HUNTLY’S BIG DAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 55, 27 May 1927, Page 9

HUNTLY’S BIG DAY

GOVERNOR’S VISIT WAR MEMORIAL UNVEILED (THE SUN'S Special Representative) HUNTLY, To-day. After a lapse of seven years, Huntly is again honoured with the presence of the Governor-General. The big event of the official programme is the unveiling of the war memorial.

The Governor-General, Sir Charles Fergusson, came through from Hamilton by motor, arriving at 10.30, and the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. R. F. Bollard, was also present. The memorial, an obelisk 20 feet high, was designed, manufactured and erected by the efforts of the Huntly Returned Soldiers’ Association. Standing on a mahogany glazed base, the plinth is of white enamel brick, the bricks having been made at the local works. It bears the names of 54 men who were killed or died of war injuries between 1914 and 1920. The inscription reads: “Tell it to the generations following.” The chairman of the Town Board, Mr. W. C. George, and the secretary, Mr. Fred Harris, welcomed his Excellency at the Post Office steps, the visitor being sharp on time. His Excellency apologised for the absence of Lady Alice Fergusson. He said that he wished to meet as many of the townspeople as possible. “As a soldier, I am only too willing to do anything I can to pay tribute to the splendid fellows who died for New Zealand,” he concluded.

The party inspected the Rotowaro mine, and the high school. An official luncheon was held at the Lyceum Theatre. The unveiling was impressive. A parade of 40 returned men, under exFlight - Lieutenant N. Greenwell, formed a guard of honour. Bishop Cherrington, of the Waikato Diocese, said the prayers, and after paying tribute to the fallen men, the Gover-nor-General undraped the obelisk. The “Dead March” by the orchestra, the sounding of “The Last Post” and the playing of a lament by Piper T. Ingram concluded the ceremony.