Jaycees' Gift to Nelson

The Nelson chapter of Jaycees celebrated its 21st birthday with a typically Jaycee gesture. High above Nelson city, on Botanical Hill, the chapter handed over to the city a handsome beacon to replace the old trig station that has marked the unannounced centre of New Zealand. Work on this beacon could be said to have begun in 1948, a year after the chapter's inception, when 11 members climbed the hill to commence tidying a veritable jungle at the trig station. A full-page picture of the beacon is featured elsewhere in this issue.

The Surveyor General, Mr R. P. Gough, stands on the centre of New Zealand, as he addresses the gathering.

The Mayor (Mr Strawbridge) had a few words for the younger generation who turned out.

Inset in the plaque at the beacon is the granite base set on the site in 1877.

Jaycees who worked on the project; Val Meade, Roger Boyce, Eric Peterson, Ian Gourdie (convenor), Phillip Coote (president), John McConchie and Trevor Devine. Below them are some of the original team to make the 1948 tidyingascent, Geoff Wood, Don Kerr, Frank Renai, Ces Collins and Colin Neale.

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The Nelson Photo News

No 95 : September 21, 1968

Jaycees' Gift to Nelson