A WAY THEY HAVE IN THE NAVY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 25, 30 January 1926, Page 21

A WAY THEY HAVE IN THE NAVY.

DIOMEDE'S MEN REMEMBER COOK. There must have been something singularly fine about the character of James Cook. It is not merely that he discovered this wonderful ' little country of which we are all so proud; his memory is revered by people who have never seen New Zealand. The son of a Yorkshire farm labourer, he won fame that might be envied by the highest born in the land. But apart from the wonderrul intrepidity of his voyages round the world, there is something even finer that we admire about this wonderful sailor. Even to-day one cannot read the story of his voyages without feeling that one is in the presence of a great man. Born at Marton, Yorkshire, in 1728, Cook was sent by the Admiralty in 1768 to observe the transit -of Venus at Tahiti and thence he went on a voyage ■of discovery in the Pacific, which included the first circumnavigation of New Zealand. He returned to England in 1771, but was away again next year back to the Pacific, and after voyaging in the Antarctic he again visited New Zealand. Back Home once more in 1775, he was very soon at sea again. and this time it -was in the North Pacific, one object being to try to discover a passage round the north coast of North America. He was stopped by ice, and then made back to the Sand"wich Islands, •which, he intended to survey, but he was massacred on Hawaii Island by the natives on February 14, 1779. Of. all explorers, ancient and modern, Cook was the noblest and most humane in his attitude towards the savage races that he encountered, and it was just like the irony of fate that he was speared in the back-while giving orders to his people to cease firing at a party of Hawaiian Islanders who had stolen one of the ship's boats.. Fifty-one years ago some of his fellow countrymen erected a ( monument. ' The surroundings got into a very dilapidated state, but joint action wu taken some time ago by Biitiah and -amerioaa

admirers of the great sailor and repairs were effected. When the cruiser Diomede. w.hich recently arrived to augment New Zealand's squadron of the Hoval Navy, called at Hawaii, Captain Ritchie sent a party ashore to tidy up the grounds round the monument, and effect any repaire that might be necessary. Thus nearly a century and a-half after the day Cook fell we find his memory still cherished and a band of men from the same Navy that he adorned, going jshore and paying a tribute of respect: They say that the veil of futurity ii woven fey the hand «f m*T,

but man is always trying to lift it, or at least trying to imagine something of what the years hold. One cannot help -wondering whether Cook, who was a man of vision, ever in his dreams saw a glimmering of the future of the land he rediscovered? Did he imagine that a century ana a half after he first sighted the misnamed Poverty Bay, these islands -would be the home of over a million British subjects, and that those inhabitants would be helping to bear Britain's crashins naval burden, and supporting two cruisers alongside which his own little ship the Endearoar jrouM be . comparatively •dinghy* -.