The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 1906 THE NATIONAL MEMORIAL.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 139, 16 June 1906, Page 2

The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 1906 THE NATIONAL MEMORIAL.

The evidences are abundant that the people of the colony fully realise the need of a great national memorial to the late Premier, but some time must elapse before a decision can be reached regarding the shape which the memorial shall take. It is felt that, as Mr Seddon's life and services were exceptional and unique, such as differentiated him from, and raised him immeasur-. ably above the greatest of his predecessors, his memory should be honoured in a way that would mark for all time that distinction. The columns of the metropolitan newspapers have been flooded with suggestions on the subject, comprehending almost every device known to ancient and modern times. The conception that appears to have touched the public imagination most firmly is that of a monumental Mausoleum, erected somewhere in the capital city, and this is th© idea that will, we think, be ultimately adopted. It would, there is little doubt, be approved by a public plebiscite. The instinctive and natural desire of the people who loved the dead Premier, and whom he so well loved, is to have ft shrine where they can give outward expression to the affection that burns in their hearts. ; And not this generation of the people only, who knew the man, and have felt the close grip of his strong hand, but generations suc- | cee'ding who, if they read their his- ! Tory, will feel that the privileges they ' enjoy were largely won by a great man who wore out his life in the service of their father?, American men and ■women go,hi pilgrimage to Mount Ver--1 non and 'to the banks of the Hudson to muse-over the deeds of the great men who gave them freedom and maintained their national unity; in days to come New Zealand men and women will make a pious journey to stand and reflect by the grave of the man who accomplished like things for them. Another proposal is that we should set about the building .of a national Temple of Fame, the first niche in which should be occupied by a statue of Mr Seddon. The colony,is strong and vigorous, and developing rapidly, and the time, it is. argued, has arrived when we should give some thought to the graces of life no less than to the utilitarian1 schemes for its material concerns. The instinct of ancestor and hero worship, which we affect to contemn, in other and grosser forms, as paganism, is at the root of our highest conceptions of art, and art makes life beautiful and endurable and worth, fighting for. The part that Westminster Abbey has played in "our.rough island story" is not a subject that lends itself merely to dilettante speculation, but one concerning which we are able to form definite' conclusions. On a thousand battje-fields, in hundreds of sordid attics,' the gray old Abbey has been a beacon, beckoning courage and genious all these ages past. There is much in our own short history, to stimulate us; it is rich in names that set the blood aglow as we recall them, and it would be wise to encourage and propagate the sentiments which they inspire. There may not be for many years a time so favourable as the present for the realisation of an idea so admirable. All ranks, all creeds, all professions will give freely to the funds that will be created for honouring the late Prime Minister, and there will be enough, if the appeals are judiciously framed, for both the Mausoleum and the Temple.