FOUNDED AUSTRALIA

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 10, 13 January 1933, Page 6

FOUNDED AUSTRALIA

ADMIRAL PHILLIP

A NATIONAL MEMORIAL

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, Sth December.

Prince George unveiled a national memorial to Admiral Arthur Phillip, who, in 1775, laid the foundations at Sydney Cove, New South Wales, of the colony which was the beginning of the Dominion oi Australia. New Zealand, it may her© be mentioned, came later under the jurisdiction of tho Governor of New South Wales. ■ The niemorial, placed on the outer wall of St. Mildred's Church, Bread street; E.C., is. the gift of Lord-Wake-field. "It is tho only one of its kind, •and the largest bronze memorial fixed to tho outside of a "church in Apart from an inscription tablet it is 16ft in height and 12ft wide, and the total weight is one and three-quarter-tons. . . ■ . - . ■-. ....-.■..- -■~ The portrait bust of Governor Phillip, which is the central feature, has been modelled by Mr. Charles L. Hartwell, R,A. It is flanked on either side by reliefs portraying scenes taken from Australian history. The memorial owed its conception to Mr. Douglas Hope Johnston, the great-grandson' of Lieutenant-Colonel George Johnston, who was A.D:C. to Governor Phillip at tho first landing at Sydney, and the project has had the support and cooperation of the Commonwealth Government and tho Australian Minister in London, Mr. Stanley Bruce. INCENTIVE TO DABE. The unveiling ceremony was preceded by a service in St. Mildred's Church, which is one of the five surviving churches built by Sir Christopher Wren, and the official church of the Ward of Bread Street, where Admiral Phillip lived in London. The Bishop of London, in an address, spoke of his own visit to Australia six years ago, of the extent and possibilities of the. Dominion, and of the-part Australia played in the war. It was true, he sdid, that Captain Cook discovered Australia! but although that intrepid explorer did not miss many things he missed Sydney Cove, and it was Admiral Phillip who had the initiative to find. th» cove, to make a beginning with what had turned out to be the finest harbour in the world, and to: found what had become the great Australian nation.- - . The Bishop hoped that the memorial would stir up the spirit of adventure in our people. He was afraid: that spirit was dying ,out a little. Young men would rather stay at home than go out into the British Empire to seek their fortune. . . . "■'■ : . Outside the church Lord Wakefield asked the Lord Mayor to accept the memorial on behalf .of the'citizens of London as a tribute to a great and worthy son of the Ward of Bread street. . , , ■•? "■■"'. .- ■ ■■. ■ GREAT CITY AND PORT. Prince George, after releasing the flags shrouding- the memorial,' expressed bus pleasure at being invited to perform the ceremony. Admiral Arthur^ Piiillip, he said, was one ,of that large number of Englishmen who went out into the far corners of the world to build up tho great Empire which we now knew as the British Common wealth of Nations. . He was sent out to establish a, settlement, at Botany Bay, in New South ..Wales, and reached his destination in January, 1788, after a passage of nearly nine months. On arrival there he decided that Botany Bay was unsuitable for settlement, and after exploring fort Jackson, he disembarked at Sydney Cove on '26th January",'; 1788, and founded what was now the .city of Sydney, named after Lord Sydney, who was then the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which at.that time administered tKe affairs of the Colonies. Little could Phillip have thought1 when he landed that ;ne, was adding to the Empire what was; to prove one of her largest and richest possessions. -To-day Sydney1 was the .third largest city in the Empire, the of a great Stated and possessing; one of the finest,, if not the finest, natural harbours- in the world. 5 ? ? "'■■•":■'•■'. .- After th© Bishop of' London had dedicated the memorial, wreaths were laid at the foot of it by the Lord -Mayor on behalf '■ of the citizens of London, •the Australian Minister,.the:High'Commissioner for New Zealand, tho AgentGeneral for New South ; Wales, Mr. Douglas' Hope Johnston, the official representative of the families :of the founders of Australia; Mrs;. Hope Johnston, representing the Women's Pioneer Society of Australia,. arid Mrs. 'B.ruce Marriott, representing the Koyal Aus', tralian Historical Society; Lord Wakefield entertained a large: company- at luncheon at the Mansion' House. '■■{<