THE WAR MEMORIAL

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 117, 15 February 1928, Page 12

THE WAR MEMORIAL

SUGGESTED SITE AT BASIN RESERVE OPPOSITION EXPRESSED Mr. W. S. Wilson, an executive member of the Wellington Citizens’ Memor'ial Committee, and also of the Carillon Society, in an interview with a Dominion representative, expressed his strong dissent from the suggestion of Mr. S. Hurst Seager, in a report submitted to the Government, to place the memorial to the Wellington soldiers who gave their lives in the' Great War on a site at the south end of Kent and Cambridge Terraces, overlooking the Basin Reserve.

“Including the carillon,” stated Mr. Wilson, “we have been organising the raising of necessary funds for the past five years. . The proposal from a townplanning point of view was to redesign the Mount Cook and Te Aro Flat area, with a view to placing the campanile for the carillon of bells, the Art Gallery, and the Dominion Museum on the Mount Cook site, and good work has, therefore, been done in the way of educating the citizens by again bringing the question up. At the same time Air. Seager’s contention that the Wellington symbolical memorial to the valour and heroism of the soldiers from this city and district, should be removed to the newly suggested site near the Basin Reserve, will not bear investigation. I claim that it should be dismissed from the public mind.” Air. Wilson told the reporter that the Kent and Cambridge Terraces site had been discussed by the Memorial Committee Jong before Air. Seager had reported on the question, and the suggestion had been turned down almost unanimously. One of the main reasons why that site was considered quite unsuitable was that the present roadways constituting the two terraces must eventually be taken through, under, or over, the Basin Reserve. Modern motor traffic required a straight road wherever possible. The present winding roadway aiound the Basin Reserve was uneconomic and extremely tiresome.

“The people of Wellington have been very patient,” said Mr. Wilson, “but I venture to predict that when the Wellington Show Buildings are erected in John Street in about six months’ time, where national shows of various kinds, and great functions involving the assembling of thousands of people, will be held, the citizens will not very much longer tolerate the present tedious method of reaching that portion of the city. The reasons advanced by Mr. Seager, that there are several public institutions, including colleges, established in the vicinity of the Basin Reserve, is no argument, in my opinion, why the symbolical war memorial should be erected in that, part of the city. Mr. Seager must be aware that in London, New York, Paris, and Berlin, redesigning is taking place in every direction, and public buildings, and memorals, are not all located in- the one area. Mount Cook will have its own separate institutions, including the carillon of bells, museum, and art gallery; they will be quite sufficient to occupy that site to advantage.” Mr. Wilson declared emphatically that the site given by the Government for the soldiers’ memorial on Lambton Quay was quite suitable in every way for the purpose, and was so recognised by the architects -who judged the designs, that Mr. Seager was drawing on his imagination in enumerating the disadvantages of the site. Mention was made of the fact that Thorndon Quay was the main access to the city, that the railway station and ferry wharves were situated at the northern end of the city, and that thousands of people—visitors ’to the city—approached the city daily from that esid-