LANDING OF COOK

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31658, 19 April 1968, Page 14

LANDING OF COOK

Apathy Over Bicentenary

i The Canterbury Museum Trust Board is alarmed that little has been planned nationally to mark the bicentenary next year of Captain James Cook’s landing at Kaiti Beach, Gisborne, on October 9, 1769. Mr P. J. Skellerup said he believed the Government planned to issue commemorative stamps and possibly coins, which would make money, but would do nothing which might cost money. Christchurch should make some local observance, if only because it had a Captain Cook statue in Victoria] Square. The museum director (Dr R. S. Duff) said that the Government’s attitude was generally negative. There had been a plan to build a viewing pavilion overlooking the acre reserve at Kaiti Beach and the sweep of Poverty Bay to Young Nick’s Head but this had been shelved. The landing area was now designated for industrial sites, Dr Duff said. Because of lack of Government interest, the Art Galleries and Museums Association proposed a circulating exhibition of old maps and records of Cook’s voyages and another on the history of Polynesian culture. Dr Duff said he had heard that the Government would spend $2OOO on the bicentenary.