WAR MEMORIALS.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 June 1925, Page 4

WAR MEMORIALS.

(With profound acknowledgement to “Punch”) Wherever 1 go 1 always visit the War Memorial. I hive to see the Names shine. r ! hey do shine with a salt stni'rv glow—it you look lor it. H„t not everybody remembers to look for it. In one Midland town the Memorial is in the shape of a small temple, roofed in; and a seat runs all round the interior with the names above it. As 1 read them two men came in It was raining, and seemed thev came for shelter only, lor they did not raise their eyes or. incidelitallv. their nice new Hamburg hats.

They looked prosperous, ''rearing lordly watch chains across eonp’ortahle stomachs, and they sat on the- seat and smoked.

“Xow 1 call this a useful sort of thing t i put up,” snAl one. “E, it is.” said the other. “I’m all for something useful myselt.’’ He .struck his pipe against the solo of hi, hoof and the ashes fell out in a 111 tic heap on the Hour. But the Names still shone. In another town the Memorial is .just a rather clumsily designed block ol stone with the Names on the sides; and while 1 read two women passed, furred and feathered and expensive tilings. They 'dance I at the Memorial. “Perl.-. liv hideous, isn't it .'" said OIK*. “What can you expect?” asked tinother lightly. “No one can < all us an artistic race.’’ They laughed a little together as they went. But the Names still shone. In one small village the Memorial is just an oak-framed picture hanging on a stone wall in the village street. A picture of our St. George with a scroll in his hand. On the scroll are the Names. While I read a Ixiy and girl passed, swaggering proudly arm in arm. She looked at me sideways front under her ania/.iii'Z hat and the picture caught her -eye. “They say there’s goin' ter he another war fore we know where wt, are.” she said. “Well, if ther’ is. I ain't goin’ for one.” answered the hoy. lie spat noisily into the dust, beneath the picture and they went their way. But the Names still shone. And in another tillage the Memorial i, a slender cross upon the village green, with lie- Name.- at the foot. 1 was there unite late in the day when the folk pass home from work. They passed in the road below one after the other or in twos and threes; hut no head was heal, no tint raised to the Cross.

And then a woman came. One of these ipieer-,shaped, bonneted rustyblnek figures familiar to our villages. She was bent with years of toil, and walked hardly in her broken limits. Something held me a little breathless as I watched her conic. .Somehow f knew that the ( res, was her goal. Before it she stood, bonnet and all, momentarily erect, and saluted as a soldier salutes. Perhaps she had been the mother ol soldiers.

Presently she went, hack the way she had collie. And the stars came mil. and shone upon the shining Names.

Apropos tlm foregoing, those who visit Cass Square in the late afternoon the,e bright days when the sun is sinking in the West, will see a notable sight as they gaze at the Cenotaph which adorns our Square. When the still dipis behind the pavilion, it shines through the window at the baek. and the reflected ligbL falls in a remarkable way mi the Stone of Remembrance within the Cenotaph. The lettered Names shine out with a brilliant bronze hlaz.e of lustrous light. It is remarkable and arresting. Truly do the Names shine forth before all men. Nature makes our striking war memorial more remarkable still by this daily visitation of Old Sol.