THE COOK MEMORIAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12562, 15 July 1910, Page 4

THE COOK MEMORIAL

MR McNAB'S LECTURE,

Despite the wretched weather, which could not well <have been more unpleasant, there was a very fair attendance at -Tt. Paul's Haii last evening, when Mr R. McNab, M.A., LL.B lectured on historical events of early New /Zealand, this being a continuation of the series of lectures he has undertaken to deliver m different centres on behalf or the funds for the erection -of a memorial to Captain Cook. The memorial is to be erected oh the highest point of Motu Ngara, an island Sdjacent to Queen Charlotte Sound, which is so■ Sxosely conneced with the name of the famous navigator. After his introduction by the Mayor (Mr C. E. MacM,JS 'ecturer outlined the scheme instituted by-the people; of Blenheim, and explained that the island coßtain- £, S +1? f ++ ti le S r°IJO&6dlJO&6d- n*«torial is one that attracts the eve from vessels passing through , Cook' Strait in tl£ course of coastal and intervolonial tiade so that the memorial-would hare something of a national character; This was the idea thtft prompted the choice oi this ate. as against a site in Ship's Cove (Onsen CJiarlotte Sound) which was made historic as th«- headquarters' of Captam Cook during his voyages in the South Pacific. In proceeding to the lecture, illustrate-l by views that iormccl -profoundly interesting talkingpoints, Mr McNab apologised for the incoherence of his subject matter, which bad been collected piecemeal in America Britain, Australia, ant" Spain. The apology was unnecessary. There w a > riot an uninteresting point in the lecture and to a New Zealand audience which naturally follows this' partimihr subject with a special 'understanding what might oidinanly be criticised as -a,-disconnected narrative really resolved .atsslf into a series nf sketches in which diversity but added to the fiimrm of the evening. Tije lecture was full of meat, and Mr McNab talked readily cut of the fullness of his knowledge What possibly a]"pealed to him as superficial and stale, came fresh to the ears of his audience1 with all the fascinations of old-time romance and adventure. , The accidental discovery of New Zealand by Tasnunj in 164, when commissioned to find a trHde route from Batavia to South America, was the starting-point, and the charts of the Dutch navigator's pi!o, Fisher, with reasons for the inaccuracies therein, and for the non-appearance of Cook Strait, put the audience in a mood for appreciating the good things from Mr McNab's storehouse of historic lore. Over a century later the transit of Venus occasioned an "observation expedition to the South Pacific, and Captain, (then lieutenant) Ccok, in the.old coal vessel Endeavour, fcame South, with a vague instruction to incidentally survey and takes notes of the inhospitable Land lon the fortieth parallel, of which Tasman had published af frighting accounts. So Cook came in 1769, and Mr McNab illustrated the great surveying work done under disad.yahtageo.as circumstances by Cook. Cook's .second visit in the- Resolution, was.touch ori^and the navigator's stay in Dusky- Sound. A middy in jtfos-Resolution-was William Bligh, later to ..become.' historic as commander of the sliip Bounty at* the timo of the famous m.utjny1. Still later He was appointed Governor of the Sydney coiiyict settlement, only to be ingloi-iously.'impHson-ed by-the convict colony in 'his own houso. George Vancouver^ first a sailor before the mast, was ali?o< a:middy under Cook at Dusky Sound: and taw succeeded *the unfortunate Bii;£h as Governor of. the New Soutfy'Wales settlement, water he headed^ an expedition to the west of North America, where the town, of Vancouver •perpetuaes his memory, and on the way he> called in at the old spot, DuskvSound, and at ihat time discovered tiie Chatham Islands, .named after hisl'ship, the Chatham. The visit of the' Spanish navigator Malespino in " 793' was touched on, s.md mention was made' of the sealing ship Britannia, out of which the New England port of Salem, -which landed the first sealing gang in New Zealand in 1792. • The romantic story of the wreck of the Endeavour in Dusky Sou Ad and the chain chain of ■encumstaices surrounding that wreck; the visit of the Russian commander Bellinghausen to New Zealand and the Macquarie Islands; incidents concerning the all-conquering Te llauparaha. his native lieutenant, Te Pehi, and his Joughty old South Island opponent, Taiaroa; and incidents connected »vith tho signing of the Treaty of Waitangi—all these, introducing historic personalities and incidents, enchanted the ears of the company. There was a magic interest in the lecturer's authentic tales of the spacious days of early New Zealand, aiW scarcely less absorbing were the first hand illustrations and the telling of the -strange hiding-places 'where, iccords of those days had got, and how they had to be uncovered by the persistent lecturerhistorian.

On the notion of Mr J.T. Muir. seconded by Mr H. S. . Harper, and endorsed by Mr Gilbert Carson, the l?c----tarer was accorded a very hearty vote of thanks.