Burial of Shackleton.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 March 1922, Page 1

Burial of Shackleton.

WELLINGTON’S TRIBUTE TO GREAT EXPLORER.

WELLINGTON, March I

A brief but impressive service in memory of Sir Ernest Shackleton was held here to-day. Tt was arranged by the Merchant Service Giuld, and conducted by the Rev. Fielden Taylor. Speaking of Sir Ernest, Mr Taylor said : “We stand in thought around the open grave and we see lowered into the grave one who has marched along the road of life, one who will go down through the ages of history* as one of the greatest of British heroes.” British sailorinen had a proud record and Sir Ernest’s name had been added to a long list of British heroes who had earned honours on the tempestuous seas. Sir Ernest was essentially a leader of men, and said Mr Taylor, “I only wish I had the time to give you a fitting tribute to so gyeat a man. I have said that he was a leader. There are three outstanding qualities which made him a leader. The first was his dominant personality and dominant personality is never an accident. The second was his terrifiq perseveraee, against the mighty elements, and the third was his unswerving determination. All these essential qualifications of a leader Sir Ernest Shackleton possessed to an enormous extent, but above them all his love for his men. With him' I think it was always his men first and himself last. To him fear and despair were unknown.”

In to-night’s evening paper appears the following letter: “To-day on the isolated, rockbound island of South Georgia there will be laid to rest the body of Sir Ernest Shackleton, and I cannot let the day pass without paying a tribute to one who has done much to make known the vast solitudes of the Antarctic. It was many years ago (1903) that T, as a. humble member of Scott’s first expedition, brought back to civilisation Sir Ernest Shackleton, then a young man and third officer of the Discovery, invalided home. In 1907 the call of the South saw him in command of the Nimrod, and again later we had him sailing South in the Endeavour. Tt was there he met with bad luck, and with the ship crushed and sunk he sailed an open boat through stormy seas 750 miles to South Georgia for help and was' successful. It is only fitting that his body should seek the last rest on the scene of his famous boat voyage. So to-day I pen these few lines in memory of one of the great explorers—-Ross, Scott, Shackleton—and who will follow to take up the work done by these famous seamen ? There in the solitnde of the most southern inhabited island we leave him; b'u£ many friends and old ship-mates in New Zealand'will revere big memory. I am, eto., Arthur M.