hands in the traditional native fashion, were placed in a sack and conveyed by pack-horse (the only method at that time) to Napier, The ceremony there was painful and perfunctory in the extreme. A company of local militia and volunteers, who knew little of the hero and cared less, grudging their lost half-day, followed the gun-carriage, many of them talking loudly, jesting, and actually amoking in the ranks. la the crowded Napier Cemetery, the visitor now gazes with amazement at btGeorge’s monument —an unsightly mass of brick and mortar, resembling an unfinished lime-kiln. Is this kind of outrage to be repeated ? I trust nor. Kotoaira is no longer inaccessible to the traveller. If it he really intended to commemorate our fallen heroes, let tbtir mc-rt*.! remains bo undhturbed, and mark the spot—hallowed by the blood they shed for New Zealand —with a modest and I unostentatious memorial in har- ! mony with the bstutiiul surroundI iegs—not a staring marble pillar, I i-raaite obelisk, or uncouth cairn so | cear to the barbaric taste of modern i officialism. This would be a worthy I way to honor the memory of the I -allant departed, and though lit. i -ieorge’s bones no longer tie by the ! lake-side, a memorial cenotaph might be erected, reminding the