NATIONAL MEMORIAL.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8361, 26 July 1920, Page 1

NATIONAL MEMORIAL.

COLUMN OF LIBERTY. GROVE OF POHUTUKAWA, “If New Zealand decides to build a Column of Liberty on Mount Victoria as a National Memorial of the Dominion’s soldiers, this monument will tower to a greater height than America’s Statue of Liberty, for the column would have a high hill as its pedestal,” writes Mr Stuart Wilson to “The Post.” “It would be hard to find in the whole- wide world a more commanding site for an enduring monument to valor. “As a fitting adjunct to that Column of Liberty with its dome of memories—the names of all New Zealand soldiers who died in the fight for liberty—l believe that the people of this country would like to see a great memorial grove of evergreen trees to perpetuate the names of all soldiers who went to the war. What more noble setting for the Column of Liberty could New Zealand have than a great grove of pohutukawa? In midsummer the long lines of these trees would flash a wealth of crimson beauty, and all the year round the foliage would be pleasant to see. “It is said by men who know well

the nature of tile pohutukawa that this tree will grow well and flourish on the slopes of Mount Victoria and the adjacent hills. It may not be practicable to have a tree for each soldier, but sections of the grove could be dedicated to platoons of each company of all regiments and to units of other arms. of the service. There could be a geographical order of the four military districts, beginning with Auckland.

“What a pride all New Zealanders—now and in the future —could have in such a column and such a grove. It is not hard to imagine that legacies of some of the rich would help to extend and improve that natural memorial as the years go on. Under such a column and in such a grove all parochial feeling can be well buried, and all New Zealanders could have a unity of national sentiment in the remembrance of the priceless sacrifice made by many thousands of the Dominion’s sons.

“I can imagine, too, that on t.Jhe sheltered side of that grove people will be pleased v to plant flowers—not in prim plots nor straight-edged borders, but in a natural wilderness, such as one sees by the hedgerows of older countries, and in the woods. As these flowers would be dedicated to the dead and also to other soldiers who survived the wounds and stress of war, even the vandal, who does not always respect the ordinary cemetery, would surely withhold his sacrelig-ious hand. Beauty is rather much fenced and hedged in New Zealand, which lags behind many countries in the open cult of flowers. Here is a great opportunity to bring in a new era of beautifying for this coun-