CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 December 1938, Page 4

CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL

(To the Editor.) Sir, —It is unfortunate, as stated in your editorial that the proposal to plant with trees the main Wairarapa highway as a Centennial memorial has not been found practicable. It is regrettable that no alternative has been suggested and that the Wairarapa, as a district, is to be without something to mark so great an occasion. Town memorials' have their limitations in message and inspiration, but something of wider import is surely required to mark a Centenary. Might I suggest, for the consideration of the committee, that a Wairarapa memorial in the form of a monolith cairn or column of rugged and dignified construction be built on a prominent mountain top, such as: (1) Mt. Hector (5016 feet). A memorial on this peak could be seen from Wellington and the East and West coasts. One objection to this site is that the mountain is at seasons obscured for some days by cloud. (2) An alternative mountain site is ihe peak in the Haurangi Mountains known as Bull Hill (2823 feet), between Martinborough and Palliser Bay. This mountain top is visible throughout the Wairarapa, is seldom cloud covered and actually overlooks the Palliser Bay route followed by the first Wairarapa settlers and also the scenes of the first exploration of the Wairarapa coastline by Kupe, the famous Polynesian discoverer of New Zealand, nearly a thousand years ago. (3) The southern highest point de Iringa) in the Maungaraki Range, just south of Gladstone, is another historic and prominent site suitable for a monolith. , . „ Memorials of this type receive world-wide recognition. There are numbers in New Zealand, e.g., the McKenzie Country monuments, the Captain Scott Memorial and Maori memorials on mountain tops. Many Wairarapa visitors mistake the Power Board’s concrete surge tower at Kourarau, Gladstone, for a memorial and this tower has no great elevation, althoug it is visible from considerable distances. Perhaps the most suitable and useful memorial of all would be the construction of a Centennial highway along the coast of Palliser Bay, t ro ™ the present terminus of the Wellington- Orongorongo Valley Road to the present terminus, near the coast, of the Featherston Western Lake Road. The distance is inconsiderable, about 14 miles, and the engineering difficulties are by no means insuperable. The new highway would provide a flat outlet from the Wairarapa and a relief route to the Rimutaka Road. One could readily anticipate Government assistance in the project. An unriva ed marine drive would be provided and a commemoration memorial es-tablished-one worthy of the striking part played by Wairarapa pioneers following the landing of the emigrants of 18 These proposals may already have been considered by the committee. I not they are submitted for consideration and not by way of criticism. Yours, etc., “ LONG RANGE.” Grey town, November 29.