COOK ANNIVERSARY.

Gisborne Times, Volume LV, Issue 6202, 6 October 1921, Page 6

COOK ANNIVERSARY.

TO-DAY’S CELEBRATIONS. In honor of the first sea captain to sail into the Bay, the ships in the harbor will, this aiternoon, be decorated with bunting. H was iv.• touched to have; flags living from the flagpole above the monument bui an inspection made yesterday showed that the halyards were not in a lit state to hold the decorations. Bunting will, however, be shown on the pule on the opposite side of the river. At 2 p.m. the Salvation Army band and the scholars of the High. School will meet r.t Bcobuek i.oad corner and form a procession to tlie Kaiti beach. Tho_senior p. pils and members of the Navy League (schools section) will march from the school, and the pupils of the CookCounty College will also he present. In connection with the anniversary all classes in the main school are having lessons this week on Captain Cook and his achievements.

Tradition approves the declaiming at a festival of an oration or poetry written for the occasion, and some of the verses by Mrs E. M. Dunlop which were published in the Times yesterday, will he read at the ceremony to-day. These were written recently on the spot where Captain Cook landed, and since their publication yesterday have been most favorably received and commented on

Messages from public representative men and patriotic bodies will be read, and the speaker for the occasion (Canon Eacke), will deliver an address upon the great navigator and bis work. This will bo followed by short speeches by the Deputv Mayor (Mr 11. H. ' Do Costa) the chairman of the local branch of the Navy League (Mr J. B. Kells) and by the presentation of the Horn 1 emblems by representatives of the local bodies, and such societies as the Victoria League, Women’s National Reserve, Navy League, Women's Club, Brigadier-General Richardson, C. 8., will also deliver an address.

It is hoped that notwithstanding counter attractions this annual recognition by tlio inhabitants of Gisborne, the first part of. New Zealand at which Captain Cook landed, will be largely attended, so that tho greatest possible number may do honor anil reverence to the memory of one of the world’s greatest navigators and explorers, one of the Royal Navy’s most able captains, one of Britain’s Empire-builders, and withal, one of the most humane commanders who ever sailed the sen.

The function, which will he presided over b.v Mr .1. It. Kirk, representative of tlio Royal Colonial Institute, will commence at 2.flit p.m. Appropriate music will be played by tlio Army Band.