Untitled

Hokitika Guardian, 12 June 1925, Page 2

A-N :i|>po;iI is being 111a<i«• for funds fur ;i memorial to the hi to Prime Alinister, tlio lit. linn. \V. T. M.: ■ •*•.*.. P.C. \ i-i v ]rn] Orly i: i. living made a nniiunal appeal so tii at all alio desire will have tlio opportunity of contributing. When tlio stntcMuau passed away last month, many iiohle tributes "ere t ie,lit ly paid to 11is nteiiiory. Hut the sound of the speech soon passes away. Arrested for the moment, the memory retains but. little of the average speech. Air .Massey was buried in a prominent point jutting out into Wellington harbor. It is consjlieuous in itself, but to mark it- as the repository for the remains of the lute Prime Alinister. it must needs he defined by some arresting memorial. Day by day many hundreds of people "ill pass Point Halswell in the numerous craft entering and leaving port, and it is but fitting to have the point ornamented to girt* it a more attractive appearance, but that is a task which the country might well see to. For tlic present tile public are invited to subscribe towards the cost- of a monument. to mark the last resting place, and to commemorate by statue or other memorial in Parliamentary grounds his name and public service. The. nature of the memorial is not described, but no doubt something worthy and sufficiently striking, yet m keeping with the subject, is sure to be

designed. The proposal for a statue in Parliamentary grounds is in keeping with the fitness of things. Both matters will take- some time to bring to

pass, for art does not materialise rapidly. It evolves slowly and the best art must- be secured for the purpose in illinil. But tlio eollertion of funds can well he pushed on, and it is to Iho credit of Westland that- this is one of the first districts in the Dominion to take up the matter in a practical way. .Mr .Massey was not unknown to the people personally. lie was exceed-

ingly well known politically, and higreatness has been extolled by every public body in the district. Those remarks were' not empty phrases, am: may now ho translated into a tangiT expression of t lie peoples' goodw ill which will result in a very worthy memorial being reared to the memory of a man who did great service for New Zealand ami the Empire, ami w.h was from first to last a thorough going New Zealander who dearly loved the land of his adoption.