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In a bid to assert the city's Scottish origins, a sculptural work commemorating the famous Scottish poet, Robert Burns, was commissioned in 1886 and erected on 28 March 1887 before an audience of around 8,000 people. This tug at the proud heart-strings of the local Scots was still not enough to provoke them into giving Robbie more pleasant surroundings. According to the local paper it was still "a standing disgrace to the community, an eyesore to most of the citizens, and an object of ridicule to strangers."

Amenities Society gets active

It was not until 1891 that real improvements were made with the advocacy of the Amenities Society, an active group of citizens working toward the beautification of the city and improvements of its public facilities, initially driven by barrister and solicitor, Alexander Bathgate.

"The Society proposed that: The four sections of the reserve, formed by the roadway and the path which ran in line with Stuart Street, be fenced. Existing shrubs and trees be cleared away and grass sown with a flowerbed in the centre of each quadrant. Oriental plane trees should be planted along the line of Princes Street, cabbage trees along the footpath and a small clump of silver birches on either side of the Burns statue. Later this was modified, with the pathway connecting upper and lower Stuart Street being removed. An enthusiastic Council voted in 125 pounds  to carry out the work and the Society contributed 250 pounds."*

That same year (1891) a former registrar to the Supreme Court, Robert Chapman, gave 1,000 pounds for the erection of a monument to Reverend Thomas Burns, Otago settlement's co-founder, and Robbie Burns's nephew (who was reputed to be rather more straight-laced than his sometimes bawdy uncle).

"Even after it had weathered a little and mellowed into its surroundings, the Burns memorial was never well liked, being... a bit tomby. As a result few citizens mourned when in 1947, due to severe weathering causing the stone to crumble and bits to fall off, it was demolished." (Otago Daily Times, 12 March 1988)

In its time the memorial had seen the installation of underground toilets for men and women. These were all the rage with westernised civic sanitation planners in the 1910s and several were installed around the city. The Octagon examples were, by all accounts, very elegant.

*City of Dunedin - A Century of Civic Enterprise, K C McDonald, 1965.