Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star THURSDAY, MAY 22nd, 1919. DEEDS OF DARING.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 May 1919, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star THURSDAY, MAY 22nd, 1919. DEEDS OF DARING.

The conquest of the air will be always making its toll on those more venturesome spirits seeking to do greater deeds for the honour of themselves and the glory of their country. Serial work brings out the true sportsman we are told, and so it is not surprising in the world race to fly the Atlantic, that Britishers should be foremost in the van to achieve the wonderful record. The task is a deed of daring, almost a djesperate enterprise in fact, because stability and lasting power over so great a distance, testing human endur-

ance as well as human ingenuity, are the supreme factors to count towards the success. The British airmen made a gallant effort this week to achieve in peace a- victory no less renowned than the greatest triumph in the Great , War itself. Alas, they failed in their i wonderful effort, hut in the attempt the 1 cardinal virtues of the true born Englishman are but demonstrated again. Like .the heroes who went to their doom in the race to the North Pole, these aerial representatives were prepared to pay the supreme price for actual failure in their effort. Like Cap- ; tain Oates, whom Captain Scott described as “a very gallant gentleman,” so a speaker in the House of ComI mons requotes the imperishable words

lof honour, as the epitaph of Hawker and his mato. Their sacrifice was. anal- ! gous for the pride and honour of their country, and no higher tribute need be I paid (Hawker and his comrade than to j number them among the very gallant gentlemen who have thought it not too 1 great a sacrifice to lay down their lives I for their country’s achievements. In ! war time many a gallant soul in the emergency of the moment is called on to make the great sacrifice, hut in j peace the glamour and the excitement of the occasion are not so apparent. In our own land only last week, the engine driver on the runaway train in the North Island, elected to run the risk of the supreme sacrifice, rather than desert his post, and so he went to his doom, and was cheerful even under the very trying circumstances of his death. It is sad and sorrowful to read that occasion calls for these sacrifices; but it is well to know that when the test comes, in all walks of life, our countrymen are made of the stuff to face trying ordeals for the benefit of others. The conquest of the air leads votaries engaged on the task to extremely difficult tasks, and many lives will be claimed in tho perfecting of artificial flights. Tho work calls for deeds of during,—and none more so than in the great task of crossing the Atlantic through the air. There is race competition for the honour of being first to achieve tho great flight, just as there was the race for the honour of reaching the Pole' through rigors unimaginable. Whilo this race emulation goes j' m, these deeds full of risk and danger vill ho willingly taken by those who, ’or pride of race and the sport of achievement, will readily t tier themselves a living sacrifice that their couu_ 1 try and nation may stand first in the particular field in which they excel.