THOMAS BRACKEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3015, 27 December 1911, Page 90

THOMAS BRACKEN.

A SUGGESTED MEMORIAL. Mr Patrick F. X. Ryan writes us from Christchurch : "It is now close on 14 years since I left Dunedin. I remember it well, for it was on the occasion of the sad obsequies of him who was Otago's joy and the Dominion's pride. Yes, as if it were yesterday J even now hear the cold, heavy, heartrending thud of the earth and the solemn chant of the minister as the mortal remains of that great high-minded Irishman and New Zea* lander, Thomas Bracken, were committed to the earth 'Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.' And now, aiter 14 years, I am again in the Dunedin cemetery. I read 'the inscrip-' tion on a thousand tomos, "Erected in loving memory.' Many old friends are here. Many, too, repose under a massive column who were as unlike Brack* a as I am to Hercules. And here I stan 1 amid terraces of marble, in quest of pot.r Tom Bracken. Surely a stately obelisk, or pei> haps more appropriately an angel, will point out to the pilgrim, e'en through the centuries, the resting place of him who mused in Maoriland while thousands stood charmed, o'erwhelmed with the majesty of his soulful verses, as enchanting as the lute of Orpheus. But it is riot to be. I must seek an official arid he must look through musty volumes- with * surprise as though I had summoned up Caesar's ghost. A friend conducts me to the place indicated. Yes, there I hssd stood more than a decade ago, murmuring a fervent ' Requiescat' for my idol. I hay£ femembered his every anniversary. And lo 1 ha is forgotten, by his own. They "fraeeived him in the heyday of his fame; now.ho is numbered of the dead ho is forgotten. His nariie will be brought up in another generation and with as little ardour as tho' he reposed in the new world or in the Fat- East, instead of resting in his' beloved Dunedin, where sacred should ho his shrine. -' ' .''. '

"Why, citizens of Dunedin; why, fesidents of Otago; why, all ye Maofilanders, is Bracken forgotten ? Has the eoid earth and the'lapse of time -proved such a filtering agency that you no longer remember the cheery, all too geaprous Irishman who has passed over that bridge which lies between two' eternities? AciS Bracken's virtues no more to v be remembered? People of Dunedin, why do you honour your national poet Burns-? Be-'; cause he"" is to you and to me what he deservedly is: : a poet to the finest fibre- of his heart—generous, devoted, - and true,— . unfortunate. What wiiat love, what ardour in the outpourings of the soul. of that true son of Scotland, whofdrunk in at her brooks and mountain stiieams in the rough Highlands that natural spirit of song which was to be cultiystied to such an extent as to ring through th6.ages ! And yet, oh yet, Bracken is Apt remembered as Burns is in stone. No, he is discarded from your memories seemingly a 9 readily as the dust" from your shoes—You, who - drunk in his poetry as you would old and fa luscious wine. .

"We hear a great deal of the '.canny -• Soot,'and this was suggested to me as an explanation of the people's apparent forgetfulness of Bracken. I regret it with contempt. This jibe of meanness camo from a Wellington man. What is it then ? — A, ' laiseez faire,' surely. Too much of a ' trusting some more learned peri- wil l . take" the matter up ' policy, and thus the raafcter is left indefinitely shelved. " Surely Bracken, good, trusting, and true, never intended to be prophetic when g he sang: > "'Let hist'ry answer while' |ke blush of

shame Mantles her features as she turns aside

To weep for those who climbed the hill

of fame, Yet unrewarded by their country died." And yet wo are attending. to its fulfilin efnt. There /are men of less sterling worth wKb have claimed ; a nation's honour, whose clay mingles with the.dust of saints, resting in the shadow of the great Westminster, and poor Bracken, who drained the cup of bitterness to the very dregs, his life ebbing away in a poor cottage at the back of the Dunedin -trainsheds, gave up his soul in a poor lowly hospital Qot. Bracken had his faults, and who has not ? But give hini tho merest justice, be to his faults a little bHnd, and after all they were only what I him from being an angel—take his virtues as you find them, and how find you tha balance? I know the answer. ;

" People of Dunedin ! Bracken is yours. In your prosiest moods as you wander.' to Ocean Beach and St. Clair does it never strike you that these spots arc rendered sacred by Bracken's footsteps ? Irishmen I You who glory in the celebration of ; 98, you who rejoiced to see your fellow exiles in Australia spend £2OOO on a monument for Michael Dwyer (who to Englishmen' is a rebel of the deepest dye), why stand you by and see your beloved fellow-country-man, Bracken, unhonoured? I had almost said ' dishonoured,' when all acknowledge his worth and none there are who will not think well of you for your loyalty. People of New Zealand! Tom Bracken is your national poet—surely deserving of your highest honour. "If I appear tp write in scolding vein, pray forgivo me. Such is not my intention. I write *ex abundantia cordis,' and fellow Irishmen and. New Zealandors will understand me. To them I leave the issue, I myself, Unfortunately, can in no other way forward a movement to imtaorfcaiize Bracken. So a> s< on rout worthy ■/'urer.a on the . ; t> wax enthusiasi .'. and T know they will, f poor will I forward my mite—-a "cl: 1 • P.l 6s —to so worthy and s : £-oon object-' 5