THE SCOTT CENTENARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21153, 9 April 1932, Page 9 (Supplement)

THE SCOTT CENTENARY.

SELKIRK'S COMMEMORATION. At a public meeting in Selkirk on January 28 it was decided to hold tho Scott centenary commemoration on the Saturday after tho Common Riding in June. The freedom of the burgh will be conferred on the Duke of Buccleuch; Major Maxwell Scott, of Abbotisford; Mr. John Buchan, M.P.; and Sir John Roberts, New Zealand. This ceremony will take place outside on a platform in the market place close by the statue of Sir Walter Scott, who was a burgess of the Royal burgh. Mr. John Buchan will deliver an oration on the great novelist. There will bo a procession of the members of the Ancient Incorporations and other public bodies. A luncheon will follow, then a programme in the afternoon, and probably a Scott concert in the evening. Provost Ballantyno explained that in view of the state of local industry it was agreed not to go further with the suggestion that bronze figures should bo erected round the Scott monument. However, there was an alternative suggestion that a Scott bod might be endowed in the Viewfield Nursing Home. '1 lie legal profession of the county, at its own expense, proposed to erect a tablet on tho front of the Town Hall, wherein Sir Walter prosided on the Bench as Sheriff of Selkirk for a long period. It was hoped that Sir John Roberts might bo ablo to conic from New Zealand to receive the freedom, but if not his son would fill his place.