"LEST WE FORGET"

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 74, 29 March 1922, Page 8

"LEST WE FORGET"

CAPTAIN SCOTT'S EXAMPLE

MEMORIAL SERVICE.

To-day is tenth anniversary of the death of Captain E. V. Scott and his party jn the Antarctic, and a memorial service was held in. the Dominion Farmers' Institute during the' lunch hour. Mr. J. G. Harknesa (chairman of the Wellington Harbour Board) presided over a representative gathering, ;md the Hey. Canon Feilden Taylor conducted the service.

Mr. Harlcness read several apologies for absence, including' letters from the Gov-ernor-General, the Prime Minister (Right Hon. \V. F. Massey),. the Bishop of Wellington (Bishop Sprott), and the lender of the Opposition (Mr. T. M. Wilford). In his opening remarks, the Chairman said they had met to commemorate the deaths of the heroic and intrepid explorer, Captain Scott, and his companions. It was well, in the business life they had to lead in this world today, occasionally to pause and remember the heroic-deeds of others who had passed away, and to endeavour to travel in the same paths.

After the gathering had sung a verse of " Lead, Kindly Light," the Rev. Feilden Taylor read part of the Anglican burial service. In a short ■ address, he said it was difficult to say what was worthy of the occasion. "If we could just sit still and think of those three fellows waiting for death in the ice, and try to visualise that party of three men with death knocking at the door, it would be more than enough.". There were two kinds of courage—the courage which faced death in battle, and the courage which sat down and •waited for death to come. Everyone lived his own life, and Scott's life was an example. " To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield," was Scott's motto, and his life's work could be traced on those lines. He had striven, as his words, "we have- given. our lives in an enterprise for the honour of our country" showed, and he had equally sought and found. The discomforts the great explorer had suffered were manifold and terrible, and they all knew the tragedy of that 850-mile walk back from the Pole. Evans went first; he dropped in the track and died. The whole world would remember Oates, who walked away so that the remaining ones should have more food. Oates was never seen again. Then,' when at death's door, they had refused to alleviate their sufferings by hastening death with opium tablets, and had calmly waited for the end. He would quote from Scott's last words:— "The Great God has called me, but I take comfort that I die in peace with the world a,nd with myself. I am not afraid." '

Verses of the hymn " Abide With M,e" were sung, and the service concluded with the Benediction.

This evening, at 8 o'clock, in the Conference flail of the Institute, Mr. A. Leigh Hunt will give an exhibition of lantern slides, depicting Captain Scott's Expedition. No charge will be made for admission.