Mayor Hamish McDouall gets behind James K. Baxter statue effort

Mayor Hamish McDouall with the new barometer outside Paige's Book Gallery in Guyton St.

A new barometer outside Paige's Book Gallery in Whanganui will record fundraising efforts towards a statue of poet James K. Baxter.

Mayor Hamish McDouall checked it out on Friday and said he fully supports the Guyton Group's efforts to honour Baxter with a statue.

"Baxter is such an important Whanganui figure and he symbolises our literary status," said Mr McDouall. "People know about his time at Jerusalem in the 60s and 70s but he lived here before that."

Mr McDouall said Baxter also lived in Whanganui during the 1940s when his brother, Terence, who was a conscientious objector, was sentenced to defaulter's detention and was taken in by the local Quakers.

The proposed bronze statue of Baxter will cost around $95,000 and there is $20,000 already in the coffers.

The figure was boosted after poets Bill Manhire and Glenn Colquhoun got behind the effort with a recitation evening at the Sarjeant Gallery last week raising around $2500.

Guyton Group Trust member and Paige's owner Lesley Stead said the barometer was a way to share progress with the community and encourage people to get behind the initiative.

The life-size bronze statue of Baxter will be created by his friend, sculptor Joan Morrell.