CAPTAIN SCOTT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16052, 20 April 1914, Page 3 (Supplement)

CAPTAIN SCOTT

WAITAKI AND OAMAKU'S MEMORIAL. OAMARU, March 25. The first anual presentation 'of prizes inaugurated by a local committee to commemorate the memory of Captain Scott and his brave Antarctic exploration comrades took place this afternoon in the presence of a large gathering. This included the pupils of the two High Schools and the pupils of the four higher standards of the three State Schools and the Catholic School, besides a big gathering of citizens. Mr W. H. Rose, chairman oi the Memorial Executive, presided, and was supported on the platform by his colleagues, the local members of Parliament, the Mayors of Oamaru and Hampden, the chairman of the Education Board, the chairman of the Waitaki High Schools Board, and the head masters of the primary schools. The method adopted to perpetuate the memory of Captain Scott and his colleagues is the annual presentation of a prize to a girl and another to a j boy for the best essay on some set subject by Sixth Standard pupils of the schools in j the Waitaki County and Oamaru, the sub- | ject each year being drawn from lives and I movements which have made or are making the British nation ffood and great. To j enable this to be done for all time the interest on £200 that has been subscribed, and which it is hoped to increase to £250, is set apart. This year's essay had relation to Captain Scott's expedition, and they were judged by the Education Board's chief inspector. The winners were Clara Gray and Maxwell Douglas, both of the Oamaru North School. | The prize to each of these consisted of a two-guinea edition of Captain Scott's latest work, together with one guinea. It had been hoped that either the Hon. James j Allen or the Hon. A. L. Herdman would j be present, but both those gentlemen regretted their inability to be so. As a j consequence, the task of delivering an '. address and presenting the prizes devolved , upon the chairman, whose address was | admirable and stimulating. In the course of it he said it was intended to celebrate j three days in the year—November 26, the anniversary of the day on which the Discovery steamed off Otago Heads; January 17, the date when the party reached the Pole; and March 25, the day on which Captain Scott penned hie last great j pathetic appeal to his nation. On Depar- j ture Day the essays were to be written, I on South. Pole Day the names of the prize winners would be-announced, and on March 25 tbe prizes would be presented. j Mr F. Milner, Hector of the Boys' High School, also delivered a short address, and the proceedings closed with the National . Anthem.