THE SOLDIERS’ MEMORIAL.

Southland Times, Issue 17867, 18 January 1918, Page 4

THE SOLDIERS’ MEMORIAL.

More than once in this place we have pointed out objections that appeared to us to be fatal to the project initiated by the Mayor of Bluff for the erection of an hospital wing as a memorial to Southland soldiers who have fallen in the war. The first objection is that the proposal is untimely. Any attempt, to decide upon a memorial at the present time would he premature. Tie proper time will come only when the war is over. The next objection is that an hospital wing, or even a complete new hospital, is not a suitable memorial because it is not permanent. There is one necessary condition in a memorial to those who have laid down their lives in this war, or will make, the supreme sacrifice before the end conies —it must be permanent. It must stand for a hundred years hence as it was erected. it may be ugly or beautiful, useful or merely ornament al. but it must stand unchanged. The monument to the soldiers who fell in the South African War at the intersection of Dec and Tay streets is a better war memorial than an hospital ward because it is permanent. We already have a memorial wing at the hospital, the wing which commemorates the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria’s accession to the Throne. It is only 20 years old, very little older than the soldiers’ monument, but it is already obsolescent and it will inevitably lie pulled down and will disappear. It will be a memorial for only a few more years. Just as inevitably any hospital structure built as a memorial of the Great War will vanish with time, perhaps in 20 years, perhaps in 00. A memorial of that sort is useless. F'urthermore many people have a perfectly reasonable objection to subscribing for a necessary work that ought to be provided for out of taxes, simply because it is given the name of a memorial, more especially as their subscriptions would bo subsidised from the general revenue of the dominion, drawn from all the taxpayers, and the memorial would not be exclusively a Southland me.morial. The proposal is also open to the objection that the people of Southland, who are expected to provide the money, have not been consulted. We do not, hesitate to sny that for £IOOO a monument could be erected in granite and marble that, would be one hundred times a better war memorial than an hospital costing £IO,OOO or even £20,000. Among the public nobody has paid very much attention to this movement because nobody has expected it to come to anything

—nor will it come to anything, as the promoters will find when they begin to canvass for subscriptions. The member of the Town Council who said at last night’s meeting that 7fi per cent, of the public are opposed to the project was quite right. It could not be otherwise. It has been decided to call a public meeting to discuss the matter, and we shall be very much surprised if the decision of the meeting is not to postpone the memorial question till after the

war. The intention of the Mayor of Bluff was most laudable, but the proposal came inopportunely, and it was framed on wrong lines. The, Southland War Memorial must be a genuine war memorial, worthy of the men who will have fallen when the last shot has been fired, and the people of the district will not consent to have this great duty and opportunity misused to secure the erection of what is really not a war memorial id all but a public utility, the life of which is limited to a short span of years.