The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1907, CAPTAIN COOK.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2205, 8 October 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1907, CAPTAIN COOK.

To-day is “Captain Cook Day,” and it is fitting that flags should he unfurled on the ships and in the town, and' that citizens should mark their appreciation of a famous occasion. It is. proper, also, that to-day the teachers in every school in the Dominion. should gather tlhe children, round them and should tell to each boy and girl tlio story of the great navigator, whoso courage, perseverance, and marvellous seamanship- added so much to the lustre of Ibis country and placed him amongst the greatest of . that dauntless 1 brigade who. brought about Britain’s supremacy at sea. Tlliey should bo told how the Yorkshire tod of humble birth, apprenticed to a- shopkeeper in his native town, listened to the stories of the simple vlllago folk of the 'wonderful things that had, been discovered by Sailors in unknown, sou(thern seas;- listened till sea visions Ibecamo the grea test part- of hi,s young lexl-stemco, and that the all-impelling voice of the ocean could no longer be resisted; how ho rail awviy from.llia home and master, shipping as a common seaman before tlio mast; how it came about in the course of time (that he who had once been, the collier’s ship boy, everybody’s servant, miffed and ordered about by every common sailor ii.n the vessel, so far conquered fortune as to bo able to enjoy on equal terms the society of the greatest scholars and philosophers bf his time, and to be offered a public position- for life in recognition, of the great services to his country. The story should tell liow the restless spirit of the strenuous Viking refused (in his later years the luxuries of a calm and contented life in Memo .'England, and how, at the age of 48, he sailed once more in quest of new .lands and ocean tracks in unknown, seas, Tihe -narrator may touch lighitll.y on the folly of the aot that (brought ah.out the murder of this remarkable man, remembering that to (err is hum-an, and that this one foolish error was swiftly and amply atoned for. Special stress will naturally be laid upon the Cant that it is (to the enterprise and foresight of Captain Cook in claiming New Zealand for the King of England- that we owe the glorious privilege of being a portion of the great British .Empire,

There is every reason why tlie memory of Captain Cook shonlcl be honored 'wherever fjri tinkers are found, for ho was the last of the old navigators, and worthy to be ranked with Magellan, Tasman, Quiros, Drake, and the rest. It is not out of .place to briefly refer to his achievements, because no other sailor has so richly and gTeatly enlarged tiro borders of the earth. He discovered the Society ".Islands; he proved New Zealand to have two main islands, and he surveyed its coast; h.o followed the uii-

known coast of New Holland for 2000 miles, and proved th.it. it was separated from New Guinea; he traversed tlio Auitarctio Ocean on throe successive voyages, sailing completely pound the globe in its high latitudes, and proving that tlio dream of the great Southorn continent had aio foiln-dlrtion, unless it was cfloso ■a round the Polo and so beyond/ tlxo .reach of ships; lie discovered anil explored a groat part of tho coast of Now Caledonia, tho largest island in itiho So nth Pacific next to New Zealand ; he found tho desoluto island of Georgia, - • and Sandwicli-land, the southernmost land yet known; lie discovered the fair and fertile archipelago called tho Sandwich Islands; ho explored 3500 miles of tho North American coast ; and ho traversed the icy seas of tho North Pacific as ho had done in tho Sooth, in search of a passage which he failed to discover. All tluis without counting tho small islands which he found scattered about the Pacific. Again, ho not only proved the existence of /these islands, but lio was in advance •of his age in "tlho observations and tho minute examination which ho made info tho religion, manners, ■customs, arts, and languages of the (natives wherever lie went.

■Of his personal characteristics, a .capital description taken from Walter Besamt-’s life of the famous navigator may well be quoted. Tlio author says:—“James Cook was hard to endure,- true to carry out libs misson, perfectly loyal and single-mind-ed, lie was fearless, lie was self-re-liant, ho asked none of Ills subordinlates for help or for advice, lie was temperate, strong, and of simple tastes, ho was born to a hard life, and lie never murmured however hard things proved. And, like all mien born to be great, when lie began to rise, with each step he assumed, as if it belonged to him, tho dignity of his new rank. A plain man, tkoso who knew him say, but of good manners.”

Tho hypercritical will doubtless ho prepared to censure Cook for many of his acts, but it must bo remembered that ho lived under conditions vastly different from those existent now, and it would be manifestly unfair to judge him by modern standards. One tiling is certain, he had a marvellous capacity for work, and his tenacity in sticking to the hardest tasks despite perils and privations that a.ro little understood by present-day mariners enable him to bo classed as one of tlio doughty Empire builders who liavo placed Britain in tho proud position she occupies to-day.

THE RECTIFICATION FUND. :-y3SS33®

Tho memory of tho great seaman, must naturally appeal strongly to residents of Poverty Bay, the place of his landing just 148 years ago to-day, ■anil the time seems opportune to remind our readers that the Ooolc Memorial Rectification Fund is still short by some seventy odd pounds of tlio amount necessary to place the monument in a condition worthy of such a man and of such an event. Tliis is not the time to discuss past .blunders, but the good folks of Gisborne will surely earn a very undesirable reputation if they do not speedily take the necessary steps to rectify the mistake made .when the monument was first erected.