SCOTT MEMORIAL ESSAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27166, 23 August 1949, Page 3

SCOTT MEMORIAL ESSAY

NORTH OTAGO NEWS

Origin Of Scheme Recalled Many years have passed and no doubt very few people remember the incident that led up to the institution of the Scott Memorial Essay competition in North Otago. There has at times been considerable controversy about the non-participation of country schools in this competition, but during recent years large entries have been received from country and town educational institutions. The competition is confined to pupils of Standard VI in North Otago Primary schools or of Form II in Junior High schools. It was on March 12, 1913, that a meeting was held to receive a report from the Scott Memorial Fund committee and hear suggestions.

The amended report of the committee recommended that a principal sum of not less than £250 be raised to provide one prize annually to the value of £5 for boys and £5 for girls; that the competition be in the form of an essay of not less than 500 nor more than 1000 words, with a time limit of three hours, on a subject to be chosen annually that “ shall come within the scope of lives and movements which have made or are making the British nation good and great.’" Birth of Scheme Early in the morning of February 10, 1913, the night watchman at the Oamaru Harbour was surprised to see a ship’s boat stealing in from the void towards the wharf steps. Such an unusual occurrence naturally made him suspicious, and more so as no explanation was forthcoming. However, when two men stepped ashore and asked for the harbour master, he directed them to his residence in Wharfe street. The mysterious visitors made their way up by way of Arun street to Captain Ramsay’s house —hence the reason for placing a memorial oak tree on the steep slope of Arun street. Captain Ramsay was roused, and with the kindness that always characterised him, offered the strangers hospitality, although as far as he knew they might have been doubtful characters, for still no information was forthcoming. Their first request was for baths, in which their voices were raised in song as men so often do in the seclusion of a bathroom. It was not surprising that the captain was curious, and he said afterwards that he tried, but in vain, to catch some words that would help to solve the mystery. It appeared later that the visitors were Lieutenant Pennell, in charge of the Terra Nova, and Dr Atkinson, prominent members of the Scott Antarctic expedition who had been landed from the ship Terra Nova. By mere chance, this ship, on her way back from the south, had made her landfall off Oamaru, and the opportunity was taken to send the two officers ashore for the purpose of cabling to London the dramatic news of the death of Captain Scott and his companions. The reason for this secrecy was that all news of the expedition had, by contract, to be sent in the first place to a news agency in London for distribution throughout the world. Captain Ramsay, accompanied the two officers to the Post Office and then, only then were they at liberty to let him into the secret. This incident—the fact that the news was cabled from Oamaru —so impressed a number of Oamaru people that they decided to mark it in some special way and as a result funds were raised and the annual function became an established fact. This Year’s Competition The competition this year will be held at the beginning of the next school term, and prizes will be.presented later in the term. At previous prize-givings some widely-known figures have given the addresses including Earl .Tellicoe (Admiral of the Fleet). Admiral Sir Lionel Halsey, Sir James Allen. Sir Thomas Mackenzie, Sir James Parr, Mr J. G. Coates (Prime Minister of New Zealand), Captain Stenhouse. R.N.R. (of the Antarctic Exploring ship Aurora), Captain Ramsay and Commander Sir Herbert Alison fSoecial Cruiser Squadron), Mrs O. F. Wilson (widow of Dr E. Adrian Wilson of the Scott Expedition), Mrs Campbell (sister of Captain Scott), Admiral R, E. Byrd and Vice-admiral J. E. T. Harper. In addition to the memorial oak in Arun street other memorials have been erected in Oamaru to the memory of Captain Scott and members of his expedition. A Scott section was dedicated at the Waitaki Boys' High School and a marble tablet was unveiled by Captain Sir Lionel Halsey (later admiral). Many relics and photographs of the Scott Expedition have been presented to the school, including one of Scott’s pipes and buttons off his tunic, and a * flag flown on Lieutenant Bowers' sledge.