COOK'S MEMORY.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 219, 15 September 1924, Page 7

COOK'S MEMORY.

TO BE BETTER HONOURED. AT SPOT WHERE HE FELL. A LITTLE BIT OF BRITISH SOIL. How many people are aware that there is a tiny speck painted red on the otherwise very American Hawaii, and ■ that this little bit of British territory marks the spot where Cook fell? Sir Joseph Carruthers, the ex-premier of New South Wales, who has just come back from a visit to Hawaii, says it is ! only a little spot, some forty feet by i forry feet, and was vested in Great Britain before the islands were ceded to America. There is a fine monument kept in good order out of a vote made by the British Government, but the landing place is in a very bad being quite neglected and overgrown. Sir Joseph Carruthcrs and his companions placed on the monument a wreath of English roses and Eucalyp-j tvs leaves to the memory of the great i navigator on behalf of "the people of Australia and New Zealand. When, he got back to Honolulu, Sir Joseph pointed out to the Governor the no- ■ gleeted state of the landing, and pleaded ' with the American authorities to put; up a decent jetty and otherwise improve ; the spot. Governor Wallace heartily j approved the idea, and promised that if j Sir Joseph would put his suggestions' in writing, they would be forwarded to; the President of the United States, j This was done. Sir Joseph showed the j correspondence to the Hon. Mark Cohen, I who would probably represent the matter to the New Zealand Government. Sir Joseph undertook that towards the cost of what he had suggested the American authorities should undertake, there would lie contributions from these Southern seas and also from England. If the proposals could be carried out it would mean that all sections of the English-speaking race would join in honouring the memory of possibly the greatest circumnavigator the world had ever seen, and who had created in these Southern seas these rising Dominions. The people of Hawaii had taken the matter up enthusiastically, said Sir Joseph, and a number of them had subcribed funds necessary for the holding annually of celebrations at the monument to synchronise with the celebrations held at Kurnell, New South Wales, the place where Cook took possession of Australia in 1770. ; While he was in Honolulu, Sir Joseph , was able to do a service to tfce memory , of the great British navigator. Wrong ; impressions derogatory to the great man's memory were prevalent, and these Sir Joseph was able to disprove with the aid of local evidence. He delivered two or three addresses on the subject, quite carried his point, and an address he delivered to the Historical Society , haj been printed for wide distribution,.