ONE TREE HILL OBELISK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23142, 14 September 1938, Page 17

ONE TREE HILL OBELISK

iSr, —The reported remarks of Sir Apirana Ngata stressing the lack of interest of the Maori race as a whole toward' the proposed obelisk on One Tree Hill stimulates me to write on this subject. In the opinion of not a few citizens, an obelisk would spoil the hill and be the waste of a good opportunity to erect an artistic and worthy memorial.

Why not commemorate the close association of the Maori race with astronomy by erecting a small, tasteful observatory on or near the liill-top? The Auckland district badly needs such an observatory, astronomy is a highly educative study, and last, not least, it would be a very lifting monument to commemorate the Maori race. Did space permit, 1 could write at. length on the great part played by astronomy in the Maori life —its extensive use in tlieir wonderful navigation, its application for determining planting and harvesting times, and in iixing the year and seasons, its contribution to numerous legends, etc. Astronomy formed a vital part of the education of the chiefs and tohungas and, for the particular locality, an artistic observatory .would at once be prominent, yet not obtrusive like an obelisk, useful and not useless, a gain and not a waste. I am aware that the will of Sir John Logan Campbell "suggests" an obelisk, but 1 cannot feel convinced that this is mandatory, or that it justifies what seems to me to be a rather useless and inappropriate expenditure. I know that this was the opinion of the late Sir Alfred Bankart, and would plead with the present trustees for a better expenditure of the money, suggesting, as I have above, the erection of an observatory. P. W. Bcrbidge. President, Auckland Astronomical Society.