THE SCOTT CENTENARY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21598, 19 March 1932, Page 16

THE SCOTT CENTENARY

: i: SELKIRK PLANS HONOUR FOR SIR J. ROBERTS. (I*Boll Oub Own Correspondent.) , LONDON, February 2. ' At a public meeting in Selkirk on January 28 it was decided to hold the Scott centenary commemoration on the Saturday after ' the Common Riding in June.' The freedom of the burgh will J , be conferred on - the Duke of Buccleugh; . Major Maxwell Scott, of Abbotsford; 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 be 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 Ballantyne explained that in view of the state of local industry it was ;; agreed not to go further with the suggestion that bronze figures should be erected round the Scott monument. However, there was an alternative suggestion that a Scott bed might be endowed in Viewfield Nursing Home. ; The legal profession of the county, at their own expense, proposed to erect a tablet on the front of the Town Hall, wherein. Sir Walter presided on the Bench as Sheriff of Selkirk for a long , period. It was hoped that Sir John Roberts might be able to come from New Zealand to receive the freedom, but if not, . his son would deputise.