The Motueka Star PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS. "Te Ora Mota Iwi." FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1903.

Motueka Star, Volume IV, Issue 159, 27 February 1903, Page 3

The Motueka Star PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS. "Te Ora Mota Iwi." FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1903.

Mrs Seddon with that kindly feeling characteristic of a good woman, in a circular issued from Wellington on the 26th January, brings prominently before New Zealanders the desirability of establishing a New Zealand Soldiers Grave Guild, the object of which is "to watch and see that those sacred soots, where lie the graves of ous nation, who have fallen in South Africa are kept in order, and that the distinguishing marks are not obliterated." Mrs Sedilon very truly remarks that "to know that the graves of New Zealand Soldiers who died for, and at their country's call, will, I feel sure, be especially pleasing to the parents and bereaved relations, and satisfactory to the general public." To secure this most desirable end, it is necessary, of course that funds should be raised, to be forwarded t-> the "Guild of Loyal Women" in South Africa, to be by them expended in carrying out the objects of the Guild. Mrs Seddon explains that when she was in London a meeting under the auspices of the English Victorian League was called, with the object of instituting a New Zealand A report of that meeting is now before us, and it says that Mrs Seddon was elected Acting-President and Treasurer, and was asked to convene a meeting in Wellington on her return, to initiate the movement. The ladies present agreed to assist her in collecting- subscriptions from AngloNew Zealanders and others in England interested in the colony towards a < r rave fund, of which the balance of the Seddon presentation fund forms a very appropriate nucleus. The idea is that a guild shall be formed in New Zealand, with a central office and committee in Wellington, and branches in each of the chief towns. The Guild will collect a fund, obtain a complete record of the New Zealand soldiers who fell in South Africa, the dates of their deaths, and places of their burial, and names of

their relatives. It will be in direct con munication with the central committee of the Guild of Loyal Women in South Africa, and arrange with the latter for the identification and care of the graves, furnishing the South African Guild with the funds for the purpose, and bringing the bereaved relatives in New Zealand into touch with those loving and sympathetic women in South Africa who will undertake work that must be a great comfort and consolation to those bereft of husband, son or brother, and separated by the ocean from the last resting place of their loved ones. The movement has been taken up in a most hearty manner in many towns in New Zealand, where public meetings have been held, and committees, composed principally of ladies, formed in order to bring about the formation of a New Zealand Soldiers' Grave Guild.