CENTENARY MEMORIAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23955, 2 November 1939, Page 10

CENTENARY MEMORIAL

TO THE EDITOR

Sir,—Will you kindly allow me to express my opinion on the , form of the memorial which is to be erected in memory of the landing of the early settlers in New Zealand. I think it would be more charitable to provide, with the money, a little cheer and sunshine in the lives of the old people who are left, and who blazed the trail through hardships and helped to make New Zealand what it is to-day. If any of my readers mistake my meaning let them visit the Old Men’s Home in Caversham. There they will see the old people, who deserve to be honoured, huddled together and dressed in ill-fitting cast-off garments and required to pace up and down a concrete yard in all sorts of weather to try to keep warm. Then, again, visit some of the lanes or alleyways in. the poorer localities of Dunedin, where many an old couple, or one alone, (resides in poor conditions, living on a scant pension, where sanitary conditions are practically unknown. Do they not deserve a better living? Why not spend the money on the old people while they are alive? It would help to eliminate their worries, which old age brings with its ills, loneliness and discomfort. Would it not be more charitable to provide clean cottages and warm bedding, and comfortable surroundings and kind Christian nurses to attend to their spiritual welfare as well as their wants, where they can feel the clasp of a friendly hand towards the eventide of their lives? It is their due. Why wait until they pass away, and then publish their good qualities which will avail them nothing then?—l am, etc.. Honour the Race.