QUEEN VICTORIA COMMEMORATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10429, 29 April 1897, Page 3

QUEEN VICTORIA COMMEMORATION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,-Various schemes will doubtless be suggested by which in Auckland we may fittingly commemorate the long and beneficent reign of Her Majesty and it should be the duty and pleasured all good citizens who may have conceived any project having this end in view to ventilate it, in order that the best course _ may be followed. One cannot but read with pleasure of the Queen's expressed wish that in England the loyalty of her subjects might he shown in aiding philanthropic efforts, especially in affording assistance to hospitals. Probably in a similar direction something may .appropriately be done here m elsewhere throughout the colony. But I venture to think that the commemorative aspect of the present occasion would justify the citizens of Auckland in placing in one of , the most prominent parts' of the city a statue of " Our Gracious Queen" that • would to all time be alike a memorial lof Her Majesty's life and work, as well as an adornment to the city. New Zealand visitors to the neighbouring colonies are struck with the comparative number of statues that grace the thoroughfares. Here in Auckland we have not a single outdoor specimen of the sculptor's art, while in no New Zealand town is there» statue of Her Majesty. Wellington has thus honoured John Ballance, Dunedin Robert Burns, Christchurch W. Sefton Moorhouse. ] believe the citizens of this favoured city would gladly subscribe for the erection of a monument worthy of Her Majesty. Numerous sites for such a statue might be suggested —probably the vacant ground near the entrance to the Art Gallery would be in many, respects the most suitable. -I am, etc., Auckland, April 28. Frank Bodlk.