MINERS OF WREXHAM

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1935, Page 17 (Supplement)

MINERS OF WREXHAM

HEARTS OF GOLD AND RADIUM. The Welsh town of Wrexham, which has passed through u tragic chapter of history of late, lias a hospital of a hundred beds, built and opened free of debt a few years ago at the cost of £lOO,OOO. Of this amount £30,000 was collected by the miners, who put a voluntary levy of 2d a week on themselves. They Were anxious, not only that the hospital should be opened free, but that it should remain so always. A short time ago the need of radium treatment was felt, but it was considered useless to try it unless a stock worth £i!000 could be bought at once. The committee decided to drop the matter, as there was no money available. No sooner was the decision made known than six miners sought out the treasurer at his house and told him how sorry they were to hear of the decision, Radium treatment, they said, was necessary for the peculiar diseases miners are liable to, and they declared that they would find the money. The -next morning the treasurer rang up the chairman of the hospital and said, “You can draw your cheque for for the radium whenever you like.” On the chairman replying that there was not a penny in the bank, the treasurer, who happened to be the bank manager as well, quietly replied, “Never mind that, draw your cheque; I know my men here, and we shall get the money.”

The treasurer went away on his. Holiday without any fears about this overdraft of £2OOO which he had authorised, and on his return he found - that not only had the six. miners .raised the £2OOO, but they had £3OO to spare.. “They are men of their word,” 'he said; “good as gold- If the general public only knew what wonderful stuff these men are made of they would never let them suffer in any way.” ’ “JOY” OF PICCADILLY THE MAN WHO MADE ITEXILE WHO CAME HOME. Sir Alfred Gilbert, the sculptor of one of the most famous and certainly the most joyous works of art in the streets of London, has died at 80, He was the greatest decorative sculptor of, our time, an English Benvenuto Cellini, but his intense enthusiasm for his craft involved him in money troubles and angry scenes with waiting clients, for he was a hard master for his own

hands to satisfy, and many a plaster model would he break up after weeks spent on it, so keen was he to achieve perfection. It is said that Eros alone cost him £7OOO, chiefly through a miscalculation, and he only received between £3OOO and £4OOO of it. He conceived this statue for Lord Shaftesbury’s memorial fountain as the spirit of joyousness, and as such it ' stands, a fairy boy daintily poised on one toe, aiming his arrow at all the toils and trot-} les of the millions who pass through Piccadilly Circus. Gilbert has' called it “both my crown of thorns and my crowning glory/’ Such was the public controversy over -this statue in 1909 that the embittered sculptor went into exile at Bruges intending never to return to England. ■ ■ - He left unfinished the memorial King Edward had commissioned of his eldest son, the Duke of Clarence; but when King George, in 1926, asked him to return and finish it he did. He had left London under 50 and was now ovep7o, and he returned to find that air bitterness was gone. He was acclaimed on every side; he resumed his membership of the Royal Academy; and he was knighted the day after the unveiling of the last statue he made for London, the bronze group of Faith, Hope, and Charity Which stands by the garden wall of Marlborough House in memory of Queen Alexandra. To this wayward genius we owe many lovely statues, several private memorials, and masterpieces of art other than sculpture, for, like the craftsmen of the Italian Renaissance, he could create in ( other mediums. In his Clarence Memorial at Windsor (to finish which he returned from his self-imposed exile) enamel, gold, silver, and jewels appear, in perfection, and he made pieces of plate for the royal household, jmd ornaments finished with the exquisite touch of a master jeweller.

GEM OF THE WORLD PROGRESS ASSAILS VENICE. - The worst fears of those who watched with apprehension the appearance of motor-boats *in the canals of Venice have been realised. The foundations of many buildings were found to be suffering and a committee of architects was set up to report. They find that drastic remedies are needed to save many of the beautiful buildings from collapse. Venice is built on piles, and these naturally suffer from the heavy wash set up by hundreds of motor-boats. To renew the piles of a Venetian place is a costly matter, and something hke £1,000,090 is needed to repair the' damage already done. It will be interesting to see if the picturesque gondolas will' be restored. Venice is a gem in which we all have a special concern.