West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Saturday 17 November 1923, page 12


fREMANTLE WAR MEMORIAL

Tenders to Be Called.

When a committee of Fremantle resi-dents set to work to raise £6,000 for the erection of a war memorial, on Monu-ment Hill — the highest point overlooking

Fremantle — the local council promised to spend £1,000 upon the preparation of the site for the memorial. Plans for an ela-borate lay-out of the grounds, which are to be intersected by roads and foot-paths and planted with shrubs and trees, and the erection of a tall and imposing monument which will be seen by ships many miles from shore, were prepared and accepted. The council showed its earnestness in the matter by expending £500 of tie amount promised for the preparation to the site. At a meeting of the war memorial committee last night, presided over by Mrs. F. Instone, Mr. Jas. Shepherd mov-ed that the committee be authorised to call for tenders for the erection of the monument, as far as funds will permit. Mr. P. Clegg asked how much cash was in hand or promised? Mr. Shepherd replied that the commit-tee had £1,000 in the bank, and promised donations of £1,200 had to be collected. The council had promised £1,000, and half that amount had been spent. Mr. Clegg seconded the motion, to per-mit of a discussion. Mr. Shepherd said that he thought that the committee would be safe if it let a contract for £1,500. Mr. J. W. Bateman considered that the most the committee could do was to recommend that tenders be called for. Mr. J. Wilson questioned whether the committee would receive £1,500 worth of work if tenders were called and only portion of the contract proceeded with. Mr. Bateman contended that it would be a shocking example to see a half-fin-ished memorial in the most prominent position in Fremantle. He doubted whether the scheme would achieve the object of shaming people into contribut-ing towards the fund for the purpose of having the memorial completed. Mr A J. Lea Holt asked whether it would not be better to call for tenders for the whole of the work and ask the successful tenderer whether he would go on with the first stage of the work. Mr Shepherd: That is what I intend-ed. Continuing, he said that his reasons for submitting the resolution were that the committee wanted to ascertain whe-ther the estimate it had received for the work was a good one, and that people 'down the street,' who were always cri-ticising the committee, would see that the members had some enterprise. No tender need be accepted. Mr Bateman assured members that he was prepared to withdraw his objec-tion to the motion if it was only for the purpose of putting out a "feeler." Mr H. F. J. Foreman inquired whe-ther the plans and specifications were sufficiently advanced to enable the com-mittee to call for tenders, and he was informed that they were complete. The motion was carried.