CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 September 1921, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE.

PROPOSED WAR MEMORIAL. To the Editor. Sir,— May I be permitted to use your columns to make an appeal to the people of New Plymouth and surrounding district for assistance in providing some suitable memorial to the men who sacrificed their lives during the great war so that we might live in security and peacefulness in our and their country. The matter has been deferred perhaps rather too long, but that it due to circumstances which were unavoidable, and we have now the opportunity of repairing that omission by taking up the matter heartily and without further delay. At a public meeting held at the Soldiers’ Club on Tuesday evening a representative committee was set up to take the necessary preliminary steps, to solicit subscriptions, and to suggest a suitable form of memorial. As a result of discussion it was thought that no better form could be devised than the conversion of the borough reserve facing the railway station into a public park, in the centre of which a monument of suitable design would be erected. The park would be laid out with shrubbery, flower borders and grass plots, and surrounded by ornamental stone walls with numerous gaps for entrance. The committee, while thinking this a suitable form of memorial, is desirous of eliciting as wide as possible an expression of the public view, and I shall therefore be pleased to receive, not later than September 30, such expressions, whether of approval or in favor of any other form of memorial. The question of cost has barely been considered, but the committee feels that a minimum sum of £5OOO should be aimed at, which would probably suffice to form the park and provide a suitable monument. With that in view I venture to appeal through your columns to the people to subscribe without any personal canvass. It is an object which appeals to everyone, young and old, and it- is hoped that everyone will assist according to their means. Subscriptions may be paid either at the Borough Council offices or at either of the newspaper offices, and will be duly acknowledged in the Press, and as the committee wishes to proceed with the project without unnecessary delay I shall be glad of a prompt and hearty response.—l am, etc., F. E. WILSON, Mayor.