LATE LABOUR LEADER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 10 January 1936, Page 6

LATE LABOUR LEADER

MEMORIAL IN STONE SCULPTOR’S WORK (By Telegraph—Press Association 1 ) • .AUCKLAND, 9Lh January. In his studio at Epsom, the weilknown Auckland sculptor, Mr R. O'. Gross, is at work upon two commissions of considerable public interest. One is a memorial to be placed over the grave of the late Leader of the. Parliamentary Labour Party, Mr 11. E. Holland, in the Bolton street Cemetery, Wellington, and the other is a decorative sculpture for the new gateway to the Auckland Domain. The Holland memorial is entirely symbolical in conception and is intended to express the ideals which animated the dead leader in his life-long work for his fellow' men. It will consist of three pieces of sculpture in white marble, all rather under life size. On a rectangular pedestal will be the nude figure of ayoung mail with his face upturned to the sky and holding in one hand flowers and in the other fruits. The figure represents the spiritual aspirations of tbe man and his rightful enjoyment of “the kindly fruits of the earth.” On’either side of the pedestal is to be a group each of two crouching figures, a man and a woman in attitudes expressing the material hardships and superstitious fears of primitive mankind. One of the women holds a spindle and the. other a stone quern for grinding corn; one of the men holds a flint axe mounted in wood and the other some other object yet to he determined. The inscription, which has already been cut upon a- slab of marble, will be placed on a pedestal and is as follows: "This memorial is dedicated to the memory of Henry Edmund Holland, Leader of the Labour Party, 1919-1933. to commemorate his work for humanity. He devoted his life to free the world from unhappiness, tyranny and oppression.” In front of the pedestal a space about 3ft square will be left for the placing of, wreaths. The memorial will altogether be about 12ft in height and rather less in width. It was purposely designed on a rather small scale because ‘lie grave is situated ou a slope below that of Richard John Seddon, which is surmounted by a tall column bearing a statue. Mr Gross had some delay in procuring the three blocks of Carrara marble required for the work. Owing to the war with Abyssinia the Italian Government had requisitioned nearly all the coastal shipping, and weeks elapsed before the stone could be delivered at the port of shipment. The two lower groups have been “roughed out,” and the sculptor expects to finish his task well before the end of the year.