By These Shall They Be Remembered

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 164, 1 October 1927, Page 17 (Supplement)

By These Shall They Be Remembered

Auckland City is Justly Proud of Many Magnificent: Memorials.

(Written for THE SUN by O. A. GILLESPIE.)

E mast always have old memories and after a visit to tho memorials of Tl>e yours city, growing quickly with [he years, has not. forgotten the men j w[lo j,ave worked for her; their memorials are dotted through the city and

| countryside and quietly ! toach the imagination of | hci a e passers-by who , iP are a moment to turn ’,ack the pages of Time. y or the most part the memorials are in quiet places. Thoughts seem to flood the mind more poignantly away from the bistle of busy streets and tL e whirl of commerce. one looks in vain for a fitting memorial for the founder of Auckland. Captain William Hobson. It should be here, but the only one which can be found is a tablet in St. Paul’s Church, in Svmondf Street. It is a simple thing. In a simple setting, to the memory of tfis first Governor of New

Zealand, who died on September 10, 1842. Part of the inscription on the stone is in Maori. Perhaps the grandest memorial to die men who fell in the Great War is the chapel at King's College, Otahuhu. The architect was an old boy of the college, Mr. R. Atkinson Abbott. I saw the chapel one afternoon when the sunlight filtered through the stained glass windows and lighted the dusky interior with beams of gold. It ras quiet and beautifully dim, with the atmosphere of an old world cathedral. The memorial windows, their rich colours enhanced by the lunlight, added to the old world atmosphere of a chapel which will become more lovely with the years. It will grow old; its red-brick exterior will become duller with the action of the elements, but it is there for all lime and those who worship before Its a.tar will remember the men who 4ied for the Empire. Before an honours board, near the sltar, on which there are 120 names, burns a tiny lamp, an emblem of yout h unforgotten. There are many splendid features about, the King’s College chapel, particularly the hanging lamps •nil the oak screens round the altar but the whole building is impressive in Its dignity and simplicity. Beneath the Roman Catholic Cathe Ival in Wyndham Street are the Caves of the original band of Sisters oi! Mercy, who came to Auckland witt tishop Pompallier in 1848. There: were five of them, brave women ol! indomitable spirit. On a wall in the: cathedral is a simple tablet to their memory and to the memory of the Bev. Mother Cecelia Maher, founder o the order in New Zealand Nearby hi a tablet to the memory of “The Padre of the racecourse,” the Very' lev. Monsignor Walter McDonald, 'ho died oil December 31, 1899. Ho was known to men and women of every creed in Auckland, for he always rode a white horse and carried tweets for the children he met. Th> jockeys at Ellerslie knew him as Pather Walter.

The slender pillar of the war memorial at the Auckland Grammar bchool is one of the most striking In the city, it is the work of Mr. R. O. bross, an English sculptor, who came here from South Africa. High up on the top of the columa stands a youthful figure, striking symhol of the Old Boys of the school, itith upraised arm, and body poised ■ or action, he looks away across the sweeping harbour waters, beyond R angitou) and the country those boys inew so well. Around the base of the memorial, whica has been placed in a commandla® !*osition, are names that will live hmg after the stone on which they are mscribed has crumbled away. , Perhaps the most familiar memorial *h -Auckland is that to both paketa * n d Maori, at the intersection of syBmnds Street and Alexandra Street. The figure 0 f Victory is placing a fond over the inscription, which rum:: In memory of the brave men be®ng;ng to the Imperial and Colonial frees and the friendly Maoris who their lives for the country dur•ng the New Zealand Wars, 1845-1872. The memorial was erected by the ictoria League of Auckland in 1920 is the work of Mr. T. Eyre Macklin - R.A. awa >’ behind the Auckland nt 'ersity buildings is one of the most

interesting memorials of Auckland. Only those who explore the highways and the byways of the city will find it. Running from behind the Science building of the University on Symonds Street, almost through to Princes

Street and separating the gardens of private homes from the Varsity grounds is all that remains of the old

barrack wall v. inch was built by friendly Maoris in 1848 after the burning of Kororareka. At one time the wall stretched round part of the present Albert Park How many of the early settlers of Auckland must have sheltered behind its comforting solidity of strong, grey stone, now covered with ivy and creepers? The old loopholes and doors are still there. It. is a relic of the early days which should be preserved for ever and made more available to the public. When the new University buiiumg

was erected part of the old wall was pulled down, but it has been re-erected and runs behind the main hall almost to the back fence of Government House grounds. How many of the people who rest

! in a tiny stone tram shelter outside I St. Pauls Church, in Symonds Street, j remember that it, too, is a war memI orial? "Honouring the dead, let the I living be humble,” is the simple, \ humble inscription which has been I placed on it to remind the wayfarer of men and women who gave their

lives in the Great War. It is a useIful tribute by thoughtful church people. Sir George Grey, in immemorial stone, looks toward his beloved Kawau from the green slope of Albert Park. “Soldier, statesman, lover of his fellowmen, whose | wisdom, eloquence and strong personality gave to the people 1 of this Colony a large measure of the “ liberties they now possess,” runs the inscription of a man whom Auckland,

and New Zealand generally, has good cause to remember. He was Governor of New Zealand from 1861 to 1868, Superintendent of Auckland from 1875 to 1876 and Premier of New Zealand from 1877 to 1579. Not far away, among the flowery

plots of the park, is Victoria, regal in her bronze. This memorial to the most “monumented” Royal personage of the age, was erected by the people of Auckland.

. 4. graceful marble statue, purchased \ in the terms of the will of Helen Boyd and presented to the citizens of Auckland on behalf of George and Helen Boyd, also adorns another corner of Albert Park. It is that of a classical female figure resting on a sword and clasping a dove to her breast. Originally a drinking fountain, a memorial to G. M. Bleed, an Auckland journalist, has foregone its usefulness. It is a curious piece of work and scarcely adds to the beauty of Albert Park. Overlooking the main highway between Auckland and Onehunga stands the memorial to one of Auckland’s greatest benefactors —Sir John Logan Campbell. It was erected by grateful citizens. Standing above the flowers which surround the statue, he looks out over the city he loved and lived for. Behind him is One Tree Hill, with which his name will al ways be associated, ! for his grave lies in that high piace, | near a group of slender pines, j Travelling on down the Manukau Road toward Onehunga one comes on the Seddon Memorial, which has little to remind one of the forceful Premier, except the and that is gradually being effaced by thoughtless youth. The memorial is a combined drinking fountain, rest-room and post 1 box, and was erected to the memory i of the Right Hon. Richard John Sed-

don by the people of Onehuuga and surrounding districts. Combined with it is the memorial to Sir George Maurice O’Rorke. who represented the district of Manukau in Parliament for 39 years and who was for 20 years Speaker of the House of Representatives. The tiny chapel of St. John’s College, on the road to St. Heliers, is a treasure house of memories. One thinks of the men who first carried the message of Christianity to the j South Seas from Auckland and of the men who lost their lives in doing so. There, in the seclusion of the tiny chapel, are stained-glass windows to the memory of the Right Rev. John Coleridge Patteson, first Bishop of Melanesia, who was killed at Nukapu on September 20, 1871; of the Right Rev. George Augustus Selwyn, first Bishop of New Zealand and founder of St. John’s College, who died in 1878; of Sir William Martin, the first Chief Justice of New Zealand, and Bishop Selwyn’s advisor; of the Hon. William Swainson, first Attorney-

General of New Zealand, who assisted in framing the constitution of the Church in the Dominion. There are other memorials, too, in the chapel—memorials of the first missionaries and the men who have been associated with the College, some of them natives who died in the cause of Christianity. The chapel is mellow with age and worn by the weathers of many, many years, but it is treasured by all who are associated with it. In no other building, perhaps, are there so many associations with the early days of New Zealand, unless it is in the Old Colonists’ Museum, above the Art Gallery. Here are relics of every kind, including the first plough which turned the soil of New Zealand with its iron shear. That was away back in May, 1820. Mr. J. Kemp was the pioneer farmer. Then there are the first embossing stamp of the Superintendent of the Auckland Province and the chandelier of old St. Paul’s Church, erected in IS4I, and relics of the Orpheus, w recked on the Manukau Bar in 1863; the tea urn brought to New Zealand in 1842 by Mrs. Selwyn, wife of Bishop Selwyn; and letters, and souvenirs of Sir George Grey, powder horns and the first prayer books used by the missionaries. Outside St. Aidan's Church, on the Remuera Road, one comes on

a lych gate, a real English lych gate, which was erected byMr. H. W. Hudson in memory- of his son who was killed at the front. Behind it, on the path to the door of the church, is a striking stone cross, the onlyone Df its kind in New Zealand. It, too, is a war memorial. The trees and the setting of the gate and the stone are very beautiful. The memorial to the Rev. John Frederick Churton, in Emily Place, is a simple obelisk of stone erected on the site of old St. Paul’s I [ Church. Mr. Churton was colonial and garrison chaplain for a number of years. He was sent out to New Zealand by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel as chaplain with the first Wellington settlers, but he received so little support that he came on to Auckland (“an impoverished man”), where he met with success. The handsome stone pulpit in St. Paul’s is another

monument to his memory. One of the most noticeable features of St. Matthew’s Church, Wellesley Street, is the stained glass windows to the memory of the Rev. David Jones, who died in 1873. They were moved from the old church when the new St. Matthew’s was erected. The Nixon memorial at Otahuhu is a sturdy re;minder of the Maori wars. It was erected to the memory of Colonel Marmaduke George Nixon, M.R., Colonel-Commander of the Colonial Defence Force and the Royal Cavalry volunteers, who fell mortally wounded in action at Rangiwihia in 1564. It also serves to keep alive the memory of the men who served and fell in the Waikato campaign in the same year.

On the grass-green lawns of the Domain, watching the red roofs of Auckland through the slim manuka branches, stands Robert Bums, national poet of Scotland and admired throughout the w-hole of the Englishspeaking world. The poet, in peasant garb, leans against a plough. It is a fine piece of work —alive and faithful in its delineation. The Burns memorial was presented to the city by the late Mr. J. M. Menr.ie. Behind it, on the highest point of the Domain, is the grandest memorial of all —the War Memorial Museum. This massive structure overlooks the city and will be a magnificent asset to Auckland, apart from its sentimental value. The crimson beacon of the Harbour Board Memorial on the waterfront at the foot of Albert Street is another sad but proud war record. “Well , Done” are the two words, so full of meaning, which stand out on the base of the memorial among the names of the men in the Harbour Board’s employ who served King and Country. There are many other memorials—i memorials of individual men and women, and memorials of the war. ; Every school and every district, almost every business house, has its honours board or memorial. The grim guns in

Albert Park bring the war memories back again with startling reality. There are soldier memorials of the South African War which cannot be forgotten. In every church there tre tablets to old identities or to the principal leaders of the congregations in the early days. How many have stopped to read the inscription on the archway over the entrance to the Grafton Cemetery in Symonfis Street? Its stone is grey, but its memories are clear. Everywhere one come 3 on tablets and stones which perpetuate the memory of someone, for “Memory- is not so brilliant as Hope, but it is more beautiful, and a thousand times more true.”