A PEOPLE'S THANKSGIVING.

Otaki Mail, 5 February 1919, Page 3

A PEOPLE'S THANKSGIVING.

ANGLICAN CATHEDRAL IN WELLINGTON. Very soon the transports will bo bringing home New Zealand’s lighting men from overseas. The wounded and sick will come first. Even now some of them are on the seas. And their coming will mean to thousands of men and women and children such joy as can never be equalled in the whole wide world. The return of these men will indeed inspire a people’s thanksgiving. The personal welfare of the returning soldiers will have full attention from a generous people. But the thought of thanksgiving will demand that something more lasting and splendid shall be done.

In all the great countries of the world the records of the centuries are to be found in majestic, wonderful old buildings. into whose.very stones are woven tlio stories of the. past. Here in New Zealand there is little that has been made memorable by age. The country is .so young, so busy with to-day, yet it is in to-day to-morrow begins. The present becomes the past." That is the thought behind the movement to build in Wellington a fine cathedral —a desiro to begin now a house of God, which will stand through time as a record of an historic time in the history of a growing nation, whose fighters have fought in far lands under the flags that stand for God and liberty. There could be no better or grander way to express thanksgiving at the return of loved soldier from the war than by helping | to build this cathedral. Every stone of it, every tower and transept and porch. I every window, pillar and arch, its chapel and baptistry and organ, will be freewill offerings, and memorials from a loyal and grateful people. The names and the deeds of -New. Zealand’s sol- . cliers, regardless of creed, will bo placed on record in its west wing, and the cathedral as a whole will embody the highest ideals of a free, God-fearing people. It is a project worthy of the support of all who feel the desire to d.Q i something to immortalise the achievements of the soldiers of liberty. All donations and enquiries should be addressed to the hon. organising secretary, I Rev. C. F. Askew, St. Mark’s Vicarage, I "Wellington;