QUEEN’S STATUE FUND.

New Zealand Mail, 21 February 1901, Page 59

QUEEN’S STATUE FUND.

Commenting on the proposal to invito subscriptions to the Wellington fund from other parts of the colony, the ‘utago Daily Times" says:—We must say at once that we cannot endorse this project, and we are convinced that it will not meet with success. We do not wish to take up an invidious provincial attitude, but (as we have often pointed out) there is a reasonable as well as a bad provincialism, and it is really too much to ask the people of Danedi 1 (for instance) to contribute towards the erection of a statue which the large ma • jority of them would never see. There is an obvious and simple way out of the difficulty, however. . . Though as wel have said, the people of one province cannot fairly be expected to contribute to a memorial in another province, the people of Otago outside Dunedin' would, we are sure, be glad to take their part in providing funds for a statue to be erected in this city. A simultaneous movement in each of the chief centres for a local memorial would be eagerly welcomed and would, as a matter of fact, bo truly national in character. The Auckland “Herald,” referring to the subject, says : —We sympathise to the fullest with the desire of the Wellington people to erect a statue of Queen Victoria in that city. But we cannot understand why a loyal city should not' be able to fulfil suoh a simple desire at its own expense. There is absolutely no reason why Dunedin and Christchurch, or, for that matter, a dozen other places, should nob have a similar memorial. Yet the whole colony is being asked to combine upon a single statue as a national monument . . With all deference to the suggestion of his Excellency the Governor, we would -psunt out that'the step being taken is cahqilated to prevent local patriotism from being aptly expressed. . . Tf the rich and ambitious city of Wellington cannot raise sufficient money to buy an original, there is no disgrace whatever in erecting the best replica obtainable.