TAUPO DISTRICT WAR MEMORIAL

Taupo Times, Volume 11, Issue 77, 8 July 1953, Page 4

TAUPO DISTRICT WAR MEMORIAL

IN March last the Taupo War Memorial Hall Association reported to a public meeting' the results of the Carnival held during the previous holiday period to raise funds for the Taupo District War Memorial Hall Fund. That meeting believing that a further sum could and should be raised, ap~ pointed a representative committee, including a number who had alrteady served with the Association, to carry on the good work. The Committee has now, with the closing on June 30th of the period within which moneys could qualify for the Government's £ for £ subsidy, handed over the amount raised to the Town Boar'd, As reported in this issue of the Times, this final effort has resulted in the raising of a further sum of £492, which will be doubled by addition of the subsidy, an amount fully justifying the decision to form the last mentioned Committee. As will be noted from our feport, the Chairman of the Committee has pointed out that, while the amount now available is something over £14,000, it will not actually eover the total costs involved. This point, however, does not detract from the faefc that a good job of work has been done, over a long period, by those who have worked in many ways for the Memorial project. That they have received generous support from a wide circle of donors is equally true. The support of so many is an indication that deep in the heart of our people the memoFy of those whom our Memorial Hall will honour still lives. And let no one for a moment think that this statement is a mere sentimental expression, a mere polite form of words said because it is the right thing to say. The many donations that have been made to the Memorial Fund have in the overwhelming number of cases been made by men and women, who, in making them, have had in mind sons, husbands, fathers, brothers, friends, who died in the service of their country, And in raising the moneys for the Memorial Hall Fund we have been doing mofe than just preparing to build a memorial hall. We have been building up and strengthening the very traditions, truths and values for which those men whose memory we seek to honour gave their lives* For it is true to say that only as we honour those traditions with our deeds, as they did with their lives, do we tend to ensure their continuance*