A FORGOTTEN MEMORIAL

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4904, 18 November 1925, Page 3

A FORGOTTEN MEMORIAL

FOUNTAIN TO MB. Si PABNELL. Even the adherents of local, labour unions seem to have entirely forgotten a m.an they once delighted to honour—Samuel Duncan Parnell, the founder (in New Zealand) of the eight-hours movement. At his death a memorial was raised, in 1893, in the form of a drinking fountain, incorporated in the facade of the Wellington Free Public Library, on the eastern side of the main entrance. This consists of an ornamental, carved granite basin, surmounted by a marble slap, in which is inserted a bronze impression, in high relief, of the face of the founder of the eighthour,s movement. But long ago thijs fountain ceased to function. Someone in authority caused the water tap to be plugged' off and the basin to be filled with concrete. Wellington is very short of public water fountains. All over Sydney and ■Melbourne, in the streets, parks, and reserves, there are public fountains which ‘are used, freely by all classes of the community, simply because with this sort of fountain one’s lips do not come in contact with anything save the water. It is suggested to the authorities that this ancient memorial might be cleaned up a little • and converted .into a modern bubble fountain.