A BRACKEN MEMORIAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3018, 17 January 1912, Page 4

A BRACKEN MEMORIAL.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —It would ho strange if I did not feel a certain amount of pride at the reception accorded my recent letter on the above subject, but such feelings do not so much arise from the consciousness that I have done a laudable work as from the keen appreciation of tho love and veneration which the people of Dunedin entertain for their national poet. It has been brought homo to me more than over that our language, so addicted to change, has made an odious and unwarranted alteration in the expression " ilanny Soot," giving us in its stead the present rendering "canny Scot." The sooner the former expression is reinstated the nearer will we appreciate the chief trait of the Scottish character (and for matter of that the Celtic) —devotedness, a'sterling genuineness and sincerity, love for the great and enoblinjr principle of Christian . morality " Love.one another." In the most forcible, manner they have indicated that their love for Bracken, who is now numbered of the illustrious dead, has not diminished one jot j that, while they have no reason for vain regrets, they feel towards him much as ,Carlvlo felt when he prayed with all the terrible earnestness, so characteristic ci him, that he might be vouohsafed but five minutes to express adequately his true feelings towards her whom he loved deeper than-he knew, the expression of which had been rendered impossible by the Angel of Death.

Several correspondent-* have shown their sympathy with the project through your columns, and almost as many dozen havo personally communicated with me. Great things can be done with a people who possess such great heartedne-s. The task of moving such ones is indeed a light one, for there are chords there, tuned in the school of sympathy and sorrow, on which on© is almost invited to play. Nothing, on the contrary, can be done with those who have souls so dead that they have never turned to God's Own Country, the Pearl of the Pacific, to say "This is my own my native land, honour be hers, and honour bo to those bravo sons of hers who have made us what we are;"—and who shall say with absolute certainty to whom the greatest honour is duo: the poet, the statesman, ">r the warrior? For my part I have a moral certainty that in the poet is tlo be found Browning's high-sou led man "who moves the masses e'en to a cleaner stye." Bracken revelled in poetry. He knew its moral influence in a community; he thanked God that in God's own country tho degrading materialism which had overshadowed the older countries had not made its presence sensibly felt, and that no one could point the finder of scorn at New Zealand as he could at the older countries and say. What care they for tho tender bud That nestles on tho bosom of tho flower? What care they for the man who strives for good? What oaro they fo r tlio temple and the tower?" The concluding words of this poem of Bracken's suit my purpose singularly well. Witfh him - 1 say to the people of Duncdin: Oh let us join together hand in hand And learn a lesson from the old world's school. ,'t us show the people of the Old World that tho' " East be east, and west be west" the twain shall meet; that all hands -will join over Bracken's jrrave. and there will liov'inglv erect something akin to the " temple and tho tower" whioh will for ever be the object of their veneration. My idea is that the proposal should assume a national character. We must discourage the least snmbkmee of that provincial] in which is a discredit to civilisation, and which happily is not much in evidence here.

Bracken was an Irishman, but narrowmindedness never entorcd that great heart •of Now Zealand's bard. He loved all c!assefi and creeds. Moreover, be. Joved equally with Dr Stuart, and these were Bracken's ideal gentlemen,—differing widelv in nationality and creed, but one in their endeavours with Bracken to play an honourable part in the divino work of saving human society. With Cowper ho venerated the man " whose hands are pure, whose doctrine and whose life coincident, exhibit lucid proof that ho is honest in the sacred cause."

]f the kind friends who havo assured mo of thoir whole-souled desire to bring:'the work to a happy fruition remain steadfast—'be friends and pet friends —success is assured-. We must make ha.s'o slowly in the meantime, iwe must await a "reply from the civic authorities to the following l letter which I haw despatched to his Worship tiio Mayor of Dunedin :

At the i&ameat requ-est of .some 20 of your leading citizens I beg respectfully to bring under notice a matter of which you have no doubt been already acquainted through the local morning daily, and which, I am sure, has claimed your attention and sympathy—l speak of the proposed Bracken memorial. It, is not for me to expatiate hero on the fittingness of any appropriate memorial being erected to the memory of Bracken. This is already well known to you. I have merely to make the earnest request that you, as our first citizen, will co-operate with oth"r '"lmii-Crs of Tira-e----ken to enable some definite steps to be taken in the direction indicator]. The best thing, no doubt, is to convene a meeting of citizens to consider the proposal, and this I earnestly request you to do. I shall lie glad to hear from you on the subject, if necessary, at such time as may be convenient to you. —I am, etc., PATRICK F. X. TU'an.