Tangiwai remembered

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 291, 20 June 1989, Page 1

Tangiwai remembered

Passing travellers will at last easily find the site of the Tangiwai Rail Disaster, after a permanent monument was unveiled there on Sunday.

Until recently the site of the "silent tragedy", as one survivor described it, has been marked with just a dilapidated wooden cross. Thanks to the efforts of Radio New Zealand, Lions and Lioness Clubs, the Monumental Masons Association, Timberlands Ltd and Railways the memorial, a granite monument taller than a man and placed on a concrete and boulder pedestal

within a carpark, is now in place. Sunday's unveiling wai attended by about 700 p'eople including many survivors as well as relatives of many of the 151 people that died. The service was conducted by Father Neal Wilson of Waiouru and messages and readings were heard from Mr Michael Kennedy of Karioi, Mrs Delia Holman, King Country MP Jim Bolger, Brigadier Brett Bestic,

the Governor General Sir Paul Reeves, Mr John Parker, The Reverend Tom Hawira, Dr Fraser McDonald, and the first wreath was laid by Miss Helen Kennedy. Speeches followed from Radio New Zealand manager Errol Pike, Sa^vation Army Lt Col Lawrence Weggery, Raifw^ys representative Dr Francis Small, and finally, Ruapehu Lions president Ian Strachan, who finished his speech with the last lines of the RSA prayer, "At the going down of the sun, and in the moming, we will remember them."