WAR MEMORIAL.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16856, 9 June 1920, Page 6

WAR MEMORIAL.

agreement in sight. A JOINT RECOMMENDATION. A. settlement of the war memorial controversy appears to be now in sight, for a joint conference of representatives oi the different committees decided yesterday to recommend that official recognition should be extended to the memorial column, adapted to meet the wishes of the soldiers, and the Bridge cf Remembrance. The Mavor presided at the conference and the wore:— Messrs A. F. Carey and N. B. McCallum (War Memorial Committee), G. Gould and R. 31. Macdonald (Column Committee), and J. W T . -*• Anderson and H. J. Ranger (Bridge of Remembrance Committee). The Mayor thanked tho delegates for their attendance, which, lie said-, indicated the snirit of conciliation. Personally he "favoured a cenotaph, although' lie thought some compromise might reasonably bo come to. He had three suggestions to make: —(1) That General Birdwood might be asked to arbitrate. . Voices—No. It s not fair to General Birdwood to ask him to settle a matter of this kind. The Mayor (continuing): 2. That we submit the different projects to a referendum. \ oices—lvo. The Mayor: (3) That tho column and the Hall of Memories be combined, and we carry out the two projects —a column with Hall of Memories or Bridge of Remembrance. The Mavor added that the only difficulty would be the question of site for tho column. If the City Council would not allow the column in the Square, it could bo placed in front of the proposed Town Hall site. Dr. Chilton said thero were insuperable difficulties in the way of taking a referendum. He had great hopes, however, that the Mayor's third suggestion might come about, for he under; stood the "soldiers were not committed to a Hall of Memories, but a hon-utili-tarian memorial, to bear the names of the dead soldiers. The Mayor suggested that_ a four column ba'so might be provided, on which the column could rest. Mr Gould said he never had any doubt but that some means could be adopted for perpetuating the names of fallen soldiers on the column, hut he doubted tho wisdom of adopting anything approaching a combined tram sholtor and memorial. Mr McCallum said that something in the nature of Mr Gb.uld's suggestion would be acceptable-to the soldiers. In reply to" Mr Gould, Mr McCallum said it was proposed to commemorate the names of all North Canterbury fallen soldiers —some 15C0 altogether. Mr Gould said that other districts in North Canterbury were erecting their own local memorials. ITe would like the memorial in Christchurch to be one for North Canterbury, but it was apparent that the support to bo got from the outside districts of North Canterbury would not be very great. Tho position was that Chriptchurch had to put hi it.c own memorial. Mr'McCallum said that until some agreement were rcached as to the form of memorial they were not likely to get much support. , Tho Mayor aslced Mr Gould if would agree to the new Town Hall site if the Council stood out in refusing Cathedral square. Mr Gc-uld said ho would only agjee to a site other than Cathedral square when he was absolutely forced, for ninetenths of those who had subscribed to the column strongly favoured the Square, and he would have to get their consent to a change of site. The vast bulk of public opinion was strongly in favour of the Cathedral square site. Personally, he would hold out as long as there "was any hope of getting the square site. He had not yet heard anybody raise any practical objection to the Square position. Thero was no question of want of room or of interference with traffic. Mr Carey urged that public opinion should bo ascertained by means of a plebescite. Mr Irwin said he had always been in favour of a referendum, but he was afraid the two schemes in operation had developed too far. The general opinion seemed to be that there should be two forms of memorial, one •at least to meet the wishes of the returned soldiers. The bridge could commemorate all those who fought, and the column all those who fell. If those two forms of memorial wefe officially recognised, they would have complete public support. The Mayor said his proposal was that the war memorial, as distinguished from the memorial to the fallen, should be the Town Hall. Mr Gnuld said it was imposiblo to make a Hall of Memories and a oolumn in one structure. Dr. Chilton said the idea of a hall was misleading. The soldiers, he believed, were not standing out for a hall in the ordinary sense. Sir McCallum safd the soldiers' idea was to have a chamber in the base whore the memorial tablets could be placed. Mr Ranger said the citizens had already adopted two schemes, the Bridge of Remembrance and the column. Datails could be left to the architects to settle. Mr Anderson: Is Mr Gould in favour of combining tho two? Mr Gould: I arn not in favour of pooling the two. I have nothing against the Bridge of Remembrance, provided you can get the money to build it, but I think it should stand on its own bottom as far as finance is concerned. My fear is that a very large sum of money is not available for this purpose. There is just a danger that in trying to push the. two schemes we may fail to do either properly, but I am pretty certain wo can raise £SCCO or £0000 for the column. To build a complete bridge would cost a much larger sum, but an arch would cost less. Tho Mayor said tho city had already approved ot a bridge at Cashel street to cost .£(>[>oo. That was an ordinary utility bridge. Mr' Carey said it would be breaking up tho whole conception if the different committees retained their individuality. The Mayor said the Gould Committee agreed to the cenotaph idea, which would combfne tho Column with the soldiers' scheme. Mr McCallum said the soldiers were not committed as to site, but certainly were as to design, and if two scheme's wore to be put forward, why should the Hall of Memories be cut out. The soldiers wanted something definite as to what was intended. The Mayor said an_ architect could formulate a design winch would satisfy all parties. Anderson said that manv we**e lidding back their subscriptions "for the reason that nothing definite was decided on. If tho conference decided on tho Column with modifications to suit ■ the returned soldiers, and the Bridge' of Remembrance, then he believed there j would be no difficulty in securing the mnney. ° 31r McCallum paid he would like to sec the proposed design before acrrecing to any proposal to combine the Column with the Hall of Memories. His idea was that there could bo a four pillared base with the column rising from tho base. Mr Anderson moved that the conference agree to adopt the Column and the Bridge of Remembrance, provided the former coincides with the wish of the soldiers. Mr Gould said it was contemplated thst the names of the fallen soldiers should be inscribed on the Column memorial. Mr Carey urged that if two schemes were adopted they should go before the public jointly. The should not work independent-y, but in conjunction.

Mr Ranger seconded Mr Anderson's motion. . After a little further discussion, Mr Gould moved: "That this meeting of representatives of local memorial projects recommends that tho memorial Column and Bridae cf Remembrance be each proceeded with, and receive official recognition by tho civic authorities. It is essential to this agreement that- the names of fallen soldiers shall be in- : scribed within or upon the base of the j Memorial Column." The motion was seconded by Mr Macdonald. and carried unanimously. The above resolution will come before the War Memorial Committee on Friday afternoon.