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Hokitika Guardian, 13 June 1922, Page 2

> The appeal made .yesterday liy the Chairman of the School Committee for i additional funds to complete the war memorial is not likely to go unheeded. At the same time a public reminder is not out of place for there is a duty in the matter. It is very fitting that the public schools should have their 1 | memorials of the war, with the names inscribed thereon of the boys and girls Irom the school, who did not fail in their doty w’en the call of country was the uppermost thought in the minds of the nation. The local school'has a very line record for service in the Great War the part of former pupils and many oi them, alas paid the great price. The tradition left behind by that great ser-vi'-e, is a heritage for the school and •’ll associated with it. We are apt to lorget what the winning of the war meant in the matter of national fretdom. and the freedom could not have been retained if there bad not lioon the great outpouring of men which the diro necessities of the occasion demanded. There was an insistent call for more men. The progress of the war up to a crucial point was very much against the Allied forces. Time and again there were heavy losses by the Allies and great territorial gains by the enemy. The invaders at times looked like over running France and cutting off the British from their sen base. The call for more men was nobly answered by this young country in the Antipodes, land in that service the lads hailing from this province were well represented. The great service performed needs perpetuating in stone and marble, so that all who come after may know or those who served that freedom wns made secure. The School Memorial is to stand in the school grounds where the rising generations will recall day. by day what those who went before them dM for their Tfipa find eownfi?

: In 1020 Auckland celebrated its eightieth birthday, and Mr John Barr, ! chief librarian of the city was commis--1 sion to write the history of the former 1 ennitnl. This he lias done in a volume : which contains much interesting inhumation, both about Auckland and about the early settlement of the North Is--1 land. Tlie Maoris had long recognised I the strategic importance of the Ai’ck- , land Isthmus, which provided them ! with a natural line of defence. But , the colonists did not at first appreciate its numerous advantages. The Bay of Islands was originally the de facto capi. I tab There the Lieutenant-Governor I had his quarters, and there most of | the missionaries and traders had made 1 their homes. But for various reasons. Captain William Hobson, R.N., thought | that the Bay of Islands was unsuitable i and soon alter his arrival ho began to i look about for a better site. The claims ;of several localities were considered. [ and after a personal tour of investigation Hobson determined upon the south shore of the Waitemata. His choice was influenced by the central position of the place “by the groai facility of internal water communication to the northward and the south,” by the safety of its port and the proximity of several smaller ports abounding in the most valuable timlier and by tbe fr - tility of tbe soil. He named tbe place Auckland after Lord Auckland, wh.i. as a member of the Admiralty, had befriended Hobson on various occasions. Hobson’s choice was strenuously opposed in certain quarters, particularly by tbe New Zealand Company, which wished the shat of govonnent to be in Wellington. A c ontroversy between Governor and company continued till 1812 when Hobson’s action loeeived the formal approval of the Queen and the company realised that the battle was lost. Meanwhile. Auckland had been

officially founded with nil tile pomp and circumstance of the command of the authorities. A Mao was flown and a succession of salutes fired. A feature of the proceedings was a regatta, in which Maori crews took part. Since that day Auckland has made steady progress, if her history contains downs as well as ups, the ups have predominated. When the city wa s 40 years old it experienced a remarkable boom. In five years the population doubled itself. This was followed by a temporary reaction, but matters sOon righted themselves, and since then Auckland has never looked bask. Mr Harr describes the city’s development in detail, and his task has clearly been a labour of love. The reader may wonder why he has refrained from quoting Kipling’s well-known quatrain in celebration of Auckland’s chnriuß, but no doubt to the good people of the city it is a hackneyed tribute