NATIONAL WAR MEMORIAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 May 1922, Page 5

NATIONAL WAR MEMORIAL.

A NEW PROPOSAL. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, May 6. A movement is on foot to urge the Government to extend the boundaries of the National Park by including the forest areas on the lower slopes of Mount Ruapehu. This was rejected by Parliament in 1920. but the New Zealand Institute, the Forestry League and other bodies are raising the proposal again and intend to persist. Professor H. K. Kirk wishes to go further and ask the R.S.A. to accept the extended park as the national war memorial, for which £lOO,OOO was voted. His letter will be discussed by the Dominion Council next month. His idea is that such a park would be far better and more enduring than any work of art. Professor Kirk suggests that the main approaches to the park might be known by tne names of the fronts on which New Zealand soldiers fought: Special memorials could be erected on ® r all such memorials could be confined to a given area. There is abundant material on the mountain for cairns. Added, interest will be given by the erection of the memorials by men who themselves took part in the events. For instance, the Messines cairn could be erected by soldiers who fought there, and so on. There should also be a chapel or shrine enclosing a roll of all the men who went overseas. Funds should be provided by annual grants from the Government or the income from grazing lands in the park, or both.