DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 94, 12 July 1927, Page 16

DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

THE BEST MONUMENT (Copyright, 1927.) /■'' ABRIELB: D’ANNUNZIO, Italy’s soldier poet, came out of Uis self-imposed exile at Lake Garda the other day and announced that he would attend the ceremony in honour of St. Francis and plant trees for the reforestation of Mount Subasio. He said that the tree was a better memorial to the saint than the erection of a monument. Man has been a monument building animal. He differs from the other animals in putting up memorials over the grave of his kind. There have been many splendid monuments in the past, such as the tomb of Hadrian, the Pyramids and the Taj Mahal. It is doubtful, however, if anything in the way of a memorial could be set up so appropriate as a tree, for the tree is man’s best friend and the tree is a living thing. By its annual regeneration it illustrates the hope of man’s immortality, by its shade or its fruits it gives of its substance to man’s welfare. It is especially fitting in the case of Saint Francis that a tree should he selected, for Saint Francis was a great lover of nature. He called the birds and the animals of the forest his friends and even composed a poem to his brother the Sun. Man has been slowly coming to the conclusion that he must conserve the forests as well as exploit them. They temper the climate, they modify the effects of the rainfall and from their wood many Implements’ and the dwellings of man are constructed. It would be most in keeping with the order of things that those who are seeking for a memorial to their dead should plant a tree. Among the ancient Germans each man’s life was supposed to be bound up with some tree, and when he was dead his coffin was made from that tree. We may not be descended from tree Inhabiting animals, as it has been held, but it is certain that deep in the heart of mankind is implanted a love for trees, and the waving tree will be his best memorial.