Captain Scott.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15822, 10 February 1917, Page 8

Captain Scott.

; Fortunate in many things—in the : beauty of its surroundings, in its line open spaces, in the wise prevision of its founders manifested in other wavs — Christchurch is not least fortunately endowed in its statues of public men. It is not too much to say, however, that tie noblest of these was that which was unveiled yesterday by his Excellency the Governor in language brief, yet { fitting to the great occasion. If the obiect of memorials of public men

is not only to express our appreciation of their work and to keep ahve their memory, but also to act as an inspiration and an incentive to succeeding generations to emulate their example, and we think it is, then the statue of Captain Scott possesses these qualities in a pre-eminent degree. It is not only a fi.no work of art, but a sermon in. stone, which for generations to come will continue to press home the lesson of courage, endurance, patriotism, end high ideals of duty. It was not without reason that at the very time when Lord Roberts was seeking in vain to arouse the British nation to the duty of self-defence, and when many feared it was sunk in the beginnings of decay that Professor Cramb, in his lectures on the German menace, referred to the heroic deaths of Captain Oates and Captain Bcott as evidence that the spirit of the heroes of the old Sagas was still to bo found in Englishmen a valour that transcended the bounds of all utilitarian considerations. He pictured Oates setting forth solitary into the terror-haunted darkness, seeking for himself death, in the hope that his comrades might live, and then Professor Cramb passed to the last stago in the drama, to that other death: — "There in th e tent beside his dead the leader sits, still alive; there ho sits unvanquished and unappalled, his head propped against the tentpole to ease his _fatigue in the last slow, dreadful vigil, w'hilst down over his magnificently English features a night deeper than the Polar night descends. And what are the thoughts which then flicker in front of him? We know them; we have thc-m written in his own hand in that priceless record—priceless because authentic. 'The greatness of England —m- nation !' _ It is the greatness of England which uplifts him as death steals over his features like a marble mask." Contemplating an end so noble as this, wo may well say, "0 Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?" Robert Falcon Scott builded better than he knew. He and his companions, by their cixample, showed that in the race of Englishmen was still to be found the full tide of its ancient vigour. "Who can say howmuch this revelation may have done to give the English people confidence in themselves, to nervo them for the greatest crisis in their history? * And so we feel, as we look on this fine presentment of a true hero, the embodiment of what is best in the English people, that the artist has done ■well to givo the figure its firm pose, and the look of sereno confidence with which it seems to be gazing into the future. This statue of Scott should ever serve to stimulate us to -work of high endeavour, satisfied that, if each one of us strives to do his duty, the future of the British Empire will be worthy of its glorious past.