COOK'S MEMORY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 214, 10 September 1928, Page 7

COOK'S MEMORY.

Dominions Pay Tribute At Home Of Great Explorer. SIB. J. PARR'S SPEECH. (Australian Press Assn.—United Service.) LONDON, September 9. In connection with the 200 th anniversary of the birth of Captain Cook, the people of the peaceful little Yorkshire village of Great Ayton, with its quafnt pavement still almost the same as when for eight years James Cook went there to school, are busily preparing to celebrate the occasion. One of the greatest changes in the district is Cook's monument on the side of the hill which dominates the village. Of this the villagers are very proud. The celebrations were begun yesterday afternoon. Seamen belonging to the destroyer Vidette, which has already arrived, a military band, territorials, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, members of the mercantile marine and many cottagers will take part in processions to the scenes of Cook's childhood. The Agent-General for New South Wales, Sir George Fuller, representing the Commonwealth, the High Commissioner for New Zealand, Sir James Parr, and other visiting Australians and New Zealanders and local officers motored to the old churchyard where the members of the Cook family are buried. From there they went to Stewart Park, Marton, where speeches were delivered within 100 yds of Cook's birthplace. Speaking in connection with the event Sir James Parr said: The world respects the memory of Captain Cook not only for the greatness of his achievements but because above all he was a gallant English gentleman. Not only was lie Britain's greatest and most intrepid explorer, but he gave the world a diary which is entrancing literature Sir James epitomised Captain Cook's characteristics as straightforwardness, indomitable courage, truth and humatiity. He said a tortoise was still living at Tonga, 150 years old, which Cook had taken from England and given to the Queen of Tonga as a peace-offering. Th>7 descendants of the cattle and pigs h<> took out to the Pacific remained as mementoes of his discoveries. Sir George Fuller apologised for the absence of Sir Granville Ryrie, High Commissioner for Australia, and recalled the fact that the North Shore bridge, Sydney, appropriately enough was being constructed by a Middlesbrough firm, the business of which had grown up round Cook's birthplace.