The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, JULY 16, 1902

Gisborne Times, Volume VIII, Issue 475, 16 July 1902, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. G ISBORNE, JULY 16, 1902

Till-: COOK memorial. U must be very pleasing to all loyal New Zealanders, and especially to the people of Gisborne district, to learn that the Cook .Memorial movement originated by the Gisborne Times is being taken up with interest in other parts of the colony, though it will be some time yet before the value of that encouragement from a monetary point or view is made manifest. Among favorable comments made in journals outside our own district is an article in that admirably conducted journal the Manawatu Times. The Times, after commending the movement as an excellent, one, states that it should receive extensive support not only in the Poverty Bay district, hut from all parts of the tolony. The Times takes exception to the proposal to ask the Government to give 'assistance, stating, that) there is too. great a disposition in this country to run to the Government for support for everything. “While it may ire fairly claimed that the movement originated by tlio Gisborne Times should be a colonial memorial,” our contemporary remarks. “ it should derive its representative character from offerings of the people, and not from a contribution extorted from the consolidated fund.” Though we must take exception to any such remarks as extorted, we can to some extent agree wiHi our contemporary. It is quire true that there is too great a tendency to run to the Government for aid, hut, surely no one would argue that the appropriate time tu draw the line is just when a fully national memorial is proposed, It is necessary that; .such a memorial should have the support of the Government to make it truly representative. At tlie same time it is hoped that the fund will receive contributions from all parts of the colony —not necessarily large amounts, but large in number. The encouragement given by the Maiiawatu and other journals, is cordially welcomed, hi the course of its comments the Times remarks : “It is now nearly one bundled and thri ty-three years since Captain Cook landed at Gisborne “ with a party of men in the pinnace and yawl, accompanied by Mr Banks and Dr, Solamler," and although civilisation did not follow in his immediate footstep, it is to his intrepid spirit we owe the foundation of this colony. Yet beyond making a scientific reserve of Ship Gove, no attempt has been made to suitably recognise his services in the country which owns him as its discoverer. In this respect colonials nio too far prosaic, and not nearly sentimental enough. We show too little reverence for the past, which unconsciously affects Die future ; and it is by the preservation of the name and history of such a man as Captain Cook that we can influence the minds' of those who are to become the citizens and governors of onr country. As an act of appreciation for the memory of the seaman who gave New Zealand to Die Empire, and as a means of encouraging a veneration for great names and noble souls, we trust that the Gisborne movement will receive wide and general support.”-