A VISION OF FAIRYLAND

Otago Witness, Issue 3808, 8 March 1927, Page 61

A VISION OF FAIRYLAND

A GIFT TO THE CHILDREN OF OAMARU. .

(See Illustrated Pages in This Issue.) Pixies and fairies and fauns, rabbits and squirrels and mice, cooing doves, pert frogs and a wise-eyed owl—who wouldn't love to find them clustered all together some happy day? Surely everybody I And so thought a famous sculptor when, passing through Fairyland on one occasion, he noticed two mortal children standing spellbound on the top of a rock, while they gazed at the marvellous beings who were grouped around it. So beautiful was the picture presented that he carved it into bronze while it was still fresh in his mind, so that it might be purchased by somebody who loved young people well enough to want to have it set in some public place where boys and girls could see and delight in it all the year round. The sculptor was Mr Thomas J. Clapperton, R. 8.5., of St. John’s Wood, London ; the generous man with the big heart and the fondness for children was Mr Robert Milligan, a prominent citizen and ex-Mayor of Oamaru; and the public place chosen to receive the piece of statuary was the Oamaru Municipal Gardens. Yesterday morning when t-he young people of Oamaru woke up, there in the heart of the gardens they found it. And one can imagine their rapture and joy as they looked on the exquisite thing! Mr Milligan, during a recent visit io London, saw-the Peter Pan group in Kensington Gardens, and, realising that New Zealand children have few opportunities of seeing such works of art, commissioned Mr Clapperton to make a similar group in bronze, which he dedicated to his own town. As a result the Oamaru Municipal Gardens, already beautiful, possess a piece of statuary which is not only a sheer delight and inspiration especially to young people, but also a rare, artistic acquisition, standing unique among the art treasures of New Zealand. It will endure and give pleasure for all time. - It shows a dreamy, enraptured little girl and an eager, excited boy standing upon a piece of rock, round which are gathered all manners of fairy people and wild animals. The beauty of sculpture is exquisite, and the loveliest mood of elemental Nature —mischievous, inquisitive, charming, and friendly—is represented in the carven bronze. All the grouping is different, and the fresh sights to be gained from moving round the pedestal (which stands 81ft high upon a piece of natural rockwork rising 2Aft above ground level) will give ever-recurring delight. Oamaru, and incidentally New Zealand, is indeed fortunate to possess such a work of art. Mr Clappcrton, whose modelling of the fine symbolical group consisting of a New Zealand soldier protecting a Belgian child, forms an important part of the North Otago War Memorial, has executed many important architectural and memorial works at Home, including sculpture for Cardiff City Hall, the National Museum of Wales, and a number of war memorials throughout the country. The present work proves his able capacity for dealing with subjects of a lighter and more fanciful nature.