STATUE REMOVED

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 440, 22 May 1937, Page 7

STATUE REMOVED

z SITE CONTROVERSY Task For Police Of N.S.W. Sydney, May 12. A fierce controversy about the site of a South African war memorial In (he prosperous town of Lismore, :n ths north coast district of New South Wales, has resulted in the mysterious disappearance ot a 4cwt. lifesize bronze figure of a soldier from the miniorik'l. .Police have been trying hard to find i', and the Lismore council is worried, but townspeople expect to find it one morning installed on the street site from which t.he council had it removed to a park. The monument was erected in 1902 at the intersection of two slieete, and the council’s decision last March to remove it to a park was tlje second iffor:. to change the site, a similar move five years ago being stopped by protests at public meetings. Since tilien traffic congestion has become more serious. The council decided that the position of the memorial in Hie traffic stream was dangerous to motorists, and removed it to the park, in spite of vehement protests by townspeople. Veterans claim tl|jt the speed With which the removal was carried out gave them no chance of protest. The figure disappeared front its new site in the park one morning between 1 o’clock and dawn, There were indications 1 that a lorry had i been backed near the footpath round the park, and that sheer leg's had been used to facilitate the removal of the statue. The police do not share the belief that the sta lie will rOippear as mysteriously as it went, nor do they believe, a report that the monument will be found suspnended in a rope at 'the bottom of the river. They believe that a fast motor lorry was used to take the figure away. They do not expect to find it in Lsmore, and the search h/; s been widened to distant centres.