EDWARD GIBBON WAKEFIELD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13874, 7 October 1908, Page 6

EDWARD GIBBON WAKEFIELD.

PROPOSED MEMORIAL. •;." .J '■•';■■'.' : -<''.■■% K: '.'■ '-. '"v' ! ' S'-i!'■£'• ':'> / , '- : ''- ~ ! [BY TELEGRAPH. PICESS ASSOCIATION.] V :': v ' //.-■' Wellington, Tuesday. "Site Robert Stout has written to the Time* . j as follows:— am glad; to see that you / have drawn, attention to the subject 'i .>u | memorial' to the founder of New Zealand, Edward Gibbon Wakefield. " Bat f u 114 ' I action New Zealand would not to-day be ja. British possession. His ability and services to New Zealand aw known to all who ; ] make themselves acquainted with our; hit-iirj; tory, and I hope there will soon be erected some fitting memorial of the man who did more for New Zealand than anyone of our i pioneers. I may add that Sir Frederick Young wrote to me early thin year regaining such a memorial, and I brought U»*\* , "* ; , subject before She Prime Minister about six months ago. . I enclose an account of a meeting held in London on June 13/1907,'!. and a memorandum by Sii Frederick Young.—l am, etc., Robert Stout." The memorandum states: —"The recent.; 1 '"" decree of His Majesty the King creating .!■■•';;, Now Zealand a" Dominion of the British Empire appears to afford a fitting oppor;.-; .;•■ tunity for perpetuating the memory of ito* j >' great founder, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, by a conspicuous permanent memorial in";.';//// the shape of a statue at the seat '-i government at Wellington, in older that future generations may know the man who' saved New Zealand from being a : colony of , Franco instead of being a Dominion of Use British Crown. It was in the autumn o|!:v«% v the year 1839 that Wakefield, hearing that Baron De Thierry, with the approval of the French King, Louis Phillipe, was preparing to ■ sail »from Brest for the- purpose of planting the French flag in New Zealand, thus constituting it a French colony, stimulated by enterprise and patriotism, boldly induced a few private individuals to join him in the ■ purchase of the equipment of a fast sailing /-.--■-;/ South Sea whaler, the Tory, which immediately loft England in charge of his brother, Colonel William Wakefield, for the same destination, In an ocean race the ', Tory arrived there just before the French vessel with Baron De Thierry on board reached New Zealand. Colonel Wakefield immediately planted the British flag on shore at Wellington, and took possession of the colony for Great Britain. Baron 3>* Thierry arrived there about 48 hours afterwards, and had the mortification of finding ' '| ■that his object had been frustrated by .the ■ energy and enterprise of his British com-' -. petitor. Edward Gibbon Wakefield s name, by his genius and enterprise in pi?" serving the Dominion of New Zealand to, the British Empire and being its founder, deserves to be imperishably perpetuated-in its history for -all future" generations ■»)';. (.: '•'.-: Britons both at Home and beyond the seas. (Signed) Frederick Young."