Donation is money well spent

There has been quite a bit of negative feedback and comments made about Waipa¯ District Council contributing $150,000 to the proposed War Memorial Museum at Le Quesnoy in France. In my opinion it is money well spent.

It is 100 years since the end of World War I next month, a war in which 20 million were killed and 21 million wounded. New Zealand had 16,699 soldiers killed, about the population of Te Awamutu, and 41,317 wounded, nearly the population of Waipa¯ .

It was a war of terrible carnage of young men, some barely 21 giving up their lives so future generations could live freely in democracy not repression and dictatorship.

The Museum would remember the last battle fought by New Zealand soldiers freeing the town of Le Quesnoy from German occupation.

Le Quesnoy is a sister city to Cambridge and thousands of people visit the town every year, the Museum could entice hundreds of people to visit our district.

Even if no one came the we can all take pride in remembering those who fought to preserve our freedom.

The new Discovery Centre in Te Awamutu will focus on our own land wars and history.

Our past makes us what we are today and we should always remember it without judgement, the future is in our hands lets hope we can do a better job of it.

VERN WILSON Waipa¯ District Councillor