THE MARSLAND HILL MEMORIAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 68, 16 April 1909, Page 3

THE MARSLAND HILL MEMORIAL.

To tlie Editor. Kir,—T have read many letters that luivu appeared iiii the public Press in my time, letters of small moment and letters of public and national importance, but I have never read anything dealing with »■ point so petty as has appeared in your columns during the last few days over the names of \V. Humphries, "Subscrilicr," and ''l'atria." The facts arc brielly these: Some time about two years ago an enthusiastic committee was formed for the purpose of erecting a monument to the memory of the troops who fell in the Maori wars, ami on this committee a more enthusiastic set of officers than Messrs (jordon, DockTill. Smith ami Mace could .not be found. These men, and these men alone, worked splendidly in the came that they had taken in' hand, and th.' result is the monument that is being completed on Marsland Hill to-day. Now the committee in their fairness said thai, the most reasonable way in which these men could be remembered for the part they took in perpetuating Ike. memory of the fallen troops was by modestly inscribing their names on tile monuuieni. With this no reasonable person can find an objection. Rut it is imposHile to please everybody, and n,o sooner was the intention of the committee niaih' known than the Press was deluged with correspondence, questioning the righi of Messrs Gordon, Doekrill. Smith anil Mace to be remembered fur their trouble. Now is it fair or reasonable, or do those gentlemen who write such narrow-minded letters to the Press consider the real position? Let us assume that the names of the four gentlemen do not appear on the monument, and let lis further assume that a visitor to the monument liftv or one hundred years hence, aft t reading the names of "the regiment- and other matters of a telativs nature would, I venture to saw ask a bvsian.ler who it was that interested llieiuselv - in having the .monument erected. W. Humphries. ••Subscriber," and others of their kind would shut out from posterity anything in the nature of remembering those who have given night- after night to corres|iondene» voluminous -which has brought about the completion of a splendid work which is unhappily the subject of an undignified correspondence. I am a strong supporter of the ruling of the committee, and so are, 1 am sure. the. great majority of the subscribers, in honoraljlv mentioning the names of Messrs Gordon, Doekrill, Smith and Mace for the great trouble they have gone to and for rinding a reply to the most natural question that posterity WQiild ask. Principles arc treated by honorable men and pettiness bv smaller minds. I am a believer in the principle of recognising the splendid work of the principal men on the committee, and the pettiness of having the names of these men deleted is left to the Gentlemen who opened this unpleasant "correspondence.—T am, etc.. HK'XKY GKATTAX.