NAPIER'S BOER WAR MEMORIAL

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 41, 4 March 1937, Page 14

NAPIER'S BOER WAR MEMORIAL

Replacement of Missing Statue EARLY ACTI0N LIKELY ) Further developnients in the matter I of placing a new figure on the South ! African War Memorial on the Marino Parade, Napier, are expected^ shortly, and it is anticipated that within a few months the statue of a New Zealand soldier will take the place of that which has disappeared since the 1931 earthJ quake. An indication that the matte( * would be taken up once more by th Napier Borough Council in^ the neas future was given tMs morning by the Town Clerk, Mr. F, B. Watters. „ Prior to the earthquake, tbe memorial was surmounted by the figur^ of a soldier in ijaif orm, but the fir\ t shock caused the figure to tojs^le and crash to the ground. In the ."Hll it was broken in several places, and Bj was removed to the council yards in Faraday street. However, the head and portion of one arm disappeare^ and have not since been seea by any ^ one in authority. Comments on the appearance of thd memorial as it stands to-day have often been made by citizens, one of them ro-' marlcing that the sight of territoriala and cadets in the Anzac Day paradea gravely -saluting the memorial waa pathetic, and one which Tefleeted npon the memories of the soldiers of the dia* trict who saw service in Sonth Africaj The prominent positiOn that thd memorial occupies on the paracie, overJ _ looking the beautiful gardens that havd since been laid down, makes the dilapi dated condition of the monument eveul more apparent. "That lion is what gets ipe," said al man who expressed himself strongly on the neglect of the monument. "J don't know whether it is because h£ has lost his companion, bnt a mo^ pathetic and apathetic-looking chaiW acterisation of a beast that is usualfy associated with snarling action, I have not ^een. It would be better if z# were removed altogether." When the subject came nnder dia* cnssion last year, a suggestion wa£ made that a statue of the late Mr. Wtr Hardham, the first New Zealander te gain the Victoria Cross, should be placed upon the memorial. TMs man, who died some years ago, gained hirf V.C. in the South African War, ariij %. subsequently served in the Great War, •