EMPIRE BUILDERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 416, 26 July 1928, Page 15

EMPIRE BUILDERS

MEMORY OF WAKEFIELD TO BE HONOURED SIR J. SINCLAIR’S MOTION { Specxal to TUB Sl/Kf In an eloquent speech in the legislative Council to-day. Sir John Sinclair moved "That In the opinion of this Council the question of the erection of suitable memorial to the mi mory of Edward Gibbon Wakefield and William Hayward Wakefield should bo taken into consideration by the Government.” The motion was carried unanimously. William Wakefield and his younger brother were sent out as agents of the New Zealand Company, t<» place settlers on the land, said Sir John, and they were recognised as Empire builders. Edward Gibbon Wakefield was associated with settlement in Canada and South Australia, and he was the reformer of the entire British colonial system, which resulted in the abandonment of the system of treating the colonies as mere feeders of the commerce of the Mother Country. Although he had advocated It 30 years ago. nothing had been done to honour the memory of these great men. Whatever form of memorial was decided upon. Sir John hoped that in addition a tablet would be placed in Parliament House to the memory of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, to whom they were especially indebted for responsible government.