Taranaki Herald. (DAILY EVENING.) SATURDAY, JULY, 15, 1911. “LIVES OF GREAT MEN.”

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 143550, 15 July 1911, Page 2

Taranaki Herald. (DAILY EVENING.) SATURDAY, JULY, 15, 1911. “LIVES OF GREAT MEN.”

A London cable tells us to-day that a committee lias been organised by Sir Frederick Young to erect a memorial to Edward Gibbon Wakefield at Wellington, where he died and was buried in 1862, nearly fifty years ago, but whose grave was some time ago found to be in a very neglected state. It ought not to be necessary to remind our readers that Gibbon 'Wakefield was the principal founder of the New Zealand Comapuy, for the purpose of colonising this, at that time (1839) almost unknown, country. It was his brother, Colonel Wakefield, who was sent out by the company to acquire land from the Maoris. He himself did not come out until 1852, but it was through his action forcing the hands of the British Government that measures were taken in 1839 to. establish British authority in New Zealand, and that Captain Hobson was appointed as Lieutenant-Governor. It is not our purpose, however, to discuss the somewhat debatable subject of Mr. Wakefield's action, but rather to use the present incident as a text for remark upon a regrettable characteristic of the present generation of colonials—a lack of veneration and even respect for the memories of the great men who have passed away after devoting their talents and energies to the service of their country and their fellows. There are many besides 'Wakefield whose names should be kept green 'in the hearts and memories of New Zealanders, men who did yeoman service in the earlier days of ,the colony in helping to lay the foundations of our present liberties, and prosperity. Yet how few of them are remembered except by their intimates, how few whose names even are familiar to the average young New Zealander! Seddon they remember, Bnllance they have heard of, Ward they know, but of the giants of the past they have no knowledge, or of what t hey owe to them. We very much fear that this want of appreciation of the services of those who have “gone before’! is a characteristic of a democratic age and community, and of a utilitarian spirit. The politician who provides the country with.a railway, a road, or a post office occupies a much larger place in the regard of the people than the statesmen who made it possible for those following them to build up these requirements of modern civilisation. The young men who volunteered for service in South Africa ten or eleven years ago are, we fear, greater heroes in the eyes of the younger generation than the men who fought the Maoris fifty years ago in defence of the land we are now occupying. And, worse still, among many of them the youth who scores the winning points in a rep. football match-is the greatest hero of them all. It is regrettable, but how is it to be changed? Not, perhaps, by the erection of monuments in public places, for what does the average young New Zealander think or

care about monuments ? He knows, and wants to know, little of the past. Who is it that reads with interest the narrative of “Fifty Years Ago” that has been appearing in our columns for the past year or two ? Not the young people—-at least only a few of them—but their elders who have taken part in those stirring days. When Longfellow wrote the Psalm of Life:

Lives of great men all remind us We may make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time, he sang to a different audience than the young colonials of today. The lives of great men make no such appeal to the latter, more is the pity. Yet we may take comfort in the thought that perhaps a time may come when there will be a reaction, when the monuments erected to.the memory of the giants of the past will be understood and honoured.