| Brief Description |
This illuminated address to Reverend George Bond is signed by Mayor Alexander Hatrick on behalf of the people of Whanganui.
"The Rev. George Bond /Reverend and Dear Sir / On the eve of severing your connection with Wanganui after five years sojourn, We your fellow citizens take the opportunity of testifying both to the high esteem in which you are held and to the profound regret with which your approaching departure is regarded by all classes in the community. / It is as a Public Man we desire specially to recognise your services to the Town and District. We are proud of the educational advantages which the youth of our town possesses, and we have much pleasure in making a recognition of the manner in which you have identified yourself with every movement having for its object the increase of Educational facilities in the town and neighbourhood. We recognise that the District High School just established in Wanganui owes its existence to your persistent and tactful efforts and feel sure that the institution will be a standing memorial to your services in the cause of education. Your loyal labours in connection with the dispatch of Troops to the seat of War and later in connection with the Memorial Services for our Beloved Sovereign Queen Victoria were particularly opportune and acceptable. / Your departure from Wanganui involves the loss of a Public Spirited Gentleman whom instinct invariably prompted to the best course, and to whom tact exhibited the best method. / We trust that in your new sphere of labour the same respect, esteem, and good will may be yours, and that your public life may be marked by even greater opportunities of doing good work for the Young for the District in which you reside, for the Colony and the Empire. / The citizens of Wanganui with feelings of warmest good will wish you Godspeed. /Wanganui 16th April 1901 / Alexander Hatrick Mayor."
This highly decorative address is painted in watercolours and ink on high quality art paper. The richly painted border is in the Art Nouveau style with swathes of deep yellow chrysanthemums entwined right around; a watercolour of Reverend Bond sits at upper left corner; a watercolour of Wesleyan Trinity Church at upper right corner; a watercolour of the Town Bridge over the Whanganui River at lower left corner; a watercolour of a burning lamp atop a Bible at lower right corner. The seal of Whanganui is affixed in red wax at lower centre edge. The border is painted deep blue and the area where the text has been appended is painted pale yellow. A mat is fitted, cut with very elaborate curlicues to follow the flow of the art work.
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