THE HONOURED DEAD.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11506, 12 February 1903, Page 4

THE HONOURED DEAD.

On just eudh a day aa yesterday more uian two yeara ago the late Mr Rollesfccm passed through t3» etreete of Christchurch. greeted along all the long rout* of the JuWee procession uy the cheers of old and young, of those who had known him in tie beginnings ©f Canterbury, and of their children to whom* if they knew him lees intimately, his nan» was yet a household -word. Yesterday the triumph of that day must have recurred to the mdnds of m»ny of those hundreds who witnessed or took part in the sad procession to the little churchyard by the river. so like the "God's acre" of many an English village. Yet that great gathering, representative of all classes and all interests in. the community of Canterbury, -was in iteelf no mean tribute to Mr Rolleeton'e worth, no elight evidence of the honoured place he &*M in the heart* of has fellow colonist*. 1% is impossible to think of a Canterbury in which his name Iβ forgotten. Of all our public men he is the one, we believe, whom services to tihe province and the oolony will be longest remembered here. One might say of him, in the words engraved on Sir Christopher Wren's tomb in St. Paul's—"Si " monument-urn requiris, ciroumspic*"—"lf "thou seakeet hia monument, look around." College, 'Museum, eohoola, publio reserves— <tU these are memorials of him who ha« just passed a way. But es time goes on there will grow up men and women to u-hom the name of Rolleston, will be but a name, unless ft ie connected in their minds with some visible token to tell of his servioee. It is with the object of ensuring that future generations shall pay him the honour so justly hie due, that we suggest the raieLng of some fitting memorial. It n«*d not be of a costly nature, adnce be himself wee one of the men most adverse to display of any kind. Of all passible memorials, we believe, none would, if he -were living, so meet Ida wishes a* the foundation of a •cbolarehip, or eoholarrfiips, at the High Schools or Canterbury College. Aβ our Dunedin contemporary eaid, in ite fine eulogium on IMr Rolleeton, he valued mental growth even more than material prosperity, and any scheme whdoh facilitated and encouraged the pursuit of learning would, we can be sure, have had hifl sincere approval. If to the Rolleston echolamhip were added! a tablet and buct h> College Hall, or some other suitable place, we Should have for a<ll time in our midist e> reminder of the man to whom the city, the province, and the colony as a I whole, owe so great & debt.