HALL OF MEMORIES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18353, 10 March 1920, Page 6

HALL OF MEMORIES.

PROPOSED SITE IN THE GARDENS. Now that the erection of a Hall of Memories lifts been decided on, practically the only questions left to settle are those of site and form. A locality particularly favoured is that near the Museum at the western end of Worcester Street. Mr N. B. M’Callum, president of the Christchurch branch of the Returned Soldiers’ Association, said yesterday that the association had certain ideas in regard to the form of the hall, but, at the same time, it would like to see competitive designs called for. The memorial might not necessarily be large, but it should bo as beautiful and commemorative as they could make it. As regards site, the association had not been wedded to the.idea of Cathedral Square, and, with the erection of a Hall of Memories certain, members were against the centre of the city. It was, however, a matter for the committee to determine, alter making a comprehensive inspection and sending in recommendations. Personally, he was inclined to favour a site in the Gardens, south of the Museum. The locality was quiet, and away from trams and traffic.

Mr A. Macphcrson, Fields Surveyor of tho Agricultural Department, has submitted plans of a design t-o the Mayor and to tiio Returned Soldiers’ Association. The main features are—(l) a Hall of Memories, (2) a hollow pillar rising from the centre of the hall to tho capital, 200 feet, (3) a Status of Britannia, 30 feet high, on a base 6 feet high, with the British lion, shield and spears, to bo erected on the capital, (4) an electric lift to occupy the space in the pillars, a narrow staircase from the base to tho capital to provide for contingencies. The plan provides for a Hall of Memories 100 feet long by 100 feet wide, with a domed roof; on the inside walls the Roll of Honour to be inserted on suitable tablets on which will bo engraved tho names of those who made the supreme sacrifice; each district of the province to have its own Roll of Honour set out; the walls to boar the crests and mottoes of tho reinforcements. On the outer walls of the hall there will be two niches in each, which will form the background for the statuary of one ora group of each of the principal units of the services. The statue of Liberty surmounting the pillar will be white snd lit tip every night with electricity, being thus visible for miles. “ Tho soldiers have nevor deviated from the plan originally worked out under the presidency of Mr Harry Cotton,” said Mr 0. T. J. Alpers yesterday. “ I read with interest a leader in the ‘ Lyttelton Times ’ of this morning. It practically endorses the scheme we have always had in our minds, and adds some interesting further suggestions. I personally approve of most of those suggestions, and I think the soldiers will do so. too. It was always an important point in the scheme that there should be panels on the walls, whether in glass or marble, on which would bo enrolled the names of tho dead. We also hope to have memorial brasses to those who won, military distinctions. Our suggestion was that the names of the dead should be inscribed on tablets in bays, each bay representing a county of Canterbury. We do not think the idea of engraving the walb with the names of every man who went as well as those who fell is practicable. Our idea was that there should be a volume in parchment, solemnly bound in leather, and in this should be engrossed the name of every soldier from Canterbury, and this would be as permanent a record ns a Domesday Book. Now that the citizens havo at last risen to the occasion and have handsomely endorsed what we ha.ve fought for in season and out of season since a period long before the armistice, wo hope to receive assistance from artists and scientists, and, above all, from Military men, which will make this, as T havo always striven to make it, a perfect museum of tho great war, beautiful in design, complete m Historical association. “ It seems to mo that the entrance to the hall should be approached by a noble flight of steps and m the vestibule there should be placed a cenotaph. Can you conceive anything more, beautiful than a cenotaph like that to the lato Bishop Harper in our own Cathedral f Around tho base of it and on the flight of steps leading up to it there might on Anzao Day for all time bo placed wreaths by the relatives and descendants of the dead and by the citizens or Canterbury who cherish tlieir memory. Wero this feature to form part of the Memorial Hall, it seems to mo that it would meet tho wishes of those citizens? who desire tho memorial to take the shape of a cenotaph. “ With the concluding paragraph ot the ‘Lyttelton Times’ leader, however lam unable to agree, lhe Hall of Memories should not in any way be associated with this nebulous scheme for'a Town Hall, and that for two leasons. The first is that whatever form the memorial takes, the soldiers w is.h to defy anyone to be able to say that it is in the slightest degree utilitarian; anti the second is that all the citizens of Christchurch, even those who were born yesterday, will be in their graves before the city makes up its mind where to put that nebulous Town Hall,,winch has now been for more than twenty years a- castle in rips in. To associate the Hall of Memories with the Town Hall is to postpone it indefinitely, and the citizens must postpone it no longer.” . . ~ „ “ You ask my views about the site, Mr Alpers added. “As I said at the citizens’ meeting, I was indebted to the suggestion by Mr Charles Clark, which the executive of the Soldiers’ Association has cordially endorsed, that tho hall should stand on tho lawn directly south of the Museum, between the Museum , building and the Moorhouse statue*, or, it that site bo thought not spacious enough, on the middle of the old archery lawn. That would be far better than that it should stand in tho heart of the town, where silent reflection and reverent thought are impossible. 1 hope that, we shall now get to work in earnest- I should like to see a committee of men and women competent in such matters with a trained taste in art set up and designs called for. The R.S.A. had hoped that the Prince on his visit would open their now club, but the difficulty of getting cement and lime has proved insuperable; the soldiers have reluctantly been compelled to abandon their cherished dream. Is there any reason why, once tho site is chosen, even though the plans may not have been worked out in all their details, the Prince should not lay the foundation stono of the Hall of Memories? That ho would gladly do it no soldier occasion on which the Prince will meet all the ‘ best people,’ and by the ‘ best people ’ I mean the men who fought in the war and havo returned, and the fathers and mothers of the humblest soldiers who left their bones on Gallipoli or in France.”