THE COLONIST. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1913. THE COOK MEMORIAL.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13649, 14 February 1913, Page 4

THE COLONIST. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1913. THE COOK MEMORIAL.

Tho historic ceremony at Ship Cove on Tuesday, when His Excellency Lord Liverpool... unveiled the memorial of Captain Cook, was the occasion of tho, removal of the legitimate reproach that New Zealand, which owes so much to the famous navigator, possessed no public monument to his. memory. Few men. who served their country as well as Captain Cook have been so little commemorated. Until recently no monument existed in England to keep green tho memory of his daring voyages into the unknown world in the south, except in his native town, which had not been so neglectful. About tho same time that the movement to erect monuments overlooking the strait bearing his name took shape in New Zealand, a proposal found ready support in England to repair the omission, and a suitable project has since been carried out. The movement in the Dominion owes- much to tho enthusiasm of Mr. Robert McNab, whoa couple of. years ago toured New Zealand in furtherance of it, lecturing on a subject few aro more qualified to deal with, namely, the early history of the country. The monument unveiled, by the Governor on Tuesday is erected on tho most appropriate spot that could havo been selected—indeed, the only wholly appropriate' spot. ' It was there, ■onv::£ho 31st of January, 1770, Cook, erected :a post upon which he inscribed the particulars^ of .-his expedition. As iLord Liverpool recalled in the course of.his admirablo address, the Endeavour, fitted out at the: instance of the Royal Society, with Cok in command,! left England in 1768. At the end of the following year the shores of New Zealand were sighted, somewhere near where. Gisborne now is. Sailing north, the Endeavour passed the North Capo, and voyaged down the western cost, past Capo Eginont, and across the Strait into Queen Charlotte Sound, and came to anchor at tho place to which Cook gave tho name of Ship Cove, and declared British sovereignty over the South Island. After leaving Ship Cove the Endeavour proceeded down the eastern coast of the South Island and round Stewart Island, then believed to bo a portion.of the South Island. Cook proceeded all along tho western coast, and finally cast anchor in a small cove ii D'TJrville Island, whero, after temporarily refitting his ship, he sailed for the Australian coast and carefully examined its eastern shores. Sailing by way of the Cape of Good Hope he anchored in the Downs in June, 1771. His afiip had been at sea for a very long period, and out of ac complement of eighty-five she had lost by death—'principally through scurvy—nearly thirty. Cook paid another visit to.Ship Cove a few years later. He landed in New Zealand in 1774, setting out from it in

the hopo of finding a great southern continent. Returning to England by way of the Cape in 1775, he was immediately .placed in command of another expedition, tho object of which was to search for a passage round tho north of America. He landed at Ship Cove on February 25th, 1777. He left Ship Covo on< tho 25th February, and after cruising in the South Sea Islands and discovering the Sandwich Islands and

makiiig^the $vest: coast of America in 1778, he retimed once more to the Sandwich -< Islands" to winter, where he was murdered on February 13th, 1779. The unveiling of the memorial does not complete tho proposals of the committee which has directed tho undertaking. It hopes shortly to be able to erect a much more commanding monument on Motuara Island, in the vicinity of Ship Cove, the spot upon which Cook made the actual declaration of British sovereignty.