Story: Memorials and monuments

Cleaning Henry Holland's statue (5th of 7)

Cleaning Henry Holland's statue

This remarkable monument to Henry Holland, leader of the Labour Party from 1919 to 1933, was put up in Wellington's Bolton Street cemetery, near former premier Richard Seddon's tomb, in 1937. The Holland memorial was the work of the Auckland sculptor Richard Gross. The nude male figure represents emancipated youth, looking upwards to higher things. Beneath are two figures, one male, the other female, which symbolise primitive humanity struggling out of the primeval slime. Here Labour Party members Gerard Hill (top) and Nick Bennie give the memorial a spruce-up in 1987.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PAColl-7327)
Reference: EP/1987/3654

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page:

Jock Phillips, 'Memorials and monuments - Civilian memorials, 1900–1945', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/32555/cleaning-henry-hollands-statue (accessed 29 March 2024)

Story by Jock Phillips, published 20 Jun 2012, updated 26 Mar 2015