HISTORICAL RECORDS LOST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18674, 2 October 1922, Page 7

HISTORICAL RECORDS LOST

PAGES FROM COOK'S LOG. (Pee United Pbess Association.) WELLINGTON, September 30. It has been customary for some years for Follows of the Royal Colonial Institute at Gisborne to celebrate, by an appropriate function, the anniversary of the landing of Captain Cook at Poverty Bay on his discovery of New Zealand. As the time for that ceremony is approaching, Mr J. 11. Kirk, the honorary corresponding, secretary ol the institute at Gisborne, who is visiting Wellington, paid a visit to the Alexander Turnbull Library with a view to perusing the, log, written hy Captain Cook. This almost priceless record of the historic voyage of the great navigator is one of the most cherished possessions of the library, and is in an excellent state of preservation, despite its age of 153 years. Mr Kirk, on searching for Cook's account of his entry to Poverty Bay, found that the pages of the log dating from October 7 to October 15—covering the period of Conk’s landing off Turang'anui River, his subsequent landing where now stands tho town of Gisborne, and his departure northwards —had been out from the diary. This discovery is discounted by the fact that tho hook contains a memorandum (dated November, 1899) noting the absence of the pages. Adequate precautions are taken at the library to prevent damage to books.