WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 13 June 1933, Page 8

WELLINGTON TOPICS

FOUNDER OF CANTERBURY. WHOSE THE CREDIT? (Special to “Guardi)in.”l WELLINGTON, Jun'd ' 8. The capital city iir not' altogether disint'ei'esting ooncemitig the discussion that is goin'g on just iioaa' ; ih re-) gal’d to the accuracy of the inscription at I lie loot of the G'odley Statue which marks the centre and glory of ■Ghristcliurch and its • Cfethedfal. It seems that at a gathering of the 1 Can l2 ierbury Pilgrims and Early Settlers Association the Chairman had stated that “the city Council'.should he asked to' remove from the God ley Statue •the' watds ‘Founder of •jU.urii'r'oury’’ which wore not’ part of the original inscription’;’ in : 1867/’ At a meeting of the Association the other day'tho chairman' explained that lie liad made the remark in pakMiiig quite casually, and Six’ Arthur llohsoii supplemented the information bv saying the' scription had been enlarged by a previous mayor of soma twenty years before'. *V In vieAV of the fact that Air' God ley’s right to ho regarded as “Founder of Canterbury” appears to have been qiie<stiiohe'J at this distance rtf time it may he odnortune to retail the proceedings of 1862 in the Canterbury Provincial Council in memory of the great pibifaer. On the firbt bf October of that yoa'r the Siipbrintend'ent of 'tliis ' province; Air William Seffc6n Aloorbdu.se, in '(Aening the annual session of the Provincial Council' introduced" into his speech' the' follb'wiiig words, “It is hiy intention to 'request your approval of the erection of a pedestal'alVd ' stint ii'o commemorative of the services of the founder of the Canterbury settlement ’’ Four weeks later the Council with appropriate solemnity and devotion adooted a resolution which might have been a memorial to the greatest of men.

Air Gcdley and Air Edward Gibbon Wakefield have been quoted together as friends and pioneers. But t.hey v, ere different. “Air Godley, mb reover,- was the author of the particular design on which Canterbury was founded, and o.peeially of that distinguishing feature of the colony, which required that 'ample funds should he provided out of the proceeds of the land .sales for the re-. ligious, and educational wants of the', t community about ito be. established. ! Air Godley, too, was to be the workman of the whole. . '. Such a career is not granted to many in this life. Most men are hut the agents to carry cut tile schemes of others. . . It was given to Air Godley to design Canterbury and to be the, agoiit of bis own ■designs.” And this is the manner of a men third nil cl a fourth generation would divide { , . . From the 16th of December, 1850,- to the' Ist-of January 1852, when he sailed i for England, Air God]ey was, in all but I the name, the Governor of, the settlement which he had originated amil formed, “It was given to Air Godley to design Canterbury and to be the agent of his own design,” 'wrote one of" bis colleagues. “What he was amongst iis during the first two years of the settlement, some of us remember, pud most of us know hy tradition. Not with cofferg full, and facilities abundant, but in poverty of funds, amidst great difficulties; amidst the disappoint, went of many sanguine expectations, and the ili-conccaled hostility of Government which appeared vexed at , the additional trouble imposed. upo a it by the founding of a now colony within its jurisdiction, Air Godley guided the instant fortunes of Canterbury in the /full conviction, jof the results which would one da'y come.” And yet *n official suggests* that he should be gfyled,; not the founder ,of the city of i Christcurcli but “A Founder!”