TOM BRACKEN’S GRAVE

New Zealand Tablet, 16 July 1914, Page 36

TOM BRACKEN’S GRAVE

A PRAISEWORTHY PROJECT. We are in receipt of the following circular, which speaks for itself, and with the object of which, we need hardly say, we are in hearty accord: Dunedin, June 30, 1914. Dear Sir,---May we venture to direct your attention to the accompanying extracts from recent issues of the h vening Star ? We feel strongly that steps ought to be promptly taken to remove the reproach referred to therein. To that»end we are asking the Journalistic, Parliamentary, and Fraternities that knew the genial author of “ Not Understood ” to help tis in our desire to put his grave into proper order, and make it a spot that 'will be visited by the many admirers of his writings. Our intention is, if a sufficient sum of money is forthcoming, to erect in the first instance a suitable headstone and railing; and thereafter purchase the debentures of some local body, bearing (say) 5 per cent. the interest derivable therefrom to be expended by the cemetery authorities, under the supervision of the Mayor and Town Clerk of Dunedin, in properly caring for the.grave in future. Hoping that our action will meet, with your sympathy and support. We have the honor to be.- Yours faithfully, Apex. Bathgate, Mornington ; Rev. Rutherford Waddkli., I).I)., The Manse, High street, Dunedin ; William Reid, Grand Sire, 1.0.0. F., Dunedin; T. Lindsay Buick, Press Gallery, House of Representatives, Wellington: Mark Cohen, Even inf/ Star, Office, Dunedin : S. G. Smith, Government Life Insurance Office, Dunedin : J. McPeak, Scoullar and Chisholm, Rattray street, Dunedin : By any one of whom donations will be thankfully received. ’ ' The extracts from the Evening Star are, in part, as follow : Where was Tom Bracken buried? Maybe there arc some who honored New Zealand's poet when he was alive, and yet could not now answer the question offhand. Is he forgotten? One would almost think so. A few days ago a visitor asked to see the place of interment, and after much debating as to whether it was in the Southern or the Northern Cemetery, and some turning up of yellowing documents, the grave was found in the Northern Cemetery. No stone marks the spot. The mound has fallen in. The surface is overrun with weeds. The facts are humiliating. Need we say more? From the Evening Star, June 23. A POET’S GRAVE. It would be with surprise, not untinged with indignation and some sense of civic shame, that the people of Dunedin —those, at least, who care for the things of mind and sentimentread the paragraph in Tuesday’s Star describing the neglected state of Thomas Bracken’s grave in the Northern Cemtery. . . . It is humiliating that a visitor to the city should ask for the whereabouts of a grave which ought to be a cherished spot, and (after much difficulty in the matter of location) should be conducted to a place wearing all the signs of utter neglect. . . . Our present aim is practical. There has been a fault, and each member of Hie community m° v suitably take to himself and herself a little share of the blame. Reparation (in a double sensei should be made at once, and we should like to see the citizen-poet’s grave converted into a scene of quiet beauty by means of the pence of a large number of people rather than by the pounds of a few. New Zealand, as time goes on, will doubtless produce greater singers, but Tom Bracken will retain a distinct and honorable place in the early literary history of the Dominion; and Dunedin, the city which he loved so well and celebrated so finely iii his verse, will surely not be so ungrateful as to allow his name to become unfamiliar in her homes. He sang of £ Dunedin from the Bav.’ and his grave overlooks the bay. as he would have wished : a grave which, we hope and believe, will

never again bo forgotten or neglected, and to which the inquiring pilgrim will always be conducted with ready ease, as to an honored and familiar haunt.—• Evening Star, June 27.