LEST WE FORGET.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVIII, Issue 12973, 14 November 1902, Page 4

LEST WE FORGET.

The, citizens of Christchurch lave lately been gathering in: a harvest of memories, old and new, for there has, been a distinct "memorial" movement. We have been reminded of the work of Mr J. E. Fitzgerald, of the valour of men who fell in South Africa, and in several churches memorials have been erected) to earnest, godly mem and women. The schools, toe, have wisely commemorated the sacrifices l mrade by "old boys," Christ's College Chapel, for instance, having a tablet to the memory of Lieutenant Neave, the first New Zealand officer to lose his life in the Boer war. More recently, the victories of peace havo been commemorated by the erection in the Cathedral of a tablet to the memory of Mr Edward Jollie, the surveyor who laid out the city 01 s Christehurch when! only tussock and flax and raupo covered! the plain. We have been reminded l that among the pioneers there are other names worthy of perpetuation, names of men whose good -works did not die •with them. The Cathedral Chapter has 'had in its possession for some years, we believe, ai memorial brass tablet bearing the name oil Sir John Cracroft 'Wilson, a man of mora than provincial distinction 1 , even of Imperial fame. The authorities, we think, should be glad to place upon the walls of the Cathedral a tablet to the memory of a. Canterbury administrator who had- ruled over provinces in India, in whicih Canterbury would bo lost, and who, in the Mutiny, had earned from the lips of the Viceroy the truly enviable praise of "having saved more European lives than any other Englishman in India." There may be soma good reason for the delay dru erecting .this, memorial, but the difficulty i if difficulty there is, should not be insuperable, and we recall the life of Sir John Cracroft Wilson now in the hope that the tablet will be erected in the near future. There is a disposition on the part of the public, we are afraid, to reg*ard these''memorials as rather of private than of public concern. Bui? surely, in such a case as that of the memorial to the fallen troopers, an endeavour should have been made to -give the unveiling as /solemn and impressive an effect as possible. The attendance of the public' when that tablet was unveiled' was deplorably small, and one could not but) regret that the Volunteers were not paraded on so essentially military an occasion. We have been told of late that the Cathedral should be the centre of religious feeling for all denominations in the pi'ovince, but the opportunities for the practical application of the idea have been persistently neglected.