TO-DAY'S ANNIVERSARIES.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14051, 24 May 1911, Page 9

TO-DAY'S ANNIVERSARIES.

MAX 24, Captain KMd, nct«d free Wet, hanged 1701 Empiro Day. Queen Victoria born ... 1819 First metting oi tho General Awembly _ opened at Auckland •• •• 1654 Tirst rfupmont of frossen meat to £-uglond •• • tBB3

William Kidd. —The true career oi this character was almost as strange as the fictitious one so dear to the heart of the reader of fiction. Ho wa 3 born in Scotland..and was tho disgrace of his father, a worthy Covenanting minister, it is said. Young Kidd went early to sea, saw much hard service privateering against tho French, and gained a high reputation for stubborn courage, and a reward of £150 from the Council of New York City. At this time (towards tho end of the seventeenth cen* tury) the' American colonies wwe supposed to be neste of pirate 3, who infested the Indian Ocean, and a commander was sent out by William 111. to suppress tho pest. At the same timo a ship of 30 guns was fitt&l out by a private company in London and given~ to Kidd, ■who was enjoined under tho Great Seal both to act- against the French and to,seize pirates. He accordingly sailed, and at length reached Madagascar, the chief rendezvous of the pirates, but ere long disquieting reports reached England that Captain Kidd was playing the game of pirate himself. After a two year's cruiso the redoubtable captain returned to tho West Indies, and a fenv months later had tho temerity to go to Boston, without securing himself by n satisfactory safe-conduct. Here, in spite of what •we miizht read in fictionj the luckless wronijdoer was arrested and sent to England, -whrre he was tried for piracy and the murder of one of his men. Of the latter charge he was formally found, guilty, and hanged at Execution Dock on the above date, protesting his innocence to the last. He had buried a store of treasure on Gardiner's Island, off Long; Island, which was recovered and seized, amounting with what was found elsewhere, to ~£14,000. Kidd's name is still associated with marvellotia tales of hidden treasure.