Aucklanid’s Splendid Symbol of Gratitude

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 792, 12 October 1929, Page 19

Aucklanid’s Splendid Symbol of Gratitude

ALTHOUGH Euamano was a taniwha, he was essentially a genial creature. If he had been otherwise, he would not have carried Paikea, an ancestor of the East Coast Maoris, from the mid-Pacific to New Zealand. Whether it be a fall to obscurity or a gesture to the memory of the taniwha, Ruamano’s name is given to the threshold of the splendid native meeting house, Hotunui, sheltered now in the interior of Auckland’s War Memorial Museum. When influential Maoris, representing the tribes of the Auckland Province, attend the opening of the Museum on November 28, there may be a remembrance of Ruamauo even in the ceremony of opening the city’s memorial to her dead. For the day is at hand. Aucklanders will crowd to the slopes of Observatory Kill to witness a significant ceremony. A decade after the final clangour of the machine of war will come the dedication, in the hearts of Auckland citizens, of their symbol of commemoration. Mammoth walls and Corinthian columns. Strong architecture, brilliant and vivid on its eminence, but yet retaining an unusual delicacy of outline. Inside, a group of columns towering to a roof of stained glass. Quiet stairways. Perhaps the memorial will tell a story of greatest depth in the soldier s shrine. Its dark-hued stone is effectively set in the pale lighting and dignified architecture of a quiet alcove on the topmost floor. It is detached from, the ordinary world, this shrine; its atmosphere is an invitation to contemplation. The very extent of the building will testify to the community's knowledge of sacrifice. Soon, too, will come the completion of the Cenotaph and the Court of Honour, fitting adjuncts to the memorial scheme. Pecuniary* thought will be submerged, properly enough, in the personal homage

! of the Famous Men will be graven, not on stone, but in the hearts of men, will become a poignant recollection of the assembly, j Appropriately, the germ of the idea to incorporate Auckland’s Memorial in 1 the new nniseum" was nurtured in the years of war. When the Auckland Institute I and Museum celebrated its half-century jubilee in 1917, the late Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, who had been secretary* and curator since 1875, mentioned Observatory Hill [I as a site for a museum and a war memorial. The notion grew, and the foundation 5 stone of the War Memorial Museum was laid in August, 1925, by the Rt. Hon. J. G. jl Coates. i| Today, with the museum memorial nearly completed, it is good to note that the ?j spirit of the early beginnings of the Institute and Museum, which was founded in II 1367 by Mr. Justice Gillies, has not been overshadowed. Famous names are included 3 in the list of those who have given collections, or made bequests, to the City. One 11 reads of Sir George Grey, pf Sir John Logan Campbell, of Mr. J. T. Mackelvie, Mr. SI Edward Costley, the Hon. J. Williamson, Mr. E. A. Maekechnie, Sir William Herries, Si and Sir Edwin Mitchelson. In later y T ears, there has been in the interest of Sir ij| Arthur Myers, Sir James Parr, and Sir James Gunson. 5% In 1569, museum exhibits were lodged in the old Princes Street post office; in 1876, there was the first construction of the Princes Street museum, still clearly 3 remembered. * The Observatory Hill site is only a stone’s throw from the Domain Hill of 1!| Pukekawa, on which Tc Whero Whero* the Maori king, once built a village. Equally near is the pool which the first Aucklanders had as a water supply. 1 r D. C. S. TAYLOR.

of a community on November 28. Auckland knows the response made toward the approximate cost of a quarter of a million pounds/; it knows that years of involved detail work by interested organisations have bees merely the preparation for the ultimate, the public opening of the citizens’ own building. Details are trivialities in the splendour of the spirit. The expectation of the consummation of those years of energy ka*s kept the sentiment behind the memorial a thing of freshness. City dwellers ha ve como to accept the bold presence of the building looking across the city, but the accustomed sight has been steadfastly divided from the spirit of the work. The procedure at the opening will be a genuine tribute to the memory of our soldiers. In a single day—the link between long years of industry en«l the longer years in which the building will carry on its purpose serenely—the memorial will receive the true sanction of the people. The crowds caji be seen as they stand under the giant walls . . . The leaders of L civic administration, members of the Government, the clergy, the representatives of I the organisations intimately connected in planning and bringing to completion the 1 museum memorial, veterans of war-wracked years; notable Maoris to open, with 1 strange rites, the native sections; representatives of Melanesian ar % d Polynesian ■ peoples of the South Seas, officers of the military, and the people. 1 Here, at last, will be the crowning demonstration of a grateful people. Above the assembly will be the ever-fresh inscription, flung across the portals I of the memorial: “The whole earth is the sepulchre of famous men. They are commemorated, not only by columns and inscriptions in their own country, but in foreign lands . . The meaning of the final words, declaring that the memory