The Westport Times. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1874.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1152, 20 February 1874, Page 2

The Westport Times. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1874.

A's aptly remarked at the Kynncrsley memorial meeting the oilier evening, monuments and mementoes find little favor in New Zealand. Respect for the memory ol departed heroes, or e\en for friends dioppirig out from fiimily circle, is not a theme for the display of much or lasting sentiment. The dead pass readily out of thought and affection, and the rank, ill kempt, grass wiving o'er the storm battered iuscript,oh on the tombstone

typifies too plainly that those who in the Oesh wore houored and esteemed, :ire in the silent grave forgotten, Perhaps this i» unavoidable. In the every day smurgle and whirl of existence Iho deail are left to the past, men live and strive lor the present, and if thought of the future intrudes it is ban ished by the ever rea ly second thought "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." This may he light—it is not meet or necessary to enter into argument thereon —the future may be best left to the future, and care for the memory <>f the dead may he unprofitable to the living, so far as expenditure of sordid pence ami pounds may be concerned, but it must be remembered by utilitarian theorists that those, we deem as dend are no more dead than ourselves. The creed professing Christians hold proclaims this, and that in reverencing their memories wis hut build lip mementoes to absent friends who have passed ahead in the journey to the unknown. Thus the action emanating in Westport, to testify respect tor the memory of one whom to know was to esteem, has been well advised, and in kindly spirit and unity of purpose will be accepted from end to end of the province and in parts beyond, wherever the name of Mr Ivyimersley is remembered. The duty has devolved on old friends and acquaintances of the departed to consummate by action the expressed wish of the public, and the duty could not be entrusted to better keeping. A host of zealous helpers would willingly render assistance, but it does not follow in this case that in a multitude of councillors there would he found wisdom. A few earnest workers in this district co-operatiug with equally earnest men in other localities, will render more effective service than a committee nominally strong in numbers but made up of incongruous elements. There may be found one or more individuals—whose overweening vanity and egotism leads them to assume offence where none is intended —who will, by reason of their presumed valuable services being dispensed with, growl and yelp inanely, and attempt in mischievous fashion to find fault, forgetful, or possibly densely oblivious of the fact, that in doing so they but insult the memory of the dead even as before they insulted the living. But such influence should not, in fact cannot, prevail in any community possessing intelligent perceptions.