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Dargaville war memorial band rotunda

Dargaville war memorial band rotunda

Band rotunda Band rotunda

Dargaville First World War memorial band rotunda.

On 28 August 1919 a public meeting was held to decide on a suitable war memorial for the Northern Wairoa area (Dargaville Borough and neighbouring Hobson and Otamatea counties). Proposals included erecting a band rotunda, setting up a memorial institute, buying the Dargaville Club as a soldiers’ club, and establishing a memorial park . The last option gained majority approval at the time (see Northern Wairoa Memorial Park). However, the rotunda option was later resurrected. Towards the end of 1927 the Dargaville Borough Council sought tenders for the erection of the rotunda on the town esplanade, alongside the banks of the Wairoa River. Prime Minister Gordon Coates dedicated the completed structure on 16 May 1928. Mrs Coates unveiled the memorial tablet set into its base. This read simply: ‘IN HONOUR / OF THE MEN FROM / DARGAVILLE / WHO MADE THE / SUPREME SACRIFICE / 1914 – 1918’.

Sources: : ‘Dargaville’s War Memorials’, Northern Advocate, 3/9/1919, p. 1; ‘Memorial at Dargaville: Acceptance of Tender’, NZ Herald, 2/11/1927, p. 10; ‘War Memorials ... Dargaville Band Rotunda: Dedication by Mr Coates’, NZ Herald, 17/5/1928, p. 11 

Keywords

dargaville
Credit

Main photo: Jock Phillips and Chris Maclean, c1986; additional photos and text: Bruce Ringer, Auckland Libraries, 2015.

How to cite this page

'Dargaville war memorial band rotunda ', URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/dargaville-war-memorial-band-rotunda, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 12-Dec-2016

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What do you know?

Liz Clark

Posted: 15 Nov 2011

This is listed on the HPT website as being circa 1922 however, it looks like it was constructed 6 years later 1928. The Band Rotunda was unveiled by the wife of the Prime Minister Joseph Gordon Coates on 16 May 1928.
Article from the Evening Post 17 May 1928 below

'A Press Association message from Dargaville states that the Prime Minister had a busy day in Dargaville yesterday. From 9 a.m. till 2.30 p.m., with only a brief respite for luncheon, he was attending to deputations, both private and public. In the afternoon he delivered an address at the unveiling ceremony, which was performed by Mrs. Coates, of the Soldiers' War Memorial Band Rotunda, erected at a cost of nearly £300 by public subscription in memory of the men from Dargaville who fell ill the Great War. There was a very large attendance of the public. The Prime Minister left shortly after the ceremony for Paparoa, in the southern portion of the electorate, where he delivered apolitical address. He leaves for Wellington, via Auckland, to-day.'
Evening Post 17 May 1928

In 1919 a committee was formed to consider the erecting of a memorial to the fallen soldiers of Dargaville. Amongst the proposals was the Band Rotunda, and the purchasing of 18 acres of land to form the Northern Wairoa Memorial Park. I'm still doing the write-up on this particular memorial and I also have other photos which may help.