“IN LOVING MEMORY”

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 152, 13 June 1932, Page 9

“IN LOVING MEMORY”

CHILDREN’S MEMORIAL UNVEILING CEREMONY AT CREENMEADOWS. LITTLE VICTIMS OF THE ’QUAKE. ‘‘Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for such is the Kingdom of God.” In the presence of several hundreds of people tho memorial to Aileen Frances Dunn, aged 7 years and 3 months, Billy Pollock, aged 7 years and 3 months, and Dennis Kitsen, aged 8 years and 2 months, the three schoolchildren who tost their lives at the Greenmeadows School on February 3, 1931, was yesterday afternoon unveiled by Mr W. E. Barnard, M.P. The memorial, which was contributed to by the school-children of both Greenmeadows and Taradale, was designed and built by Mr J. Skelton, of Napier. The design is on simple, but most effective linss The figure of a child holding a garland stands beside a tablet on which is inscribed: “In loving memory of the departed little ones.” Immediately underneath is: “Suffer the little children to come unto Me.” The service was opened by the Rev. F. L. Frost, who read from the Invocatory Sentences: “1 am the Resu> rection.” The Rev. D. C. Alley then lead m a prayer of remembrance beseeching comfort for the bereaved and concluding with the Lord’s Prayer. A Scripture reading by the Rev. J W Martin, who read: “The Lord is my shepherd. 1 shall not want. . . and they brought little children unto Him.” MR MADDISON’S SYMPATHY. Mr Frost tendered an apology from Mr G. A Maddison, chairman of the Hawke’s Bay Education Board, who was to have performed the unveiling ceremony but was unavoidably absent in Gisborne. Mr Maddison sent a deeply sympathetic message and paid tribute to the spirit that led to the erection of such a fitting memorial. At short notice, Mr Barnard had willingly stepped into the breach. ‘I feel it a great privilege to join with you in this solemn service of commemoration of three little ones who were suddenly snatched from you in the earthquake of February 3, 1931,” said Mr Barnard. "This stone has been erected by the school-children of Greenmeadows and Taradale in loving memory of their three little comrades. It is a loving tribute from the little children to the bright and happy memory of little children who suddenly left school l and home—and a world of sunshine and promise In the name of the older people of Greenmeadows and Taradale may I thank all who have helped to place here a lasting memorial to these three little ones.

‘‘Whether we are old or young, our hearts go out to the parents of the children when we specially remember to-day. The mothers especially must have felt that the light of life had almost gone out after that terrible disaster. It is beyond human power to console those who have been so heavily stricken —that pow-er is God’s alone—yet I am sure that, after this interval of time, when the pain has been dulled tho parents of these little ones feel and will always feel deeply grateful to those whose friendship and love and sympathy has raised this little shaft in memory of the- sweet young souls still in God’s keeping as in life. A NOBLE MEMORIAL. ‘‘l may remind you that in this township you have erected a noble memorial, and on one day each year you gather round it to remember the gallant deeds and sacrifice of those strong young men who left our shores and who never returned. May 'I express tho hope that on one day in each year the children of Greenmeadows and Taradale will visit this spot to recall for a few moments the memory of playmates who, like so many of our soldiers, have not, and cannot return. By so doing the children will keep alive and evergreen a tender memory which they would not wish to let fade and die.

‘‘Hero, in this place, their bodies quietly rest. But why were they taken away and where have they gone? There is no clear answer to these most searching questions. It is all wrapt in dark mystery. Yet we have a great and undying assurance. We may say with the poet that they have joined the choir invisible whose music is the gladness of the world. Wo may comfort ourselves with tho blessed assurance that they have returned a little sooner than most to the All Father from Whom they came, and that in his tender keeping they aro safe for ever. ‘‘l now unveil this stone ” said MrBarnard, ‘‘in loving memory of Aileen Frances Dunn, Billy Pollock and Dennis Kitson, who fell asleep on February 3, 3931. '

‘‘ln tho sight of tho unwise they seemed to die, and their departure is taken for misery and their going from us to bo utter destruction; but they arc in peace.. Having been a little chastened they shall be greatly rewarded, for God found them worthy for Hiself.” J

Mr Frost paid tribute to the loving sympathy by the headmaster, tho teachers and committee in tho erection of the memorial, and said that by their sympathetic co-operation such an occasion had had been made possible. Tho ste-vieo closed with the singing by the children of ‘‘There is a friend for little children.”